Dear Parent / Carer,

Welcome to our weekly family and community communication that provides a Headteacher overview of the weeks events and other school-based information.

The week that’s been…

It was a fantastic start to the week on Sunday with the Family Fun Day taking place at KHS. What a great day and lots going on – car boot sales, inflatables, lots of stalls, disc golf, Barista service, silent discos, Mr Dow playing some tunes, Haggis Hoppers and much, much more. It was lovely to see so many members of our community come to support the day too, with many past and present members of our community coming along. I would like to say a massive public thank you to Lorraine Lister and all those who helped to organise, take part and support the event. Lorraine’s vision and determination to plan and organise a day to bring our community together says everything about her devotion to everyone across the school community.

Aside from the community day, this week was census week in school. Every year, the Scottish Government takes a snapshot of key indicators of each school including pupil and teacher numbers and school context. This year, our school roll sits at 1402 young people. We have 64% of learners with at least one additional support need, 24% of learners with free school meal entitlement and 2.6% of learners who are Care Experienced. These numbers remain in line with last session.

On Thursday, we held our first House assemblies of the session. The theme for these assemblies was around pupil leadership and pupil voice. Each house introduced staff leaders and our house captains across S2-S6. There will be an opportunity for S1 to be involved and anyone who was interested should complete the form using the QR code shared. This session, each house team will form a committee that will focus on key areas across the school. An overview of this can be viewed.

A key part of this is to ensure our young people are involved in identifying and supporting areas of school improvement that they view as important in continuing our improvement journey. A huge thanks to Mrs Young who is leading in this area with our staff and learners.

A reminder that we are making changes to our Guidance and Support structure following the October break. Thank you for sharing your views. We will pull key themes from this together and share them with you in due course.

Our key principles around this change are:

• To ensure optimal communication with families and key partners so that a school-based Team Around the Child exists for every young person,
• To provide consistency of support for young people and families,
• To allow Guidance and Support staff more to engage in more meaningful contact with young people across their caseloads, with renewed focus on attainment and attendance.

The week ahead…

Over the course of this week, learning conversations continue for learners in S4-6. This is supported by learning conversation booklets that learners complete to record how well they are doing and next steps for learning. These are in digital format for most areas with some using a physical booklet. Please ask your young person(s) about this and please discuss with them their progress. Reports will be shared with families of S4-6 on Friday 25th September.

I hope you have a great weekend!

Best wishes,

Chris McKay

Headteacher

11 September 2026