Dear Parent/Carer,

Welcome to the end of term 1 letter. I hope that this letter finds you well and your child(ren) have enjoyed their first term of this session. I want to thank all families for your ongoing support over the term and wish everyone a happy and restful holiday.

KHS School Improvement Plan (SIP) and Pupil Equity Fund Plan (PEF)

Following from my letter last week, our SIP remains as follows (these areas correlate to our next steps set out by HMIE in their letter from February 2026):

There are 3 key areas of focus:

1. Improving attainment of our middle 60% of learners through improved curriculum experiences and focused attainment and achievement interventions. This means we are going to focus on improving the attainment and achievement of learners in S4-6, whilst collaborating with learners in S1-3 to improve their curricular experiences. We are aiming for 37% of learners to achieve 5 National 5 Qualifications by the end of S4 and 9% of learners achieving 5 Highers by the end of S5 this session.
2. Learners will increase engagement, participation and leadership in learning, leading to an increase in confidence, motivation and achievement through digital technology and embedded KHS Learning Standard. This means that we are working to improve Pace and Challenge in our S1-3 classes across the curriculum, develop the use of technology in class and ensure that we improve consistency across all classes. We hope this leads to greater learner engagement, participation, and enjoyment.
3. Ensuring a Rights-based approach to supporting young people, underpinned by our shared Vision, Values and Aims and leadership at all levels. This means that we will continue to develop and improve Learner Voice and Leadership across our school, better support learners through our new house system and additional Guidance teachers and continue the development of strategies to support all learners and staff through de-escalation training. Our aim is to ensure that all young people feel safe, included, and supported in KHS.

Our PEF funding will be used as follows, again following on from feedback in June and September:

• Funding 4 Pupil Support Officers who work across all our young people providing vital support to learners – relationships, peer issues, nurture, Seasons for Growth, 1 to 1 and group activities, attendance, positive destinations, trade hub, college and much more. (c£155,000) – Universal and Additional support
• Admin support to ensure we track, monitor, analyse and improve our interventions (c£13,000) – Universal support.
• Leadership posts to support those Furthest From Achievement (FFA) and / or in targeted supported groups (c£6,000) – Additional and Intensive support
• Interventions for learners with YMCA and Trade HUB (c£53,000) – Additional and Intensive support

Progress on HMIE Next Steps

Following on from HMIE Inspection in November last year, and subsequent report published on 17th February 2026, there were 4 key areas of focus. Below is a short summary of progress on each next step.

• The ways in which the school community is involved in driving change should now be further improved. Senior leaders and staff should ensure that all young people are involved more robustly in school improvement planning. We have developed a Pupil Parliament that includes learners from S1-6. There are 4 areas of focus for our parliament, and they are divided into four committees to support. The committees are – Learner Voice, House Ethos and Events, Celebrating Success and finally School Improvement Group. So far, they have supported with our move to a new House Structure (developing new names for our houses), developed 2 key areas of focus on our SIP – Developing the learning environment around school including operational issues like the lunch queue and hall as well as a focus on Mental Wellbeing and supporting those undertaking QS examinations. I am excited to work with these groups moving forward.
• The focus on the development of high quality, ambitious learning across the school should be a continued focus for all staff. Planning of learning should include ensuring appropriate levels of challenge and support to meet the needs of all learners. The pace and challenge of learning should be improved to ensure that all tasks and activities are well matched to the needs of all young people. All teachers will be undertaking a Practitioner Enquiry, focussing on a key area of professional learning based around pace and challenge. These areas include use of digital learning, collaborative practice developing pupil leadership in class and teaching sprints focussing on small areas of improvement and developing this across 4 sprints. Subject areas continue to have a focus on improvement, and we have already had some learning visits in Maths and Science this session. We also have an amazing group of learning ambassadors who are currently focussing on supporting learners to ask better questions for better learning. This will be a focus for teachers too over term 2 with a key focus for our upcoming Learning Partnership.
• Senior leaders and staff should further develop the use of data to ensure that interventions lead to improved attainment and outcomes for all young people. Whole school trackers have been set up and shared with all staff. Senior leaders are leading attainment reviews following QS examinations in May. Senior leaders are then meeting PTCs twice per term to review actions. In addition, tracking information is being shared with all senior leaders following each tracking period. Senior leaders are using this information to meet and discuss learner progress with PTCs including what interventions have taken place. Follow up actions are reviewed. Mrs Hamilton led our ELT with professional learning around these areas in September. We have since issued letters to S4 families where we have concerns about attendance in class and seeking support to ensure that all learners attend class.
• Raising attainment and improving outcomes for all young people across the school should continue to be a focus for all staff. Improving the attainment of young people from S4 to S6 is a key priority area for the school. Last session, we focussed on raising attainment for the middle 60% of learners in S4-6. Highlights of our progress are:

Overview of levels

National 5 (S4-6) – 67.85% (+ 5% from 2025)​
​Higher (S5/S6) – 62.7% (+2.4% from 2025)​
​Advanced Higher – 62% (+8.4% from 2025)​

S4 Progress

Level 4 and Level 5 Literacy and Numeracy continue to be above our virtual Comparator and National

5@National 5 for S4 increased to 30%, an increase of just under 5% from last session
5@Level 5 (SCQF) increased to 45.31%, an increase of 9% from last session and now only 6% below VC (compared to 16% last session)
5@Level 4 and Level 3 (SCQF) both continue to be above the Virtual Comparator
Our top 20% are now in line with our Virtual Comparator for the first time

S5 Progress

5@Higher for S5 increased from 6.67% to 8.47% closing the gap to the Virtual Comparator to 9% (was 11% gap last session).
5@Level 6 (SCQF) has dropped slightly to 17% from 19% last session
Improvements at 1@Level 6, 2@Level 6, 1-5@Level 5 (SCQF)

S6 Progress

Improvement for Literacy and Numeracy at Level 6 but still below Virtual Comparator
2-5@Level 6 (SCQF) improvement from last session (5@L6 increased by 4%)
Improvement for the highest 20% and middle 60% of learners in total number of qualifications gained by end of S6, 1 additional Higher more for those in top 20%, 1 National 5 more for those in Middle 60%

Overall, we have seen improvements in many key measures but there is more to do. We are grateful for the support of families and would encourage you to continue to work with us to ensure your child(ren) achieves their potential.

New House Team, Names and Structure

Over this term, we have been working with all stakeholders to consult on changes to our Guidance and Support Structures. Our young people have been active in discussing House Names and decided that they would like a change. Following consultation, our new house names will be based on castles in Kirkcaldy and surrounding areas. On Friday, we interviewed for 2 new posts in Guidance, taking our Guidance team from 6 to 8 colleagues. Our new house names and teams are set out below:

Seafield (green)

DHT – Sandy Young
PTG – Charlotte Kendrick
PTG – Suzanne Leiper

Ravenscraig (blue)

DHT – Sharon Hamilton
PTG – Emma Sim
PTG – Rachel Christie

MacDuff (purple)

DHT – Kirsten Hume
PTG – Jess Kerek
PTG – Michael Geissler

Wemyss (red)

DHT – Kerry Gibb
PTG – Ali Farquharson
PTG – Clare Donaldson

Our current House Captains will link to a new house for this session, before we move House Captains to represent their own house.

These changes take place from 26th October 2026. If you have any concerns about the change of Guidance teacher for your child, please complete the online form sent via “Groupcall” by Friday 16th October 2026.

Attendance

Attendance at school is critical for all our learners to support their education, develop lifelong skills and prosper from working with others each day. Attendance at school is not optional and I would ask for your support to ensure that your child attends every day. Data from the most recent set of QS examinations shows a clear link between attendance and achievement. Those who achieved 5 or more National 5 qualifications in S4 attended 95% or more. Even at 95% attendance, this still equates to 2 weeks off across an academic session.

Now, our school attendance sits below our target for this session at 85% (target is 88.2%). There are a variety of reasons for absence, but school is vitally important for all young people. If you need help or support with your child attending school, please contact us via the enquiries email below.

Electronic Devices and Uniform

In May 2026, we changed our electronic devices policy. This policy has supported better learning in and out of class with teachers and learners reporting better engagement and participation in class. We have also had a reduction in learners leaving class to meet up with friends during class time. Thank you for your support with this. Please familiarise yourself with this policy (Electronic Device Policy).

I would also ask for your continued support for our uniform policy. Our uniform is vital in ensuring that we have a safe school environment. It supports our approach to being a team and helps to reduce issues such as bullying. As the weather changes, it is important to ensure that our policy is followed. This includes not wearing crocs (H&S in labs, workshops and kitchens), ensuring that shirt / polo and tie is on and not coming to school in PE kit, even when PE is P1.

Notable dates for the term ahead

Parent / Carer Evening

S1 – Wednesday 4th November 2026

S5/6 – Thursday 3rd December 2026

P7 Information Evening – Thursday 19th November 2026

Parent Council

PACK Meeting (Parent / Carer Council) – w/b 9th November 2026

Formal Assessments

S4 Assessment weeks – w/b 23rd and 30th November 2026

Reporting

S4-6 Tracking reports – 20th November 2026

S1-3 Tracking reports – 18th December 2026

FoKHS

FoKHS Race Night – Friday 6th November 2026

Staffing

As outlined above, Ms Leiper and Mr Geissler were successful at interview for the permanent posts of PT Guidance. Well done to both!

Ms Asady (Teacher of BGE) has left KHS and Ms Kucane (Teacher of BGE) will take over her classes from Monday 26th October 2026.

Mrs MacKenzie and Ms Irvine have both finished for their respective Maternity leave. We wish both the very best for the new arrivals. Staffing for this was already planned for the remaining part of the session. There will be some changes to English and Biology classes as a result.

Finally, I wish you a restful and enjoyable break over the next 2 weeks. Again, I would like to thank all families for your continued support over the session so far. Our vision is to Dream Big. Work Hard. Be Kind. If you wish to contact us, please email our enquiries address.

Best wishes,

Chris McKay

Headteacher