Dear Parent/Carer

And here we are … another weekend looming. I hope that you are well. Here is the news from KHS.

For our SQA candidates in S4-6, the prelims went well this week. The attitude of our young people was excellent, and thanks to the younger ones who respected the “keep quiet” signs at the Hall and Library. The teachers are now busy getting on with the marking as the second half of the exam diet takes place next week. We finish in Monday 31 January and you will be aware that there are no assessments scheduled for this Tuesday, 25 January as a mark of respect for Paige Dougall, whose funeral takes place that day. Please inform the school should your son/daughter wish to attend the Old Kirk for the celebration and commemoration service (at 11.30am) and/or Paige’s burial at Dysart Cemetery in the afternoon.

This week we held an HPV vaccination catch up session with NHS Fife on Wednesday, and that evening, we had our first online Parents Evenings for Primary Transition, with Fair Isle and then Valley. We had a particularly good turnout and it was good to be able to answer any questions. Fife now has an online enrolment process and all P7 parents/require are expected to apply.

For August, we are likely to have around 270 or so new starts and a total school roll of over 1500. Please encourage those you know who will be applying to do that as soon as possible. Many thanks.

This morning, it was an absolute pleasure to welcome Graeme Morland (Engineering Manager) and Carl Johnson (CEO) from Clas-SiC Wafer Fab to the school to meet staff and pupils and see the company’s investment in action. Clas-Sic is sector leading semi-conductor research and development facility in Lochgelly, although the parent company and the CEO are based in the USA. The company sponsors “STEM” learning in KHS and has provided significant funding to allow high specification gear such as a CNC lathe and new laser equipment to be introduced here. We hope to continue working with Clas-Sic in the future. In particular, we see good work experience opportunities and other sponsorship programmes ahead, as part of our “Developing the Young Workforce” plans.

Next week sees the Torbain transition evening at 5pm and Capshard at 6. Potential “placing requests” are asked to contact the school and we will happily send out log in details for “Zoom”. We will also hold an online meeting of the “Friends of Kirkcaldy High School” on Thursday It will be good to catch up with our key supporter group. The recent FOKHS raffle raised another four figure sum for our school fund. This will be used to support our pupils in various ways in the year ahead.

Looking a bit further ahead and we will be issuing S2 Reports and course choice details in the first week of February. Please be reminded that Wednesday 16 February is an in-service training day for staff, with an emphasis on SQA qualifications. The Thursday and Friday of that week are the mid-term holidays.

Things seem to have settled down a little in terms of Covid case numbers, although we have had over eighty pupils and a dozen or so staff cases reported since returning from holiday. This includes 8 new pupil cases today alone. It remains vital that our young people continue to wear a face mask and avoid close contact with adults for now. Please keep testing. We will distribute more Covid kits at the start of next month. Please don’t send your son or daughter to school if they have any symptoms. They should isolate and book a PCR test. Contacts with no symptoms can come to school if they are able to take a daily LFD test and this is negative.

Some staffing news to close, and I am delighted to report that our new teachers and support assistants have settled in very well at KHS. We’ll also be joined by a fair number of student teachers over the next fortnight or so. Very best wishes to our own Mr Paterson (Modern Studies) who has been appointed to a promoted post in Guidance at Balwearie, starting there on 14 February. Mr Paterson will be missed by his friends and pupils and has been a great asset here. I’m sure he’ll do well in his new position.

Best wishes for the weekend. Take care.

Yours

Derek Allan
RECTOR
21 January 2022