Dear Parent/Carer
Here is the news from KHS.
Our prelim exams continued this week with a programme of assessments taking place, mainly in the Assembly Hall. This will be good practice for our candidates and will give them an idea of what remains to be done between now and the end of April. It’s also useful for teachers to have evidence of achievement to date. Next Monday is the final set of exams, with Biology, Music, Drama and Technical subjects being tested. On Tuesday, we return to our “normal” timetable and all years, including S4-6, are back to routine lessons.
We didn’t have prelims this Tuesday to allow pupils and staff to attend Paige Dougall’s funeral. This was a beautiful, but heartbreaking affair. The service was held at the Old Kirk, followed by Paige’s burial at Dysart. I am proud of Hayley and Brooke, two of Paige’s KHS friends who spoke so well at the Kirk, delivering tributes. Paige will not be forgotten here. We are all privileged to have known her.
On Wednesday evening, we held further online parent/carer evenings for potential entrants to S1 in August. These were for pupils at Torbain and Capshard, although we were also joined by some “placing requests”. It was helpful to be joined by current pupils and staff, who contributed to the discussion, and it was good to be able to take questions from the parents and carers who joined in online. We had an excellent turnout and some really good questions. Anyone looking for more info about our school should check out www.kirkcaldyhighschool.com and @KirkcaldyHigh on Twitter.
Yesterday morning we extended “Tutor” in order to view a whole school assembly on the theme of Holocaust Memorial Day. This was organised by Miss Osborne (History) with support from other teaching staff in History and Music. It was a truly moving occasion with beautiful presentations and explainers from a number of young people. A huge thanks and well done go to Hayden Dalgetty, Hannah Cowie, Jack Tait, Euan Hutt and Jai Somerville (all S1), Eilidh Drummond and Rebecca Greig (S5) and Charlie Murdoch (S6). The assembly can be viewed online.
Last night we held another meeting (again online) of “Friends of Kirkcaldy High School” (FoKHS). As you will know, this is an excellent support group for the school. The recent Christmas raffle has raised a further £1200 to fund the work of the school. If you are interested in joining up, please call in and ask for Mrs Davidson.
Next week sees another “catch up” immunisation session for S2-6 girls, with injections, by invitation, against HPV (which has links to cervical cancer). The slips will be distributed at the start of the week.
The week ends with our U18 footballers away to Aberdeen Grammar School in the Scottish Shield. Very best wishes to Mr English, Mr I’Anson and the boys, who will be wearing new strips, kindly donated by FoKHS. I should add that our S2 team recently had a fine win 3-0 away to Dunfermline High School in the Fife Shield. Mr Paterson tells me that the lads represented to school so very well. Good luck in the next round and congratulations on your success so far.
On that theme of success, you are once again invited to reply to my email telling us about any recent achievements your son or daughter has had. We are thinking about things like sporting or volunteering successes outside school or activities with other organisations eg Guides, Scouts, Youth Clubs, charity fundraising etc. We also want to know about achievement linked to interests and hobbies eg dancing, skating, art drama or music etc. It’s almost without limit really. Our intention would be to collate all the reports into another achievement round-up, in video format, which will go up on the KHS website as before. I’m grateful to Mrs Duckett (Music), who looks after this. All we need now is for you to tell us the good news stories about your kids. As I say, please reply to this email with all the details (including name, year etc) and please include a photo or short video clip if you can. Much appreciated.
I’m sure that we all appreciate that this is the age of social media. Millions of people around the world are avid users of apps such as Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat and TikTok. Our pupils are no exception. For the most part, this is a good thing. It can keep us connected and can be informative and/or fun. However, sometimes electronic posts are abusive or offensive. We are a rights respecting school and we teach our kids to use the internet responsibly. When we come across abusive or bullying communications we will do whatever it takes to have these deleted and the perpetrators dealt with appropriately. We were forced to do just that earlier in the week and some offensive content linked to our school has now been removed from a popular network. If you can, please take time to discuss the importance of using internet communications kindly. No-one should post something which they wouldn’t be prepared to convey in person. Often, it only takes one cruel online comment to cause immense hurt.
Some staffing news, and very best wishes to new mum Mrs Christie (Principal Teacher of Maths), who gave birth to a beautiful baby daughter called Niamh this week. Both are doing very well.
Looking a bit ahead, and please do be aware that we are approaching the mid term break. Pupils will not be in school from Wednesday 16 to Friday 18 February. The Wednesday is in service staff training and we’ll be having a focus on child protection and the SQA exams.
A wee Covid update to close. Despite some relaxation in the wider public health rules in Scotland, there are no changes planned for schools. Masks, hand hygiene, 2m distancing for adults and regular testing remain and we can now check the effectiveness of ventilation around the building using CO2 monitors which have been recently installed. Since Christmas, we’ve had 120 cases of Covid reported among the staff and pupils, and although the numbers appear to be declining, the virus still has a significant impact on our work. Please support the home testing routine and help your son/daughter to be properly prepared for school … with a face covering. Very much appreciated.
As always, have a good weekend. Take care everyone.
Yours
Derek Allan
RECTOR
28 January 2022
