Dear Parent/Carer

Welcome to the weekly bulletin from KHS. I hope that you are getting by. At the risk of this sounding glib, if you are struggling at times, please do be assured that this is a widespread feeling. Also, on a brighter note, we’re now a week closer to this being over. It now looks like the vaccination programme is taking off. There are tough times ahead, but at least it feels that these are not without end. In the meantime, it’s imperative to do what’s required and stay home in line with the regulations. This is the only responsible way for the time being. I understand that the FM will give a further statement about schools in Parliament on Tuesday.

I hope that you’ve managed to help your kids keep in touch with learning as best they can. We have received quite a lot of feedback from parents/carers, most of which has been supportive and appreciative of the school’s efforts at this time. We’ve also had some really useful suggestions and we are taking these on board. For some families, the learning expectations are too great and there is a feeling of being pressurised and unable to cope. For others, it seems that not enough schoolwork has been made available. Again, at the risk of coming across as glib, this likely means that we’ve got it broadly right. We now need to “tune” our offer to suit more families as we go. I assure you that we are on it.

Many thanks to all of you who attended one of our online parent/carer sessions on Wednesday. I was able to join the 6pm webinar when we had 55 of you with us on “Zoom”. I’m very grateful to the staff who led the sessions; Miss Nessel, Miss Samfat, Mrs Morris and Mrs Hamilton. As well as the school providing advice on the use of GLOW and Teams, it was invaluable for us to gain first hand insights into your experiences of home learning. We had a Principal Teachers’ meeting yesterday at which these were shared. Following discussion, we now intend to introduce a more structured offer for S1/2, with clearer expectations about which subjects should be studied on specific days. We know that most kids of that age have yet to develop good time management skills. It won’t be a timetable as such, that’s taking it too far for most to handle, but the structure should help to make the tasks more manageable. More details from Mr Young shortly.

There was also a discussion of “live” learning and we have now established that there is a reasonable expectation that all teachers will be available at a set time each week to engage with each of their classes in “real time”. Some might regard this as “catch up” or “tutorial” time and it might take the form of live chat by text, an audio enabled session on “Teams” or by video link. You’ll appreciate that just as not all kids are entirely comfortable using the video option, the same goes for some teachers. That said, I think that there is an understanding that this is a very good engagement model for most. I’ve spoken to a few teachers this week who have explained that the video check in was the highlight of their week.

For the most part, we have been very impressed by the high levels of engagement shown by our learners, and we have taken feedback about that from teachers. In due course, we might well be in touch with the parents/carers of those who are not engaging well in order to see what further support might be helpful. In the meantime, I understand that the Yearheads are intending to send an email home to the families who have been engaging well. It’ll be nice to recognise those who are managing such a difficult situation. Please remember that we are here to help with any query about learning online. Miss Samfat (Principal Teacher of Digital Learning) has been a terrific support and can offer advice, reset passwords and perform several other minor IT miracles … many thanks to Miss Samfat!

At the Wednesday evening webinar, we were joined by Councillor Craig Walker, who is Chair of the Education and Childrens’ Services Committee of Fife Council. It’s good to have Cllr Walker’s support, and I know that he was impressed by the lively engagement we enjoyed at the session. He put out a nice message on Twitter. For those of you who don’t yet use that medium, may I thoroughly recommend its use for keeping up with what’s doing at KHS. You’ll get information, reminders, advice and all the latest news @KirkcaldyHigh. We’ll do another session like this again soon and have also put a link to a recording of one of the recent tutorial sessions on Youtube here;

The matter of fair access to online learning remains a concern for me. We know that in so many cases families will struggle with online learning for lack of viable devices or reliable broadband. Kids are sometimes trying their best on a mobile phone, and this is very commendable. We’ve now loaned out about 100 devices, mainly Chromebooks provided as part of the Scottish Government’s Digital Equity Strategy and are actively trying to acquire more laptops to distribute. If you need to request support (and you’ll appreciate that this needs to be prioritised or even “means tested” to some extent) please be in touch. Equally, if you can help in any way, for example we’ve had businesses donating unneeded devices which we have “repurposed”, please drop me a line leaving a contact number.

I did say last week that I had expected to have some more concrete news from the SQA soon. This week we’ve been given an assurance that the deadlines for the submission of estimates and evidence of achievement will be put back. Whilst we are not in school, it’s the actual gathering of evidence which is the big problem, and we’ll just have to park that for now. I’ll keep you posted.

Julie Lautredou, our SDS Careers Advisor, has been in touch to remind me that all S2 pupils normally have a face to face contact prior to making their course choice for S3. For obvious reasons that won’t be possible. However, she has prepared a letter for you which Mr Young will email out at the weekend. This will also include contact details should you need support. Mrs Hamilton is finalising our course offer for 2021-2022 over the next couple of weeks. Our option choices will be based on the mock choices which pupils in S2, S4 and S5 made just before Christmas. More details soon. 

Finally, I’m conscious that the bulk of this message has a focus on keeping up with learning. Maybe that’s understandable, we’re a school. However, you’ll maybe recall that in a previous message I made it clear that we had three goals at this time. Yes, an emphasis on learning was one of those, but we are also trying to suppress a deadly virus which is having a devastating effect on families and communities around the planet. And we need to keep physically fit and mentally well in the middle of all this disruption and anxiety inducing chaos. So on that note, please stay at home whenever you can and try to do the things which allow you to manage your stress.

Aye yours

Derek Allan

RECTOR

15 January 2021