With the PS and ECC closing today at 1.00pm for the start of the summer holidays, I would like to take this opportunity to say a few thank yous …

Thanks to the staff in both establishments – ELCP practitioners, office staff, Classroom Assistants and teachers –  for their flexibility, enthusiasm and commitment in working together to get organised for our August return.  Our playrooms and classrooms are set up, resources are organised and timetables are done – no doubt there will be changes to be made over the summer and we will continue to update you via our ECC and PS blog and APP.

Special thanks to …

• Helen Hall who has worked throughout this time at Auchinleck Academy kitchen whilst cleaning our PS
• Janet Fleming for working weekly at the Auchinleck Hub along with her ECC committments
• Stuart McCreath for his great help with the physical set-up of our classrooms and PS areas
• Mrs McDicken, Kim and Deborah for their brilliant resource-ordering skills over the last few weeks to ensure that our establishments are well stocked and ready for our pupils to return
• Alana, Depute Manager at Catrine ECC, and Mrs Schendel, Principal Teacher, for the hours spent on groupings, timetabling, staff rotas and planning
• our PS Parent Council for their continued support
• the parents/carers, family and friends of our pupils for your brilliant efforts at home learning during this time – you have organised some truly wonderful learning activities for your children and they have loved spending this time with you
• and last, but by no means least, to the children of Catrine ECC and PS who have risen wonderfully to the challenge of home learning. They had to adapt so quickly to a whole new way of learning, away from their friends, teachers and ECC and school environment and we have missed them every day

At the end of any school year there are always goodbyes to be said too.

At the ECC we wish Marion well as she starts her new job, and at the PS we say goodbye to Miss Robb, Miss Robertson and Mr Speirs as they move onto the next stage of their education careers. I would like to thank them all for their professionalism and dedication to the children of Catrine – they have all been such important members of our staff teams.

Good luck to our Primary 7 pupils as they move onto secondary school – we had a brilliant visit with them and their parents yesterday in our playground and it was great to see them.  We have a ‘proper’ P7 Leavers Day still to come – details to follow …

Good luck to our ECC leavers – we look forward to welcoming our new P1 pupils into Catrine PS and I’m sure our pupils heading to other schools will settle in quickly too.

So I’ll sign off as usual, take care, stay safe and keep in touch.

Mrs Govans x

Judith.govans@east-ayrshire.gov.uk

This past week many of you have been participating in the East Ayrshire Sumdog competition and I just had to share our successes with you as I am so proud of your achievements.

On Wednesday P4/5 were the daily winners!!  That’s out of 35 other classes across East Ayrshire…what an achievement!

At the end of the week P4/5 finished in 2nd place overall and P5/6 finished 9th.  Wow!!

429 students took part in the competition and 3 of our pupils made the top 50.  These were:

Robbie P4/5 – 13th place

Jayden P4/5 – 17th place

Daryl P5/6 – 34th place

Very well done to the three of you!  Some of you also did extremely well so thank you too for your contributions which put us so high up the leaderboard.

Can I take this opportunity to say thank you to all of you for working hard at home and doing your very best as always.  It has not been easy being away from your friends and family, having to turn your homes into classrooms and missing out on all the activities you love to do.  I have loved seeing your blogs, reading your emails, talking to you and parents on the phone and seeing your efforts online.   I am so proud of you all. I have missed you so much and I can not wait to see you all back in school in August.

Have a great summer and stay safe.

Mrs Schendel

The last day of term has finally arrived and all of the staff at Catrine Primary would like to wish our P7 pupils the best of luck as they move on to the academy in August. It is certainly not the way we had hoped the year would end! Good luck P7 and all the best as you start your next adventure at secondary school.

For Attention of Primary 7 Parents/Carers

East Ayrshire Council School Transport application form has now gone live. Please click on the link below to apply:

https://www.east-ayrshire.gov.uk/EducationAndLearning/TravellingToSchool/Schooltransport/Schooltransport.aspx

Please click on the links below to see what Active School’s has been up to:

Active Schools during Covid 19

Active Schools

Happy, glorious, sunny Thursday morning to you.  🙂

I can’t believe it’s the last week of term 4, and the last Headteacher’s Challenge.  I’ve loved setting you silly tasks and then seeing your great photos and posts – you’ve made me smile every Tuesday and Thursday throughout this whole lockdown so thank you !

We had another great Parent Council meeting last night – thank you to our Parent Council for their continuous support throughout this time.

We welcomed our new P1 parents on Tuesday for an information session, and I can’t wait to see our P7 pupils this morning for a (socially distanced) Q&A session about their transition to secondary school.

Today’s final challenge is a singing one  –  a song that we sing often and when we sing it in assembly, we sing it LOUDLY!  Remember to clap at the right times and to fit in the ‘Catrine School’ part.  I hope singing this wee song reminds you of the great times that we’ve had at Catrine PS in the past, and makes you look forward to the next adventures that we’re going to have together!

As always, take care, stay safe and keep in touch.  Mrs Govans x

Judith.govans@east-ayrshire.gov.uk

Dear Parent/Carer,

We acknowledge the statement by the Deputy First Minister yesterday afternoon with regard to the aspiration of a full-time return of pupils to school.

The DFM has been clear that this will be predicated on further data and scientific advice, and that further guidance will be issued nationally that will then be enacted at local authority level.

Our priority in our planning for schools return has always been safety and it will be important to be assured on how a full return will achieved in a way that recognises this. The central education team at East Ayrshire will await the guidance and will enact this accordingly in consultation with all interested parties as soon as it is received.

Individual schools will not be in a position to publish adapted plans until this further information becomes available.

Communications to parents and carers will continue over the Summer break to ensure that they are kept fully informed and updated on plans to return.  As always, we look forward to welcoming our young people back to school is a safe and measured manner.

Kindest regards

Linda McAulay-Griffiths
Head of Education

Our P7 pupils are coming to the end of their last week at Catrine Primary. Unfortunately their last year at primary school hasn’t ended the way we had planned or hoped. I thought I would share a video of their last year at primary school and  a wee poem too. We wish the pupils all the best for moving on to the academy in August.

Class of 2020

You’ve been together for seven years,

Sharing your hopes, dreams and fears.

But in March, you were sent home to stay,

Learning online was your new school day.

You made rainbow pictures and went out to cheer,

The key workers protecting those we hold dear.

What should have been a time for celebration,

Became a time of worry and isolation.

But what we have learnt in a time like this,

Is what’s truly important and the friends we miss.

It has not been the final year we had hoped,

But we’re amazed at your strength and how well you’ve coped.

Hold on to the memories that we have shared,

Remembering friends and those who cared.

The class of 2020 will hold a place in our heart,

For the courage you’ve shown from the very start.

You have carried on regardless during this time of change,

And continued on when things were strange.

You’re moving on to somewhere new,

Filled with the confidence you need to see you through.

From everyone at the school, we wish you the best,

Smiles and hard work will be your key to success.

Mrs McKenna

Hi everyone

I am are very excited and look forward to welcoming you into Primary 1/2 after the summer holidays. I have made a little video to show you some of the wonderful things that we do here at Catrine Primary School.

Miss Burleigh

Good morning on the last Tuesday of Term 4.

I can hardly believe that it’s the last week of the summer term, and that the school and ECC finishes for the summer holidays on Friday.  This has definitely been the strangest term in my 25 years of teaching!!

I am so proud of the staff of both Catrine ECC and PS, who have been working in both establishments over the last few weeks.  They have organised our teaching and learning spaces into safe, fun and inviting spaces for our pupils to start back to in August – it hasn’t been easy as there’s so much guidance to follow but their creativity, enthusiasm and teamwork has ensured that we feel really prepared for the start of next session.  Look out for a couple of videos over the next few days as they share our August preparations with you.

Today’s challenge could be tricky…  Remember I challenged you before to build a tower the height of yourself using all different objects – and lots of you completed the challenge brilliantly! 

I’m challenging you to be creative again – your challenge is to create a line of DIFFERENT objects from one wall of your house to the other side of your house (for instance, in my house I would start at my dining room door, go through into the hall and finish at the front door – that’s quite a distance) and you must use different objects – you can’t just create a line of pencils and think you’ve solved the challenge.  Each object must be different, and must be touching the object in front and behind it.

So get your thinking caps on and I look forward to seeing your great efforts – you never fail to impress! 🙂

I’m looking forward to speaking to our new P1 parents/carers this afternoon and to our P7 pupils on Thursday morning as we talk  about their move to secondary school.

This P7 photo was taken back in August – I’m sure they will have changed so much when we see them on Thursday.

As always, take care, stay safe and keep in touch.  Mrs Govans x

Judith.govans@east-ayrshire.gov.uk

By now you will hopefully have received a letter from The Robert Burns Academy with details of your child’s class, Depute Head and Guidance Teacher.

 We are aware of a small admin error with the contact details provided on this letter. If you have any enquires please use our new email address which is Robert.BurnsAcad@east-ayrshire.gov.uk

The Cumnock Academy and Auchinleck Academy email inboxes are still being monitored over the summer for anyone who has already made contact this way.

Our new school blog is now live and has been updated with videos for our new S1 from each department. It can be found at:

https://blogs.glowscotland.org.uk/ea/therobertburnsacademy/

We would encourage you to monitor our school blog for any further updates including transport arrangements. Our S1s will all be joining us at Cumnock Academy on Wednesday 12^th August, we will direct them to their allocated classrooms as they arrive at school and there will be plenty of staff on hand to assist with this. On their first day we will have a special programme of lessons prepared to answer any question they have about the arrangements in the school.

Please click on the link below to see the detailed outline for the return of pupils to Catrine Primary School in August 2020.

letter dated 19.6.2020

Thank you.

Attention: Primary 7 Parents/Carers/Pupils

Please click on the link below to view current letter from Peter Gilchrist, Head of Barony Campus

PG Parental Letter

To apply for Clothing Grants and Free School Meals, please follow the link below:

https://www.east-ayrshire.gov.uk/CouncilAndGovernment/Benefits/Benefits-EducationAndSchool/Clothing-grants-and-free-school-meals/Clothing-grants-and-free-school-meals.aspx

Thank you.

Please click on the link below to access recent letter from Linda McAulay-Griffiths – Head of Education.

letter from Head of Education

New Primary 1 induction meeting is scheduled for Tuesday 23 June at 1.30 p.m. Please click on the link below for further information:

P1 induction invitation

Primary 7 Information session is scheduled for Thursday 25 June at 1030 a.m. Please click on the link below for further information:

P7 invitation letter

If you wish any further information, please do not hesitate to contact the school.

Thank you.

Happy Thursday morning to you all.

It’s been a lovely week in school as staff have been back in – we’re only allowed two teachers and two classroom assistants in each day to comply with guidelines, but it’s been just great to catch up with everyone.

We’ve been organising classes and our new class structure will be posted out to you today – look out for it in the mail on Friday. New P1 pupils and P7 pupils – your invitation to a meeting in the school playground next week is included in with your letter.

Lots of updates from EAC and the school will be coming your way over the next few days so please check our GLOW page and the school APP every day.

We are all, understandably, feeling a bit anxious about what school is going to look like in August so if you have any questions after reading the updates, please get in touch.

Today’s challenge is another one that is trickier than it sounds …

I challenge you to find an object in your house that is EXACTLY the same height or length as you.  Not something that is a wee bit taller or smaller but EXACTLY the same height or length.  In my house it took me ages to find something but I’ve discovered that the clothes horse/drying rail (or winter dykes as my mum calls them!) is EXACTLY the same height as me.  Let me know how you get on.

As always, stay safe, take care and keep in touch. Mrs Govans x

Judith.govans@east-ayrshire.gov.uk

We are in the final days of recruiting students for the FREE dance activity for p4-7 pupils in Ayrshire. https://www.rcs.ac.uk/junior_courses/pre-junior-dance/ 

Please click on the link below to view further information:

Royal Conservatoire of Scotland

Happy Tuesday morning to you all 🙂

Staff are allowed back in the Primary School and ECC this week, so yesterday Mrs McDicken, Mrs Goudie, Mrs Schendel, Miss McLean, Miss Burleigh and I were all in at school – it was just lovely to see them all.  Mrs McDicken, Mrs Schendel and I have been in a few times but this was the first time that Miss Burleigh and Miss McLean had been in since March – they were so happy to be back in their classrooms (but they missed all their pupils big time 🙁 )  I look forward to catching up with all of the other teachers and Classroom Assistants over the next few days.

Please take a minute to complete the surveys about online learning on the APP and GLOW – it’s really important that we get your views so that any necessary changes can be made before August.

Today’s challenge is another Estimation Challenge, as you all seemed to have such good fun with the Doors Estimation Challenge last week.  Can you guess how many pairs of shoes you own?  Shoes can be any kind of footwear – trainers, sandals, slippers, football boots, wellies … Estimate how many pairs you have and then go and count them.  Was your estimate close to your final answer?  Challenge some other people in your family to make a guess about their shoes total too.  Let me know how you get on.

As always, take care, stay safe and keep in touch. Judith.govans@east-ayrshire.gov.uk