Due to the increasing number of children having to attend our schools parents/carers are reminded of the following key principles from the supplementary guidance for school admission during COVID-19 school closures.

Only key workers who are physically attending their workplace or who cannot fulfil their critical functions when they are working remotely from home may qualify for places.

Where alternative options are available – e.g. where childcare/remote learning can be provided or supported by one non-key-worker parent or carer who is able to work from home – these should be used instead of children attending school in person.

These principles are in place to ensure that we keep the number of children in school each day to a minimum to ensure that safety of both pupils and staff, as the more children we have in then the more staff we require to bring in.

Thank you for your continued support.

Well done to everyone – we’ve survived three weeks of home learning!!  Thanks to everyone – pupils, parents, carers, grandparents, brothers, sisters and family friends – for your time, patience and creativity when helping our pupils with their learning. You’re all doing a great job!

The next paper home learning pack for every pupil will be available for collection from the school office from Monday 1^st February (between 9.30am and 2.30pm please).

Can P1/2 and P2 return their reading books from the first home learning packs please?

Also, a variety of stationery items – pencils, rubbers, jotters – will be available for collection so let us know what you need to help with your child’s home learning lessons.

As always, we’re only a phone call or email away so please get in touch if we can help in any way.

Have a great weekend. 

Mrs Govans

Please click on the links below and enjoy some live lessons from East Ayrshire Council:

Live family sessions wk 2

Live sessions Parent -carer Guidance Document

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

Well done to everyone – both pupils and parents/carers – for their brilliant efforts during the first few weeks of home learning.  The majority of the home learning packs were collected so quickly from the school office, and we’ve enjoyed receiving email and GLOW updates from pupils and parents/carers letting us know what is going well, and also asking for advice or clarification if they were getting stuck.  All teachers are contactable via email and Mrs Schendel, Mrs McDicken and I can be contacted by either phoning the school or email.

We’re here to help and support you and by working together we’ll ensure that our Catrine PS pupils get the best out of these home learning times.

Remember – do what you can when you can.  Home learning needs to work around you and your family.  Our staff are trying lots of different ways to engage with our pupils so keep checking our school blog and class blogs for updates.

Thanks to everyone who completed our GLOW questionnaire about our home learning provision.  We are delighted with the responses and have taken on board the suggestions made to improve what we are offering to our families.

Please click on the links below to see the collated responses.

New home learning paper packs will be available for collection from the school office from Monday 1^st February – we look forward to seeing you then. Let us know if you need any other resources – pencils, rubbers etc – and we’ll check what we have in store.

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

Mrs Govans

Question 1

Question 2

Question 3

As we are halfway through our third week of home learning we feel it’s important to have a wee check-in conversation with our parents/carers to see how everyone is getting on and to see if there’s anything else we can do to support you and your family at this time.

Mrs Schendel and I will be phoning every family over the next week, so please let us know if there’s something we can help you with.

Look out for a NO CALLER ID number, and we look forward to catching up with you all and having a good blether!

Mrs Govans

A huge well done to P6/7 who were the daily winners yesterday on the East Ayrshire Sumdog maths competition.

165 classes across East Ayrshire have entered the competition so to be the top class is an amazing achievement!

P4/5 are also on the leader board, so well done to them too!   All classes have until the end of today to take part in the competition.  Let’s see if we can have a final push to see Catrine Primary on the final leader boards.

Mrs Schendel

Please see below

What a wonderful, positive start we’ve had to “Home Learning” at Catrine Primary School. Thanks to everyone who has collected their child’s Home Learning pack from the school. Your support and cooperation at this time has been very much appreciated!

Moving forward, we are always looking to ensure that we are providing appropriate and accessible activities for all of our pupils. Please complete the questionnaire below and let us know we’re on track …………

Thanks to all parents/carers/family members and especially our Catrine Primary School pupils for starting Term 3 with enthusiasm and confidence!

Mrs Govans

*REMINDER*

Under the Education (Scotland) Act 1980, children who are five years of age between 1 March 2021 and 29 February 2022, and whose parents wish them to attend school, should register for education during the week commencing Monday 11 January 2021 until Friday 15 January 2021. As a result of the current Covid 19 restrictions and to ensure the safety of all parents/carers and school staff East Ayrshire Council has developed an online registration form.

How to register

East Ayrshire Council P1 registration form will go live on their website on Monday 11 January 2021. Parents/Carers should go to:

http://eastayrshi.re/enrolAtSchool

If you already have an East Ayrshire Council Customer Account you should select the “login” option. If you do not have a Customer Account you should select the “register” option.

• the first screen tells parents/carers about the online process
• the next screen is where you should fill in all the parent/carer details
• the next screen is where you fill in all of the child’s details
• the next screen is where you should list an emergency contact for your child
• the next screen is asking for health and medical details for your child
• the last screen relates to equal opportunities information

Once all mandatory fields have been completed you will be taken to the “evidence” page. This page requires Parents/Carers to photograph and upload their child’s full birth certificate and two proof of address documents. If you are unable to do this at this point you should click “No”. You will receive an email explaining how this can be done at a later date.

The next screen is where you make the decision whether your child attends Catrine Primary School or you make a placing request.

When the form has been submitted you will receive an email acknowledging receipt of your school enrolment application form.

We look forward to receiving the information about our new intake. Please do not hesitate to contact the school for any assistance. You can email me at mary.mcdicken@eastayrshire.org.uk.

Dear Parent/Carer

As you are no doubt aware, your child is due to transfer from primary to secondary education at the beginning of the new school session (August 2021).

Secondary school hand books are available at: https://eastayrshi.re/SchoolHandbooks

Please complete the online P7 transfer application at https://www.east-ayrshire.gov.uk/EducationAndLearning/Schools/SchoolAdmissions/SchoolAdmissions.aspx no later than Wednesday 27 January 2021.

If you have any issues, please do not hesitate to contact me at mary.mcdicken@eastayrshire.org.uk

Please click on the link below to access online learning provided by BBC Scotland.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0934ly5

Staff have been in school over the last few days to compile home learning packs for every pupil, for use over the next couple of weeks.

Packs can be collected from Monday 11 January between 9.30 a.m. – 2.30 p.m. from the main entrance. Please ensure masks are worn and all social distancing rules are followed. The home learning packs are a mixture of Literacy, Numeracy and Topic activities. Included in the pack are your child’s login details for various online learning sites.

Over the course of the next few weeks your first point of contact for any issues or questions, with regards to your child’s learning, should be your child’s class teacher.  Your child’s class teacher can be contacted between 9.00 a.m. – 3.00 p.m. by email:

• cheryl.burleigh@eastayrshire.org.uk – Primary 1/2
• jacqueline.mclean@eastayrshire.org.uk – Primary 2
• jill.ferguson@eastayrshire.org.uk – Primary 3
• erin.cook@eastayrshire.org.uk – Primary 3
• meghan.feighan@eastayrshire.org.uk – Primary 4/5
• fiona.mccaig2@eastayrshire.org.uk – Primary 5/6
• laura.mckenna@eastayrshire.org.uk – Primary 6/7
• roberta.schendel@eastayrshire.org.uk – Primary 5/6

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

As we start a new term at Catrine PS, I hope that you have all had a safe and healthy start to 2021.

In line with national guidelines our school is not open to pupils, except approved keyworker pupils, until February 1^st 2021.  Our staff will be in school over the next few days to get organised for online learning, which will start on Monday 11^th January.

Online learning

Every day, from Monday 11^th January,  each teacher will post a Literacy and Numeracy task on their class GLOW page. As our whole school focus in January is SCOTLAND, each class will be set an activity on Monday, Wednesday and Friday with a Scottish theme.  Pupils should use the resources in their Home Learning Toolkit that was sent home in August to help with their tasks.  Not all online learning tasks need to be completed online – pupils can write in their jotters or use other resources to help with their Active Literacy and Numeracy tasks.

Online access

A copy of your child’s login details for the variety of online learning sites that they can use will be provided in their home learning pack – see below.

Home Learning Packs

Our staff have also prepared some paper home learning packs for every pupil, which can be collected from the main office from Monday 11^th January. These worksheets are a mixture of revision and fun activities for our pupils.

Please phone the office for any further information, and make sure to regularly check our school GLOW and APP as that is where any further updates will be posted.

Take care.  Mrs Govans