We enjoyed a wonderful FUN 31 in the lovely sunny but chilly afternoon today, playing with our new outdoor play equipment.  The new tyres, steering wheels, planks and rollers were well tested out by our pupils.  A great way to kickstart the weekend! 🙂

East Ayrshire Recycling – visit to Catrine Primary School

On Wednesday we had 2 people from East Ayrshire Recycling come in to the school to talk about recycling and how we can improve on helping to recycle more.

Brian and Jordan were our 2 community waste officers who came in to the school. Jordan talked to primary 5, 6 and 7 about everything that we can do to help improve recycling:

• what goes in which box of the recycling trolley
• what vehicle collects the waste and much more

We have the Romaquip Recycling Vehicle that collects our recycling and food waste:

• the 1^st compartment is for plastic and cans
• the 2^nd is for mixed paper and card
• the 3^rd is for food waste
• the 4^th is for glass 1
• the 5^th is for coffee pods, electrical items, clothes and textiles
• the 6^th is for glass 2
• the 7^th is for paper and cardboard

We learned about food waste and what you can and can’t put in your caddy…

You can put in dry food, out of date stuff, eggshells, bones, tea bags and coffee grounds.

You can’t put in liquids, bags or pet waste.

We also learned about the bio capital in Cumbernauld, which is where all the food waste gets processed.  Did you know that 60 to 200,000 kgs of food waste gets processed every week?

There is also a food waste sniff test. We learned what goes in which parts of the recycling trolleys that we use at home:

• paper and cardboard – blue box
• plastic and cans – red box
• mixed glass – grey box

We can also sit out small electrical items (WEEE) which stands for Waste Electrical Electronic Equipment.

Fun facts… did you know that 1 x full food caddy can make 8 slices of toast and 2 x full food caddies can power a cinema for a whole movie! Also, 1 x recycled aluminium can can power your TV for 3 hours!

We learned a lot during this visit and we would like to thank Jordan and Brian for coming to our school.

Report written, and visit arranged, by Alfie in P6

Thank you to all family and friends who came along to celebrate our Scots Verse winners today.  We’re sure they enjoyed both the poems and our singing of some weel-kent Scottish songs.

We are all very proud of our pupils and the efforts they have made to learn their Scots poems, and of how confidently they recited their poem, both today and yesterday at the the 12 O’Clock Gang Lunch Club.

Our winners and runners-up are 

• P1Winner – Miller                   R/up – Elliott
• P2 Winner – Emily                  R/up – Leah
• P3 Winner – Lyle                      R/up – Carson
• P4 Winner – Braxton            R/up – Charlotte
• P5 Winner – Harris                R/up – Jack
• P6 Winner – Brody                R/up – Poppy
• P7 Winner – Hannah            R/up – Eilidh 

Our Whole School Overall Winner is Hannah in P7, delivering an excellent recitation of  ‘Willie Wastle‘ by Robert Burns.

Thanks to our judges – Alana Speirs, Depute Manager at Catrine ECC and Mr Clipston, Minister at Catrine Parish Church.

In our Home Circles today we focused on Article 30 of the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child.

Article 30 states that ‘every child should have the freedom to enjoy their culture, practise their religion and speak their language with other members of their minority.’

The BIG questions our pupils answered were …

• Why is it important that we learn about the languages, cultures and traditions of other countries in school?
• In our school, when do we learn about – different countries?              – different cultures and traditions?       – different languages?          

As always, our excellent Home Circles came up with some insightful and thoughtful answers.  Read them below …

We also focused on our CATRINE Value of Inclusion. 

In our Home Circles this morning we were answering two BIG questions based on Article 14 of the United Nations Convention of the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) which states that ‘every child has the right of freedom of thought, belief and religion’.

Our BIG questions were

• Why is it important that we learn about other world religions and beliefs in school?
• Most religions have special people, special places, special dates and special items.  How many can you name? 

We were very impressed with their detailed answers.  We also focused on our CATRINE Value of Respect.

Catrine ECC’s Depute Manager, Alana Speirs, delivered a wonderful presentation today to an audience of over 90 EAC colleagues, including Headteachers and Heads of ECC from across the authority, the Senior Education Managers and the Head of Education at the Council Chambers in London Road in Kilmarnock.

She was highlighting the educational journey of the ECC which led to them earning national recognition – Scotland’s first Digital Learning ECC accreditation.

Alana detailed the structured programme led by Sherrie Devlin, ELCP, and talked about the drive, professionalism and commitment of all ECC staff members in working towards this whole ECC accreditation.

Alana and Sherrie are now working alongside Education Scotland colleagues to review the Digital Literacy programme of learning to ensure that the Early Years curriculum is well-structured, challenging and innovative.              #TeamCatrine leading the way 🙂

(apologies for the poor photo quality – I was too busy beaming with pride to take better ones!)

In our Home Circles today we focused on Article 31 of the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child.

Article 31 states that ‘every child has the right to leisure, play and culture’.

We discussed how important it is to work together to make sure all areas of our school are safe, healthy and inclusive.

Our BIG focus was – 

• In our playground you will see …
• In our Dinnerhall you will see …
• In Assembly you will see … 

Our answers will be used to create our new School Charters which you will see displayed around the school.

We also focused on our CATRINE Value of Teamwork.

In our Home Circles this week we focused on World Mental Health Day. We discussed how important it is to look after our mental health, as well as our physical and emotional health.

Our BIG questions were

• why is it important that we look after our Mental Health?
• what can we do to improve both our own Mental Health, and that of our friends and family?

Check out our brilliant answer below …

Thank you to all parents/carers who took the time to leave a response to our BIG Question at last week’s Parent Night.

Click on the link below to see the collated answers to our BIG Question – how does your child feed back to you about their learning and progress in school?

BIG Question – feedback 02.10.24

Catrine PS were delighted to have a team participate in the first Girls Football  tournament on Tuesday 1st October at Cumnock Juniors pitches.    The team played in six games – and won five of them!

We are so proud of how they represented Catrine PS, showing great teamwork, resilience and sportsmanship.

Team: Brooke, Emelia, Lucie (Captain), Sophie, Kayla, Harper, Gracie-Leigh, Paige and Kacey

The whole school worked together in their new Home Circles for the first time this year, and what a wonderful job our P7 pupils did with their younger house members.

We completed a ‘getting to know you’ activity where everyone talked about their favourite things, ranging from Star Wars to Sea Cadets to football to pizza!

Then each Home Circle answered our Big Question based on our school Values –

C is for Community.   What is a community?  Which communities are we a part of?

Check out their answers below …

Catrine PS is delighted to have been awarded an Eco-Schools Green Flag award by ‘Keep Scotland Beautiful’.

After an intensive audit, we were awarded our flag because

• we have pupils from every class represented in our Eco Committee
• we have regular whole school and community litter picks
• our Clean Up Crews are doing a great job of improving our school playground and environment
• we support biodiversity in our school grounds by making bird feeders and bird houses
• we have regular clothes Swap Shops for school uniform, Hallowe’en costumes and Christmas jumpers/party clothes
• we have Junior Road Safety Officers who regularly highlight the importance of safe parking on our School Streets areas

Our Green Flags are proudly displayed in our main playground and our main entrance, as highlighted here by Ellie, Dalton and Olly.

We have also been asked to present at the EAC Climate Conference next week at the Grange Academy – look out for an update next week.

Before the summer holidays our senior pupils entered an art competition to design a calendar entry for the new EAC ‘Clean Green’ calendar, which is displayed throughout East Ayrshire.

Congratulations to Eilidh, now in P7, as her design was chosen as one of the runners-up and is published within the calendar.

Your child will have PE in school on the following days.

Primary 1 – Tuesday and Thursday  (Tuesday will be a walk in the community)

Primary 2 – Tuesday and Thursday (Thursday will be a walk in the community)

Primary 3 – Tuesday and Thursday

Primary 4 – Monday and Wednesday

Primary 5 – Monday and Wednesday

Primary 6 – Wednesday and Friday

Primary 7 – Tuesday and Thursday 

For PE sessions, pupils should change into shorts and trainers/gym shoes.  It’s better if PE kits can be kept in school in a PE bag so that they’re always available.  All jewellery must be removed for PE sessions (including earrings). Please ensure all PE items are labelled with your child’s name and let us know if we can help with supplying any PE equipment.

As another successful school year draws to a close, it’s time to say Thank You to everyone at #TeamCatrine who helps to make our school run so smoothly.

Thank you to our Cleaning Supervisor, Helen, our Cleaner, Michelle, and our Janny, Mr McCreath, for making sure that our school and classrooms are clean and tidy, warm and safe for us to come into every day.

Thank you to our Catering Supervisor, Shelagh, and her kitchen staff for their lovely school lunches and for the sneaky chocolate cake that our P7 Leavers enjoyed today.

Thank you to every member of school staff – teachers and Classroom Assistants – for their professionalism, commitment and true sense of teamwork in providing excellent learning and teaching opportunities for our children.

Thank you to Mrs Robertson, Senior Clerical Assistant, for keeping the whole school organised and running like clockwork!

Thank you to Mrs Schendel, Depute Headteacher, for her tireless work ensuring all of our pupils are supported in their learning and wellbeing.

Thank you to our parents/carers, family and friends and wider Catrine community for your constant and unwavering support of all we do – it is appreciated more than you will ever know!

Last, but by no means, least – THANK YOU to our Catrine PS pupils for making us proud every single day.  Working in a primary school has its challenges, but the funny, sweet, inspirational moments that we share every day with your children make it the best job in the world.  Good luck to our P7 pupils as they move onto the Robert Burns Academy – stick in!!

Wishing you all a lovely summer. Take care, Mrs Govans x

I am delighted to inform our new Primary 3 pupils and parents that their teacher, starting in August 2024, is Mrs Withers.

Mrs Withers is currently teaching at Bellsbank PS and we look forward to welcoming her to Catrine PS in August.

She was in school today for a wee visit and spent some time with her new class, and can’t wait to get started! 🙂

On Friday 14th June, our P6 pupils had their Big Sleepover.  They camped in the school grounds (well, on this occasion, due to the horrible wet weather, they slept in the school hall!), roasted marshmallows over a campfire in the playground and played an awesome game of staff/parents v pupils Rounders (which the adults won, of course).

Mrs Ferguson and Mrs Govans were the lucky staff who stayed all night, with Miss Burleigh, Mrs Campbell, Miss Brown and Mrs Schendel joining us for the team games and campfire.

Thanks to all the parents who joined in, thanks to Carolyn McFarlane at EAC LOST for organising it and special thanks to our P6 pupils for being awesome!  It was a brilliant night of giggles, midnight snacks, PJs in the school hall and very little sleep … 🙂

On Wednesday 19th June we held our annual Prizegiving Ceremony in the school, where we celebrated the wonderful achievements of our pupils throughout the last school session.

Please see our Prize-winners below.   We are so very proud of each and every one of them.

Catrine Values Winners

P1-P3 – Allan in P3  and P4-P7 – Ryan in P7

Sports Winners

Junior Sports – Coral in P5 and Leighton in P5

Senior Sports – Georgia in P7 and Ashton in P7

Winning House at Sports Day

Ayrbank with Captain Georgia

Winning House Trophy

Whiteflat with Captain Ashton

Marneil with Captain Marley

Excellence in Learning

P2 – Ellie, P3 – Braxton, P4 – Gracie-Leigh, P5 – Brooke, P6 – Ellie and P7 – Carter

Four Capacities of A Curriculum for Excellence – Class Winners

P2 – Poppy, Carson, Alfie and Nadia

P3 – Miley, Calli, Quinn and Carter

P4 – Esther, Evie, Jenna and Oscar

P5 – Noah, Jalyn, Leighton and Harry

P6 – Lenore, Lennox, Eli and Caleb

P7 – Millie, Marley, Ryan and Lexi

Individual Awards

P4 Literacy – Ashton and P7 Numeracy – Layla

Chess Champion – Josh in P7

Scots Verse Excellence – Brody in P5

Citizenship – Georgia in P7