In our classes we are focusing on our School Values, and creating a display highlighting how we show these Values in our daily school life.  Last week we discussed our School Value of Respect and how it applies to us in Catrine PS. Please look at your child’s class blog to see their definitions of Respect.

Next week we are focusing on our School Value of Determination.

Mrs Govans

Another brilliant morning at Catrine PS, with pupils meeting up as a whole class for the first time since March 2020. Our school has been full of laughing, blethering and playful children today – it’s been simply wonderful!!

Remember that, for today only, our pupils are finishing early – see details below.

Arrangements for Friday 14th August only  …
P1/2 – finish at 1.00pm
P2 – finish at 1.10pm
P3 – finish at 1.00pm
P4/5 – finish at 1.10pm
P5/6 – finish at 1.00pm
P6/7 – finish at 1.10pm

All pupils will have eaten their lunch when they leave school, and with the sun still shining they’ll be able to enjoy the early start to their weekend.

We’ve enjoyed a lovely day with our Group B pupils at Catrine PS today. Again, our pupils returned with such  positive attitudes and were full of questions about the changes that we’ve made to ensure the health and safety of everyone in our school.  Thanks also to our parents/carers for their great consideration when they are dropping off/picking up our pupils – we had another smooth start and finish to our day.
Our Group B Primary 1 pupils were wee superstars – what a brilliant day they’ve had with Miss Burleigh and Michelle.

Tomorrow, Friday 14th, we welcome ALL of our pupils back to their classes, sticking with our staggered start at 9.00am and 9.10am.
For tomorrow only, our pupils are being released early to give staff a chance to review our new procedures and organise any necessary changes, and to move tables and chairs etc so that we’re all ready for Monday 17th, when our pupils are in all day, every day.

All pupils will have eaten their lunch when they leave school tomorrow, and hopefully the sun will still be shining and they’ll be able to enjoy the early start to their weekend.

Arrangements for Friday 14th August …
P1/2 – start at 9.00am (ALL P1 pupils still start at 9.30am) and finish at 1.00pm
P2 – start at 9.10am and finish at 1.10pm
P3 – start at 9.00am and finish at 1.00pm
P4/5 – start at 9.10am and finish at 1.10pm
P5/6 – start at 9.00am and finish at 1.00pm
P6/7 – start at 9.10am and finish at 1.10pm

Thanks to the Catrine PS community for your consideration, cooperation and understanding this week – it has been much appreciated.  Mrs Govans

What a brilliant first day back at school we had with our Group A children!  Thanks to all parents/carers and, especially, our pupils for starting back with such positivity and enthusiasm.  They embraced all of the new changes with no problems, and it was as if they’d never been away – we are so pleased with how today has gone. A special mention to our new Primary 1 pupils who started today – they all settled in quickly and had a great time.

Tomorrow, Thursday 13th, we are delighted to be welcoming back our Group B children, with P1/2, P3 and P5/6 in school from 9.00am to 3.00pm, and P2, P4/5 and P6/7 in school from 9.10am to 3.10pm, with Group B Primary 1 pupils starting at 9.30am.  Looking forward to seeing them all!  Mrs Govans

Information has been posted today on the Catrine ECC GLOW blog page outlining the arrangements for the start/return of children to Catrine ECC from Wednesday 12th August.

Please contact Judith.govans@east-ayrshire.gov.uk or alana.speirs@east-ayrshire.gov.uk with any concerns or issues.

We thank all parents/carers for their continued patience and understanding during these unsettled times.

Thanks, Mrs Govans

Please find attached a letter outlining the arrangements for the return of pupils to Catrine PS, starting from Wednesday 12th August 2020.  It highlights our ‘soft start’ for Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of next week, aiming for a full pupil return on Monday 17th August.

I am aware that there is a lot of information to take in, so please get in touch with any issues or concerns at Judith.govans@east-ayrshire.gov.uk.

We can’t wait to welcome our pupils back – we have missed them all so much!  Please note that information regarding Catrine ECC is still being finalised – Alana and I hope to be able to share that with parents/carers as soon as possible.

Thanks, Mrs Govans

parent letter 05.08.20

Attention all P7 Leavers – your new Robert Burns Academy school ties are ready to be collected! 

We are delighted to present you with your new tie, as we wish you well on this next step of your educational journey.

I’ll be in school tomorrow – Tuesday 4th August – from 1.00-3.00pm so please come to the Main Entrance to collect your tie.
Remember that whilst social distancing rules have relaxed for under 12s they are still in place for adults.

Looking forward to seeing you all tomorrow – Emily and Dylan were first up to the collect their hoodies so I wonder who’ll be first to collect their ties?!?!?
Mrs Govans 🙂

For attention of P7 Leavers …. Your Leavers Hoodies are here!!!

I’ll be in school tomorrow – Tuesday 14th July – from 10.00am to 12.00pm so please pop in, if you can, to collect your hoodie.  Please enter by the car park gates and come round to the main entrance.

Remember social distancing rules may have changed for under-12s, but not for adults, so the same rules will be in place at the school.

If you can’t make it to the school tomorrow morning, don’t worry – I’ll get your hoodie to your home address over the next few days.

Thanks for your patience, and I can’t wait to see you all wearing your Leavers Hoodies – they’re smashing!!
Mrs Govans 🙂

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

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

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

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

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

Last week one of our favourite shops, Dunelm in Kilmarnock, posted a competition on Facebook …

Lots of parents, carers, family members and friends of Catrine PS and ECC voted… and guess what?… WE WON!!!

We are absolutely delighted and want to thank everyone who voted and Dunelm for donating the fabulous outdoor resources.

The children in Catrine will love them 🙂

Good morning and happy Thursday to you all – this week is just flying in!

We were delighted to be chosen as the winners in the Dunelm Kilmarnock Outdoor Toys competition – thank you to everyone who nominated both the ECC and the PS.  Alana, our ECC Deputy Manager, collected the toys yesterday – look out for her post and photo today and I’m sure the wide selection of toys will be well played with by pupils at both establishments.

As we had such a horrible wet day yesterday I’m giving you a skiddly challenge today – The Water Bucket Challenge.

You will need – one bucket/container filled with water, one empty bucket/container, a plastic cup and a timer.

This can get messy so this challenge is best done outdoors (and it might be even more skiddly fun if it’s done in the rain!)

Place the empty container at one end of the garden or path, and place the container filled with water at the other end.  Start the timer for one minute.  Starting at the end of the garden/path with the filled container, fill up your cup and run to the empty container, pour your water in and then repeat until your minute is up.  How many cups of water can you fill the container with in one minute?  Challenge the rest of your family and see who can empty the most cups into the container in one minute.

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

Judith.govans@east-ayrshire.gov.uk

Please note – ​​​​​​​an article was released in a local newspaper yesterday which stated that all EAC schools and ECCs  were starting back on 18th August 2020 – this is not the case. 

A starting date has still to be confirmed for a return for both pupils and staff.  Further information will follow regarding the start date for the August term.

On behalf of Linda McAulay-Griffiths, Head of Education

Please click on the link below to read a Transition letter for our P7 pupils from Mr McGurn, DHT at Robert Burns Academy.

P7 Transition Letter

Happy Tuesday to you all 🙂

Thank you to all pupils, parents, family and friends who participated in our Health Week and Sports Day last week.  It was wonderful seeing so many photos and videos of your Family Sports Day events – lots of effort had gone into preparing for races and organising equipment and it was brilliant to see.  Thank you.

All staff are gearing up towards getting back into both the school and ECC from next week – we are making plans for when we return in August and will share these with you as soon as they are approved by EAC.  The health and safety of our children is our main priority so we’re taking on board both local and national guidelines to make sure we get it right.

I’m looking forward to our virtual Parent Council meeting which is taking place via Zoom tonight – hearing the views and concerns of our parents/carers is so important at this time so let your Parent Council know if you have any questions.

Today’s challenge is an Estimation Challenge, and it might sound easier than it actually is.  Sit yourself down in the living room of your house and count how many doors there are in your entire house. Easy peasy!  Or is it?? 

Remember that there are external doors, internal doors, cupboard doors, cabinet doors, dolls house doors … the list is endless!  Try to count in your head – make an estimate – and then go around your whole house and count all the doors and see how close your estimate was to the correct answer.  You’ll be amazed how many doors there are in your house!  Challenge the other people in your house to make an estimate too. Let me know who got the closest answer in your household.

On Sunday I was walking up Cairn Table with my family and dogs, and I thought I was doing so well, until two wee rascals skipped past me shouting ‘hiya Mrs Govans!’ and then proceeded to RUN up the rest of the hill.  They were actually starting to come back down the hill before I had even reached the top! Although they made my efforts look pathetic,  it was a real treat to see Ellie and Leighton enjoying themselves with their mum, dad and Bella the dog in the lovely sunshine.

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

Judith.govans@east-ayrshire.gov.uk

East Ayrshire Council have developed a dedicated Wellbeing Website at  https://www.east-ayrshire.gov.uk/SocialCareAndHealth/Wellbeing/Wellbeing.aspx which is filled with advice on mental wellbeing, exercise, healthy eating and new activities to try. It also has a range of supports for those who may be struggling. There is a dedicated section for Children, Young People, Parents and Carers which I hope you will find particularly helpful during these challenging times. We will continue to add to this section therefore it would be helpful if you could email any suggestions to healthandsafety@east-ayrshire.gov.uk together with any feedback on the current content.

Thank you.  Nicola Stewart, Principal Educational Psychologist for East Ayrshire Council

Please click on the links below to read letters from Linda McAulay-Griffiths, Head of Education at East Ayrshire Council

Letter to parents and carers June 2020

Letter to pupils June 2020