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

Good morning and welcome to Health Week Thursday 🙂

It’s been brilliant to read your posts about all the activities you’ve got up to at home during our Health Week – so far we’ve had Mindfulness Monday, Tik Tok Tuesday and Walking Wednesday.  I can’t wait to hear about your adventures over the next two days, and I’m so excited for Sports Day!

Today’s challenge is a singing one.  We sing this all the time at school so make sure you belt it out, especially the whistling at the end 🙂

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73_y1ESHxqI

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

Judith.govans@east-ayrshire.gov.uk

Please click on the links below to read a letter from Head of Campus, Mr Gilchrist, about the uniforms for the Robert Burns Academy pupils and to see graphics of the new blazers and ties. Thank you.  Mrs Govans

P7 letter

The Barony Campus Badges + uniforms

Good morning and Happy Health Week 🙂

Another glorious weekend in the sunshine – and what a great way to start our Health Week.  Staff in both the PS and ECC have great activities planned for you all every day and we look forward to hearing about your health adventures throughout the week.

Today’s challenge is another food one …

Try to think of a fruit or vegetable for every letter of your name. I’ve managed most of my name but I’m stuck on letter V!  Answers would be appreciated!

M – mushrooms

R – radishes

S – strawberries

G – grapes

O – oranges

V – ????

A – apples

N – nectarines

S – spring onion

You can’t use the same fruit or vegetable twice, and if you’ve got a short name try to do your surname too.  During last week’s food tasting challenge we discovered that Eli likes beetroot, and that I like grapefruit but not pineapple 🙁

Wishing you all a brilliant Health Week and looking forward to our Sports Day on Friday 5th June – how I wish we were all together down at Riverside Park cheering on our pupils during their races!

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

Judith.govans@east-ayrshire.gov.uk

Good morning to another glorious Thursday morning 🙂

Your teachers are all loving their phone calls to their pupils that they’ve made so far – they’re so pleased to hear about your lockdown adventures and stories.  If your teacher hasn’t phoned you yet – don’t worry!  They’ll be phoning over the next few days and possibly into next week as they’re blethering so much that the phone calls are taking much longer than anticipated!

Back in April I gave you a Food Tasting Challenge, and I received so many brilliant success stories about foods that you now like that I’m challenging you again – but with a twist.

Today’s Challenge is a Fruit/Vegetable Food Challenge. 

My oldest son has discovered that he now likes strawberries … after years of being offered strawberries and turning his nose up at them, they are now his most favourite food in the world!

There are so many delicious fruits and vegetables in the shops right now that I challenge you to try 3 new food items that you’ve always thought you never liked, or just haven’t tasted before.  Remember to let me know if you find a new favourite fruit or vegetable.  I’m going to try pineapple, grapefruit and courgettes – I’ll let you know how I get on …

Tuesday’s Tower Challenge was a big hit – I’ve received so many brilliant photos of the most creative towers.  Well done to everyone who completed the challenge, including Jayden who was thinking outside the box by using a large laundry basket as his base item!

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

Judith.govans@east-ayrshire.gov.uk

Good morning Tuesday 🙂

I hope you all enjoyed a lovely relaxing long weekend with your family.  I went a HUGE walk with my husband, sons and dogs and my legs are still aching …

Thanks to everyone who took part in the Animal Quiz – I’d love to hear who the winner was in your family.  Kay-Cee was her family’s winner with a brilliant score of 17/20 – great stuff!

I was tidying out my youngest son’s bedroom (AGAIN!) at the weekend and I asked him to tidy up his book shelf.  He proceeded to build a huge tower of books on the floor, and then added other items to the books to see if he could make the tower taller than himself – he did manage and then he had an even bigger mess to tidy up once he knocked the tower of books, Top Trumps cards and PS4 games over!

So today’s challenge is a Construction one – try to build a tower that is taller than yourself BUT you can’t use all the same objects!  For instance, you can’t just build a tower from Lego/Jenga blocks/storage boxes … that would be too easy.  You can only use three of the same items so you’ll need to get VERY creative and think about a wide range of items that you could use to build your tower that will safely stack on top of each other.  The taller you are – the harder the challenge!  I look forward to seeing the photographic evidence that you completed the challenge…

Also, I’ve got a wee surprise for you!  Your teachers are going to be phoning you this week for a chat – they can’t wait to speak to you and hear what you’ve been up to during this time away from school.  I know it’s exciting when someone phones you so you could maybe make a list of all that you’ve been doing so that you’re organised for when your teacher phones you.

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

Judith.govans@east-ayrshire.gov.uk

Well done to everyone who participated in the Animal Quiz – I’ve been sent lots of emails/photos of answers …

Check your answers against the list below and let me know how you got on.  No cheating!!

1. What’s the fastest land animal? CHEETAH
2. What’s the biggest animal in the ocean? A BLUE WHALE
3. What’s the only poisonous snake native to the UK? AN ADDER
4. How many lives is a cat said to have? NINE
5. What do you call a baby kangaroo? A JOEY
6. Do polar bears live in the Arctic or the Antarctic? THE ARCTIC
7. What do you call a group of sheep? A HERD/FLOCK (either is acceptable)
8. How many legs does a spider have? EIGHT
9. Is a koala a real bear? NO, IT’S A MARSUPIAL
10. What’s the tallest animal in the world? A GIRAFFE
11. What kind of animal is Shere Khan in ‘The Jungle Book’? A TIGER
12. What is an alicorn? A WINGED UNICORN
13. How many horns did a triceratops have? THREE
14. What bird, with a distinctive call heard at the start of summer in the UK, is famous for stealing other birds’ nests? A CUCKOO
15. What’s the name of the cat in ‘The Lighthouse Keeper’s Lunch’ book? HAMISH
16. Nala and Simba are what kind of animal? LIONS
17. What type of dog is Marshall from ‘Paw Patrol’? A DALMATION
18. How many brains does an octopus have? NINE
19. What’s the slowest animal in the world? SLOTH
20. A group of which species is known as a Parliament? OWLS

Wishing you all a lovely long weekend with your family 🙂

Mrs Govans x       

Good morning Thursday 🙂 (although I’m cheating a wee bit by posting this on Wednesday night as I’m working in the hub today)

Mrs Schendel and I have enjoyed speaking to lots of parents/carers and pupils this week during our phone calls, and it’s been great to hear how pleased and proud everyone is with your report cards.  We’re looking forward to catching up with everyone else over the next few days.

Today’s challenge is … an Animal Quiz.  When I was a pupil at Catrine PS there used to be an annual interhouse quiz called ‘Top of the Form’ – hands up if you remember it?

There’s 20 animal questions and you can either have one quiz master asking all the questions, or you can split the people in your house into teams and play together.  I’ll post the answers up on Friday afternoon so that you can work out who are the winners. Good luck!

Animal questions

1. What’s the fastest land animal?

2. What’s the biggest animal in the ocean?

3. What’s the only poisonous snake native to the UK?

4. How many lives is a cat said to have?

5. What do you call a baby kangaroo?

6. Do polar bears live in the Arctic or the Antarctic?

7. What do you call a group of sheep?

8. How many legs does a spider have?

9. Is a koala a real bear?

10. What’s the tallest animal in the world?

11. What kind of animal is Shere Khan in ‘The Jungle Book’?

12. What is an alicorn?

13. How many horns did a triceratops have?

14. What bird, with a distinctive call heard at the start of summer in the UK, is famous for stealing other birds’ nests?

15. What’s the name of the cat in ‘The Lighthouse Keeper’s Lunch’ book?

16. Nala and Simba are what kind of animal?

17. What type of dog is Marshall from ‘Paw Patrol’?

18. How many brains does an octopus have?

19. What’s the slowest animal in the world?

20. A group of which species is known as a Parliament?

Last week I set a Wheely Good challenge, and Sophie and Connor aced it by building the best wee bogie in Ayrshire! Their mum sent me great photos of them sawing, hammering and drilling bits and pieces together to create their masterpiece – take at look at their hard work.

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

Judith.govans@east-ayrshire.gov.uk

Good morning, and welcome to another week of home learning.

I’ve received some lovely emails from parents/carers/pupils stating how proud they are of their school report – it’s always nice to hear from our families.  I hope you liked the wee hug too 🙂

Today’s challenge is another singing one. 

With the recent change in the weather (where has the sunshine gone?!) I’m finding it a wee bit harder to get out of bed in the morning so this song is going to kickstart my day.  We sing this song at assembly on Monday mornings to get our week started, so I hope you feel energised and wide awake after singing it today.  We do have some actions for the song and it would be great if you could make up your own at home too.

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

Judith.govans@east-ayrshire.gov.uk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5idAk316hpY