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

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