We would like to welcome Mrs McDowall to our clerical team in the school office.

Mrs McDowall will be with us on a Wednesday, Thursday and Friday for the foreseeable future.

Gargieston PS & ECC is open as normal today.

Please dress for the weather, take care on your commute to school and don’t worry if you are running a little bit late.

We will bring all children in at 8.50am.

Congratulations to Dominic and Arran who represented Gargieston at a schools badminton competition at the weekend.  Both boys played very well and enjoyed the competition.  Well done!

Our digital leaders group have been busy assisting with ICT across the school.

They have also taken time to make this short video giving you instructions on how to access Glow using your childs Glow log in.

It is fantastic to see so many of our children supporting us in our local Tesco stores by putting their blue tokens into our voting box.

Please remember that voting continues until the end of February and we could be awarded up to £4000 for our Trim Trail and outdoor play equipment.

Provisional plans for the Trim Trail will be shared with the children at assembly on Monday.  We are delighted with our bespoke design which includes equipment suitable for our youngest children in the ECC as well as some challenging pieces of equipment for our oldest children (and staff!!)

Please keep supporting Gargieston PS & ECC and encourage your friends and family to support us by putting their blue tokens in our voting box.

These children had a fabulous time this morning meeting Bex from West FM and being interviewed for School of the Week.

Listen out for our Gargieston stars on the Breakfast show at 8.35am and the Home Run at 3.40pm every day next week!

Please be aware that the freezing temperatures overnight and this morning have left the back playground extremely slippy.

Mr Nisbet is currently salting pathways around the school and we will bring all children in at 8.50am.

Please take extra care when making your way to and from school with your children.

In November, we asked 3 ‘big questions’ in order to gather your views to inform our new vision and set of values for Gargieston PS & ECC.

Your feedback to these questions has been collated and there were many common themes in your responses.  We would now like to ask for your support in responding to this brief survey to identify what you think our school values should be.

The link below will direct you straight to the survey – there will be no request for email addresses or passwords.  You will be asked to select the 5 values which you think are most important from a list containing key words from your responses to the ‘big questions’.  The survey will take you less than a minute to complete.

With over 300 families across our ECC and school, your responses to this survey will form a large part of our consultation process and the creation of our updated school vision and values.

Thank you very much to the 50 families who have responded to our survey so far.  We look forward to receiving more responses over the weekend 🙂

The next meeting of the Gargieston Fundraising Group will be held upstairs at the oval table in The Park Hotel, Dundonald Road, Kilmarnock on Sunday 20th January at 7.30pm. It would be great to see new faces there. All are welcome.

The next Parent Council meeting will be held in the school meeting room on Monday 21st January at 7pm. Anyone that wishes to come along for the first time will be given a warm welcome.

You are reminded that you do not have to be a member of the GFG or parent council to attend either meeting.

Thank You

Thank you to everyone who attended the parent workshop last night.  Pauline’s presentation about the loss of her beautiful 13 year old daughter was emotional as well as informative.  I know we were all filled with admiration about the work Pauline and her charity carries out in memory of Jenna to promote positive feelings of self-worth in young people.

In reflecting on the presentation, there were 3 key points that stood out for me, both as a Mum and as a Head Teacher:

1. Talk to your children and listen to them – spend time together, ask them questions but most of all, put the screens off and really listen to what they are saying.
2.  Encourage a growth mindset – don’t underestimate the power of the word ‘yet’!
3. Be kind – to each other and to ourselves.  A smile, a kind word or a kind thought for someone can have such a positive impact on their day 🙂