P5E made a super effort with their topic homework this term and brought in a variety of work that showed their knowledge of Knights and Castles. Thank you to anyone at home who helped and it would seem the children enjoyed the experience. More pictures will be added if any pupils have yet to bring in their work.
WOW!
What creative children, mums and dads we have. Some of the models and presentations were fab-u-lous!
Thank you to all the children who did the challenge and well done to the winner Sammie Miller for her stupendous castle and the 3 runners up – chosen by Mr Mcleod. 
Primary 5B visited Dundonald Castle on a wet and windy day, nevertheless that did not stop the fun. Children got the opportunity to dress up as knights and princesses in a day which consisted of visiting the dungeons filled with creepy-crawlies, dressing up as Vikings, taking part in some falconry with an owl and also learning about knights equipment.
There were a few tired faces at the end of the day – the steep hill leading up to the castle must have tired the children out! Despite the weather all children had a great time.
Thank you to the parent helpers who came along, we hope you had fun too!
Thank you to all parents who were able to attend last night. It was nice having the opportunity to put faces to names and to discuss the progress of pupils. Although it was a busy event with short appointment times, I enjoyed learning more about each child and discussing ways to help them get the most out of their time in P5i.
If you were unable to attend I am more than happy to arrange an appointment for another day. Please phone the office to arrange a suitable time to meet after school. I am available most days until 5:00.
Mrs Irving
Parents, are you stuck helping the kids with their homework?
Fear no more because help is on hand. Just ask your child! They know what they have to do and they know how to do it.
Over the past few weeks we have been learning about phonemes, digraphs and diacritical marking. Diacritical what? you may ask.
Well, here are photos to show your little treasures in action as they use diacritical marking during active spelling today – and haven’t they done well.
Why not ask them to tell you about it and then have a go yourself. Like the kids, you’re sure to enjoy it.
And thankfully this afternoon the rain stopped long enough for us to go for a quick jog around the playground. As you can see, it fair livened them up! 
We look forward to welcoming parents to school later today.
Please take time to visit our dinner hall and taste what’s on offer. We would like to increase the number of children in P1, 2 and 3 eating a free school meal.
Attendance
We are looking to improve attendance rates and reduce the number of children coming in late to school. If there is an issue our management team would like to work with you to make things better for your child. Please speak to us after your appointment.
Parental Questionnaire
Please complete the online questionnaire which relates to aspects of our improvement plan and how you can be involved in school.
Thank you to Tiegan P4 who nominated Onthank for West Sound School of the Week next week. Please listen to the radio in the morning before school and every day around 3.30pm this week. Some pupils were interviewed and asked about their favourite things.
Just a wee reminder for all those in P5B, tomorrow – Tuesday 9th October is our class trip to Dundonald Castle. As discussed in class today, pupils should bring a packed lunch with them, a waterproof jacket and wrap up warm as according to the weather forecast it doesn’t look like the sun will be shining for us! Children can also bring up to £5 maximum with them to spend at the gift shop although this is at parents discrepancy what you wish to give your child.
Come along and see the range of uniforms we have available for you to take away on Parents’ Day.
No charge – come and have a look and see what is on offer!
We celebrated World Porridge Day by offering everyone a taste of porridge. We watched a film from Mary’s Meals about children in Malawi who don’t have a choice of menu at meal times. Thank you to everyone who brought in “ loose change” to Mary’s Meals.?
Primary 4F did a fantastic job building sky-scrapers for our America Topic. We really have built a city for our classroom.
Primary 1
Spencer Reed, Lucy Carten, Aiden Russell, Alfie McLauchlan, Elise O’Donnell
Primary 2
Connie McIlvanney, Robert Campbell, Lola James, Zoe McCracken
Primary 3
Lauren Stewart, Kaylah Boyd, Reece Hamilton, Jaxon Hopkins
Primary 4
Brooke Morgan, Keir Parsons, Mitchell Birtles
Primary 5
Logan Wallace, Emma Gillies, Dylan Torrance, Sammie Miller, Lewis Morren
Primary 6
Carly Inglis, Emily Tosh, Zara Lochhead
Primary 7
Alix Hartley, Jack Murphy, Kenzy Murphy, Lewis Mitchell
Special Award
Tegan McMurray P4E
Another reminder of our Harvest Assembly tomorrow.
See the link below for details:
P6K had a fabulous time at Pierburg, Dumfries House.
We spent the day learning about plants and vegetables with Michelle and Trudy. We were lucky enough to harvest our own vegetables from the garden, make some delicious soup and plant some Chard.
Thank you to everyone who took part in today’s Danceathon. Thank you for your donations( we haven’t counted them yet). We will let you know how much we raised. ??
Congratulations to Mrs Jones who attended the Cream of Ayrshire Awards Ceremony. She was runner up in her section. Well done Mrs Jones – you are a winner to us. Thank you Emma for nominating this wonderful lady.??
Today P6A headed to Dumfries House to visit Valentin Farm. The children had a great day and learned lots along away. Highlights from today were ‘milking’ a cow, feeding the animals and holding chicks.
Thanks to our parent helpers for their fantastic assistance today!
My Lord, Ladies and Gentlemen, we the courtiers of P5i beseech your attention for the squires and ladies of P5i who, with your consent, attended a gathering of Royalty and aristocracy at Dundonald Castle. Your perusal of the evidence herewith would be much appreciated as it highlights the enjoyment, co-operation and participation of your own loyal subjects.
An honourable mention goes to Emily Walker’s mum and Mrs Irving’s husband for their allegiance to the cause.
P3 have been enjoying being palaeontologists! We made some exciting discoveries.
We had to be very patient when we were removing fossils from a “chocolate chip” rock!
Don’t forget to come to school dressed in
sporty clothes (no football colours) on Friday to take part in the ‘Onthank Danceathon’ and help to raise lots of money for the STV Children’s Appeal.
We would love if parents and carers could join us too. Please see times below:
P1-P2 9.30am – 9.50am
P3- P4 10am – 10.20am
P5,P6 and P7 11am – 11.20am
Today as part of our Dyslexia Friendly Schools journey, the whole school was involved in NO PENS DAY WEDNESDAY. This is a national speaking and listening event which encourages exciting classroom discussion. Check out the blog for class photos.
How did we cope without pens today? Well going by the enthusiastic response of the pupils, very well actually.
With the help of snap cards, jigsaws, dominoes, division cards, general knowledge quiz, literacy criterion, problem solving, critical thinking, and teamwork, learning for pleasure was the order of the day. And not a pencil to be seen. All children participated fully in all aspects of their learning today – and had fun. We even had a visit from the SSPCA to round off our day.
PARENT’S EVENING appointments have been allocated and children should have a note of times in their school bags. Thanks to those who have responded and I look forward to meeting you all next Tuesday. There are still a few slots available between 4:30 and 5:50 if you haven’t been in touch yet.
DUNDONALD CASTLE. A super day is in store for all tomorrow. It is a fun packed day where children will dress up, act out and discover what life was like in medieval times. As we will be outdoors, children should wear rain jackets and school uniforms. Trainers are ideal for walking around the castle and grounds.
I hope you like the photos that helped capture how busy we all were today.
P4F enjoyed locking the pens and pencils away today and attacking some spelling with our active resources.
Primary 6A have had a very productive day during their No Pens Wednesday. The class worked hard and participated fully in talking and listening activities, maths using laptops, drama work portraying John Muir’s life and nature art work where the children studied the leaves, colours, textures to create a new picture.
Joe commented, ‘ Today I liked the fact that we could just put our pencils down and get up instead and be more active in our learning. My favourite bit was using my imagination to create my leaf ladybug.’
Phoebe explained, ‘Sometimes today I wanted to write things down but instead I had to talk and explain myself.’
We are happy doing active maths in P4M for No Pens Day Wednesday !
It is time to offer you the opportunity to meet class teachers to discuss your child’s progress with learning. We are keen to provide more choice to ensure this is a worthwhile meeting for all, as we recognise the importance working together has on children and their attitude to learning. Appointments will be available on Tuesday 9 October from 3.10 pm. Please indicate below if you wish an appointment.
After helping the Scottish Sun to launch their new Free Books for Schools campaign, we will be collecting book tokens from the paper.
Between September 24th and November 18th, the Scottish Sun and Scottish Sun on Sunday will be printing book tokens each day. Pupils can hand these tokens into the school office or to their class teacher. The more tokens we get, the more books we receive!
All P3 pupils have been participating in ‘Growth Mindset’ challenges. Pupils showed great determination as they tackled five different challenges which can often be difficult or frustrating.
P5 pupils assisted at the ‘tying shoelaces’ challenge and many P3 pupils were successful.
Some groups managed to build very tall towers with plastic cups! We needed to have steady hands!
‘Beat the Buzzer’ was really tricky but we had lots of fun and plenty of laughs.
We tried drawing pictures and writing with our opposite hand. Some people discovered that they can do this very well and others decided that they would need to keep trying to get better at it.
We had fun playing ‘Jenga’. Again, we had to concentrate and take our time so that we were successful.
We now know that having a ‘Growth Mindset’ makes learning more fun!
When we learn something new we are happy, motivated and determined.
Katie and Erin were so happy to now be able to tie their shoe laces. They made a new ‘pathway’ and they can now help others!
We received a visit from SSPCA Officer who showed us a film and gave us lots of information about what SSPCA do to help some animals. We were told what to do if we found an animal or a bird needing help.
