Onthank Primary School

East Ayrshire Council site

Message from the Headteacher

Staffing Information – December 2018

As we come to the end of a very busy and festive term our Senior Leadership team would like to give you a staffing update for the New Year.

This term we have recruited three Principal Teachers to permanent positions.  Mrs Klein and Mr Boyd were already working in the school as acting Principal Teachers and Mr McNichol joined our school in November from Shortlees Primary.  

As indicated at the beginning of the school session we have

 

Early Years (P1 and P2 – Early level) –  Mrs Wright

Middle School (P3 and P4 – predominantly children working towards First level) Mr McIlwraith

Upper School (P5, P6, P7 – predominantly children working towards Second level) – Mrs Findlay

 

‘Project Onthank’ is the name we have given to an initiative to support children in smaller group settings.  As a school we are adopting nurture principals and have welcomed staff from East Ayrshire Support Team to work with us in implementing this project.  Staff are located in the old Gaelic Nursery and include:

Helen Cowen (Class Teacher), Laura Wilson (Class Teacher) and Kris Wales (Classroom Assistant). 

We are delighted to inform you that Steven Swan has been appointed to Onthank Primary in the role of Home Link Worker.

In the New Year we look forward to welcoming back Mrs Newall from maternity leave. 

Today we heard that Miss Black and Miss White have been successful in gaining permanent positions within the local authority at Ochiltree and Darvel.  We wish them all the very best in their future careers and know that they will keep in contact with Onthank.     

Staff returning to school for a variety of reasons including maternity leave, staff promoted to Principal teacher posts and EAST staff working within the school  may mean a change to class teachers in the new session.  We have been working hard to ensure smooth transitions and continue to support all classes with team teaching.

P1A     Miss Adam

P1C     Mrs Cree

P1M    Mrs McKie

P1W    Miss McGregor / Mrs Wright

Early Learning and Childcare Practitioners – Yvonne Anderson, Carrie McIntyre

 

P2H     Miss Hamilton

P2K     Mrs Kidd

P2S     Mrs Saxelby

P2ST   Mrs Strain / Miss Cook

Mrs Bell will continue to support children in Primary 2.

 

P3C     Mrs Carten (M,T,Th,F)   Mrs Nelson (W)

P3K     Mrs Kilpatrick

P3S     Mrs Smith

P3W   Mrs Williams

 

P4E     Mrs Easter

P4F     Mr Franchi

P4M    Mrs McCall

 

P5B     Miss Dasgupta (M, T, W am) Mrs Newall (W pm, Th, F)

P5C     Mr MacLeod (M,T,W,F) Miss Cook (Th)

P5E     Miss Ellis

P5I      Mrs Irving (M, T, W, T)  TBC/ (F)

 

P6A     Miss Anderson

P6K     Mrs Klein

P6M    Mrs Merrick

 

P7B     Mr Boyd (M, T,W)  Mr McNichol (Th, F)

P7M    Mr McNichol (M, T) Mrs Mills (W, TH, F)

P7S     Mr Simpson

 

Mrs Nelson will be team teaching or covering Non- Contact time.

Mrs Bell will also be team teaching and supporting groups in her Additional Supports Needs role.

The Leadership team plan to be working more within classes.  Feedback from pupils and parents indicate that we should look to change the format of assemblies. It is our intention for children to be working more with their buddy classes.  This will allow us to put a larger emphasis on literacy, numeracy and health and wellbeing. 

We look forward to 2019.  As always we are available for any parent before and after school to answer any queries.  This list is accurate as we post to you but as you will understand can be subject to change. 

Onthank Leadership Team.

A Christmas message from all of us!

https://blogs.glowscotland.org.uk/ea/onthankpsmain2018/category/uncategorised/

August 2018
Dear Parent / Carer,

What a great and busy week at school.  It was lovely to welcome everyone, especially our new pupils. Thanks to those who have returned permissions, please complete and return forms as soon as possible.  Mrs Andrews texted all parents and carers to ensure we have a current email address.  As our school works towards the Digital Schools award it is important we all work on our digital skills.

Follow our school blog to find out what has been happening in school and add a link to your home page to keep up-to-date with all school events, communications and news.

June 2018

Dear Parent / Carer,

As we approach the end of term we wanted to give a staffing update and you the opportunity to contact us and discuss any issues.  As indicated on the summer calendar we have planned the moving up day for Tuesday 19th June.  Next year we anticipate classes will move forward together however we are aware of a few children who for various reasons wish to make changes.

As always we have an open door policy and parents can speak to us at our weekly Wednesday morning drop ins just after 9.  There will be further opportunities to meet individually with the Senior Leadership Team before the Parent Council meeting on Monday 18th June.  Please call the school office if you wish an appointment.

Onthank Senior Leadership Team.  From left  to right – Mr McIlwraith, Mrs Wright and Mrs Findlay

Next session our plan is to work in a slightly different way, we intend to divide the school and as a management team be more involved in the day to day teaching,  This will give parents a named person  to contact.

Early Years (P1 and P2  – Early level)  –  Mrs Wright

Middle School (P3 and P4 – predominantly children working towards First level) – Mr McIlwraith

Upper School (P5, P6, P7 – predominantly children working towards Second level) – Mrs Findlay

Plans are in place to recruit three Principal teachers to permanent positions.  This may mean a change to class teachers in the new session.  Further information will be given to parents at the Parent Council meeting on Monday evening.

Parent Council meeting is on Monday 18th June at 7pm

This final Parent Council meeting is to say thank you and goodbye to parents who have supported the school for many, many years.  Jackie O’Neil, Stuart Littlejohn and Scott Thomson all have children moving to the new Kilmarnock Academy.  Scott has been in our Parent Council for 12 years and a very supportive chair person who has brought great value to all at Onthank Primary. 

As parents leave our Parent Council it would be wonderful if we have representation from every year group.  We are looking to welcome new faces and please come and join us on Monday night.  60 is the Onthank’s magic number.  As we have all enjoyed celebrating Mrs Findlay,  Mrs Nimmo and Mrs Mylrea’s 60th birthdays we look forward to the school turning 60.  Please consider taking 60 minutes to come to our Parent Council meeting.

Your Sincerely,

 Alison Wright

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