Our School Values

Before the Summer our School Values were revised taking the feedback from pupils, staff and families to suggest the values that reflect our school.   We wrote to you all to let you know that we had agreed on the following:

Harmony –      We have a peaceful school environment and value the natural world in which we live.

Equity –           We ensure that each learner and their family have what they need and recognise that this is not always the same for each individual.

Ambition –      We set high expectations for ourselves and plan our next steps.

Respect –        We respect each other and ourselves.

This is our Faith –    Our Faith influences all we do.   (This is Our Faith is the name of our RE curriculum)

We asked our children to design icons to represent each of the values.  We are proudly displaying our School Values with the winning designs in our school entrance.

Well Done and thank you to Ezra, Tyler, Roza, Finlay and Alyssa.

Golden Book

Well Done to the following children for their nominations in the Golden Book.  We are so proud of you!

Bonnie, Theia, Ollie, George, Autumn, Logan, Ella, Kioni, Juliette, Niamh, Lillie, Eternity, Eva, Allyssa, and Sofia

Transition

Our P7/S1 transition programme is already underway.  This week P7 were visited by Miss Cathie from St. Joseph’s who gave an introductory presentation to P7.  Next week P7 will make their first visit of this session to St. Joseph’s.

Diary Dates

Here are some upcoming events in our school. There are still dates to be confirmed for other events between now and Christmas.  We will add all dates to the school app to make it easy to access.    Any further information about events will be sent out to parents/carers nearer the time.

Tuesday 6th September – P6 Rugby Training with Cumnock Rugby Club

Thursday 8th September – P7 to St. Joseph’s Academy

Tuesday 13th September – EA Climate Conference (2 pupils & 1 Member of staff), P6 Rugby Training with Cumnock Rugby Club

Wednesday 14th September – Special Visit from Fossilfield Ex-Racehorses

Friday 16th & Monday 19th September – Local Holidays

Tuesday 27th September – Diocesan Day at Carfin (6 pupils & 1 member of staff)

W/B 4th October – Parent/teacher meetings (TBC)

Thursday 13th October – Sports for Champions Visit

Monday 17th – Friday 21st October – Holiday

Monday 24th October – In-service Day

Tuesday 1st November – All Saints Mass

Thursday 10th November – P7 to SJA

Wednesday 16th November – Day of Dance (P6 & Possibly P7 & P4/5)

Monday 21st November – Flu Immunisations

Tuesday 6th December – Reindeer Run

Thursday 8th December – P7 to SJA

Friday 9th December – Christmas Jumper Day/Christmas Lunch

Wednesday 14th December – P1 & P2/3 Christmas Party

Friday 16th December – P3/4 & P4/5 Christmas Party

Monday 19th December – P6 & P7 Christmas Party

Tuesday 20th December – A special Visitor

Friday 23rd December – Close at 2.30pm

Loose Parts Play

Please click on the link for further information about this and how you can help us.

loose parts play

 

We wish you all a great weekend.

Friday 26th August 2022

Starting off this blog with a huge well done to all our amazing children, staff and families for a successful first full week.   We know there will be  a lot of tired wee people out there tonight. (And that’s just the staff!)

Last week 17 fabulous P1 pupils joined our St. Patrick’s Family.   We are delighted to have them in our school.  They have settled so well and are building many positive relationships with everyone across our school.  P6 buddies are doing a  great of supporting them.

We have also been joined by Mrs McCabe in P2/3.  On Thursday 1st September, our new classroom assistant, Miss Graham, will join us too.

We celebrated our first week back with a theatre production of The Jungle Book this afternoon.  We all loved it and the theatre company commended our amazing pupils for being a great audience.  We are so proud of every single one of them!

Breakfast Club

Our Breakfast club has restarted.  It is so good to see our children enjoying the company of each other over breakfast and during the social time available.  There are still some spaces left.  Breakfast club runs from 8.15am – 8.45am.  It costs £1 per pupil, those entitled to means tested free school meals do not pay.  This cost covers the food options; cereal, toast, yogurt/fruit and milk/water.   All staff costs are met by the school through Pupil Equity Funding.   If you would like your child to attend, all or some, of the time please contact Mrs Reid in the office.

Items from home

Please note that children should not bring in toys from home.  We find that these can get lost or broken which causes a lot of unnecessary upset.  Pupils do not require lots of stationery, we have everything in school that pupils need for learning.    When there is a requirement for support from home, class teachers will send out communication for this.  Thank You.

PE Days

Communication about PE days for each class was sent out via the school app earlier in the week.  Please get in touch if you require PE kit for your child.    We expect that all pupils join PE – it is part of our curriculum and is essential in ensuring healthy development.   No jewellery can be worn for PE and we ask that earrings are taking out prior to coming to school.   We want all of our children to experience the benefits of a healthy and active lifestyle.

Fruit

All pupils will have access to free fruit for snack times beginning from Monday 29th August.  Please support us by talking to your child about this and encouraging them to try different fruits.

P7 Transition

Our Transition programme with St. Joseph’s Academy is very full this year.  We are delighted that events will take place throughout the year.  P7 parents already attended an information session at St. Joseph’s this week and next week we will be joined by Miss Cathie, here in St. Patrick’s, to talk to our P7s.   Visits to St. Joseph’s will begin on September 8th.   P7 pupils also have the opportunity to attend a residential experience at Lockerbie Manor with our friends from some of the other primary schools in the St.  Joseph’s Education Group.   We are delighted that so many are intending on going – we know that in the current climate, financing this experience may be a barrier.  Please contact us if the only barrier to attending is financial.  We know there are lots of reasons as to why some children do not want to attend but we are here to support you if we can.

School Uniform

We have had 100% of pupils in school uniform since we returned.  This is great.  Please remember that we do have preloved uniform items should you need them as the year goes on.    We discourage leggings as part of school uniform, although they can be brought in as a change for PE.   Please ensure ALL items are labelled.  Already our lost property is mounting up.  We have some age 5-6 and 7-8 sweatshirts that have not been claimed.  If your child’s name is on it, we can return quickly.

Data Checks and EV5 forms

Please return all forms as soon as possible.   Thank you to all of you that have returned these already.    It is so important that we hold up to date information for you child.

Absence and Late Coming

In line with safeguarding measures, all absences and late coming are recorded.  Please ensure you contact the school office to report a child’s absence.   Family holidays and appointments should be given in writing, in advance.   Please report unplanned absences by 9.10am.  You can call before this and leave a message on the answer machine.

School Playground

If you are coming to collect your child from the school playground, we ask that you do not come earlier than 2.50pm.  Our classes use the outdoor spaces for learning activities throughout the school day.  If you are earlier than this we ask that you wait out side the main gate or wait in the space before the upper school playground.

When collecting children, please discourage them from walking along the wall to the main entrance, from climbing the fences and swinging on the handrail.  Thank You.

Golden Book 

Assemblies resumed on Wednesday and we had our first Golden Book Nominees of the session.  Well done to;

All of P1 for settling in so beautifully, Nicholas, Aylsa, Elliot, Aanya-Lillie, April, Rhian, Mason, Kendall K, Aqeel, Reilley, Ada and Mya!

 

August Birthday Shout Outs!

Happy Birthday to all those that had a birthday this Month.

Tristan, Kendall K, Caleb, Jacob, Lewis, Derri, Amber, Nicholas, Leo

 

We hope you all have a fantastic weekend and we look forward to seeing everyone again on Monday.   Look out next week for information about our loose parts play plans for the playground and some dates for your diary for the coming term.

It is hard to believe that we have come to the end of another school session.  Thankfully, this one has not included whole school closures, however, we know so many of you continue to be affected by Covid 19.  We wish all of you who are still experiencing the effects,  strength and courage to overcome any difficulties the pandemic has caused.

It is difficult to avoid the news of the current cost of living increases too.  We know so many of our families are affected by this. Please be assured that we will continue to do everything we possibly can to minimise costs associated with the school day.   Our breakfast club will start again on Monday 22nd August.  There is no cost  for pupils in receipt of free school meals.

As is always the case at this time of year, we have goodbyes to say.   Miss Walley, Miss Walker and Mr Myers will be finishing with us today.  Miss Dean and Mrs Hay finished a little earlier this session.  We have also been supported this session by Mrs Gilhooley, Mrs  Cunningham, Miss Smith, Mrs Millar and of course, Miss Rooney.  We are so grateful for the part all of them have played in making St. Patrick’s the amazing school community it is!  They will be sadly missed and will always be welcome in our school – they are very much part of the St. Patrick’s family.

Our children continue to amaze us every single day.   We are so proud of each and every one of them and it is such a privilege to be part of their development.  As we begin our summer holidays we pay special attention to the journey of our P7 pupils.  They have been such an amazing P7 year group.  We can not wait to hear all about the fantastic  things they will continue to achieve as they move on to S1 and beyond.

There are so many people to thank for their continued professionalism and commitment in supporting our children.  Without the support of Mrs Reid, Mrs Goudie and Mrs Fleming the school would just not operate as smoothly as it does. THANK YOU! Thank you  so much for continuing to go way above and beyond!

To Shirley, Amanda, Pauline and Marlene in our school kitchen – THANK YOU! We have the best lunches in East Ayrshire!

To Miss Thomson, Nicola Pennycook, Mr Sullivan, Mrs Wright, Mr Devlin and all those that support us from wider EA services – THANK YOU!

To Fr Phillip, THANK YOU for continued spiritual guidance and support.

To our amazing bus/taxi drivers, THANK YOU for looking after our children and being such an important part of their school day.

To all our amazing teachers – THANK YOU! Thank you for everything you do!

And of course, THANK YOU to you! Thank you for your continued support.

School Re-opens on Thursday 18th August at 9am for pupils.  New P1 pupils start at 10am.  We ask that all pupils continue wearing school uniform – grey/black skirt, trousers, skirts or pinafores with our gold polo shirts and bottle green sweatshirts, tartan skirts and pinafores are also allowed.  We ask that leggings are not worn as part of school uniform.   Remember that applications are now open for school clothing grants.  Pupils should also bring a PE kit to school – this can be kept in school or carried back and forward in school bags.

On behalf of our whole school  family I wish you and your children the most amazing summer together and look forward to seeing you all in August 2022! P7  – we will all be thinking of you as you start the next chapter!

Mrs Bradley

Welcome to another update of some of the learning and events happening in school.

SCIAF Visit

Today we were joined by Siobhan Wright, Community Engagement Officer, SCIAF.  Siobhan joined assembly to tell out us how the money we raised during Lent 2022 would be used to help Malawian Farmers.   Siobhan could tell us that over the last 5 years our school has raised a massive £8000 to support the work of SCIAF.  Thank you so much. 

New Resources

We are continually looking at ways to improve and enhance the learning experiences of our children.  We recently took receipt of Sphero Bolts.  A Sphero is a robotic ball that allows children to develop their coding and programming skills.   P4 – P7s have had great fun ‘tinkering’ with the spheros and the coding programmes to discover the potential of these.  We look forward to using these to develop progressive learning in coding and computing science.

Tennis & Football

P4/5, P5/6 and P6/7 have started a block of learning in tennis in partnership with Coylton Tennis Club.  This will continue weekly until the 7th June.

Coaches from KCST will work with P4/5 pupils for four weeks starting Friday 20th.  They will also provide some coaching for boys P4-P7 selected to represent St. Patrick’s in a football festival.

PE Kit

There continues to be a number of children who are not bringing PE kit to school and are missing out.  All children are legally entitled to take part in 2 hours of physical education per week.  Please ensure your child has PE kit with them.  This can be shorts or longer length leggings and a change of t-shirt  (Leggings should be brought to school in school bags – they are not part of school uniform).

The PE days for each class are listed below;

P1 – Monday and Wednesday

P2 – Monday and Thursday

P3 – Wednesday and Friday

P4/5 – Tuesday and Friday

P5/6 – Tuesday and Thursday

P6/7 – Tuesday and Thursday

STEM Leaders Awards

Well done to P4/5 who, this week received certificates for their entries into a nationwide competition.  All pupils were awarded certificates, a special shout out goes to Katie, Noah, Juliette, Mya, Jacob and Kendall for receiving a Merit award and to Roza and Eva who were awarded a Distinction.  Well done to all of you and Mrs Dumigan.

Walk to School Week

Next week is walk to school week.  Remember that we are encouraging children, where possible, to walk to school, or park a bit further away and walk the rest.

Mellow Monday – wearing comfy clothes (please wear a school sweatshirt)
Trainer Tuesday
Wild Hair Wednesday
Thrilling Thursday – an item of silly clothing or accessories
Funky Friday – wearing cool/bright clothing

Alternatively, you can choose to do one of these or combine the themes.

Monday – Team Up – Walk to school with a friend(s)
Tuesday – Defeat Danger – Wear hi-vis to school
Wednesday – Boost Health – Take a longer route to school (with parent / carer permission)
Thursday – Save The Planet – Pick up some rubbish on the way to school (gloves to be provided)
Friday – Lead The Way – Combine all 4 of the previous days themes

Sports Day

This event has been changed to Tuesday 14th June 2022.

Road Safety

Thank you so much to all of you that found alternative stopping places when collecting children at 3pm – it is very much appreciated.  We have had meetings with representatives from health and safety this week and moving forward we will be discussing opportunities for safer routes with Ayrshire Road Alliance.

Please ensure that anyone picking up your child, including childminders, is aware that there is no access to our school carpark.  Thank you.

SWEIC Consultation

Four of our Primary 7 pupils will this week get the chance to share their views and opinions about Scottish Education and help influence the future of Education in the South West of Scotland.  This is a great opportunity for our children to speak up and be counted!

Wider Achievements

A huge shout out to Tyla, P7.  Tyla recently had her long hair cut into a very glamourous bob and donated her hair to the Little Princess Trust! Amazing!

Well done to Archie, P7! Archie was selected to represent East Ayrshire in a district football tournament.  East Ayrshire came an amazing 2nd place, just beaten by Glasgow City.  Well done!

Finlay, P7 has been selected to be a mascot at the Auchinleck Talbot Cup final game on 4th June!  We know that he will bring lots of luck to the team!

Transitions

We were delighted to welcome some of our new P1s for August 2022 this week.  Thank you to everyone that made their visit such a success.  P5s will be buddies to our new P1s and will get to meet them over the coming weeks as we welcome more new pupils and then have them visit altogether.

Parents/Carers of P7 pupils should all have received letters from their secondary school outlining the dates for further visits.  Pupils going to St. Joseph’s Academy will visit on 7th and 8th of June.  Staff from St. Joseph’s will visit our school on 25th May.  Pupils going to Robert Burns Academy will visit on the 21st and 22nd June.

Please keep our P4 children who are receiving the sacrament of First Holy Communion in your prayers.  This will be celebrated in Our Lady of Lourdes and St Patrick’s Parish tomorrow and in St. John’s next Saturday.

Thank you for your continued support.  Have a great weekend!

From all the staff.

It is hard to believe that we have reached the end of another busy term and that when we return we will find ourselves in the final one of this school session.

It has been an exceptionally busy term as we found ourselves being able to come together as a whole school for the first time in 2 years and our children were able to, once again, make visits off site.

Here is a reminder of some of the amazing things that happened in our school between January – March.

January

All classes experienced learning through the context of Scotland, it’s language, culture and history.   This ended with a fantastic celebration of Scots language with our Annual Poetry and Song competition.   We were joined by Mr Sullivan, from the East Ayrshire Instrumental Service, who had the very difficult job of judging.  The standard was so high.  Once again, we congratulate all our children for their efforts and performances and a huge well done to all the finalists.  If you missed it the first time round,  here is a little show reel of the event. Click Here 

The Scottish Government expansion of free school meals means that all pupils from P1 – P5 can now enjoy free school lunch provision.  This will be expanded further to include P6 & P7 in the future.

School enrolment took place for children aged to start primary school in August 2022.  We are delighted that we have 17 confirmed enrolments at the moment.  We cannot wait to welcome these children and their families into the St. Patrick’s family  through our transition programme very soon.

At the other end of the school, P7 children enrolled for the transition to S1.  We have learners moving on to St. Joseph‘s Academy and Robert Burns Academy.

Mrs Sinclair took up her new post as Depute Head Teacher.  We were delighted to be joined again by Mrs Gilhooley and Mrs Cunningham on a temporary basis.  Miss Walker was successful in being appointed to a temporary class teacher position and will be with us full time until June.

February

Our school participated in Number Day 2022.  This day was spent thinking about all things maths and number related while raising money for NSPCC.

We sent information out to parents/Carers about Safer Internet Day and Children’s Mental Health week.  These are topics that we continue to discuss in school.  We would encourage you to get in touch with us should you require information about these issues  at anytime.

Eight of our primary 4 pupils received the Sacrament of Confirmation alongside children from across our Deanery at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church, Kilmarnock.

In response to the Humanitarian crisis caused by war in Ukraine, we collected items to support refugees who have fled to Poland.  These items were safely transported to Poland by Mossgiel farm.

Our ragbag collection in school helped raise vital funds for our school.

P5/6 pupils graduated as Health and Well-being Ambassadors after completing a block of training in partnership with East Ayrshire Health and Well-being Team.

A refurbishment programme is underway and our P4/5 classroom and staffroom have had a makeover.  We look forward to the ongoing programme enhancing our learning environment in the coming weeks and months.

March

Our first whole school gathering for 2 years took place on Ash Wednesday.  Huge thanks to Fr Phillip, for ensuring this was a truly spiritual and special occasion.

All classes participated in events for world book day.  Staff had the opportunity to visit other classes and share the enjoyment of reading and talk about their own  favourite stories.  Mrs Bradley shared a special video message with one of her favourite books with all classes.  You can view it here.

We were joined by student teachers from the University of the West of Scotland.  This is a great opportunity for the students, our pupils and staff to work together in supporting a new generation of teachers.  We know that Miss Farrow, Miss Edgar, Miss Higgins, Miss Frame and Miss Ramsay will be missed by the pupils they worked with and we wish them every success on their continued journey.

Primary 3 visited the church to celebrate alongside Ezra and Callagh, who received the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

St. Patrick’s Day was another truly special occasion.  Our first whole school mass of the year.  Special thanks to Mrs McCrorie, Fr Phillip, all our readers, pupils and staff for making it so wonderful.  Highlights of the day can be watched here.  Click Here

We were joined by Mr Devlin, our active schools coordinator, who provided lunch time activities for P1 & P2, PE lessons for P2 and an after school football club for P6 & P7.

Cumnock Rugby Club provided rugby training to P4/5, P5/6 and P6/7.

Our parent appointments took place via telephone calls.  If you have not yet spoken with your child’s class teacher, please get in touch and we will organise this for after the holidays.

4 of our Primary 6 pupils represented St. Patricks’s in the East Ayrshire heat of the EuroQuiz.  Although our team didn’t win on this occasion they did us proud! An amazing performance. Well done!

P2 and P4/5 took part in the East Ayrshire DanceFest by visiting the Palace Theatre in Kilmarnock and performing on stage! We cannot wait to see the recording of the finished performance.

Mrs Millar from the East Ayrshire SAC (Scottish Attainment Challenge) team is working with us developing the learning and teaching of numeracy, this will continue into our final term.

Pulze photography visited – look out for the proofs coming home after the holiday if you opted into this.

Our Lenten fundraising took place through the month of March.  We are so grateful for your support with this.

We finished our term with a Whole School visit to Our Lady of Lourdes and St. Patrick’s Church to celebrate Mass.

As you can see we have had a busy term and this doesn’t include the learning experiences that class teachers and support staff provide every single day your child is in school.   Our staff go above and beyond to ensure that our learners experience the very best and are supported to be their very best.

We know that this continues to be an unsettling time for so many families.  The continued media information about the rise in living costs, the impact of Covid and the ongoing conflict in the world,  all have a huge impact on wellbeing.  Please do not hesitate to get in touch with us should things be overwhelming for you or your child.   We are here to help.

Mrs Hay, who has worked in St. Patrick’s for the last 15 months, starts her maternity leave today.  Mrs Hay is permanent to the local authority and sadly the last two weeks were spent in other establishments to cover staff absence.  We are so excited to meet baby Hay when they make their arrival into our wonderful world.  We will be sure to keep you updated and we have been promised a visit to meet the new arrival next term.

We have so much planned for term 4, we hope that it will bring the opportunity to have you along to our school grounds.   We have so missed the opportunity to meet with parents face to face and share our learning in this way.

Your children are loved so much by all our staff, they are amazing and continue to fill our days with so much joy and happiness.  We are so proud of each and everyone of them.

I personally want to thank every single member of staff in our school.  Our support staff, teaching staff and catering staff are amazing and continue to ensure that St. Patrick’s really is the best place to be.  It is impossible to capture the commitment and passion that they give to their role of supporting our children.  They are hands down the best team in the Country!

Wish you a happy holiday period filled with sunshine, peace, love and Hope.  To all our families beginning the holy month of Ramadan today, we wish you every blessing.

With love and best wishes,

Mrs Bradley and All the staff

 

 

 

 

 

Please see our attached leaflet regarding our preloved school uniform access.

uniform – reduce-reuse-recycle

Please see the dates for your diary for next term below.

Some dates (marked with *) are still to be confirmed.

Tuesday 19th April –  School Reopens at 9am

Friday 22nd, 29th April  – Rugby P4/5, P5/6, P6/7

Monday 2nd May – HOLIDAY

Thursday 5th May – In Service day (school closed to pupils)

Tuesdays 10th – 31st May – Tennis, P4/5, P5/6, P6/7

Tuesday 10th May – Session 1, group 1, new P1 transition

Monday 16th May – walk to School week starts (all classes will take part in the daily mile)

Tuesday 17th May – Session 1, group 2, new P1 transition

Tuesday 24th May – Session 1, group 3, new P1 transition

Wednesday 25th May – all P4 & p5 pupils to Spring Festival of Farming, Dumfries House

Thursday 26th May – Ascension Thursday Mass, whole school to St. Thomas’, Muirkirk

Wednesday 1st June – Session 2, new P1 transition

Thursday 2nd June – HOLIDAY

Friday 3rd June – HOLIDAY

Tuesday 7th June – Sports Day

Wednesday 8th June – P1 parent information evening

Thursday 9th June* – P7 activity day and evening

Thursday 16th June – New P1 and current P1 & P2, teddy bear’s picnic

Friday 17th June – Report Cards Issued

Tuesday 21st June – Leavers’ Service

Monday 27th June *– Whole School Outing

Tuesday 28th June – Closing Mass, whole school to St. John’s, Cumnock

Wednesday 29th June – School closes at 1pm

 

PLEASE NOTE SESSION 2022/23 STARTS ON

THURSDAY 18TH AUGUST 2022

 

 

Thank you so much for your generosity and support with our Lenten Fundraising.

We are delighted to let you know that we have raised around £700.

This will make a huge difference to the people of Malawi who are the focus of the SCIAF campaign this Lent.

Congratulations to all our winners.

Our Easter Hamper was won by Oran, with class prizes going to Marlene, Anna, Amber, Alexander, Kai J and Hayley.

Our Bear shared a birthday with Pope Francis, the date was the 17th December.  Well done to Eilidh who had the closest guess.

Ada guessed the most staff members correctly, with Ezra in 2nd place.   Answers can be found by clicking here.  Guess Who – answers

Our winner for the skipping contest was Noah with the following people winning within their class: Eternity, Nicholas, Jessica, Cody and Lillie.

Huge thanks go to the pupils that have helped in organising all the events and demonstrating their leadership skills.  Special thanks to Mrs Reid for dealing with all the payments.

Welcome to another School Update.

Originally we had planned that updates would be sent weekly.  It has just not been possible – we will update the blog as often as possible – the school app is our main communication channel and we would urge parents and carers to ensure that this is downloaded.  It is possible to set up push notifications on devices to ensure you receive all up to date communication.

No doubt you will be aware of the prevalence of Covid across Scotland and in particular East Ayrshire.  We are very fortunate that we have not seen this reflected within our school.   We do have a few cases and this has mainly affected staffing.  Next week is going to be challenging in terms of staffing and we ask that you are patient if you are waiting on a response from someone.  Our staff in St. Patrick’s are amazing and are going above and beyond to ensure the continuity in learning and teaching.  All Parents appointments on Tuesday are going ahead as planned.

We ask that you continue to be vigilant of any symptoms and if you or your child is a close contact then LFT testing is carried out each day for 7 days.  If you or your child develop symptoms then a PCR must be booked.

St. Patrick’s Day

We had a wonderful day celebrating the Patron Saint of our school.  Thanks go to all the pupils, staff and Fr Phillip who made sure this was a joyful and special occasion.  We are confident that next year, we will once again be able to celebrate alongside you all in our school.

Please see the link at the end of this blog post to watch the highlights of the day.

End of Term Mass

We hope to be able to attend Our Lady of Lourdes and St. Patrick’s Church to celebrate mass with the parish on Friday 1st April at 10am mass.  This is very much dependant on the Covid cases at the time.  We will keep you posted.

SCIAF Fundraising

link to watch the SCIAF video

Thank you so much for your continued support with this.  Loose change can be brought into school and put into the SCIAF  box inside each classroom.   Next week is our walk/pedal to school week.  We are encouraging everyone to walk/cycle/scoot to school rather than travelling by car.  This is one of the Acts of Hope that we can do together as a whole school and help fight climate change.   We look forward to seeing as many pupils and staff as possible travelling actively to school.   Where it is not possible, we ask that you consider journeys during the week that you can make without the car.

This week pupils can also have a go at guessing the Bear’s Birthday.  If you have purchased this through ParentPay your child will be able to choose dates from the calendar.  Mrs Bradley will miss the bear when they leave the office but we know that whoever wins will look after them and make sure they are well loved and cared for.

A video of the week 3 fundraising obstacle course can be found at the end of the blog.  Thank you so much to P6/7 and Miss Quinn for ensuring that this was so successful!  Well done!

Transition Visits

P7 pupils will all visit their respective secondary schools this week.  Those going to St. Joseph’s will visit on Wednesday and the visit to Robert Burns Academy takes place on Thursday.  Please keep our P7 pupils in your prayers as they embark on this next chapter of the educational journey.

Student Teachers

We have been joined by student teachers from the University of the West of Scotland this term.  School placements are a fundamental part of the Initial Teacher Education programme.  Due to Covid, placements have been unable to take place until now.  We are so grateful to be part of the process of developing the next generation of teachers.  We gain so much from their enthusiasm and creativity – it is a two way development process.  Miss Farrow finished with us on Friday, Miss Edgar and Miss Ramsay will finish on Friday 25th and Miss Frame and Miss Higgins will finish on 1st April.   We wish our students all the best with the remainder of their studies and training.

What’s Happening Next Week

All Week – sponsored walk to school week – donations can be made via ParentPay

Tuesday – P2 DanceFest at Palace Theatre Kilmarnock

Wednesday – P7 Transition Visit to St. Joseph’s Academy

Thursday – P4/5 DanceFest at Palace Theatre Kilmarnock

P7 Transition Visit to Robert Burns Academy

East Ayrshire Heat of EuroQuiz

Friday – School Photographs

P4/5, P5/6, P6/7 Rugby

Guess the Bear’s Birthday (donations via parent pay)

Staffing 

We have a temporary classroom assistant post advertised.  This can be found on the My Job Scotland website.  This is funded through additional Scottish Government Funding.  This post is temporary until the end of May 2022.  In the coming days we expect to advertise another post which is funded through Pupil Equity Funding.  This post will be temporary until the end of June.   Please share this with anyone who might be interested.  The hours are Monday – Friday, 8.45am – 3.00pm.

We continue to keep our Ukrainian brothers and sisters in our prayers and indeed all who are affected by war in our world.  We pray for peace in our world and our own communities.

From all the staff,  have a wonderful weekend in the spring  sunshine.  Don’t  forget to view the videos before you go.  

SCIAF – Week 3

St. Patrick’s Day

 

Welcome to this week’s update, although it is really an update from the month of February.    Apologies that we didn’t get our blog out weekly!   When our children are working so hard and learning so much it keeps us extremely busy!

This week eight of our children received the Sacrament of Confirmation.   We are so proud of them all.   Thank you so much to all our parents and carers, Fr Philip and Mrs Dumigan who supported the children in preparing for this.   I know you will join us in keeping these children in your prayers.

Bishop Nolan administered the sacrament on Tuesday and as you will know, he leaves Galloway Diocese next week to fulfil the role of Archbishop of Glasgow.  Bishop Nolan has been a great support to the catholic schools in our Diocese and is a true advocate of social justice and the message of love, hope and compassion.  We wish him all the very best in his new role.

Our P5/6 learners have completed a programme of learning with our East Ayrshire Health and Wellbeing Team.  They have completed training on becoming Health and Wellbeing Champions and we look forward to planning how we will use their new knowledge and skills to support learning across the school.

We are currently undergoing some refurbishment in the school.  Our classrooms are part of an ongoing programme that will modernise them and create better learning environments.   Our P6/7 class already had new flooring laid as part of this and at the Easter break there will be further improvements in this space.  From the week beginning the 7th March, P4/5 will temporarily  relocate to the digital learning room.  Their classroom will be fitted with new blinds, flooring, sink unit, white boards and have a complete repaint.   There will be new furniture in this room too.   We can’t wait to show it to off to you.

From Monday 28th February we are able to hold school assemblies again.   The first whole school event will be our Ash Wednesday Service.  This will be the first time that our P1 and P2 pupils have ever experienced this.   Please be aware that assemblies are still subject to some mitigations.  There will be increased ventilation, classes will still sit within their own space and staff will maintain a 2m distance from each other and pupils.   If there are any new covid cases in a class and a pupil was in attendance during the infectious period, this class will not be able to attend the assembly.    This has been one of the most missed experiences within school communities, to be able to come together as one to celebrate the start of Lent is something we will cherish.

Please notify the school if you DO NOT wish your child to receive ashes at our service.

Our Pupil Leadership Team have devised a programme of fundraising events for SCIAF during lent.  These were sent via the app.  Further details will follow and donations can be made from next week.

Please click here to watch the reflection for Malawi

Please remember to return all RagBags to school on Monday. 

As we come to the end of this week, the thoughts and prayers of our whole school community are shared with the people of Ukraine.   We pray for a world that can heal from the terrible events that are happening right now in Ukraine and other regions of the world experiencing war and that together we can build a world that finds peaceful solutions rather than conflict.

Have a fantastic weekend and we look forward to seeing all our children again on Monday.