Category Archives: Letters

Letters, Newsletters, School Blog, Whole School News

Classes and Staffing – August 2020

As you will be aware, from August half of the children will come into school on a Monday and Tuesday (Group A) and the other half will attend on a Thursday and Friday (Group B). Wednesdays will be used for enhanced cleaning and to allow all teachers to have their contractual non class contact time to prepare lessons and support pupils with remote learning. We will be able to confirm which Group your child will be on Monday 22 June.

We know that parents are feeling anxious about what school will look like and what it means for you and your child. To help with this, I am sharing the class teachers with you.

Primary 1 – Mrs McLauchlan

Primary 2 – Miss Goldie

Primary 3 – Miss Keegan and Mrs Fulton

Primary 4 – Mrs Campbell and Miss Cunningham

Primary 5 – Miss Monaghan and Miss Harper

Primary 6 – Miss Hamilton and Mrs Gordon

Primary 7 – Miss Allan

Our Support Staff remain the same from August and will be supporting all the classes as required. They are Mrs McGroarty, Mrs Colton, Mrs Watson, Mrs Wilson, Mrs David and Mrs Arnold. Mrs McGregor will continue to be our Senior Clerical Assistant.

I am also delighted to tell you that Mrs McLeod has been appointed as Depute Head Teacher (Acting) from August and Mrs Patterson will be returning for 6 weeks in August before retiring.

We will also be publishing on the school website early next week videos of the teachers and the classroom set-up to give you an idea of what it will look like, so please watch out for this.

As always, if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to call the school.

Letters, School Blog, Whole School News

Best Start Grant School Age Payment – Social Security Scotland

Below is the link to the School Age Section on the Social Security Scotland website, this has all the information about the benefit which opened for applications on 1st June. I would also recommend following Social Security Scotland on Facebook as there is a number of posts made regarding this payment.

https://www.socialsecurity.gov.scot/what-we-do/stakeholder-resources/best-start-grant-school-age-payment

 

Letters, Primary 7, School Blog, Whole School News

P7 Transition Events 18th and 24th June

Transition Visit from Johnstone High – Thursday 18th June 2020

We are delighted to announce there will be an opportunity for P7 pupils to come into our school on Thursday 18th June from 9.00 – 11.00. During this time, staff from Johnstone High will visit and share some important information with the pupils. The safety of our pupils and staff is our top priority and as such, this visit will be organised in line with government guidance on social distancing. This means the children will be split into 3 groups, across 3 classrooms to allow for pupils and staff to be spaced at 2 metre distances. Staff from the High School will visit each classroom.

In order to restrict the number of pupils entering/leaving the school at one time, pupils will be given a staggered entry and exit time. The schedule for the day is as follows:

9:15 am – Group A arrive

9:20 am – Group B arrive

9:25 am – Group C arrive

9.30 – 11.00 am – Johnstone High Staff Visits for all P7 pupils

11:00 am – Group A leave

11:05 am – Group B leave

11:10 am – Group C leave

Parents/Carers of P7 pupils will be contacted in the coming days to inform you of the group your child has been allocated to. This group only indicates the time your child will arrive and leave. When dropping off and picking up children, please follow the signs and markers outside the school building to allow for social distancing. In order to maintain social distancing please drop off and pick up as quickly as possible to allow for minimal numbers of people outside the school building. It would be great if pupils could wear their leaver’s hoodie to both events.

P7 Leaver’s Celebration Event – Wednesday, 24th June

Although this is not what we had planned, on this date we will have the chance to give our P7 pupils a farewell event and mark the end of their time at Cochrane Castle Primary. The event will take place in our school gym hall to allow for pupils and staff to be spaced at 2 metre distances but also come together as a whole year group. Due to restricted numbers and space, it will not be possible for parents to attend this event, however, we will live stream it so you don’t miss out.

As above, pupils will be given a staggered entry and exit time. The schedule for the day is as follows:

10:45 am – Group A arrive

10:50 am – Group B arrive

10:55 am – Group C arrive

11.00 – 12.00 am – Cochrane Castle P7 Leavers Event for all P7 pupils

12:00 am – Group A leave

12:05 am – Group B leave

12:10 am – Group C leave

We hope that our P7 pupils enjoy this opportunity to mark the end of their time at Cochrane Castle.

Letters, Nursery, School Blog, Whole School News

P1 Induction Event Tuesday 23rd June, 10.00am – 11.00 am

I recently contacted you to advise that the Induction days I had planned for May would have to be rescheduled when the school re-opened.

After further guidance from Renfrewshire Council, I am delighted to tell you that we have organised an Induction day for Tuesday 23rd June, 10.00am – 11.00 am. This will give us an opportunity to tell you about our wonderful school and a little bit about the P1 experience. In addition, your child will get to meet their teacher. I am sure you will have many questions too.

Due to the guidance around parents in the building, only one adult will be admitted per child.

When you arrive at the school, please come to the main entrance. There will be markings on the ground for you and your child to stand. In order to observe social distancing guidelines only one parent and one child will be admitted into the building at a time. When in the building, you will be directed to the gym hall/dining room. This is a large area and will allow us to observe social distancing seating.

We look forward to meeting you and your child.

Letters, School Blog, Whole School News

School Uniform Letter

Dear Parent/Carer,

As you know, we are all busy planning for a return to school in August when all schools across Scotland will provide pupils with a blended learning model, therefore pupils will not immediately return to being educated in the school building on a full-time basis. We know that one of the many things that parents are thinking about is uniform.  You will be aware that the return to school will look different and part of that will involve an increase, where possible, in Outdoor Learning both to support literacy and numeracy and to promote Health & Wellbeing.

As such, I am happy for us to adopt a more ‘relaxed’ uniform next session.  I do believe that some uniform is important both to encourage a shared identity across our school community and to minimise cost for parents.  My suggestion would be that children wear a white school polo shirt and/or navy sweatshirt and that we allow children to wear black or grey jogging bottoms or other comfortable clothing.  This would allow us to have a sense of ‘uniform’ but would also help children to be comfortable for the range of learning they will be taking part in.  As always, no football colours are allowed.

With Outdoor Learning in mind, I would also urge parents to ensure that children are equipped with an outdoor jacket and wellies or other appropriate footwear as children will be encouraged to go outdoors in all weathers even for a short time each day.  As always, please do not hesitate to contact the school if you require financial support to help with this.

I am very mindful that our new Primary 1 parents may be keen to have that special ‘First Day Experience’ – something that is very important to us all and which involves the excitement of buying uniform.  This is entirely a parental choice and we will be in touch will our new families over the next few weeks in relation to supporting the Primary 1 transition.

I will continue to issue further information about our return to school when this becomes available.

Kind regards,

Pam McDowall

Headteacher

Uniform Letter 090620

Active Schools, Letters, School Blog, Whole School News

Week 5 – Online Olympics

Firstly I hope you are safe and well and enjoying this beautiful sunshine!

We are now in Week 5 of our Online RL Olympics.

Last week, we only had 1 entry at Cochrane Castle and I know we can get more than that! But well done to that 1 entry, we really appreciate your efforts!!

This week our challenge is how many step ups can YOU do? Easy.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58eKWVEH7dg

https://www.cognitoforms.com/RenfrewshireLeisure3/RLOnlineOlympics2020W5

Please remember to upload your best score by 11:59pm on Sunday 14th of June for your entry to be considered.

A reminder that Sam is also doing live 3pm dances on a Wednesdays on Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/rlsportservices/

And lastly, can I remind you of Sengas walking challenge too at the following link, it is not too late to join in;https://www.renfrewshireleisure.com/renfrewshire-leisure-walking-challenge/

Come on Cochrane Castle, lets show Renfrewshire what we can do!!

Amy (Active School Coordinator)

Letters, Newsletters, School Blog, Whole School News

Social Media Accounts

Our Social Media accounts are now live.

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For Twitter, follow @Cochrane_Castle

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For Facebook, follow Cochrane Castle Primary School page.

Please note that our Social Media accounts will only be used to share information. We can not respond to individual enquiries and the school reserves the right to remove any negative comments. Please contact the school office for further information about anything posted.

The National Parent Forum Scotland have produced this helpful leaflet for Parents when using Social Media.

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