St Cyrus School – 2nd October 2020

Our Vision Our school and its family is a happy and successful place. A positive environment where people care for

and encourage each other in order to achieve everyone’s full potential.

Reach for the Stars

Dear Parents/Carers

Life is different for us all in school just now, but we have been working hard to ensure we all

keep safe and well. Children have generally settled well into these new routines and appear

to be happy and ready to learn.

As a staff we would like to thank you for your continuing support in these uncertain times.

School Roll

Our school roll this term: 17 Nursery and 136 School

Staffing

We have been lucky to receive art specialist input from Mrs Gatherum this term. These are

just some of the lovely pieces of work, produced by pupils throughout the school.

We are also pleased to welcome Ryan Borland as the new Active Schools Coordinator to the

Mearns network, taking over from both Derek Atkinson and Mark McConnachie.

Ryan is currently the Active Schools Coordinator for the Fraserburgh network in north Aberdeenshire

but will officially be moving to our cluster on 19 October 2020.

We say farewell this term to Mrs Alison Middleton. Mrs Middleton was previously our Support for

Learning teacher but left her post to take up new ventures. We were lucky, however, to have her

return to do some supply work for us. This term she has covered Mrs Sutherland, our PE specialists

post whilst she is on maternity leave. Mrs Middleton is, however, on the move to Aberdeen so leaves

us for a final time. We would like to thank her for service to the school over the past four years.

Priorities for this session

Our School Improvement Plan will be available shortly on the school website. Main features

of this session’s plans include – a recovery plan (incorporating our Vision, Values and Aims),

Numeracy (Maths mastery approaches), Making Thinking Visible and implementing ICT

effectively across the school.

Feedback from end of term surveys

Thank you to those parents/carers who have feedback on how this term has gone via our

on-line questionnaire. Comments will be analysed during the holidays and reported to

everyone via next term’s start of term newsletter.

Donation from the football team

We were delighted to receive a donation from St Cyrus Football Club earlier this term. The

club took part in a 24-hour running challenge on 25 and 26 July to raise funds which were

shared between the Nature Reserve and us. The money donated (£823.17) will go towards

school funds. School funds are used to make purchases which support their children in their

learning. Past purchases have included playground equipment, play resources for P1 and

P2 and baking ingredients.

Rag bag

Through the community’s donations to our rag bag, we collected £537.70 this term. Again,

funds have gone to school funds.

Nursery Developments

As you may be aware, our nursery is to be refurbished as of the beginning of next term in

preparation for our extension to 1140 hours. Storage containers and skips are already on

site and the nursery staff have been working hard to empty our nursery and set up a

temporary one in our gym hall. Please be assured all necessary risk assessments have

been carried out to ensure the safety of our pupils, staff and community. Nursery parents

will be kept up to date with finer arrangements by Cluster Senior Practitioner, Michelle

Wheat.

Sharing Learning

Teachers and parents alike enjoyed the opportunity to speak to parents/carers during our

recent parents’ evenings. Feedback included – “I think that the phone calls offered by the

class teachers and SFL were a fantastic idea and helped parents feel at ease with how

things were going at school” and “parents evening over the phone worked well and it was

nice to catch up on the progress of our kids”.

Many of you have now perhaps also viewed the learning which is being shared via your

child’s Microsoft ‘Team’. Attached to this newsletter is a letter from Mrs McWhinnie, our

Deputy Head teacher, who explains how to access this should you be having problems.

Please do not hesitate to contact the school either if you require further advice.

Overleaf are also some pictures/extracts of the children’s work which exemplifies just how

busy our children have been this term and what super work they have produced and fun

they’ve had.

P7 have also been busy tidying up and ‘transforming’ the back playground (P7 area).

Below are a couple of pictures of them hard at work –

Mrs Dunbar and her husband have also helped with this transformation. They kindly

donated and installed new felt on our sheds which had been damaged by both the weather

and vandals. I am sure you will agree the roof is looking a lot better! Many thanks to both

of them for giving of their time and efforts as well as materials.

We do hope you all have a fabulous holiday. Keep safe, and we’ll look forward to seeing

you all back in school on 26 October 2020.

Best wishes

Isla M Mann

Head Teacher

St Cyrus and Marykirk Schools