Author: stcuthbertsrc

Dear Parents/Carers,

Please see update for Friday 22^nd May below.

P7-S1 St Augustine’s Transition Information

In addition to their creation of a Transition Team, St Augustine’s have now sent us a link to a dedicated transition page on their school website. Please see link below:

https://staugustinesrchs.uk/p7-s1-transition-2020/

We will share any other transition information we receive as soon as it is made available to us.

P6 ‘Virtual’ Games at the Hub – 3^rd June 2020

Miss Kallinikou has signed up to this virtual event – more details to follow when we have them.

Instrumental Tuition

Miss Munro will be co-ordinating this for the school going forward. New channels have been created in the P5, P6 and P7 Teams with lessons for pupils who received instrumental instruction pre-closure. These will be updated and available for access by close of play every Thursday.

Learning Journals – Summer Term

We will publish our next round of termly observations of learning by close of play today via Learning Journals. These will share learning that has been offered to and experienced by our pupils through Digital Learning since the schools closed.

We will also share our annual pupil progress reports via Learning Journals on 22^nd June. These reports will cover: Literacy, Numeracy/Maths, Health and Wellbeing as well as Religious Education. They will communicate pupil strengths in and next steps for each of these curricular areas based on assessment evidence up 20^th March 2020.

If you still need to register for Learning Journals or have any other questions about the above information, please do not hesitate to contact me via the admin mailbox (admin@st-cuthberts.edin.sch.uk).

Stationery Provision for Families

Our next offer of jotters, pencils etc will take place on Monday 1^st June from 9.30am-10.30am. I’ll share further details next week. Thanks again for the high level of up-take with this offer on Monday and for feedback on its contents going forward.

Action Points from Parent/Carer Survey

In response to the survey and the views expressed re interactivity, I have recommended the following changes for week beginning 25^th May:

• All staff to post a daily morning greeting and introduction to the day’s learning using the audio function on Teams.
• Staff to create a separate channel for class group chat on their Teams, this will hopefully aid pupils feeling of social connectivity but will also ensure feedback and learning discussion is not encumbered by social chat. Please ensure that pupils use this function appropriately.

I hope that you will see in this response, that we value you and our pupil’s opinions and have sought to take your feedback on board.

May Devotions – St Cuthbert’s RC Church and Our Lady, Mother of the Church

Fr Duffy has posted May Devotions on the St Cuthbert’s Catholic Church website as well as that of Our Lady’s Currie. The quality of both content and presentation is excellent and well worth viewing. Fr Duffy passes on his best wishes to you all.

Eid Mubarak!

Best wishes to our Muslim pupils and families for your Eid celebrations this weekend!

   

Kind regards for the weekend.

Pat Brack, Acting HT and all at St Cuthbert’s Primary.

Dear Parents/Carers,

Please see update below for Thursday 21^st  May beloow.

Learning Journals – Summer Term

We will publish our next round of termly observations of learning by close of play tomorrow via Learning Journals. These will share learning that has been offered to and experienced by our pupils through Digital Learning since the schools closed.

We will also share our annual pupil progress reports via Learning Journals on 22^nd June. These reports will cover: Literacy, Numeracy/Maths, Health and Wellbeing as well as Religious Education. They will communicate pupil strengths in and next steps for each of these curricular areas, based on assessment evidence up 20^th March 2020.

If you still need to register for Learning Journals or have any other questions about the above information, please do not hesitate to contact me via the admin mailbox (admin@st-cuthberts.edin.sch.uk).

Stationery Provision for Families

Our next offer of jotters, pencils etc will take place on Monday 1^st June from 9.30am-10.30am. I’ll share further details next week. Thanks again for the high level of up-take with this offer on Monday.

Action Points from Parent/Carer Survey

In response to the survey and the views expressed re interactivity, I have recommended the following changes for week beginning 25^th May:

• All staff to post a daily morning greeting and introduction to the day’s learning using the audio function on Teams.
• Staff to create a separate channel for class group chat on their Teams, this will hopefully aid pupils feeling of social connectivity but will also ensure feedback and learning discussion is not encumbered by social chat. Please ensure that pupils use this function appropriately.

I hope that you will see in this response, that we value you and our pupil’s opinions and have sought to take your feedback on board.

May Devotions – St Cuthbert’s RC Church and Our Lady, Mother of the Church

Fr Duffy has posted May Devotions on the St Cuthbert’s Catholic Church website as well as that of Our Lady’s Currie. The quality of both content and presentation is excellent and well worth viewing.

Thanks to those who took part in the online Mass to celebrate Ascension Day via the link posted here yesterday. Fr Duffy passes on his best wishes to you all.

Kind regards

Pat Brack, Acting HT and all at St Cuthbert’s Primary.

Dear Parents/Carers,

Please see update for Wednesday 20^th May below.

Action Points from Parent/Carer Survey

In response to the survey and the views expressed re interactivity, I have recommended the following changes to our Team for week beginning 25^th May:

• All staff to post a daily morning greeting and introduction to the day’s learning using the audio function on Teams.

 

• Staff to create a separate channel for class group chat on their Teams, this will hopefully aid pupils feeling of social connectivity but will also ensure feedback and learning discussion is not encumbered by social chat. Please ensure that pupils use this function appropriately.

I hope that you will see in this response, that we value you and our pupil’s opinions and have sought to take your feedback on board.

Ascension Day and May Devotions – Thursday 21^st May

Fr Duffy has posted May Devotions on the St Cuthbert’s Catholic church website as well as that of Our Lady’s Currie. The quality of both content and presentation is excellent and well worth viewing.

The Scottish Catholic Education Service have also provided us with a link for Mass tomorrow to celebrate Ascension day. The Mass will be celebrated by Bishop Toal. You can view the Mass at 11am via facebook live at www.rcdom.org.uk

Kind regards,

Pat Brack, Acting HT and all at St Cuthbert’s Primary.

Dear Parents/Carers,

Please see update for Tuesday 19^th May below.

Parent/Carer Survey on Learning Journals – Findings

A summary of the results of our survey is listed below:

Communication From School

Very happy or happy – 90%

Neither happy or unhappy – 5%

Unhappy or very unhappy – 5%

Access to Digital Learning

Able to access and use – 93%

Not able – 7%

We have been trying really hard to reach out to those still experiencing difficulty to contact us via admin mailbox – admin@st-cuthberts.edin.sch.uk . We have managed to help a good number of people to overcome issues and once aware of an issue will keep going until we get a resolution. Please contact us, if you are unable to access or are having issues with Digital Learning.

Your Rating of Our Digital Learning Offer

Final rating was 4.31 out of a possible 5.

Suggestions for Improvement Comments

• 57% of comments in this section were actually positives about the provision being made by the school for Digital Learning. Some lovely comments – thank you so much!
• 26% of respondents requested more video/visual/audio or interactive content.  This is a very understandable request, however at the moment City of Edinburgh Council don’t permit any live video teaching. Live audio, recorded audio and recorded video are permissible. None, however are expected of teachers and it is down to individual teacher discretion/technical knowledge as to whether or not to use these facilities. Teachers and schools have come a long way in a short time with digital learning and to master and gain confidence in using these technologies is an ongoing process.  However we do value the views you expressed and will make some form of change in reponse – see actions below.
• 17% of comments were a mix of points including: technical issues viewing video content on Teams and logging in. Workload issues were also raised: with a small numbers of parents/carers wishing for more work and similar numbers for less. The guidelines are that pupils should spend no more than 3-4 hours on concentrated academic work and we feel our offering meets this requirement. Our teachers are also trying to differentiate where possible to provide an appropriate level of challenge. Please never put pressure on yourselves or your children to complete tasks if you feel it is too stressful. Your and your children’s health and well-being are paramount. If you submitted any of the suggestions above and would like to discuss them further, please don’t hesitate to contact me via the admin mailbox.

Action Points from Survey

I will discuss the findings with our team and hopefully be able to share some actions that we can take to address the points you raise over the coming week. Thanks again for your openness and positivity.

Stationery Resources – Monday 18th 9.30-10.30am – Thank You!

The take-up with this was great. We hope to be able to repeat next week. More details will follow.

Kind regards

Pat Brack, Acting HT and all at St Cuthbert’s Primary.

Dear Parents/Carers,

Please see update below for Friday 15^th May.

Uniform Day – Friday 15^th May 2020

Thanks to all for their participation. Some fantastic photos; this was a really simple but uplifting idea which worked well thanks to your support. Miss Munro has posted a collage of photos on the school app and twitter (@Stcuthbertsrcp)

Edinburgh Evening News – P7 Photos

Usually at this time of year, our local newspaper takes photos of the P7 class groups and produces a souvenir pull-out containing the photos of local schools in May/June. Unfortunately, that is not possible this year. The Evening News have however come up with an alternative and we have posted a letter from them on our website, app and Learning Journals Platform – please read it thoroughly.

EEN parent letter P7 2020

Although the letter states that the children can wear whatever they like in the picture you supply to them. As the children are representing St Cuthbert’s, I would like to ask that they wear school uniform and stand respectfully with a smile on their faces – so that the end result is something similar to the picture that would have appeared in a normal year!

From the school’s point of view this is an optional opportunity and no parent/carer should feel pressured to take part. Equally, if you like their proposal please feel very welcome to email your photograph to the Evening News – as per the instructions in their letter.  Please note that the deadline of 21^st May must be adhered to.  No late photographs will be included.  Please also note that St Cuthbert’s Primary School accept no responsibility for the final printed supplement.

Parent/Carer Survey on Learning Journals – Update

Today is the end date for the survey, thanks for your sharing your views with us. We will feed back on the survey next week.

Stationery Resources – Monday 18^th May – 9.30-10.30am

We thought it might be helpful to families to provide some additional resources such as jotters, pencils, rubbers etc.  A small selection of these items will be available from a trolley placed just inside the school gates on Monday. You are very welcome indeed to take anything you need. Please observe social distancing rules whilst doing so and note that the school building itself will remain closed. This will be done on an initial pilot basis to assess levels of demand – we will try to repeat if popular.

May Holiday  – Monday 18th May

A reminder that Monday 18^th May is the last bank holiday of this term.  There will be no online learning or daily update on this day.

We hope you and your family enjoy the long weekend.

Kind regards

Pat Brack, Acting HT and all at St Cuthbert’s Primary.

Dear Parents/Carers,

Please see update below for Thursday 14^th May below.

Edinburgh Evening News – P7 Photos

Usually at this time of year, our local newspaper takes photos of the P7 class groups and produces a souvenir pull-out containing the photos of local schools in May/June. Unfortunately, that is not possible this year. The Evening News have however come up with an alternative and we have posted a letter from them on our website, app and Learning Journals Platform – please read it thoroughly.

EEN parent letter P7 2020

Although the letter states that the children can wear whatever they like in the picture you supply to them. As the children are representing St Cuthbert’s, I would like to ask that they wear school uniform and stand respectfully with a smile on their faces – so that the end result is something similar to the picture that would have appeared in a normal year!

From the school’s point of view this is an optional opportunity and no parent/carer should feel pressured to take part. Equally, if you like their proposal please feel very welcome to email your photograph to the Evening News – as per the instructions in their letter.  Please note that the deadline of 21^st May must be adhered to.  No late photographs will be included.  Please also note that St Cuthbert’s Primary School accept no responsibility for the final printed supplement.

Uniform Day – Friday 15^th May 2020

To help everyone feel connected we are having a ‘Uniform Day’ on Friday 15^th May, during which we are encouraging everyone to wear their school uniform and share a photo of it on Twitter @StcuthbertsRCP or on your class Team. Hopefully this bit of fun will help the children still feel part of Team St Cuthberts!

Parent/Carer Survey on Learning Journals – Update

Thanks very much for the ever-increasing number of responses. The end date for responses is tomorrow.

Stationery Resources – Monday 18th 9.30-10.30am

We thought it might be helpful to families to provide some additional resources such as jotters, pencils, rubbers etc.  A small selection of these items will be available from a trolley placed just inside the school gates on Monday. You are very welcome indeed to take anything you need. Please observe social distancing rules whilst doing so and note that the school building itself will remain closed. This will be done on an initial pilot basis to assess levels of demand – we will try to repeat if popular.

May Holiday ( 18th May)

A reminder that Monday 18^th May is the last bank holiday of this term.  There will be no online learning or daily update on this day.

Kind regards

Pat Brack, Acting HT and all at St Cuthbert’s Primary.

Dear Parents/Carers,

Please see update below for Wednesday 13^th May below.

Parent/Carer Survey on Learning Journals – Update

Thanks very much for the ever-increasing number of responses. We will keep the form open until Friday and I will publish a summary of what was said early next week. We shared a similar survey with pupils today and have also had a brilliant level of response from them.

Stationery Resources – Monday 18th 9.30-10.30am

We thought it might be helpful to families to provide some additional resources such as jotters, pencils, rubbers etc.  A small selection of these items will be available from a trolley signposted and placed just inside the school gates on Monday (which is also a public holiday – see below). You are very welcome indeed to take anything you need. Please observe social distancing rules whilst doing so and note that the school building itself will remain closed. This will be done on an initial pilot basis to assess levels of demand – we will try to repeat if it proves popular.

Technical Issues with Digital Learning

Please e-mail us via the admin mailbox (admin@st-cuthberts.edin.sch.uk)  if you have any technical difficulties whatsoever with our Digital Learning. We can arrange a prompt telephone or e-mail response and will keep going until we have fully resolved any issue you have. Thanks to your support and cooperation, we have managed to do this for a considerable number of parents and carers so far. Please don’t hesitate to get in touch with me directly via the admin mailbox if you feel your issue has not been resolved.

Uniform Day – Friday 15^th May 2020

To help everyone feel connected we are having a ‘Uniform Day’ on Friday 15^th May, during which we are encouraging everyone to wear their school uniform and share a photo of it on Twitter @StcuthbertsRCP or on your class Team. Hopefully this bit of fun will help the children still feel part of Team St Cuthberts!

May Holiday ( 18th May)

A reminder that Monday 18^th May is the last bank holiday of this term.  There will be no online learning or daily update on this day.

Kind regards

Pat Brack, Acting HT and all at St Cuthbert’s Primary.