Category: Weekly Newsletter

Dear parents and carers

Thanks for your support again this morning at drop off time, please note that you are welcome to leave the playground after 8.55am, once your child has joined their line. We do understand that some parents/carers of younger pupils will want to remain to watch their child get on the buses, this is absolutely fine as long as you are able to stand back and give teachers space to count pupils.

Welcome back to our P7 pupils, they had a great time at camp and although we’d all much rather be in our own school, this week will be a valuable transition experience for them.

Please note that the Easter egg raffle will start tomorrow on both sites, the cost as shared previously is £1 per strip of 5 tickets and there will be daily winners. There will also be a giant egg to be won at both schools on Thursday, our last day before the holidays.

As shared on Friday, Breakfast Club has reopened this week. If you paid for last week when the club was not open, this can be used to pay for any future week you wish, please contact Mrs Pennycook or Miss McVey, via Admin mailbox: admin@st-cuthberts.edin.sch.uk  to share what week or days you would like it used towards. Thank you.

Despite last week’s upheavals, our P5/6 footballers managed to fulfil their latest fixture, putting in a brave performance but losing narrowly to Frogston Primary. P4’s team also played at Meggetland this weekend.

There is no further update to share re our building at the moment but please rest assured that we will do so as soon as we have anything new to tell you.

Please continue to contact us via admin mailbox (see above) or on 0131 443 2621 option 3, if you have any questions.

Kind Regards

Mr Brack

Dear Parents and Carers.

Thanks again for your support this week. As, during our current situation we are posting and emailing daily updates, we will not send a weekly Newsletter today. There are however some key messages and information to share with you, which I have listed below. Thanks for reading.

• Firstly, the pupils have shown great resilience in their accommodation to such a big change, your support and that of our staff has also really helped with this. At present, arrangements for next week will continue as they have been since Wednesday, if anything changes, we will let you know as soon as we know.

 Contacting Us

• Please continue to send any queries to admin@st-cuthberts.edin.sch.uk and we will email or call you back. If it is urgent that you speak to somebody, our Administrators will be based at St Peter’s School and can be contacted on 0131 447 5742 

 School Management Support in Both Schools

• Mr Crowley and I will support our staff and pupils next week at both sites as follows:
  • Monday/Tuesday – Mr Brack at St Peter’s and Mr Crowley at St Augustine’s and
  • Wednesday/Thursday- Mr Brack at St Augustine’s and Mr Crowley at St Peter’s

Easter Egg Raffle and Religious Observance

• The Easter Egg raffle will go ahead on both sites from Tuesday to Thursday next week with eggs being won each day, remember it is £1 a strip of tickets. We are also hoping that our pupils will be able to join in with Holy Week services at their host schools.

Breakfast Club Returns on Monday

• We are aware that the closure of Breakfast Club this week has put a strain on some families, therefore we have sought permission to host Breakfast Club in our Nursery Temporary Unit (the green building behind the main school). This will be open from Monday 30^th March. If your child is arriving at 8am, they will be collected at the main gates by Miss Mcvey, if you are bringing your child after this time, please bring them to the building for drop off.
• We have sought advice from City of Edinburgh Council re refunds for this week and will let you know once we have their thoughts.

Active Schools Clubs Finished for This Term

• Please note that all Active Schools sports clubs are now finished for this term.

  School Dinners for St Augustine’s Based Pupils

• If your child is in P5-7 and based at St Augustine’s, if you order a school lunch for next week, they will receive a packed lunch and soup. If you prefer, you can choose not to order a school lunch and supply a packed lunch. Please contact our Admin mailbox with any questions.

 P7 School Camp

• Lastly, welcome back to our P7 Camp attendees. Mr Crowley and Ms Armitage have been in regular contact and shared that our pupils have done themselves proud. We hope you enjoyed the photos on our P7 page of the website. Big thanks to both teachers for their time, effort and care.

We’ll update you again on Monday, until then have a lovely weekend.

Mr Brack

An energetic end to our adventures at camp. Lots of smiles, loud singing, dancing, canoeing, abseiling, cycling… to name a few activities.

Dear Parents and Carers.

Thanks for your support again at drop off today. Your positivity and understanding, combined with assistance provided by the Central Education Team from City of Edinburgh Council and the Head Teachers and staff at both St Peter’s and St Augustine’s has made a challenging situation a whole lot easier. Thank you.

Firstly, we would like to start by congratulating our Glee Performers, who performed superbly at the Corn Exchange last night, huge thanks also to Mrs Igoe, Mrs Kelly and Miss Tulloch for their time preparing and supporting the pupils, especially given the current circumstances.

Secondly and importantly, we have unfortunately had to take the decision to postpone the Parents Evenings scheduled for next week. The challenges of trying to find a suitable venue as well as the unavailability of our jotters, folders and other evidence meant that this was the only possible course of action if the meetings were to be meaningful and informative with regards to the discussion of your children’s learning. Please be assured that this decision was not taken lightly and that these meetings will be rearranged after the Easter Holiday either in person, if we are back at school or via Teams if not. I’ll keep you updated.

A number of you have asked if we have any updates re when we will return to our building. Further safety checks will be taking place over the next few days and we hope to hear more next week but at the moment we have no further updates to share, we will of course do so as soon as we have them.

It is great that Gingerbread After School Care Club is back open today and that our Nursery remains open. Please note however that cricket club has now ceased for this term.

Finally, please note that whilst we are not in the school building, it may be best not to leave bikes or scooters in their usual storage spaces as the building is unattended and there is a risk they could be stolen.

Daily Updates will continue to be sent out via Groupcall email and also posted on the Newsletters section of our school website. Please email admin@st-cuthberts.edin.sch.uk with any questions.

Best wishes

Mr Brack

Dear Parents and Carers.

Thank you for your support and cooperation this morning, ensuring that all pupils arrived on time to get the bus to their temporary schools. They have all settled in well and have represented the school superbly. We are grateful to City of Edinburgh Council Central Team and staff at St Peter’s and St Augustine’s for making us welcome.

A couple of additional pieces of information: Firstly, Afterschool Club has been given permission to continue functioning and will reopen from tomorrow which is good news! Secondly, we are sorry that we are unable to open Breakfast Club as some parents have asked. As this is housed in our hall and the building is closed to all staff, we are unable to provide this service whilst we are decanted.

We will update parents/carers re Parents Evening tomorrow and wish our Glee Contestants well tonight. We’ll share an expected time of arrival on Friday for our returning P7 camp pupils in tomorrow’s update.

See you all tomorrow morning.

Mr Brack

Dear Parents and Carers,

I am writing to provide further details on the arrangement for pupils following the need to close St Cuthberts Primary today as a result of required safety checks to the school building. 

Our school will remain closed until the required works are completed, and our children will be hosted at the schools listed in the table below until we can return to St Cuthbert’s Primary School. This will enable pupils to be together with their classmates and will provide an excellent opportunity for P5-7 pupils  to experience an early transition experience in St. Augustine’s High School.

Our children will be hosted at the following schools:

• Primary 1, 2,3 and 4 will be at St Peter’s Primary School
• Primary 5, 6 and 7 will be at St Augustine’s High School.

Transport

I am pleased to inform you that following very positive discussions with the Council Transport department, all pupils will be provided with transport from St Cuthbert’s to their host school and they will be accompanied by our staff on the buses.  The timings for this are as follows:

School staff will be on site shortly before this to register pupils and assist boarding the busses safely. All buses will depart from Hutchison Drive.  Officers from the Central Education team will also be at the schools to support pick up and drop off times.

School Lunches

Arrangements for school lunches are also in place for children at the host schools and the catering teams have relevant information regarding allergies.  Families are welcome to provide their own lunch should they prefer.

Absence Reporting/School Enquiries

Whilst the building at St Cuthberts Primary School is closed, please, in the short term, email the school admin box at admin@st-cuthberts.edin.sch.uk  to report absences. This email can also be used for urgent school enquires. We are not currently able to access the school absence phone line but will let you know once we have an accessible phone line available. If you want to speak to an office staff member please call 0131 443 2621 and select option 5 between 9am and 2.30pm.

Once again, I hope all the information above is reassuring to our St Cuthberts families

I will provide a further update when we know more about the required works and will provide daily updates on our website for parents and carers. 

I understand these arrangements are not ideal for our community and greatly  appreciate your understanding and patience whilst we await further information.

Kind regards,

Donna Murray

Head of North West Schools

Dear Parents & Carers,

                                                As part of routine building health and safety checks, we have discovered today that immediate work is required in the school building and as a precautionary measure school will be closed tomorrow, Tuesday,  24/03/26.  This will also mean that breakfast and afterschool clubs will not run. This decision does not affect the nursery, which will continue to open as normal.  On-line learning grids will be made available your child (ren) tomorrow via email. 

From Wednesday 25/03/36, all children will be decanted to another school while building work is carried out.  Please refer to the St Cuthbert’s PS School website for details of this and arrangements which will be in place.  We do hope that this will be for a minimal period of time and will ensure that all young people are supported during this change and continuity of learning provided. Regular updates will be provided on the school website.

We apologise for the inconvenience this will cause and appreciate your patience and understanding at this time.

Kind regards,

Donna Murray

Head of Education