Dear Parents/Carers, June/July 2019 Once again, it has been an extremely busy year and we would like to Newsletter thank you all for your continued support. We are currently updating our Standards and Quality Report and Improvement Plan for 2019/2020 and the information gathered from our recent parent questionnaire will be used to feed in to our improvement plans for next session. Thank you to those who have completed these already. Our 2019/2020 SQUIP will be available on our website in the new term. As we draw to the end of another school term I’d like to highlight a few of the activities that have taken place.

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank you all for your support Term 4 Ends Friday 5 th July School resumes for pupils this year and wish you a happy, healthy and safe summer. A huge thank Wednesday 21 st August you from all the staff at Marykirk School for the wonderful goodies and gifts that we have received this week too! Kind regards Fiona Thomson

Jungle Book P7 visit to We were delighted with the turnout of families for Our P7 pupils had a very positive 3 day visit to our Theatre performance of the Jungle Book at Mearns Academy. The pupils enjoyed the different Village Hall in May. We hope that classes and they all returned sharing stories of new those of you who made it along enjoyed the friends and good lunch choices ☺!! experience. Zero to Hero Plastic Campaign Children have the right to Following a suggestion made by one of our rest and play, and to take part in leisure and pupils (Logan Sandeman) our ECO group cultural activities. have been discussing how we can support the Zero to Hero Plastic campaign. The

children have shared their thoughts and ideas with Mairi Gougeon, MSP, when she STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths) visited last month and we have decided to make this a school project next session. Pupils have enjoyed working with Mrs Suèr this session and We would like to involve parents and have participated in a variety of Science based activities. We wider community as much as possible and would like to thank Mrs Suèr for her support. would ask you to get in touch if you have

STEM is an important element in today’s society and we have any ideas or suggestions to share. benefitted greatly from Mrs Suèr’s input. Ms Wells will also be working with P3-7 to support this further next session.

Article 12 You have the right to give your opinion, and for adults to listen and take it seriously.

Summer Reading Challenge

Jill Reid (Network Librarian) has been in to school to share the Summer Reading Challenge with all pupils. If your child is interested in taking part in either the reading challenge or the bookmark drawing challenge over the summer then please pick up the forms at Mearns Community Campus Library, .

Article 29 Goblin Car Our P7s enjoyed their Goblin car race Your education should help you use and develop your talents and event at Alford on Saturday 15 th June.

abilities. It should also help you learn to live peacefully, protect Despite some mechanical problems, the the environment and respect other people. children participated enthusiastically, showing good sportsmanship and team

Skills Groups spirit. Thank you to Mr Brown for his Our skills groups have proven to be very popular this session and support with this. we are grateful to all our parent helpers who have given up their time to support us. We do hope to continue these groups next session and would appreciate it if any parents who are keen to continue, or would like to start volunteering, contact the school office with their details.

Athlete Visit – 7th June 2019 On Friday 7 th June, Gianni Frankis, GB 110m hurdler, came to visit our school and children participated in a sponsored fitness circuit. The session with Gianni th Forestry Day – House of Dun 30 May 2019 was fantastic and I hope it inspired our Katherine Nepute, Mearns Academy organised for all the P5s children to ‘NEVER GIVE UP’ and ‘KEEP within the Cluster to take part in a forestry/outdoor careers day ON TRYING’ at House of Dun. The children engaged in a range of activities and workshops from beekeeping to horticulture. The feedback was extremely positive from all staff and pupils. The day was not only successful in an educational purpose but provided an excellent opportunity for children to interact with pupils of the same age from across the cluster!

Marykirk Raft Race

Well done to everyone for their

contribution to Marykirk Raft Race. The money raised from this event allowed us to offer all pupils the opportunity to Road Safety Officer Visit participate in a day of activities in free of charge. Thank you June Andrews, Road Safety Officer, joined us for our assembly on again to the PTA for their support! Wednesday 15 th May to talk to the children about the importance of Road Safety and what they can do to keep themselves safe when out and about.

Health Week 10 th – 14 th June Despite the mixed weather during Health Week we had a fantastic week of activities including bowling, mindfulness, tennis, putting, rugby, circuits and fruit/veg taster sessions. Thank you to SCOTMID, Sarah Gear (Mindfulness coach) and The MPP for supporting us. As always the children were a credit to the school and participated with respect and enthusiasm.

The following pupils received a special mention at our Celebration Assembly:

Leah – consistently working hard in all areas

Charlie – participating well in mental maths and French activities Seona – great effort in writing her ‘Alien’ story Fraser – great effort in writing his ‘Alien’ story

Chloe – for participating well in class and trying her best.

Anabel – for making super progress with her reading.

We were delighted that many children brought in achievements from home to share and thank you for your support with this. It is important that we all recognise that learning does not just happen at school and that it is indeed a lifelong process! We hope that we can continue to encourage this next session!

Every child has shown great progress this year and we are very proud of the success and achievements of all our pupils. A huge well done to all our pupils who received special awards at our Prize Giving, this year the awards went to:

Bill Sergeant Drama Trophy – Kayleigh Herd Patches Plate for Effort – Leah Tait Friendship Award – Katy McNamee and Lily Clarke Norman Bryce Art Salver – Daniel Williamson and Saroop Chung

Nature Rosebowl (ECO) – Daniel Williamson P1-3 Environmental studies– Taylor Malan

Millenium Quaich for Writing – Cameron Suèr Martin Cup for French – Charlie Senior Sports Cup – John Milne, Katelain Moyers and Jenna Moyers

Junior Sports Shield – Sophie Moyers and Callum Cooper

Music Award – Logan Sandeman

Outstanding Pupil Trophy – John Milne

P1-3 maths prize – Nihal Chung P4-7 maths prize– Alexander Suèr

Bookworm Award – Kayleigh Herd

Netball players’ player and Coach’s player – Leah Tait Most Improved at Netball – Heidi Stather

Cross Country P1-3– Saroop Chung Cross Country P4-7 - John Milne Most improved at Cross Country – Seona Brown

Engineering – John Milne and Neela Stather

Digital Leaders Award – Harvey Dawson and Fraser Stewart