Welcome back and Happy New Year!  We hope you and your families had a relaxed, enjoyable holiday.  2026 already! Primary 5 are making excellent progress and establishing themselves as sensible, reliable upper school pupils. We are also glad to welcome back a familiar face to our class, Miss Grimley!

During term 3 our focus will be:

Literacy

We will be using Bug Club and Giglets as our differentiated reading resource and will be developing our fluency and comprehension skills through the use of these resources both in class and as homework. In addition, some pupils may use independent novels, poems or books as their literacy focus to aid reading and writing skills.  This term we will be focussing on the genres of ‘persuasive’ and ‘report’ writing using our reading skills and IDL topic work to inform our pieces. In reading, fluency, expression and comprehension will continue to be our priority; some groups will continue to look at inference and creation of questions. We will also look at Scottish poetry this term as a class. We will explore and extend our knowledge of plurals and apostrophes, as well as, refine and develop our use of punctuation. Spelling will continue to take the form of active activities related to the ‘Active Spelling’ resource, the children will continue to experience phonemes and blends pertinent to the ability and stage.

Numeracy

Pupils will continue in their working groups focussing on 1^st and 2^nd level concepts. The circles and rectangles groups will be tackling multiplication and division with remainders. The squares and rectangles will also focus on these areas at their level focussing on quick recall of facts. This will include learning new multiplication and division strategies for longer multiplication.

All pupils will also look at Money with Miss Grimley, with links to addition and subtraction and will later focus on Fractions and Decimals as part of their Beyond Number topic on a Friday.

It is essential that times tables should continue to be practised at home regularly to ensure quick recall, as this will aid our learning in multiplication this term. Please also allow your children to experience ‘real’ money and chat with them about finance and budgeting appropriate to their age/stage.

Health and Well-being/ P.E

Pupils will continue to focus on our PATHS programme in class with Miss Grimley, building knowledge of our strategies relating to emotional regulation. Pupils are aware of their place within the upper school and the responsibility that goes with it. We will also look at substances that can damage our physical and emotional health, appropriate to our age and being Cyber Aware to protect ourselves online.

In P.E., we will be looking at

Tuesdays – Badminton/Tennis (Mrs McI)                                             **Football input potentially**

Fridays – Hockey (Miss G)

RRS

We will be looking at the articles and rights involved and associated in Holocaust Memorial Day in late January, Safe Internet Day and Children’s Mental Health Week in February, and World Book Day and World Water Day in March.

R.E

This term we will look at daily life in Jesus’ time and First century Palestine. Also, we will be learning about Judaism to link in with this.  During the term, we will also be preparing for Lent as we approach Easter time. Pupils will also continue to learn prayers and focus on reflection this term in class. As the term proceeds, we will prepare for and observe Lent in the approach to Easter, looking at this closer in class and assemblies.

IDL

Our IDL focus this term is ‘Continents’; pupils will use their previous skills and knowledge from our ‘Living things/ Climate change’ topic to take a closer look at individual continents. We will look at countries within continents, surrounding oceans, mapping skills, examine population, weather culture and traditions. Writing, ICT and Expressive arts lessons will also relate to this. We hope to share some of this learning with you.

As always, we are enjoying our time working with your children. Here’s to another fantastic term!

Thanks for your on-going support.

Mrs McIntyre & Miss Grimley

Welcome back, I hope that you have a peaceful Christmas. It has been great to see Primary 4 back, ready to learn and enthusiastic about all the wonderful learning that will happen in term 3.

We will continue to explore the UNCRC Rights of the Child, and refer to the Class Charter which we created together, to ensure that our classroom is a place where we feel safe, where we can learn and grow together.  This term pupils will be looking at articles and rights involved and associated in Holocaust Memorial Day in late January, Safe Internet Day and Children’s Mental Health Week in February, as well as World Book Day and World Water Day in March.

Literacy

In addition to our Bug Club readers, we will access a range of texts including ‘Inside Edinburgh Castle’, which will link into our writing and Social Studies learning this term. We will investigate the features of a range of types of text and will continue to develop our reading fluency and reading with expression skills. We will also use a range of comprehension strategies as we show our understanding of the texts we have read and will talk about implied messages from clues in the text as we answer literal and inferential questions.

During writing, we will explore report and explanatory writing, looking at the structure of these genres and creating our own pieces of writing.  To support us with our writing, we will be looking at the difference between fact and opinion and the importance of notetaking.

Spelling will take the form of active spelling activities, and the children will experience phonemes and blends at their working level.

 Numeracy & Maths

The class will continue to participate in daily Number Talk activities, to assist in developing a range of strategies for solving mathematical problems.

We will look at multiplication and division, using a range of strategies and materials as well increasing our mental agility when recalling the 2,3,4,5,8 and 10 times tables. We will look at the patterns and links between these and use this knowledge to solve multiplication problems. We will also show our understanding of the concept of division, making connections with multiplication facts, as well as showing understanding of the concept of a remainder.

Health and Wellbeing

As we continue our PATHS programme for P4, we will be reflecting on friendship. We will also investigate ways of staying healthy and having a healthy lifestyle. This will link with our learning in Science, during which we will look at the human body and some of the important organs and their functions.

We will continue with the Do Be Mindful programme which will allow us, through the use of a range of strategies, to look at ways that we can take a mindful moment each day.

PE

PE is on a Wednesday and Friday. This term we will be covering;

• basketball
• gymnastics

Children will require PE kit each PE day.  Please make sure your child is not wearing jewellery on these days as they will be asked to remove these items. Jewellery is not allowed during PE for health and safety reasons. If your child cannot take part for any reason, please contact the school.

IDL

We will look at all things Scottish this term, beginning with the geography and landscape of Scotland, as well as our culture including music, poetry and food. We will then move on to focussing on Scottish castles, looking at the importance and features of these historical buildings. We will use our developing digital skills to help us research and present our findings using Microsoft word.

Expressive Arts 

As we explore Scotland, we will be looking at some traditional Scottish music, investigating instruments and some well-known Scottish songs.

We will also reflect on the work on well-known Scottish artists, and will create our own pieces focusing on presenting a range of visual information using various materials.

Religious Education

We will be exploring Palestine at the time of Jesus and will compare the features of a synagogue with that of our Catholic Church. We will also begin to look more closely at the significance of the Sacraments as we being our preparation for First Holy Communion. As the term progresses, we will consider the Holy Season of Lent, as we look forward to the great Feast of Easter.

During assembly, the children will reflect on Jesus as a teacher and healer and will become more familiar with some examples of Jesus teaching and healing in the Gospels.

The children will take part in class prayers and School Masses, and we will continue to build on our knowledge of common prayers and Mass responses.

Homework will be distributed on a Monday to be completed and returned by Friday.

Keep an eye on the School App and your child’s Learning Journal profile for a snapshot of some of our wonderful learning!

Thank you for your support, I am looking forward to a really great term 3 with Primary 4!

Mrs. MacKinnon.

If your child is in P3 and you wish them to receive the Sacrament of First Confession, ( in preparation for First Holy Communion when they are in P4.) you must register your child at your parish.

When e-mailing please include the name of your child and the church where you would like your child to receive First Communion. Please e-mail the church with these details no later than Friday 30th January. 

The e-mail address  is  stephen.mcgrattan@rcdg.org.uk

On Tuesday 3rd February there will be a parents’ meeting in St Joseph’s Hall (for all three Kilmarnock parishes) at 7pm to explain more about the sacraments and the process of preparation.

This information can also  be found in the Sunday bulletin for the Kilmarnock Parishes.

The upcoming dates and times for the church preparation sessions for P4 children who are preparing for First Communion are as follows;

Session 6 – Sunday 25th January

Session 7 – Sunday 22nd February

Session 8 – Sunday 22nd March

Session 9 – Sunday 26th April

Session 10 – Sunday 10th May

Retreat day – Saturday 16th May  ( 10am-2pm)

These monthly ‘I Belong’ sessions will take place at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church before Sunday Mass. The sessions will begin at 10:15 in the Norbert Room in the church.

Fr Stephen will meet with parents to discuss the programme on Sunday 25th January at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church at 11:10 prior to Sunday Mass.