Please click the link below for information regarding Mount Carmel’s guidance on Remote Learning.

Letter to parent/ carers – Remote Learning

If your child is due to start school in August 2021 we would be delighted for them to join our Mount Carmel family.

Due to the current situation registration will not take place at individual schools. Registration will be completed online between Monday 11th and Friday 15th January.

Please follow this link to complete Primary 1 registration.

To complete the online registration you will require to upload:

• a copy of your child’s birth certificate
• two proofs of your residency within the catchment area, for example, Council Tax Notice and utility bill.

You must register your child in only one school, either the denominational or non-denominational school for your catchment area. If you are unable to register online then please phone your local school who will assist you to register your child.

As you are aware Primary 3-7 from Wednesday 13th January will use the Glow app Teams to receive work on a daily basis.  We ask that all children access Glow and Teams on Monday/Tuesday.  When the are on Teams they should see their class Team.  All children should post a message to their teacher.

Please follow this link for a guide to using Teams.  Please be aware that this has not been produced by the school.  The first two minutes is the most helpful.

If you are unsure of this please use the IT issues area of the school website for support.

A dedicated support page has been created.  This is available on the main menu.

IT Issues – Guide page

Password Resets

To request a Glow password reset, please contact us using the ‘Contacting Team MC’ form on our website.

Logging Into Glow
Follow this link for details of how to login.

Accessing Teams through Glow

Microsoft-Teams-Guidance-for-Parents.docx.pdf.

Downloading Microsoft Teams Apps

Where possible, we encourage pupils to download the dedicated App for Microsoft Teams. We also encourage pupils to install Teams on their PC or Laptop if using one to access learning via Teams. Instructions can be found here (page 2 only):

Issue – Can’t open Email, Word, Excel, PowerPoint etc. so can’t complete work issued

All pupils can download office for free and it will work on all devices. You can download Outlook, Word, PowerPoint etc to use on your phone, tablet, laptop or PC. For instructions click here:

Issue– Can’t access Microsoft Teams. 

To find Teams, pupils simply click on the Teams tile in Glow, and they should see any teams they are part of.  For specific and additional guidance, click here:

Issue – I am using a mobile phone, and when I sign in to Glow, I can’t see the tiles for Teams or Google Classrooms

We do not recommend that phones are used.  If this is your only form of accessing content please contact the school directly. If using this for a short time when you sign in, near the top you will see a grey box with ‘My Launch Pad’ and a small grey triangle. Click the triangle, and from the drop down menu, select ‘Mount Carmel Primary’. Once you move to the school launch pad you will see the Teams tile, click on a tile to access content.

Issue– I want to use my Xbox or Playstation to sign in to Glow

It is possible to use your console to access Glow. However, we do not recommend that you do so as some of the features within Glow do not work via Xbox or Playstation. Please contact the school directly if this is your only way of accessing content.

Hi Primary 5.

I hope you have all had a lovely Christmas. I am really looking forward to working with you all again this year. I miss you all so much and wish we could be in class, but unfortunately we’ve got to keep each other safe and work online just now. Enjoy your weekend and I look forward to hearing from you all on Monday.

Love

Mrs McGowan

Please click the links below for the tasks for Monday and Tuesday, these can also be found in the Primary 5 Teams page.  Follow these instructions for how to access this.

Microsoft Teams Guidance for Parents.docx

Primary 5 Mrs McGowan

P5 Mental Maths

P5 Spelling

Children will continue to be dropped off at 9am and collected at 3pm via the main entrance.  This will continue until further notice.

Monday 11th January

Option 1 – Sausage sizzler, milk, biscuit, fruit

Option 2 – Baked Potato and cheese, milk, biscuit, fruit

Tuesday 12th January

Option 1 – Chicken goujons and wedges, water, yogurt

Option 2 – Tomato Pasta, water, yogurt

Wednesday 13th January

Option 1 – Steak Pie, milk and yogurt

Option 2 – Chicken fajitas, milk, yogurt

Thursday 14th January

Option 1- Fish and Chips, Jelly, milk

Option 2 – Cheese Panini, jelly, milk

Friday 15th January

Option 1 – Pizza and salad, water, cake

Option 2 – Stir fry noodles, water, cake

Children attending on Friday will be collected by staff from the main entrance at 9am.  Children will be dismissed from the main entrance at 3pm.

We have adapted our format for Home Learning.  For P1 and P2 work will be shared on the class blogs area of the website.  For P3-P7 children will be using the TEAMS tool as the main platform for receiving and sharing work.  The TEAMS tool is accessible through GLOW.  Please follow this link for guidance on accessing Teams Microsoft Teams Guidance for Parents.docx.  Children have received a copy of their GLOW email and password. If your child is unsure of this  please use the website query page.

On Monday 11^th and Tuesday 12^th January, activities will be accessible on class blogs for all children and added to the P3-P7 TEAMS pages.

On Monday and Tuesday there will be literacy, numeracy and health and wellbeing tasks.  From Wednesday children will receive daily tasks in literacy and numeracy.  There will also be a further other curricular area (IDL) activity.  We request that literacy and numeracy tasks are completed daily, IDL tasks can be completed if time allows.  Completed work can be emailed directly to class teachers.

Primary 1 – Mrs Duff karen.duff@eastayrshire.org.uk

Primary 1/2 – Mrs Dunsmore alana.baird@eastayrshire.org.uk

Primary 3 – Mrs Strachan aisling.strachan@eastayrshire.org.uk

Primary 4 – Mrs Travers susan.travers@eastayrshire.org.uk

Primary 5 – Mrs McGowan angela.mcgowan@eastayrshire.org.uk

Primary 6 – Miss Mudge nicola.mudge@eastayrshire.org.uk

Primary 6/7 – Mr Bertoncini elio.bertoncini@eastayrshire.org.uk

We are currently awaiting further guidance from East Ayrshire Council and will be in touch with arrangements for subsequent weeks.

Mrs McConville

Head Teacher

Dear Parents/Carers,

On behalf of all the staff in Mount Carmel I would like to wish you and your family a Happy New Year.

Unfortunately we will not be welcoming all our children back as we would have wished. Circumstances require us to move to a period of home learning for most. I know that the previous period of lockdown was difficult for some families. We have taken on board your comments from our survey of September 2020 and had put plans in place based on these and the experiences of staff who were organising home learning.

Unlike the previous period of lockdown our school will remain open and children of key workers will attend Mount Carmel rather than a Hub. Our staff will work on a rota basis within the school to support these children and when not in school teachers will prepare home learning activities.

As we are able to be in school it will be easier for us to contact you and the children and to adapt to any changing circumstances.

Tomorrow we will give details of how home learning will be organised initially.

I know this is a difficult and worrying time for everyone. Please be assure we will support our children the best we can.

Mrs McConville

Head Teacher

🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳
Today our children all had a fantastic Christmas Party day.  This was made extra special with a delivery of 30 Dominoes Pizzas. Thank you to a very kind parent who donated this for our fabulous day.

🍕🍕🍕🍕🍕🍕🍕🍕🍕🍕🍕🍕🍕🍕🍕🍕🍕🍕🍕🍕🍕

If children wish to they can come to school on Friday in their pyjamas for some end of term fun in their class.

Today Santa took some time out of his day to make a special visit to the school. He walked around the school grounds, waving at the children and even had a chat with some of the children through the window.  Santa left a selection box for each of us to enjoy.

Thank you Santa, we love you!🎅

If your child wishes to send Christmas cards to school please put these in their homework folder on Thursday 3rd December or Thursday 10th December.  These will then be handed out on the Monday.

Thank you for your co-operation with this.

All of the children were able to take part today in our first full Live Assembly.  Mrs McConville and Mrs Fergusson shared our certificate winners from last week and some photographs of things that were happening around the school.  Each class then got to say hello to each of the other classes.  Next time we look forward to showing off our Christmas Tree and have a special message from  Primary 6/7.

#TEAM MC

Thank you for all your amazing donations today. The children looked great and had lots of fun. Thank you to our amazing kitchen staff for special spotty cupcakes today too.

Fantastic photos and our donation total will be included on the blog next week.

Due to current regulations we are unable to have parent/carer meetings this term.   Primary 2-7 class teachers will provide a written interim report for each child.  These will be sent home on Friday 4th December.

Primary 1 parent/carers will receive a phonecall from the class teacher the week beginning Monday 30th November.  Further details regarding this and a choice of days and times will be sent to Primary 1 parents/carers in due course.

Dear Parents/Carers,

In Mount Carmel we are following a new homework procedure in line with our current restrictions. On a Monday your child will receive their personal Homework folder. In this you will find a login card with details of all logins and passwords that may be required over the coming months. The folder will also contain a Homework Task Grid and for some classes there may be a copy of a reading book. To begin with homework will focus on reading and active literacy. Over the coming months there will be a variety of tasks from different areas of the curriculum.

The Homework Task Grid will provide details of a core reading task which must be completed, a selection of Active Literacy Tasks and an additional Sumdog task. Please help your child to choose two of the Active Literacy Tasks. There is no expectation that all tasks will be completed.

We ask that all homework folders are returned to the school on the Thursday to allow for items to be quarantined appropriately. New homework grids and reading books will then be provided on the following Monday.

We thank you for your continued co-operation and support at this time.

Kind regards,

Mrs McConville

Due to technical issues this survey has been added to the school website.  If you completed this through survey monkey your results may not have been saved.  Please complete again on this page or on the paper copy provided to your child.

This questionnaire is available online and also as a paper copy.  Please only complete type per child. Please complete all areas of this to allow us to provide the best service possible if a future school closure was to occur.

From Monday 24th August there will be a designated area in the school playground for children to be collected at the end of the school day.

Primary 1 -3 parents/carers can continue to access the lower school playground at the end of the day to collect children.

Primary 4-7 parents/carers are required to wait in the Primary 6 and 7 playground to meet children.

The school gates will continue to be closed until 2.55pm.  We request that no one enters the school grounds until this time.

From Monday 17th August we ask that parents and carers no longer enter the school playground to drop children at school.  Children will walk on their own from the lower school entrance gate and upper school entrance gate.  A member of the management team will be at these gates to welcome the children to school.

Primary 1 parents and carers may continue to enter the lower school playground until children are collected by their teachers.  We ask that from Monday 24th August Primary 1 parents and carers no longer enter the school playground to drop children at school.

The reason for these changes is that we want to keep children and families safe and support social distancing.

Please make sure that your child’s name is on the labels of jackets, jumpers, cardigans etc.

Please remember to adhere to social distancing when dropping  and collecting children at school.

Please read the document below regarding updates to school transport.

Transport Update

Please read the attached letter from Mrs McConville detailing the arrangements for pupils returning to Mount Carmel Primary School.

Mount Carmel Return of Pupils Aug 5th

East Ayrshire Council has provided wellbeing guidance for parents and careers to help support our children as they return to school.

Please open the document below

Supporting-wellbeing-for-children-guidance

Letter to all parents/carers from Head of Education

Tuesday 4th August 2020 10:29

Dear Parent/Carer,

I hope that this letter will find you and your family well and enjoying a well-earned summer break, albeit in rather different circumstances.

Following the recent announcement from the First Minister on the return of schools, I am delighted to be able to furnish you with further detail on our plans to reinstate education for young people in East Ayrshire. I speak for all staff when I say how much we have missed having our young people in our schools. I am very aware that this will be an anxious time for families and young people and hope that this communication will help you as your young people return to school. Our key focus as we return in the immediate sense is to support the wellbeing of everybody involved.  At this stage, I wish to express a note of sincere thanks to your Parent Council Chairs who have been an active part of our Local Phasing Plan workstreams and have attended several meetings over the summer break in this regard.

Date of Return of Pupils
As per previous communications, the Health and Safety of all has been our overriding priority. I am also acutely conscious that some of our young people require enhanced transition and many learners will not have visited their new schools until now.

With this in mind, almost all schools in East Ayrshire will undertake a “soft start” approach from Wednesday 12^th – Friday 14^th August to allow young people to experience what will be a new environment for all of us.  Individual schools will let you know their specific arrangements, including who should attend each day.

We have asked our schools to prioritise children in P1 and S1 in the first week, and know that the “very first day at school” for P1 is one to be cherished and celebrated. Please know that schools are making individual arrangements to allow parents to arrive with their children and capture this moment in some way.  Schools will communicate these arrangements individually.

Given this planned partial attendance of pupils, we would ask that any families for whom this causes difficulty, to please approach the school for assistance, bearing in mind that emergency critical childcare ceases on Thursday 6^th August for Early Childhood Centres and Friday 7^th August for school-aged children. All pupils in East Ayrshire should be therefore be attending full-time by Monday 17^thAugust, other than young people with ongoing health issues, quarantining or self-isolating. We would encourage parents and carers to contact their school if there are any issues or concerns around attendance that schools may be able to help with.

Early Learning and Childcare (ELC)
Each ECC will work towards the delivery of 600 hours of early learning and childcare taking account of the refreshed ELC guidance and public health measures published on 30 July 2020.

ECCs that delivered 1140 hours prior to lockdown will begin to reintroduce the delivery of 1140 hours of funded early learning and childcare on a phased basis. The increased hours will also be introduced in the new build Nether Robertland Early Childhood Centre and the new build Netherthird Early Childhood Centre on the same basis.

Further information for each individual ECC will be published on the Council website during week beginning 17 August, which will set out the timeframe for the delivery of hours in each location. I would ask for your patience while our staff work through these detailed arrangements.

Wellbeing and Learning
Your child’s wellbeing will always be our prime concern and staff are ready to welcome your child back to school in a welcoming way that links to our ongoing work on relationships across all of our schools.  You can access our pupil wellbeing framework here:
https://www.east-ayrshire.gov.uk/Resources/PDF/S/Supporting-wellbeing-for-children-guidance.pdf

In addition, we have been actively seeking views of parents and carers in regards to wellbeing and would welcome any further responses to our wellbeing survey which closes on Friday 7^th August: https://eastayrshi.re/wellbeingquestionnaire​

Our teams are ready to recommence learning at all levels, but a few activities such as choirs and assemblies are unable to run at this stage, as per guidance.  Children will also encounter some adaptations to PE and practical lessons to keep everyone safe.  Music tuition will also be delivered in a different way and parents /carers will be contacted where appropriate.

Transport and Arrival of Pupils
School transport will run as normal and pupils should access their assigned transport as normal.  Where pupils are dropped off at school by car, we respectfully ask that this is not directly at school gates to prevent entry areas becoming overcrowded.  Clearly this will not be the case for young people with additional support needs who require to be dropped off in school proximity.  Your child does not require a face covering for school transport, but is absolutely welcome to wear a covering should they prefer to do so.  Sanitation of hands will be expected on bus entry (for public and school transport) and staff working as escorts in taxis will be wearing a face mask.  Your school will also provide further information on pick-up and drop-off areas at the start and end of the day.

In accordance with government guidelines, parents will not be able to enter the school, and arrangements will be made with you directly should an emergency occur and you require to come to collect your child.

Ongoing Measures to Protect your Child/Children and Your Family
We have worked alongside your Parent Councils, Headteachers, the Council’s Health & Safety Team and Facilities & Property Management services over the summer period to ensure a safe return to school.

All schools have a set checklist and risk assessments completed in accordance with our Local Phasing Plan. There are a great deal of practical measures that we seek your support for as our young people return, in addition to the actions that we have undertaken/will undertake as pupils return.

All young people will be asked to wash or sanitise their hands on arrival at school and this will be encouraged throughout the day.  We would ask all young people to bring clean tissues to school where possible, and they may bring their own personal sanitiser if parents wish. School clothes should be washed as per normal routine and we ask that pupils limit personal items brought to school to those that are essential.

Clearly our cleaning routines are aligned with guidance, and indeed exceed this, communal areas will be cleaned regularly and access controlled to limit numbers in any toilet or limited space.  High traffic and “touch-point” areas will be cleaned regularly through the day.  Further information can be found here:
https://www.east-ayrshire.gov.uk/CouncilAndGovernment/Coronavirus/Schools-ecc.aspx​

With regard to physical distancing, the guidance is clear that there is no requirement for this in primary or secondary settings; however we wish to encourage this in all settings, particularly with our older secondary pupils.  We have issued guidance to all of our staff to reduce any unnecessary movement of pupils around schools and will encourage pupils to remain in groupings wherever possible.  A list of supporting actions has been issued to Headteachers to keep your young people and our staff as safe as possible, and signage and communications with our young people will reflect this.  Assemblies and other large gatherings such as school shows and Parents Evenings are unable to be held in the first term, subject to continued review and scientific advice.

Staff physical distancing from pupils is endorsed by the guidance at the standard 2 metres, and whilst we recognise that this will not be possible in all sectors, please understand that some of our staff will need to wear PPE where this is not possible.  We are already taking the most supportive measures that we can in recognising that this will be difficult for some of our pupils.

Catering
Detailed discussions have been ongoing with our Facilities teams and I am delighted to advise that a pre-order system will be in place for young people in our schools, this will take a differing format from primary to secondary.  Further details of school catering can be found at this link. https://www.east-ayrshire.gov.uk/schoolmeals.

Schools are arranging a variety of ways to distribute food following detailed discussions between Headteachers and School Catering Managers and all issues around allergies will be taken account of as always.  We ask that our pre-order system is supported wherever possible to expedite the distribution of food to our young people and keep everyone as safe as possible.

It is likely that most food will be consumed in classrooms initially to prevent mass gatherings of pupils in dining areas.  Food will be pre-packed and will feature hot and cold options and pre-packed cutlery. No breakfast or break food will be available at the very start of term, but this will be under constant review and provision will be expanded in time as we begin to settle back to routine. We therefore ask that parents ensure that young people have access to breakfast and bring a snack, if needed, until further notice.  We are happy to assist any parents or carers who may have difficulty with this, please alert your school if this is the case.

Pupils can continue to bring a packed lunch and we ask parents to work with us in actively encouraging young people to remain on the school site for lunch, as we are unable to supervise any provision made outside of school.

COVID-19 Surveillance
A national COVID-19 surveillance system is being initiated for staff and senior pupils involving testing on a voluntary basis, and we have been working with our local Public Health Teams to plan for any scenarios that may arise in our schools or ECCs.  We ask that parents and carers support us in the following ways in this regard:

• Please do not send your child to school or ECC if they, or any of your household, have symptoms or a diagnosis of COVID-19.  Please alert school immediately if this situation arises.
• Please arrange to pick your child up from school immediately if you are contacted to advise that they are symptomatic, and follow subsequent medical advice.  Schools have to ensure that any child who is symptomatic is taken home, according to the guidance.

Contingency Planning
Please know that schools have contingency plans ready, should there be any change to this plan for return, either through any change to physical distancing or indeed local or national lockdown being required.  Clearly, we do not wish to use these unless necessary, but we hope that parents and carers will be reassured to know that these are readily available.

SQA
There is, as yet, no full announcement on the SQA exam diet for 2021, we continue to canvass on your behalf for clarity for our learners and staff, particularly given that these courses have indeed commenced. A separate communication has been issued to young people receiving results today.

Some Practicalities…
In summary, we absolutely appreciate that this will be a return to school involving a huge mixture of both anxiety, but also indeed joy as young people see their friends and staff again. As a final helpful list to parents, can you please support us by:

• Reinforcing hygiene measures and social distancing with your child(ren).
• Having your child bring tissues to school to capture any coughs or sneezes.
• Ensuring your child does not bring unnecessary items to school.
• Working with your school in a positive way, even if things are difficult, we all want to help.
• Reinforcing positive relationships between children and our staff.
• Using our meal pre-order system and giving your child a break-time snack and breakfast, please let us know if we can help with this
• Not dropping children off directly at school gates (where possible), this will help us prioritise this space for young people with additional support needs who require this access.
• Understanding that we are not permitted to allow visitors to school buildings, other than in emergency or other exceptional circumstances.
• Following individual uniform advice issued by your school, as we appreciate some families will not yet have been able to access this.

Next Steps
Your school will send you a specific communication about their individual return plans within the next 24 hours.  Can I please ask that you bear in mind that school staff will return on Tuesday 11^th August in regard to any further queries you have specifically.

Can I end by thanking you all so much again for your support of your child’s learning.  My teams and I simply cannot wait to welcome them all back to school.

Kindest regards,

LINDA McAULAY-GRIFFITHS
Head of Education

Sent To You By East Ayrshire Council