Dear Parent/Carer,

I hope that this letter once again finds you and your families well, and can I reiterate a warm thank you for your amazing work with our young people during this period of lockdown. Following my recent communication, I was keen to ensure you were updated in regards to our plan for careful and considered return of our young people and staff to school.

In reaching the following proposals, I would like to express a debt of gratitude to your Head Teachers, your Parent Council Chairs and parents who have formed part of our renewal workstreams in the Council.

In addition, I am deeply grateful to the huge numbers of you who have completed our parent survey, which has had over 3000 responses to date. The plans to return have been jointly developed by a huge number of council services who have worked alongside us to reach this stage, including Facilities Management, Catering, Health and Safety, Human Resources and Transport, to name but a few. In reaching our model, we have considered, at the front and centre of our thinking, the safety and wellbeing of our young people, staff and their families as we are so aware that this will be your prime concern.

To this end, can we advise of some of the following headline measures as being applicable to all of our schools:

• Cleaning patterns and routines have been established for our schools to support the prevention of spread of COVID-19, these are specific to each school.
• Shared materials in classrooms have been removed and young people are being issued with personal equipment and stationery that they will be able to take home to support blended learning. Where young people have to share materials, e.g. practical subjects, this is addressed specifically using cleaning routines.
• Transport has clearly been a very detailed issue and working capacities have been changed to ensure social distancing on all forms of school transport, schools will provide separate communications to those requiring transport.
• Risk assessments for pupil and staff return have been carried out and are in place, given that we already have some staff and pupils attending in June.
• Social distancing of 2m has been a pre-requisite for the setup of classrooms and other spaces that your child will use, in addition child-friendly communications and graphics will be present in all of our schools. Some schools will adopt a “social bubble” approach, this will be made clear in the school specific communication you will receive.
• Individual schools have planned for the safe arrival and pick-up of pupils in a measured fashion and this too will be communicated to you in school-specific communications.

Pupil attendance in all schools

The attendance model for all schools in East Ayrshire has been agreed at a consistent level to ensure equity for all of our learners, and we have also clearly ensured that our children who are more vulnerable have been appropriately considered. Due to the particular needs of young people in our specialist sector schools, these arrangements will be communicated on a school by school basis. Guidance on re-opening early childhood centres has just been released this week, thus further details will be forthcoming in this regard.

Primary school pupils

Your child will attend primary school two days per week (or equivalent), in a pattern that will be released by your school via the school app or other means. The limited attendance is governed by the current social distancing requirements which restricts the number of young people we can have in our schools at any one time. Some young people may attend on further days, this is a matter delegated to the school, in regards to young people in a vulnerable situation.

Secondary school pupils

The attendance model for secondary schools in East Ayrshire is clearly more complex, due to significant differentials in school roll, capacity and available staffing in regard to specific subjects. We are therefore taking a phased and measured approach to ensure the safety of the full school community, and also protect the wellbeing of young people in operating initially with lower numbers as they return, and adapt to what will be very different circumstances.

This model will operate as follows:-

Wednesday 12th – Friday 28th August – 1 day per week for all pupils (or equivalent), with added time enhancement for senior phase to be released by individual schools. This permits secondary schools working on a two week rotation model to see a full run of their timetable and address any concerns before upscaling pupil attendance.

Subject to review, all pupils will begin attending 2 days per week, again with added time enhancement for senior phase w/b 31st August.

Clearly this situation is completely dynamic and we will continue to be guided by government and public health guidance and advice, and where we can safely increase attendance, this will absolutely be the case.

I am also very aware that the proposed pattern, when released by your school, will not meet the needs of everyone, and I ask you to bear with your school as they answer queries specific to individual family circumstances. A position has not yet been reached by the Scottish Government in regards to the provision of childcare for keyworkers for August, I therefore ask for your understanding that we cannot answer any questions in this regard until the position is declared nationally.

In addition to many aspects of pupil return, we know that parents and carers will have many questions, and we hope that some of these may be answered in some of the statements below:

• Children do NOT require to wear uniform if any family have been unable to access this due to lockdown or other circumstances. Our priority is absolutely having our young people back with us.
• We have asked schools, where possible, that siblings who attend the same school, attend on the same days.
• Government guidance advises that young people may not leave the premises at lunch to access home lunch or outside catering, we ask for your understanding on this during this return phase. Children are welcome to bring a packed lunch and free school meals and paid catering will be provided on a trolley service to classrooms, this has also freed up extra capacity to house more young people in our schools.
• Transport should still be applied for in the normal way and you can check entitlement and apply for free school meals and footwear and clothing grants online. It is important that parents enrol for our Parent Pay system as cash will not be handled in schools.

• If your family have booked a holiday for the week including 12th August, the absence of your young person will be authorised given the unanticipated change to the Summer break.

Summer holidays

Information on emergency childcare over the forthcoming Summer holiday has already been sent to all parents and carers who are already registered for this provision, as this childcare will change over the Summer break.

Blended learning

Clearly face-to-face teaching is only one part of a rigorous blended learning approach, we are preparing supplementary information for all parents and carers, as we move into a new phase of learning, this will be made available to parents and carers in the new school term.

Next steps

I am meeting again with your Parent Council Chairs on Wednesday 24th June where we will have further discussion around the safe recovery of schools and discuss the findings of the parent survey as we move into our new phase of learning. These will also be shared with your individual schools to influence provision on a local level.

Can I please ask for your understanding in working with your schools over the last week of term as they move towards the Summer Holiday, your Head Teachers have put an incredible amount of time and thought into their return models and they too appreciate that parents and carers are incredibly anxious about school return and patterns of attendance. I ask that this is borne in mind in any discussions you may require to have with your schools going forward.

Finally, can I advise that, as has been the case throughout this crisis, that there will be a separate release of information for our young people returning to school, they too have been part of an authority-wide survey and have met in their pupil council groupings in all schools over the past weeks, as an integral part of our thinking as we return.

Can I wish you and your families a very happy Summer, and please know that our central education team will remain in place over this time should the situation change in any way that would see us able to implement a further return of young people as intimated.

With all my best wishes to you and your families at this time.

LINDA McAULAY-GRIFFITHS
Head of Education

If you have good quality school uniform that no longer fits we would be very grateful if it could be freshly cleaned and then dropped at the school over the next few days.  A box will be available outside the school to leave these items.

Next week we will then place a school uniform bank outside the main door, anyone may collect uniform from this.

We could not let our Primary 7 children move to St Joseph’s Academy without one final goodbye.  All of the Primary 7 children are invited to attend the school on Thursday 25th June at 10am for about 30mins.  Due to restrictions no adults can enter the building with the children.

Children will come to the school hall where they will presented with a gift from Mount Carmel Primary School.  The children will also have returned to them items which they had left behind in school.

Hello boys and girls and welcome to our assembly today. Let us start this by listening to Fr Martin and singing a great hymn together.

Thank you Fr Martin what a beautiful way to start our assembly together with one of our favourite hymns, I hope you joined in some of the actions too.

This week has been another busy week for Home Learning, it is has been great to see all the activities that you have been working on and all the different skills that you are learning from members of your family.

We also had our first Virtual Sports Day. Thank you to all of you that were able to take part in this. It was lovely to see so many photographs and videos showing just how hard you tried at all of the different challenges. It was also great to see some of new Primary 1 children taking part in the challenges too, well done! Next week we have a special video to share showing some highlights from teachers and pupils. Mrs McGahon is currently collating a total of all the points from this and the winning house will be shared during our next Home Learning Assembly.

Thank you to our Primary 5 and 6 buddies that completed an additional task this week for our new Primary 1s, please follow this link to see what they have been working on.

https://blogs.glowscotland.org.uk/ea/mountcarmelps2017/p1-transition-group-2020-2021/say-hello-to-your-buddies/

During our PATHS activities, we talk a lot about our emotions and feelings. We have spent some time talking about comfortable and uncomfortable feelings. This week we have an additional challenge for you, can you recognise what these feelings are and if they are comfortable or uncomfortable. What other feelings can you think of? Are these comfortable or uncomfortable?

Follow this link to see our lovely staff showing a range of emotions.

https://blogs.glowscotland.org.uk/ea/mountcarmelps2017/2020/06/08/paths-challenge/

To finish our assembly today we have a Proud Cloud to share from Mrs Strachan.

Thank you all so much boys and girls and continue to stay safe.

With love from all of the staff

#TeamMC

Hello boys and girls and welcome to our first assembly in June.

We hope that you are all doing well.  It has been so lovely to read your emails and to have a chance to speak with some of you and your families too. Let’s take a moment to pause and to join our hands in prayer.  This week we have a special prayer from Fr Martin.

What a beautiful way for us to begin out time together, thank you so much Fr Martin for taking the time to do this for us.

This week you have all continued to work so well on all of your different activities from your teachers and so many of you are learning life skills too – cooking, gardening and helping out around the house.  Well done for being such great stars.

This week we have Proud Clouds from Mrs McCreadie and from Miss Mudge.  Have a look at the things they are proud of:

Thank you for all of your Proud Cloud contributions.  Mrs Crawford has been adding these to our blog have a look at our latest Proud Clouds.

https://blogs.glowscotland.org.uk/ea/mountcarmelps2017/category/wellbeing-blog/

One of the activities that we used to do each day as part of our PATHS programme was to share compliments for our PATHS Pupil of the Day.  This is something that you can still do at home.  This week try to choose one family member each day to give compliments to; remember that person should also give a compliment to themselves too.

Our Primary 5 and 6 future buddies have been thinking about what makes our school great and will soon be sharing their ideas with our new Primary 1 children and families.  Miss Mudge has been busy creating a beautiful end of year celebration for our Primary 7 children – we can’t wait to see what the final item will look like.

Just before our assembly comes to an end we have some exciting new about next week.  Normally in the month of June, Mount Carmel has a special Health Week and a Sport Day.  Next week we shall continue this tradition with our first Home Learning Health Week and Sports Day.  There is a special post that tells you all about it with some great clips of our teachers taking part in the challenges.  We hope that you all enjoy the Health Week linked Home Learning Tasks and especially enjoy your Sports Day challenge.  If you are able to we would to see some videos or pictures of what you are doing, please send these on to your class teacher.

Thank you boys and girls for all that you continue to do, keep safe.

Remember that we love and miss you all.  Have a look at this special message from all of the staff in the school just to say how much we miss you and are looking forward to seeing you all soon.

From all of us at MCPS.

Together we are #Team MC

We realise that the current situation can be challenging for everyone, both adults and children and we are eager to support you as best we can as we face these challenges together.

As part of our Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) our coach from Barnardo’s Scotland, who supports the implementation of the PATHS® programme in school will be taking questions relating to the Social and Emotional Health and Wellbeing of parents, children and family members.

If you or your child have any questions regarding challenges you are currently experiencing, perhaps dealing with difficult feelings or behaviours in your home or dealing with new challenges presented by staying at home, you can send us your question and our coach from Barnardo’s will respond. As always, if you have a particular concern regarding your child that you want to discuss please contact the school directly.

Good morning boys and girls and welcome back to our next Home Learning Assembly.

We hope you had a lovely long weekend and were able to enjoy some time in the sunshine.

We are now in the month of May when we honour Mary, Mother of God. St Teresa of Calcutta once said, “if you are ever upset call upon our Lady”

Let’s start this week’s assembly with this simple prayer.

Mary, Mother of Jesus please be a mother to us now and look after everyone we love.  Help us to live like Jesus and have faith in his love.

Amen

We know it is difficult being away from family and friends and we are all missing you too. We hope you are enjoying the tasks and activities and we enjoy seeing and hearing what you have been up to. The most important thing is that you and your family are happy and healthy, so do what you can when you can. Remember we are always here if you want to contact us.

Last Thursday was Mr McMillan’s last day as our janitor.  It was a sad day for all of us but he will be able to spend much more time with his family soon. He was telling us he is going to teach his 5 grandchildren to swim. A lot of the staff from our school met in the car park to clap for Mr McMillan as he has been our hero for many years.  He was very surprised to see us. When we get back to school we will have a very special celebration for him.

Congratulations to all our Primary 7s who have received their Pope Francis Faith Award.  Special congratulations go to Alfie, Tosia, Abbey, Sarah and Olivia Smith.  They received a Parish Commendation from Fr. Martin for their positive contributions to the life of the Parish.   Well done everyone. We will arrange for you to receive your certificates when we have them.

One thing we are doing a lot of is washing our hands and using a lot of soap and water.

We have a special challenge for you this week. All across the country this is National Water Week. We would like you to design something that either reduces water wastage or collects water.  I know this is something that our Eco Committee knows all about. You can draw a picture or make a model and take a picture. Send your pictures to your class teacher.  We will display some of the most ingenious at a later assembly.

This unusual time has given us the opportunity to think about all the people around us and how much they do for us. We are all very proud of all the boys and girls in Mount Carmel and over coming weeks the staff will share what makes them proud.

This week Mrs Travers and Mrs Crawford share their Proud Cloud.

We finish our assembly today by thanking God for our families, our NHS and key workers.

Continue to stay safe boys and girls. Show love to the people around you, we love and miss you all.

All the staff at Mount Carmel Primary School.

Together we are #Team MC

Hello boys and girls and welcome to our first Home Learning Assembly.

Fr Martin has sent us all a special message with some new verses of our favourite song ‘Super Crab’ included.

Fr Martin you are amazing!

Together we are Team MC.

Super ideas for scavenger hunts

Many of our children find Clicker a useful tool to use in school.

This is now available free for use at home during school closures.

https://www.cricksoft.com/uk/clicker/clicker-at-home

If you would like to make use of this then complete our query form and we will be in touch with the access code that you will require.

Contacting Team Mount Carmel

You just need to go to www.cricksoft.com/home-installation for all the information you need to get started, including installation instructions and helpful hints for getting the most out of the software.

Clicker 8 is compatible with Windows/Mac machines.

There is lots of training materials on our website on how to use this too and we are regularly holding Clicker webinars to demo the software too.
See https://www.cricksoft.com/uk/training/clicker/clicker-8/tutorials and https://www.cricksoft.com/uk/training/clicker/clicker-8/webinars

Please read the following document with advice about helping children to stay calm.

Brainstem-Calmer-Activities

Dear Parent/Carer,

In this strange situation we find ourselves in it’s hard to think today would have been the last day of term. Over the last few weeks we have become accustomed to what has become the new normal. We don’t know how long this situation will continue for but must remember this will pass and the joy and laughter will return to our school family.

I would like to take the opportunity to thank my whole school team for the effort and enthusiasm in everything they do for our children and families. Also, I know my team and I would like to thank you for your continued support.

I wish you a happy and peaceful Easter and hope we will all be able to be together soon.

Together we are Team MC

Thank you for trying some of Home Learning Tasks this week.  For the holidays we have been working hard to create some possible ideas that you might wish to complete.  Please remember that these tasks are simply suggestions for you and there is no expectation that these tasks should be completed.

The first day of the holidays is Friday 3rd April.  Home Learning will resume on Monday 21st April.

Click on the following links for additional tasks, remember there are also lots of activities included in your original home learning packs as well as our Home Learning Area.

Holiday ideas grid P1-3 week 1

holiday ideas Grid week 2 P1-3

Holidays ideas grid – Week 1 -P4-7

Holiday Ideas Grid -Week 2 -P4-7

Together we are Team MC

Please find below the Home Learning Tasks for the week.

Remember to try to complete the core tasks and some of the additional tasks.  There is no expectation that all tasks should be completed.

Literacy Tasks

Numeracy Tasks

Health and Wellbeing Tasks

Possible daily routine.

8.00-9.00 Breakfast, play outside

9.00-10.00 Joe Wicks on YouTube and spelling/handwriting

10.00-11.00 Home Learning – Literacy task

11.00-11.30 Snack and play outside

11.30-12.30 Home Learning- Numeracy tasks

12.30 – 1.30 Lunch and play outside

1.30-2.30 Walk or exercise

2.30-3.00 Home Learning – IDL task

Please find below the Home Learning Tasks for the week.

Remember to try to complete the core tasks and some of the additional tasks.  There is no expectation that all tasks should be completed.

Literacy Tasks

Numeracy Tasks

Health and Wellbeing Tasks

Possible daily routine.

8.00-9.00 Breakfast, play outside

9.00-10.00 Joe Wicks on YouTube and spelling/handwriting

10.00-11.00 Home Learning – Literacy task

11.00-11.30 Snack and play outside

11.30-12.30 Home Learning- Numeracy tasks

12.30 – 1.30 Lunch and play outside

1.30-2.30 Walk or exercise

2.30-3.00 Home Learning – IDL task

Please find below the Home Learning Tasks for the week.

Remember to try to complete the core tasks and some of the additional tasks.  There is no expectation that all tasks should be completed.

Literacy Tasks

Numeracy Tasks

Health and Wellbeing Tasks

Possible daily routine.

8.00-9.00 Breakfast, play outside

9.00-10.00 Joe Wicks on YouTube and spelling/handwriting

10.00-11.00 Home Learning – Literacy task

11.00-11.30 Snack and play outside

11.30-12.30 Home Learning- Numeracy tasks

12.30 – 1.30 Lunch and play outside

1.30-2.30 Walk or exercise

2.30-3.00 Home Learning – IDL task

Please find below the Home Learning Tasks for the week.

Remember to try to complete the core tasks and some of the additional tasks.  There is no expectation that all tasks should be completed.

Literacy Task

Numeracy Task

Health and Wellbeing Task

Possible daily routine.

8.00-9.00 Breakfast, play outside

9.00-10.00 Joe Wicks on YouTube and spelling/handwriting

10.00-11.00 Home Learning – Literacy task

11.00-11.30 Snack and play outside

11.30-12.30 Home Learning- Numeracy tasks

12.30 – 1.30 Lunch and play outside

1.30-2.30 Walk or exercise

2.30-3.00 Home Learning – IDL task

Please find below the Home Learning Tasks for the week.

Remember to try to complete the core tasks and some of the additional tasks.  There is no expectation that all tasks should be completed.

Literacy Task

Numeracy Task

Health and Wellbeing Task

Possible daily routine.

8.00-9.00 Breakfast, play outside

9.00-10.00 Joe Wicks on YouTube and spelling/handwriting

10.00-11.00 Home Learning – Literacy task

11.00-11.30 Snack and play outside

11.30-12.30 Home Learning- Numeracy tasks

12.30 – 1.30 Lunch and play outside

1.30-2.30 Walk or exercise

2.30-3.00 Home Learning – IDL task

Please find below the Home Learning Tasks for the week.

Remember to try to complete the core tasks and some of the additional tasks.  There is no expectation that all tasks should be completed.

Literacy Task

Numeracy Task

Health and Wellbeing Task

Possible daily routine.

8.00-9.00 Breakfast, play outside

9.00-10.00 Joe Wicks on YouTube and spelling/handwriting

10.00-11.00 Home Learning – Literacy task

11.00-11.30 Snack and play outside

11.30-12.30 Home Learning- Numeracy tasks

12.30 – 1.30 Lunch and play outside

1.30-2.30 Walk or exercise

2.30-3.00 Home Learning – IDL task

Please find below the Home Learning Tasks for the week.

Remember to try to complete the core tasks and some of the additional tasks.  There is no expectation that all tasks should be completed.

Literacy Task

Numeracy Task

Health and Wellbeing Task

Possible daily routine.

8.00-9.00 Breakfast, play outside

9.00-10.00 Joe Wicks on YouTube and spelling/handwriting

10.00-11.00 Home Learning – Literacy task

11.00-11.30 Snack and play outside

11.30-12.30 Home Learning- Numeracy tasks

12.30 – 1.30 Lunch and play outside

1.30-2.30 Walk or exercise

2.30-3.00 Home Learning – IDL task

Could parents/careers please help children to check Glow mail. Each class teacher has sent an e-mail and are looking forward to getting your replies.

Follow this step by step guide for accessing Glow mail for the first time.

Remember if you have any difficulties or have an idea to share please use or contact us form.

contact us

Together we are are Team MC.

Dear Parents/Carers

As we come to the end of the first week of this difficult situation the team at Mount Carmel would like to thank you for your understanding and support. We would also like to thank the many key workers from our school community who are caring for and supporting East Ayrshire.

It’s difficult to comprehend how much has changed over so short a time.

From Monday 30th March our Home Learning Zone will contain activities posted on each class blog.

There will be three core activities and a selection of additional tasks. The Home Learning Zone will be updated regularly. I anticipate there will be a few teething problems but we will work through them just as we have with glow access this week.

It’s important that children and families feel supported and not isolated. You can contact us anytime using our online form and we will get back to you as soon as we can. We are happy to hear any suggestions you have or ideas you want to share. We are also here if you want to just have a chat. We will continue to post ideas and suggestions in our Health and Wellbeing area. It’s important we all look after ourselves and each other.

I don’t underestimate the impact this pandemic is having and will continue to have on us all for the foreseeable future but as the school family of Mount Carmel we will get through this.

Mrs McConville

Head Teacher