Important information from Mr Kane and Mr Boyle from St. Joseph’s Academy

Message from Mr Kane

We have not forgotten about you. We are still gathering all data files from associated schools, and will be in touch in late May/early June to introduce you to staff and life at St. Joseph’s. We do not know when we will be able to welcome you formally, but staff are working to prepare an online introduction for you later in the month. As soon as we have all contact details we will be in touch with parents/carers. We would rather wait for all records to be with us than to send information to some families and not others. I would stress that the timeline for record transfer is as normal, but know that pupils and families will be more aware of the move to St. Joseph’s while schools are closed.

Message from Mr Boyle

A welcome video will go out this week or early next week. S1 classes are completed in terms of allocation. We consulted with Primary Heads and P7 teachers on positive peer groupings, as the Pastoral visits that would normally help with this were cancelled due to closure. There will be 4 S1 classes and an intake of 104.

All ASN information has gone to Mrs Hoy and she is aware of those requiring Learning support as Transition 1 meetings took place prior to closure.

Packs including timetables, transport information and school/East Ayrshire policies will be emailed in to P7 parents in June.

Individual departments may put their own introductory videos in the coming weeks.

This is a frightening and worrying time for everyone, but especially for our children. One of the strangest things for them to deal with is seeing people around them wearing masks of any description , whilst out and about.

The website link below explains this in a child-friendly way . Please have a read , we hope it helps to allay any fears your child/children may have .

https://www.middletownautism.com/covid19/seeing-others-wearing-masks-5-2020?

These pictures taken from the website can help you explain wearing masks with your child/children :

Please find below the link to the most recent  Parents/Carers newsletter issued by Education Scotland dated 11the May :

https://education.gov.scot/media/mahdmrxm/parentcarernewsissue1.pdf

Click the image to go straight to the link

There will be no Home Learning Assembly this Friday (8th May) due to the holiday.  It will resume again the following Friday (15th May).

Please look out for our Home Learning Assembly Post!

Assembly was always the highlight of our week and so now we have a Home Learning Assembly post which will also be sent by email..

We may not be able to be together in school right now, but every Friday we can be there for each other, find out what has been going on and who are the Star Pupils!

Together we are  Team MC !

Young People of  Galloway Diocese!

At Mass this morning Bishop Nolan set you all a challenge!:

To paint or draw a picture of your Priest and send them via Facebook Messenger to the RC Ayr page. We will use them to fill the Cathedral with artwork during this time when we cannot fill it with people!

If you are not on Facebook, you can email your artwork to Mrs MGahon on: Joanna.mcgahon@eastayrshire.org.uk

THANK YOU!

A huge thank you to everyone from Mount Carmel, past and present, who sent in messages, drawing , poems and lovely memories for Mr McMillan’s Memory Book. 

We have been overwhelmed by the response and are truly grateful for you all taking the time to send them in, he will be absolutely delighted I’m sure!

Unfortunately, there has to be cut off point….so please do not send anymore as sadly we won’t be able to add them in now. However, you could still make something for him and keep it at home till our schools go back and bring it in then and we will pass them on to Mr McMillan.

Welcome to the P1 Transition Group page for children starting Mount Carmel Primary School in August this year.
We really loved seeing all the boys and girls when you visited the school before the holidays and we hope that you are all very excited about coming to join us in August.

However, we are sad that we are now not going to see you all for a while. We would love to keep in touch as you are all now part of our Mount Carmel family.
Any family who would like to be part of this could they please contact Mrs. McGahon at:
Joanna.mcgahon@eastayrshire.org.uk

We are sad to announce that Mr. McMillan, our long serving school janitor will be retiring on May 5th this year. Mr McMillan will be turning 70 this year and has decided to hang up his keys for good!He has been part of the Mount Carmel family for 20 years and we obviously want to mark this in a special way. It is such a shame under the circumstances that the school will be closed on his last day and that we will be unable to celebrate with him in person! BUT…..we have a plan. 

We would love if as many children as possible can send in either a drawing, a memory or a short poem about Mr McMillan. We will collate them all and have them made into a special Photobook as a keepsake for him. Please remember to add your name to the front of your work!  If you need any tips for ideas here are a few:

He will be 70 in July, he has been at Mount Carmel for 20 years, he loves music, he used to play football, his favourite football team is Auchinleck Talbot .

Please send entries in to me (Mrs Templeton) :   

gillian.templeton@eastayrshire.org.uk

We have a very short time span on this and really need your entries in asap and at the very latest by 9am next Tuesday( 28th).

Hello everyone!

Just a friendly reminder about submitting your “Reach for the Stars” videos.  Thank you to the children who have already submitted theirs; we are enjoying watching them. We are looking forward to seeing  more coming in.  

If you have still to submit your video, please can you do so to Mrs Dunsmore at: Alana.Baird@eastayrshire.org.uk by 12noon on Wednesday 22nd April.

Welcome back everyone!

We hope you all had a lovely Easter break (even if  it was a bit different this year), and that the Easter Bunny delivered lots of chocolate eggs to you all!! The weather has been fantastic which has made the holidays during lockdown a bit more bearable.

Could everyone please check their GLOW mail for a special message from Mrs. McGahon …..

The message is about a special Mount Carmel music video we are planning on doing involving our pupils and staff to help cheer us up !. We are looking for everyone to take a short video of themselves singing and/or dancing  to the song “Reach for the Stars” by S Club 7….about 30 seconds or so will be perfect.

You can do this alone or have your family or pets join in too! If possible try to wear bright colours and if you have made a rainbow, try to use it in some way in your video.

In the message, you will find all the information and links about how and where to send your video to.

So come on Mount Carmel, have a go at reaching for the ……

Well done to Evie McIntosh from Primary 6 who correctly guessed the bear’s birthday as 16th July (Feast day of Our Lady of Mount Carmel).

As a result of this fundraising activity we raised £93.10!

A fantastic amount.

Please be advised that our upcoming parent’s afternoon and evening are cancelled . They will be rescheduled in due course.

Thanks you for your understanding in this matter.

On Friday 28th February the boys and girls of Mount Carmel Primary all came together to receive a great presentation from Primary 6 all about the weather cycle.

Congratulations to P5 on their superb recent class assembly all about the continents.

Hand washing.

In response to concerns about Coronavirus, staff are making sure children are washing their hands throughout the  school day. We have spoken at assembly about correct hand washing and watched video clips showing the correct procedure. East Ayrshire Council has given us extra resources to ensure we have sufficient supplies of soap and paper products.

We have taken the decision today to cancel ALL after school activities/clubs with immediate effect, until further notice.

Thank you for your understanding on this matter.

On Thursday 5th March we celebrated World Book Day. Children and staff were encouraged to dress up as a character from their favourite book. Everyone had a great day and some of the costumes were AMAZING!!. Here are some pictures of the children:

Please find a link below for the very latest “Stay at home guidance” for people with confirmed or possible Coronavirus:

Coronavirus- Stay at home guidance

Today we took part in the SCIAF-Day of Prayer. We came together as a whole school to offer our prayers to the people of the Democratic Republic of Congo. It was special to know that thousands of pupils and staff were all praying on the same day.

“Coronavirus – What is it? What’s happening? Will I catch it? Children ask lots of questions, but BBC Newsround has produced a series of helpful video clips to help children and young people understand more about what’s going on.  …..

We have added some up to date links on the Information page of our blog page to assist you when explaining and discussing Coronavirus with your child.

We are keen to support parents to ensure all young people are Cyber Safe, especially with the growing use of a wide range of Apps and online forms of communication :(WhatsApp/TikTok/Instagram/Snapchat etc.)

As part of our continued commitment , we are delighted to promote our new “Safer Schools” App. This App is a reliable source of advice on all things Cyber. It gives empowering, current and informative information on all current digital platforms/tools/apps in an accessible manner. We have a range of tailored user accesses (pupil, staff and parent/carers). To access your parent platform please:

• Go to your app store or Google Play and search for “Safer School”
• In school field type ” East Ayrshire Council
• The code for primary parents is: 7440

We would recommend that you discuss with your child about which apps and social media platforms they currently use/access. This will help ensure they know how to stay safe online-using the app to start these types of conversations is great.

You can now access our twitter feed via our blog main screen by clicking the twitter icon !.

Our twitter page is:

@eacMountCarmel

Don’t forget the raffle tickets for  Grand Easter Raffle are available to buy during all the fundraising weeks at a cost of 20p per ticket.

Congratulations to Zak Boyd from P4 who was 2nd in the recent East Ayrshire Sumdog competition! Well done Zak! Keep up the good work