A reminder that tomorrow children can come to school wearing bright colours.

The Friends of Jesus Group, have organised a ‘Day of Colour’ to raise money for Missio Scotland.  As a Mission 5 star school, we are continuing to raise awareness of the wonderful work of Missio, which encourages us all to think about our special ‘Mission’ and how we can help children in other countries.

The Day of Colour will take place on Friday 22^nd May and donations should be made on ParentPay.

Everyone is encouraged to come to school wearing bright colours. ( no football colours)

Thank you for your support for Missio.

From

The Friends of Jesus Group and Mount Carmel Missio Champions

The  children in P4 who are preparing for First Communion at the end of the month, are reminded that there is a retreat tomorrow          ( Saturday 16th May ) which all First Communion Children should attend.

The retreat takes place in St. Joseph’s Church and Hall. It begins at 10am and finishes at 2pm. Children should bring a packed lunch and snack. Children should also bring their ‘I Belong’ book.

When parents/carers return to collect their children at 2pm, there will be a short parents meeting  to discuss First Communion arrangements.

On Sunday 24th May , there will be a rehearsal for First Communion. This takes place after 1130 Mass at Our Lady of Mount Carmel church, to which children and parents should attend.

First Communion is on Sunday 31st May at 1130 in Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church.

Please continue to keep our P4 children in your prayers.

Dear Parents/Carers,

This week we will learn all about our amazing natural world and how to take action to look after it in school.

Please continue to keep our Primary 4 children in your prayers as they prepare for their First Holy Communion which will be celebrated on Sunday 31st May at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church at 11.30am.

There will be an ‘I Belong’ session this Sunday (10th May)  at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church before Sunday Mass.  This begins at 1015 and all First Communion Children should attend.

There will also be a First Communion Retreat Day for the
P4 children from all the parishes of the deanery preparing for
First Holy Communion on Saturday 16th May from 10 am –
2 pm at St Joseph’s Church and Hall.

Welcome back, I hope you had a restful Easter break. It is lovely to see the children back and already settling into what will be a busy term in Primary 4.

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.  We will be learning about the articles and rights involved in and associated with Mental Health Awareness Week (Article 24) in May and then look at the rights linked to World Refugee Day (Articles 10 and 22) in June.

Literacy

In addition to our Bug Club readers, we will access a range of texts including ‘The Iron Man’, which we will complete as a class reading activity, experiencing a range of comprehension strategies such as prediction, metalinguistics, summarising and questioning.

We are continuing to be part of the National Improving Writing Programme. As part of this programme, the children will write for 15 minutes 4 times per week. This writing will focus on one aspect of tools for writing. Each child will have their own individual targets related to the writing focus and this one focus area is assessed daily. This term we will be continuing with a focus on the use of connectives before moving on to looking at punctuation.

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 fractions using concrete and pictorial representations as well as appropriate mathematical vocabulary.  We will compare and order fractions as well as demonstrating equivalency.

As well as looking at time, during which we will explore 12- and 24-hour time and associated vocabulary, we will also investigate measure estimating how long or heavy an object is, or what amount it holds. Through a range of practical activities, we will become familiar with the appropriate measuring apparatus.

Health and Wellbeing

As we continue our PATHS programme for P4, we will be reflecting on the importance of sharing and the emotion of frustration.

We will also look at the emergency services and how to keep ourselves safe in different situations.

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 we can take a mindful moment each day.

PE

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

• Tennis
• Athletics

Children will require a 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

As part of our IDL, P4 will plan and run a ‘Reading Café’ for some of the other children in school. We will consider the different jobs involved in running our ‘Reading Café’ and we will all have an opportunity to be involved in decision making whilst carrying out a specific role.

Religious Education

We will continue to look more closely at the importance of the Sacraments as some children prepare for their First Holy Communion. We will reflect on the parts of The Mass and the significance of these.

During the month of May, we will remember Mary, the Mother of Jesus in a special way. The children will assist in creating our class May Altar and we will reflect on Mary’s example to us all.

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 4 with Primary 4!

Mrs. MacKinnon.

Primary 3 – Term 4 Curriculum Overview

Welcome back! We hope you had a wonderful Easter break. Term 3 was a busy time for Primary 3, they all worked really hard and loved sharing their learning with you last month. Below is a curriculum overview for this term.

Literacy

Reading – This term, Primary 3 will revisit prediction extending their knowledge to produce more in-depth predictions. They will be introduced to dictionaries and will use these to find the meaning of context words within their reading books and beyond. In addition to this, pupils will work on identifying the difference between fact and opinion through shared texts, personal readers and linked to IDL. Bug Club readers will continue to be used. Daily opportunities for reading will continue to be provided through personal reading time and where possible visits to the library will take place. Primary 3 will also continue to enjoy a class novel during mindful times.

Writing – This terms writing genres will be response and persuasive. Pupils will learn how to respond and review in relation to various texts and media. In addition to this, they will consider persuasive language when creating persuasive pieces which will include posters and leaflets. Primary 3 will also be encouraged to continue to extend their daily writing through use of connectives, adjectives and openers to make their writing more interesting. In addition to this, weekly handwriting lessons will continue with a focus now on cursive handwriting.

Spelling – New phonemes and common words will be introduced weekly. Active spelling activities will be used to support this learning. In addition, Primary 3 will learn more about suffixes and prefixes, particularly ‘ing’, ‘ed’, ‘s’, and ‘un’.

Listening and Talking – When developing talking and listening skills, P3 will develop their presentation skills through ‘show and tell’ opportunities and they will complete a solo talk on an item of their choice.

Grammar – In grammar, Primary 3 will learn about plurals. They will also use dictionaries to put words in alphabetical order.

Numeracy and Mathematics

This term, Primary 3 will be learning about angles, data handling, fractions and measurement. They will develop their knowledge of these beyond number areas through a hands-on approach which will also include outdoor learning where possible. They will also continue to consolidate their understanding of the four operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication and division) through daily number talks, morning starters and extension activities.

UNCRC

We will be learning about the articles and rights involved in and associated with Mental Health Awareness Week (Article 24) in May and then look at the rights linked to World Refugee Day (Articles 10 and 22) in June.

Health and Wellbeing

Primary 3 will continue to access our whole school PATHS programme this term to develop their understanding of emotions and relationships. Each child will continue to have the opportunity to be “Pupil of the Day”, receiving compliments from their peers. We will also continue with the Do Be Mindful programme which will allow us to be mindful each day, taking time to find calm and regulate during the busy school day. They will have the opportunity to take part in team building activities, community builder brain breaks and transition support as they prepare to move to the middle school. Furthermore, we will extend their knowledge about healthy living by identifying healthy foods and exploring how to prepare these, with a particular focus on fruits and vegetables.

Physical Education

This term, Primary 3 will develop their expressive dance skills and well as orienteering. They will prepare for sports day participating in various athletics activities which will also include striking and fielding.

PE days continue to be Monday afternoon and Thursday afternoon. All children will require a PE kit on these days. Please ensure any jewellery is taken off and left at home on PE days. If your child cannot take part for any reason, please contact the school.

Religious Education

In R.E. this term, Primary 3 will learn about the life of Mary, the mother of God and the events of Pentecost. They will also learn how God created all human beings in his image and likeness and as they develop this understanding they will focus particularly on looking after their bodies and will use anatomically correct language for the human body.

IDL

This term, P3 will learn about materials. They will explore a variety of materials and organise them into categories.  In addition to this, they will predict the outcome of numerous experiments using different materials and document this.

Music

This term Primary 3 will continue to develop their musical performance skills by learning to sing with confidence and play various instruments. Pupils will learn about pulse and rhythmic accuracy as well as pitch control and expression. Primary 3 will have opportunities to share their thoughts and feelings about what they hear, responding to different pieces of music through voice and instruments.

French

In French, Primary 3 will continue to practise basic greetings and numbers to 30. They will also learn French vocabulary for various foods and types of weather. Furthermore, they will compare Scotland and France, focussing on important buildings and landmarks and considering daily life in both countries.

Homework will continue to be distributed on a Monday and should be completed and returned on a Friday each week, please do not worry if all tasks are not completed.

As always, Primary 3 look forward to sharing their fabulous learning with you throughout the term! Check out the Learner Journal app for regular updates from P3 where we will continue to share some of your child’s amazing work.

Thank you for your continued support and understanding, we are really looking forward to another wonderful term in Primary 3,

Mrs Dunsmore and Mrs Hope.

Term 4 Primary Two Curricular Blog Post

We hope you all had an enjoyable Easter break as we now head into our final term! This term pupils will have lots of new learning as well as starting to think about transitioning into P3. We will also be ensuring we have retained all our learning this year. We have lots of fun events planned, including our Sharing the Learning which will take place on Thursday the 14^th of May.

Literacy

This term in literacy all pupils will be looking at new phonics sounds. We will continue to introduce a new sound each week while revising our previous sounds. Pupils worked hard last term on their common words, we will continue revising and practising these. In our writing we started to look at adding connectives to make our sentences longer, we will start to include these in our sentences as we cover personal and persuasive writing this term. These are new genres for us so we will be looking at different examples to help us.

Pupils have been working hard answering comprehension questions in our reading, we will continue to introduce a different book this week. We will focus this term on note-taking and what information we can gain from a text therefore we will look at a lot of non-fiction texts.

Numeracy

We will cover several new concepts this term in numeracy. We will be looking at data handling, symmetry and time. Many of our maths topics will link to our IDL focus and we will take opportunities to take our learning outside when the weather allows us.

Pupils have worked very hard this year learning a variety of new concepts such as multiplication, division and money, so we will continue to revisit and reinforce these skills.

Health and Wellbeing

This term we will look at healthy eating and fuelling our bodies. We will consider how to make healthy choices and understand why it is important to take care of our bodies. We will continue our PATHS inputs to support friendships and emotional wellbeing.

During PE time pupils will have the opportunity to take part in athletics activities as we prepare for sports day.

Religious Education

In addition to attending monthly masses and Holy Days of Obligation, pupils we will continue to partake in RE activities. Throughout May we will be focusing on Mary and the importance of her role within the church.

IDL

We have a very exciting IDL topic of “Minibeasts” this term. Pupils will be involved in “bug hunts” where we will gather and collect data as well as creating symmetrical art work of different minibeasts. Pupils will also have responsibility of their very own caterpillar as we learn about the lifecycle of a butterfly.

UNCRC

We will be learning about the articles and rights involved in and associated with Mental Health Awareness Week (Article 24) in May and then look at the rights linked to World Refugee Day (Articles 10 and 22) in June.

We hope that this will be a fun final term for pupils in Primary 2, with lots to look forward to!

Miss Livingston and Mrs Strachan

Our Primary 7 pupils took part in their very first cooking class this morning and the soup they made was absolutely delicious. We can’t wait for the pancakes next week.

Our wonderful football team,  along with coach Ricky and our active schools coach Faye, took part in a match with Dundonald Primary school on Monday night. They played brilliantly and represented our school with pride! (And looked amazing with our new school sports kit too).

Our Primary 1-5 classes had a wonderful visit from Allan and his road safety magic show today.

Today we revealed our brand‑new Summer Show for 2026…

Turn up the Volume: From vinyl to viral. A journey through the musical decades. 

While it may have taken a few people by surprise, the excitement quickly grew as we shared our new approach: there will be no single ‘principal’ role this year.

Primary 7 Sharing the Learning will take place on Tuesday 24th March at 2pm.

Letters have been sent home today with children for parents to return and confirm attendance.

Thankyou

Primary 3 Sharing the Learning will take place on Wednesday 18th March

Letters have been sent home today with children for parents to return and confirm attendance.

Thankyou

Primary 1 Sharing the Learning will take place on Wednesday 1st April at 2pm.

Letters have been sent home today with children for parents to return and confirm attendance.

Thankyou

We begin our SCIAF fundraising activities this week with our Crazy Hair and Odd Sock day on Friday! (uniform should still be worn). Donations can be put into your class SCIAF box. Thank you for your support.

The first monthly prize draw is happening this Friday so use the QR code below to register your named caddy. If you put this out for collection this week, make sure to let your teacher know and they will enter you into the prize draw raffle.

Here are a few who have registered already…

Well done to our Mount Carmel in the Community group who visited the Crossgate care home this week. The residents were delighted with your lovely singing and storytelling!

Please see below link for the most recent Active schools Newsletter

Welcome to the Active Schools Newsletter

Welcome to our Active Schools Newsletter! We’re delighted to launch this termly update, created to share inspiring stories, celebrate achievements, and highlight the incredible work taking …

Go to this Sway

Please note that Primary 1 and Primary 7 will be taking part in the Childsmile annual dental inspection on Tuesday 3rd March

Thankyou

Primary 4 enjoyed a interesting visit to Our Lady of Mount Carmel church this afternoon.

Sr Juliet talked to us about the Sacrament of Baptism, and we looked at some of the features of the church.  We had an opportunity to look at the Baptismal font, and hold the special shell that the priest uses for baptism.

Thank you to Sr Juliet, we learnt lots! Well done to Primary 4 for being great ambassadors for our school, you were polite, respectful and well mannered.

Primary 1 Blog Post (Term 3 Update)

Hello and welcome to our term 3 blog post.  Primary 1 pupils were very bust last term, organising and performing our Nativity show, ‘Hey Ewe!’ They did such a great job and all pupils enjoyed the festivities, parties and the pantomime before we stopped for Christmas break.

UNCRC – Class Charter

The focus of children’s rights this term will be: 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.

Literacy

Our focus in term three will be to learn the next set of initial sounds/phonemes through songs and actions. Through this, pupils will explore words that begin with each sound and start blending sounds to create 2- and 3-letter words, supporting word building and recognition of common words. This will allow pupils to begin accessing early writing skills as they use their knowledge of sounds to word-build and structure a sentence.

Our reading and spelling activities will allow pupils to access early reading books, starting with those that incorporate the sounds we are learning and progressing to those with simple sentences and picture clues. As their knowledge of common words increases, children will be exposed to more books and rhymes to support these developing skills. We will begin to ask and answer simple questions about the books we are reading.

Our focus in writing will be increasing our use of descriptive words to give more detailed sentences about characters or objects we come across in our reading books. As we progress, we will become more independent and use our knowledge of sounds and common words to write sentences with more confidence.

Numeracy

Our focus in numeracy will be early addition skills and familiarising ourselves with the number stories to 10, as well as doubles and near doubles to 10. Children will build on recognsing number figures for 11-20 whilst subitising and identifying number patterns through hands-on activities that will increase their knowledge and confidence in using numbers.

In beyond number, we will look at basic fractions of whole and half shapes and finding a half of a whole number. As confidence builds we will introduce the idea of quarters too, then we will link this with time, the seasons and the idea of o’clock and half past.

Health & Wellbeing

Our Paths Pupil of the Day will continue as will growing a deeper understanding of emotions, building friendships, and meeting our Paths animals again, who will help the children navigate the many different feelings we may experience.

In PE, our sessions will be on Mondays and Wednesdays, and our focus in term three will be racquet skills, fitness and gymnastics. Children will have the opportunity to take part in some fun activities that support teamwork whilst developing their skills in what keeps us fit and healthy, in categories of exercise and foods/nutrients our bodies need.

R.E

Our focus during R.E. sessions will be on prayer, the routines of the church and the celebration of Mass.  We will also spend some time reading and discussing Bible stories relating to friendship and love, whilst considering the Easter Story as we near the end of term three.

IDL

We will be focusing on ‘Weather’ and ‘Plants’ in term three, gaining an understanding of how weather affects the world and how weather changes depending on where in the world you stay and what season we are in. We will look at climates and the conditions necessary to grow plants and crops successfully, which will tie in beautifully with our ‘Plants’ topic. Pupils will learn to label and name different plants of a plant and describe the growth process from seed to plant.

Modern Languages (French)

In French lessons, children will continue to build on basic greetings. We will learn songs and rhymes to help us retain this information and begin looking at weather in French too.

Homework

Homework will continue in term three. Please check your child’s homework bag weekly to ensure all homework is completed. Homework will consist of sounds/spelling, common words, reading and number activities as the children’s knowledge and skills increase. Homework will be issued on a Monday and should be returned to school on Friday.

We hope this is the start of a very successful third term and that the pupils will enjoy all that we do.

Take care,

Mrs Travers and Mrs Strachan

Primary 2 Curricular Blog Post – Miss Livingston and Mrs Strachan

Welcome back after the holidays. The pupils all had worked very hard last term on the Nativity, so we hope all pupils and their families/carers had a fun festive period and a lovely new year.

Literacy

This term we will begin a book study, “The Snorgh and the Sailor”. Pupils will be developing understanding of new features of text such as punctuation and vocabulary. They will also look at sequencing and retelling the story. This will help develop with our reading skills, in addition to our weekly reading books.

We will also continue to develop our understanding of phonics and practise spelling common words. This term we will also revisit the sounds we have learned so far to consolidate these. Within writing, we are focusing on narrative writing, as we start to write stories. This will be connected to our book study.

Numeracy

This term for numeracy we will be focusing on multiplication and division with Miss Livingston. This is a new skill we are introducing, pupils will focus on counting in 2’s, 5’s and 10’s and sorting numbers into equal groups. This will help before we start to look at the 2 times table. Mrs Strachan will focus on looking at fractions, this will help us when we introduce division.

We will continue to practise our addition and subtraction skills that pupils had worked hard on in term 2.

Health and Wellbeing

This term, our Health and Wellbeing topics will focus on our bodies and safety. We will look at what to do in an emergency and what to do if we feel unwell. This will be in addition to our PATHs inputs which focus on understanding our feelings, emotions and friendships.

Within PE, we start with a short block on fitness, and progress on to do Gymnastics with Mrs Strachan and racquet skills with Miss Livingston. Our PE days will remain a Tuesday and a Thursday.

UNCRC

This term 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.

Religious Education

This term we will begin by looking at the life of Jesus, focusing on his family and early life. We will then start learn about the importance of Lent and the lead up of Easter.

Pupils will continue to attend mass on the first Friday of the month.

Topic

This term we will focus on our book study till the February break. This will involve a lot of opportunities of inter-disciplinary learning. For example, we will be designing a boat and considering the materials we use to make it float or sink.

Pupils will then be involved in a mini-topic, “My Town/My school”, exploring our town, the local area and the school. We will be looking at our local area, as well as comparing Kilmarnock to other countries.

We hope this term is an enjoyable term for pupils, with lots of new learning taking place.

Miss Livingston and Mrs Strachan

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