Oak Room

The Oak Room children have continued their tasks after the holidays and we are loving the better weather! This has allowed us to participate in outdoor painting with the sun in our faces.

We are working our way through group novels including ‘Westlandia’, ‘Doodlebug Alley’ and ‘Mouse Noses on Toast.’ We love to have some calm reading time after lunch to help our minds prepare for learning.

 Pupils this term are focussing on ‘Goal Setting’; this allows them to set a realistic target around their social and emotional development and staff are able to support their achievement of this. Discussions around perseverance and making choices are linked to this. Throughout this topic we will also continue to learn how to understand and manage our feelings.

Pupils will be supported with their hopes and fears around transition into the next academic session during our tasks this term, as we understand although exciting for some, this can be a daunting  time for others.

 Children are continuing to achieve success using their ‘Pot of Gold’ target trackers and we have already had a few special treats relating to these.

A special welcome to the children who joined the group after the Easter holidays, the feedback around this has been hugely positive!

As always your support is hugely appreciated.

Mrs Crawford

Primary 5 Curriculum update Term 4

Hello everyone!

Primary 5 had an excellent term last term with lots of hard work and fun taking place. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the children for all of their hard work during this time. They really have been working their socks off and should be very proud of themselves. They even led a whole school Mass on the last week of term. This was an excellent achievement.

I would also like to thank the children’s adults for their continued support. Without you, I wouldn’t get to teach such wonderful children. It was also lovely to see some of you at our sharing the learning afternoon. We hope you enjoyed yourselves.

This term will again be really busy with everything from assessments to whole school summer trips as we complete our P5 journey. Please see below some aspects of the curriculum that we will be covering between April and June.

Literacy

We will be exploring discursive writing as our writing genre this term. Within this genre, the children will be expected to explain their thoughts and feelings regarding a particular topic whilst attempting to influence/persuade the reader. This will focus on the writer’s word choice, the use of rhetorical questions and emotive language. The children are also working on their ability to read over what they have written and then re-draft their work using Microsoft word.

The children have been working extremely hard on their grammar skills and this term will focus on alliteration, onomatopoeia and compound words.

The class will continue to develop their reading and comprehension skills through working on their ability to answer different styles of comprehension questions. This is something we have already been looking at; however up until now, this has been very structured and taken at a slow pace This term, I will be looking for a more independent approach to these questions.

Numeracy

The children worked extremely hard last term on division and fractions, as well as linking these to percentages and decimals. This term we will focus on addition and subtraction up to 4 digits. Within addition, we will look at addition with whole numbers as well as decimal numbers and within subtraction the focus will be more around exchanging through place value columns.

Our beyond number topic will be measurement with the first focus being area and perimeter before we move onto volume and mass.

Another aspect of numeracy that will be covered this term is data handling. Throughout this, we will cover bar charts and tally marks. We will also use our knowledge of fractions from last term to help us understand pie charts.

Health and Well being

Health and Well Being this term will have a focus on food health whilst looking at the key nutrient groups and food diversity we require to stay healthy.

God’s loving plan will also be covered this term which will have a focus on growth, social networking, safe use of phones and the UN charter on right of the child.

P.E this term will be tennis, hockey, athletics and outdoor games and all the skills required.

R.E

We will be exploring our relationships with God and look at how this relationship can be deepened through prayer and trust. May is the month of Mary. We will have a focus on our mother Mary and the important role she plays in the bible stories and the life of Jesus.

IDL

This term’s topic will be local politics. We will take a closer look at what are reliable sources of information. The children will learn vocabulary such as democracy and election. This will be linked into the new SNP government and cabinet. We will celebrate Scotland’s inclusivity of a variety of cultures, values and customs.

Thank you again, Mrs McCreadie

Primary 3 enjoyed a bike and scooter reward play on Friday afternoon.  I think these photos show how much fun our class had, despite the rain!

A huge well done to Primary 3 who submitted a winning rocket design to the MTTM competition as part of The Clean Green East Ayrshire initiative!  Our class design entry won 1st place in the STEM category across all of East Ayrshire with their Lego rocket!

An amazing job and a special congratulations to the winning engineer team for working on this design together.  Amazing team work! They each received their own certificate at school assembly on Friday for this huge achievement! AND they have won hundreds of MTTM S miles for our school! Go Team Primary 3!

Many of our children access the Exchange counselling service. The service helps support our young people with difficulties they may be facing. They are an excellent resource that have received positive feedback from the children who access the support.

If your child attends sessions with a member of the Exchange team, could you please take time to complete this short survey. This gives you, our parents and carers, the opportunity to have your voices heard and allows you to share your feedback for the service. Please click on the link below to complete.

Thank you!

https://forms.office.com/e/AJ212UYGGw

We wish all our Mount Carmel family a happy Easter and a lovely Spring holiday.

We look forward to seeing everyone on Monday 17th April.

Our current school app will stop being used at the end of this week.  The news school app is Safer School Scotland.  This can be downloaded via apple or android app stores.

Once downloaded scan the QRcode below or use the parent/carer code. 4099

The school will close tomorrow 31/3  at 2.30pm, bus and taxi children will be collected at 2pm.

As you will be aware we will stop using our current school app from tomorrow please find enclosed a copy of the letter which has been sent home with children today giving details of how to download the app to your mobile devices.

SaferSchools_Letter_parents_March

Has your child recently celebrated a special event outside of school? If so, please send a photograph into the school so that we can post this on our blog/app as well as display this on our Wider Achievement Celebration Display .

Please send your photographs to: eamountcarmel.ps@eastayrshire.org.uk 

If your child has received a letter home as part of the winning house prize  group could you please return this to school ASAP

Thanks

Reminder that the last week of Homework will be this week (week beginning 20th March). Homework Club, however, will still take place on Monday 27th March with other learning activities provided by staff.

Primary 5 chose to have an afternoon of fun and games in the pe hall this afternoon as their rainbow reward. As you can see, they had a ball!! Next week they have chosen to being their bikes and scooters into school for an afternoon outside. Please ensure that they bring their helmets in with their outdoor toys as they will be unable to take part without one. Thank you, Mrs McCreadie

Primary 6 invite their parents and carers to a ‘Sharing the Learning’ afternoon on Tuesday 7th February at 2pm.

This is a chance for Primary 6 parents and carers to see the wonderful work that has been taking place . The focus will be on  ‘Scots Language’.

I hope as many of you can make it as possible.

Thank you,

Mrs Terras

Primary 5 had a lovely time with Mrs Elstone on Friday when she came to visit. She taught us all about factors and how these numbers can help us in our learning.

Hi everyone. The lovely Primary 5 have asked for their rainbow reward next Friday to be junk modelling. Could you please send in any boxes, milk cartons or kitchen roll tubes for this activity. Thank you!!!

Curricular update – Primary 5 – Term 3

I hope you all had a lovely family Christmas!! The children are now back in class and the hard work for term 3 has already began. Here you will find an update on what will be coming up regarding the children’s learning over the next few months.

Literacy

In terms of reading, the children will continue to develop their skills in their tool for reading such as using their prior knowledge to help them with a text or visualisation which allows them to use their imagination when descriptions are provided. There is a need for continued learning when it comes to answering questions regarding their texts. We will continue to work on the skill of notetaking. The children will develop an understanding that notes help to organise thinking and sort information into manageable chunks. They will also learn how to take their own notes. Within their reading, we will look at the language within texts, with a particular focus on persuasive language which will then link in with our writing this term.

Term 2 focussed on report writing whilst utilising a lot of different skills taught. The children wrote excellent newspaper reports on Guy Fawkes and the Gunpowder plot. This term, we will be learning all about response writing as well as discursive writing.

Due to the nature of discursive writing, our listening and talking focus will be on looking at the difference between fact and opinion. We will continue to complete listening tasks whilst working on our ability to listen for instructions.

Numeracy

I am so very proud of the entire class with regards to their learning in numeracy last term. The majority of the class used their knowledge of times tables to complete complex multiplication calculations using different number talk strategies. They worked extremely hard with Mrs MacKinnon to complete 3D shape, co-ordinates, and symmetry. They also learned about grid references. The children will continue to practise their times tables daily in order to retain these facts. This will help them when it comes to completing division tasks and fractions this term. The beyond number topics that will be taught are money and different aspects of measurement. These will be taught by Mrs MacKinnon.

Health and Well being

This term, we will have a focus on the children’s self-perception. We will look at the positive things they feel about their appearance as well as looking at what self-esteem and self-worth is. This is really important as they are the generation that are exposed to so much body image negativity in social media, it is extremely important that they understand how precious and perfect they are. As part of this, we will look at the achievements of each of the children and what areas of development they all have. There will also be a small focus on what potential careers each of the children could have and what will be required of them to achieve these goals.

Before we look at sexual health and relationships in term 4, we will first explore the meaning of the word ‘private’ and explore how important this is as we grow.

Within our P.E. lessons, we will learn about tennis, basketball and football and all of the skills and rules for each of these.

R.E.

This term, we will learn about how Jesus helps people who may have been considered as outcasts during this time. We will look at how Christians across the world are called to look after everyone, regardless of religion, race, culture and treat everyone with respect.  Jesus called his disciples to follow him. We will revisit previous learning and examine the Jewish Sabbath and rituals associated with it. Towards the end of the term, the class will begin preparation for the celebration of Lent.

Expressive Arts

Art – Last term saw us explore colour and tone with paints. This term, we will be creating collages using different kinds of materials to create contrasts within a picture. We will use these skills to create art through our topic of Floods, tsunamis and landslides.

Drama – During our drama inputs, we will be learning about using different voices and how to use tone of voice to enhance characters. We will also be looking at giving constructive feedback to our peers.

IDL (Topic)

Our topic this term will be Floods, Tsunamis and Landslides. This topic will look at these natural disasters throughout our world and how climate control and climate change is impacting on these incidents.

Science

Our science topic this term is going to be diseases within our bodies. We will also have a look at pioneers in the world of medicine, such as Joseph Lister and Alexander Fleming.

ICT

The children’s understanding of ICT and how the hardware and software can be best used. They have a good understanding of how programs such as glow and word can be used to aid their learning. This term, we will learn how to attach documents to our emails, use hyperlinks and save our work on an online platform. The class are making god progress in their ICT learning.

French

Mrs MacKinnon is very pleased with the progress in French so far this year. The class will be learning the French vocabulary for hobbies this term and how they can use this vocabulary properly within French spoken language.

This will be a busy term. Our P.E. days continue to be a Tuesday and a Thursday. Please ensure that your child has a suitable P.E kit in school on these days. (Indoor shoes – NOT their school shoes, a pair of shorts/joggers and a t shirt)

As always, I would like to take this opportunity to thank you all for your ongoing support. If there is anything you need to discuss, please do not hesitate to contact me via the school office.

Many thanks, Mrs McCreadie

Welcome back to all families!

Pupils in the Oak Room have been very busy! The children love to come along to each session and are making great progress and great friends along the way!

This term pupils will continue to grow their social and emotional skills and will be using ‘Target Trackers’ in class to support them in this. As part of our Health and Wellbeing learning pupils will explore ‘friendship’ as a theme; we will focus on positive relationships and how we foster these and will explore issues and barriers to friendship such as bullying. Pupils will produce art work related to these themes and participate in group discussions.

The children are enjoying our group novel ‘Charlie Changes into a Chicken’, the pupils enjoy having a chapter read to them each day. This helps to regulate us and promotes conversation, attentive listening and group relationships.

Chat with your child around their attendance of the Oak Room, I am always happy to hear family feedback!

Mrs Crawford

Please see below the most up to date Parent information regarding our school counselling service.

East Ayrshire – The Exchange Primary PARENTS (2) (1)

Hi everyone.

Our Christmas Fayre is fast approaching with only 11 days to go and we really need your help. We are looking for donations of raffle prizes, tombola prizes and bottles for the bottle stall (if these could be handed in as soon as possible we would really appreciate it) as well as home baking nearer to the actual date of the fayre.  There is lots of stall holders for you to come and visit as well as singing from our wonderful choir. We haven’t been able to hold our amazing fayre for a couple of years now so let’s make this one amazing!!

All donations are very much appreciated and can be handed into the school office. 

Thank you and we cannot wait to welcome you back into our wonderful school. Details below.

Date: 2nd December 2022 

Doors open at 6:15pm with choir singing at 6:30pm (stalls etc will open after the choir has sang.)

Price: £2.50 per adult and children get free entry (all tickets get you a free hot drink)

Special visitor: Santa will be attending and for £2 your child can visit him and receive a special present. 

SEE YOU SOON 

As you are aware this is national antibullying week.  At Mount Carmel Primary School we aim to be kind and caring friends.  We know that bullying can happen at school and want to do our best to prevent these instances and provide the appropriate support for children and their adults if it was to occur.  We are currently creating our statement to add to the East Ayrshire Antibullying Policy.  Please take the time to complete this survey and share your views with us.

This survey will close on Sunday 20th November.

Parent/Carer Questionnaire

Subject to our rainy weather, Primary 6 would like to bring in their scooters and bikes for Reward Play on Friday.

All pupils need to wear a helmet when using their bike/scooter.

Electric bikes and scooters are NOT permitted.

Thank you,

Mrs Terras

As you are aware this is national antibullying week.  At Mount Carmel Primary School we aim to be kind and caring friends.  We know that bullying can happen at school and want to do our best to prevent these instances and provide the appropriate support for children and their adults if it was to occur.  We are currently creating our statement to add to the East Ayrshire Antibullying Policy.  Please take the time to complete this survey and share your views with us.

This survey will close on Sunday 20th November.

Parent/Carer Questionnaire

Primary 6 have had a very successful week. Here is some of the excellent learning that has taken place this week:

P6 listened to the story of the poppies and reminded themselves of the importance of Remembrance Day. P6 created blackout poems based on John McCrae’s ‘In Flander’s Fields’. Then also created a wonderful poppy art piece.

9

As part of our Natural Disasters topic P6 designed, built and painted a Stratovolcano in small groups.

In between all of these activities we have been practicing our dances for the Day of Dance next Wednesday. P6 have learned these dances very quickly, I’ve been very impressed!

Mrs Terras

Welcome back to my favourite term – the Winter and Christmas term. We have lots of exciting things coming up in P6. It is going to be a busy one! I am also looking forward to meeting parents and carers at the Parents Evenings in November.  

 Below is an overview of the learning and teaching taking place in P6 this term.   

 Literacy  

Reading   

This term our focus is on non-fiction texts. P6 will study non-fiction texts appropriate to their level. They will complete daily reading to writing tasks and work on active comprehension tasks both independently and as a group. Focus comprehension strategies this term are finding the main idea of a text and summarising. All pupils will complete a non-fiction reading assessment at the end of the block of lessons.  

As we move into December, we will be using a Christmas movie as stimuli for our reading lessons. P6 will have the opportunity to work in ‘Literacy Circles’ to analyse the film in groups.  

 Writing  

 At the beginning of this term, P6 will complete their block of lessons on Response Writing by writing a film response on a film of their choice – school appropriate of course! We will then move on to Report Writing, in particular focussing on writing a Newspaper Report. In December, the pupils will have the opportunity to work in pairs or trios to write and illustrate a children’s Christmas story which they will then read to our infant pupils. This has proven popular with previous P6 classes.  

 Spelling  

The spelling groups will continue to experience the Active Literacy spelling program, this will introduce familiar words and focus on phonemes pertinent to their level and stage. The pupils will revise the Active Spelling strategies throughout Term 1, these include diacritical marking, syllabification, and words within words.  Some weeks pupils will be given topic-specific vocabulary as part of their topic.  

 Numeracy  

This term P6 will focus on the four operations – Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication and Subtraction. This will also include decimals for some groups. Our Beyond Number topics are Money and Finance and 2D and 3D Shape. P6 are encouraged to practice multiplication tables using Sumdog and Topmarks games.  

 Health and Wellbeing  

The focus this term is Emergencies and Accidents. P6 will learn what to do in different types of emergency situations which ties in with our Natural Disasters topic.  

 Our PE days are Monday and Wednesday. Pupils are asked to bring FULL PE kit on these days. If pupils are without PE kit the school will be able to provide pupils with required items of clothing. The focus in PE this term is Social Dancing in preparation for the Day of Dance at The Grand Hall, Football and Gymnastics.  

 Expressive Arts  

P6 are currently learning traditional Scottish dances for the Day of Dance event in November. Despite inital reservations, I am glad to report that they all are enjoying learning the dances and are giving 100% effort. P6 will have the opportunity to create pieces of artwork over the winter and festive season and create craft items for the school Christmas Fayre. We will also be learning and performing a song at the Christmas concerts.  

  RME   

Throughout Primary 6 the pupils will listen to and engage with stories from the Gospel of Matthew. This term P6 will also reflect on the Saints who shaped our Faith and look in depth at the Nativity story. P6 have also started out on their Pope Francis Faith Award journey and will continue to work on this throughout the school year.   

 Modern Languages  

P6 receive weekly French lessons from Mrs MacKinnon. This term pupils will learn basic greetings, colours, numbers, and basic commands.  

 Homework  

 Homework this term will include Spelling, Reading, Mental Maths, and one other curricular area (RME, topic, etc). Homework is issued on a Monday and is due back on a Friday. I appreciate and wholeheartedly support wider achievement outside of school. If there are any reasons why pupils cannot complete the homework, due to activities out with school please contact the school.  

 In Primary 6 we promote hard work and amazing attitudes. Our reward card system allows pupils to gain reward cards for Wonderful Work, Amazing Attitude, and being a ‘Superstar.’ When the pupils gain five cards, they can choose an individual reward. They can also choose to go for a class reward once everyone reaches five reward cards; this promotes teamwork within the class.   

If you have any queries or questions, please contact the school directly.   

 Thank you for all your support.  

   Mrs. Terras  

Our Christmas fayre is fast approaching and we need your help. With only 3 weeks to go, we are looking for donations for our raffle, bottle stall and home baking stall.  We would really appreciate any donations you could make and all proceeds will go directly into the Friends of Mount Carmel fund. This fund helps to pay for different things throughout the year, for example buses for trips or Primary 7 leavers hoodies. Any donations would be greatly appreciated. We can’t wait to see you there!!

Mount Carmel Christmas Fayre

2nd December 6:30pm til 9pm

We are so looking forward to welcoming you all back for our Christmas Fayre this year. This will take place on the 2nd December. We have lots of stalls from local businesses, some home baking, raffles and of course our beautiful Christmas crafts that our children are already busy organising. The tickets for this will be £2.50 for adults and children will gain entry for free. This ticket price includes tea and coffee. There will be a performance from our excellent choir at 6:30pm with doors opening at 6:15pm.  There will be more details to follow in the next couple of weeks so keep your eyes peeled!

We cannot wait to see you all!!