We will be holding our Christmas Jumper Day on Friday 15th of December this year. If you have any children’s Christmas jumpers at home that no longer fit or you no longer need, please hand them into the school and we can use them for our jumper exchange.

Thank you!

A reminder that this Friday (17th ) is a dress down day for Children In Need. 

Please do not bring any donations into school. You can make any donations for Children in Need through a direct link which is now live on Parentpay. 

Thank you

Gentle Reminder that payment for this years trip to the Pantomime is now overdue, payment can be made using your childs Parentpay account or if you require a barcoded letter please contact the school office

Thankyou

Reminder that our Pupil Progress Meetings will take place next week on the following days:

Wednesday 15th November 5pm-8pm

Thursday 16th November 3.30pm-6.30pm

Next week is Book Week Scotland

On Wednesday next week (15th November), P1-3 will be gifted their celebration bags, and can bring pyjamas to change into in school in the afternoon and will enjoy milk and cookies. 

A reminder that tomorrow (Friday 10th Nov) is a dress down day!

We are kindly asking for pupils to bring in donations tomorrow for our tombola and bottle stall for our Christmas Fayre which is being held on 1st December.

***Please note that any alcohol must be handed straight into a member of staff at the school by an adult***

During November we will have a number of dress down days on Fridays.

Friday 10th November – please bring in a donation for the Christmas Fayre tombola or bottle stall

Friday 17th November – Children in Need Dress Down Day.  Please follow the link on ParentPay to donate

Friday 24th November – please bring in a donation for the Christmas Fayre tombola or bottle stall

There will be a change to Thursday’s lunch menu (9/11):

The choice will now be:  Vegetable soup, Chicken Curry, Vegetarian sausage roll, Gammon and cheese roll.

There will be a change to tomorrow’s lunch menu (7/11):

The choice will now be:  Pepperoni pizza, Quorn Chow Mein or Chicken mayo pasta.

Welcome to the P3 curriculum overview for term 2. This will be a busy term with lots of new learning as well as  fun and exciting activities to prepare for Advent and Christmas.

Literacy

Our focus in term 1 was using our class novel to create descriptive writing by describing the main character, Horton, and using rhyming words and adjectives to describe what he hears and the things he sees. Through descriptive writing, we also have been using our topic about vertebrates and invertebrates when using descriptive bubbles. During term 2 we will now focus on narrative and report writing. As well as talking and listening games and activities such as Show and Tell.

P3 have been participating in reading and spelling activities and children have been working within groups to revisit previous sounds and texts, ready to use their skills and strategies to tackle new and unfamiliar spelling sounds and reading books.  Our writing focus is currently descriptive writing, and these written pieces will come from our class novel and topic of Vertebrates.

Numeracy

Our focus in numeracy has been place value, however, this is something we will regularly revisit with children consolidating previous learning on 2-digit numbers, initially to 99. Then the children moving to three-digit numbers beyond 100.  Children were and will continue to partition these numbers and confidently discuss this in terms of (H) hundreds, tens (T) and units (u), whilst building on their understanding of number and number patterns. In term 2 the focus will be using addition with two-digit numbers before moving to three-digit numbers. Word problems will also continue to be a focus to consolidate our strategies within this operation of number.  Children have been using their ‘Thinking it through’ jotters as the term progresses to develop problem solving skills, applying knowledge of number to new contexts and develop strategies for number problems.

Beyond number, children have been focusing on measurement and using different equipment to measure in cm and metres. Children have been estimating using rulers and metre sticks before measuring objects to see how close their predictions were. For term 2 the focus will be 2D and 3D shape identifying real life examples, comparing the properties of 2D and 3D objects, and creating their own 3D shapes.

Health & Wellbeing

All children have now had the opportunity to be Pupil of the Day and will start to be chosen for the second time in term 2. Our Pupil of the Day has been receiving lots of compliments.  We will continue to explore emotions, and how we recognise these emotions within ourselves and in others and learning how to control them.

In P.E, our sessions will continue to take place on a Tuesday and a Thursday and our focus in term 2 this time will be, Social Dance, Football and Gymnastics. In term 1 children were participating in hockey and badminton.  Children will use their transferrable skills when playing in a team.

Our focus during R.E sessions has been Mary in October, moving to Saints and Remembrance, 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 how each of us are unique and have our own God given talents.

Topic

The children will be participating in activities in different areas of the curriculum including social studies and will be focusing on climates and weather around the world.  Children have been exploring and developing an understanding of living things as this was a focus on our topic Vertebrates topic where  children have been sorting and categorising living things into vertebrates and non-vertebrates.

We hope this is the start of a very fun filled successful term and that the children enjoy learning across the curriculum.

Take care,

Miss Grimley

Welcome back! What a great first term Primary 4 have had, the children have settled into their new class and routine and are making good progress. We are looking forward to another fun filled term with lots of fabulous learning taking place.

Here is an update on the upcoming term.

Literacy

For our reading focus, we will continue to build on the use of our reading comprehension skills, such as prediction, visualisation, metalinguistic and summarising. The children will engage with a variety of texts including their Bug Club readers and our class book, ‘The Great Kapok Tree’ which is linked to our rainforest topic.

During writing, we will continue to build on the skills developed during our descriptive block, and will focus on narrative writing.  The children will explore the features of narrative writing and will create their own narrative pieces.

Spelling will take the form of active spelling activities and the children will experience phonemes and blends at their working level.

We will continue to build on our knowledge of various elements of grammar, linking this to our reading and writing tasks.

Numeracy & Maths

The children will continue with a daily number talk, to develop a range of mental maths strategies. We have been looking at various strategies for solving addition problems and will move on to subtraction problems.

With Mrs McIntyre, the children will continue their shape work before moving on to looking at time.

Health and Wellbeing

We will be continuing with our PATHs programme focussing on making good choices and working effectively with others.

We have been following the Do Be Mindful programme focussing on mindful attention, we will continue with this as well as our various daily mindful tasks.

This term, P4 are delighted to be taking part in a range of cross generational activities with the residents at Crossgates Care Home.

PE

PE is usually on a Thursday and Friday, during the first 4 weeks of term, this will change to Tuesday and Thursday as the class are excited to be participating in football activities with Kilmarnock Football Club. This term we will be covering;

• Hockey
• Football
• Social Dance

Children require PE kit for all PE days. Please ensure that all items of uniform and PE kit have your child’s name clearly marked on them.  Please make sure your child is not wearing jewellery on these days. If your child cannot take part for any reason, please contact the school.

French

We will be continuing with our French conversational skills, and will be looking at numbers beyond 20. The children will engage in a range of listening, talking and writing tasks. As the term progresses, we will also look at Christmas traditions in France.

IDL

The children have really enjoyed getting started on our comparison study of the rainforest and the Arctic. We will continue this topic, looking at the similarities and differences in the vegetation and animals in both areas. We will consider climate and environmental differences and how these affect living things in each area. We will link this with our writing and art tasks.

Expressive Arts 

We will link our artwork this term with our topic. Using the elements of tone, shape and shade the children will enjoy various activities.

As the term progresses, we will learn some Christmas songs. We will also share some of our musical skills during our visits to Crossgates Care Home.

Religious Education

This term we will be reflecting on the lives of various saints including St. Margaret, St. Ignatius, St. Francis and St. Columba. We will also look at the meaning of the Liturgical Calendar and become familiar with the meaning and importance of the various feasts and associated liturgical colours. 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 continue in the same format as last term, it will be distributed on a Monday to be completed and returned by Friday.

Keep an eye on the School blog and Learning Journals for updates on some of our wonderful activities and learning.

Thank you as always, for your continued support.

Mrs MacKinnon.

Hello again everyone.  Christmas is already on the horizon, where does the time go!?  Here is a brief update of our learning focus this term.

Literacy

After reading our class novel last term, we now aim to develop Active Literacy strategies through Bug Club guided reading texts, paying particular attention to non-fiction features.  There will be a focus on paraphrasing and summarising as well as continuing to explore and develop answering and asking a variety of question types. For writing, we are concentrating on response pieces, giving our opinion and reviewing short videos.

Spelling groups will continue to use Active Spelling strategies and follow on from previous work. The Suns are developing their knowledge of metalinguistics by looking at prefixed words.  The Moons and Stars will further enhance their knowledge of different phoneme representations.

Numeracy

This term our numeracy focus is on multiplication and division incorporating decimals.  Towards the end of term we will make the link with division and fractions and begin to look at fractions in more detail.  We will continue to use Number Talk strategies to develop mental strategies related to multiplication and division.  The class are also working on skills beyond number with Mrs McIntyre and will be continuing to develop skills in calculating and naming angles.

Health and Wellbeing

The PATHS focus this term is ­­­­­­­­­looking at study skills before moving on to working on resolving conflicts.  We will also continue to praise and compliment children through Pupil of the Day. We are also continuing to explore food and dietary requirements of people and factors which influence food choices.

For our PE, Kilmarnock Football Club will be visiting to deliver some football sessions.  Our other PE day we will be focussing on gymnastics where we will develop our knowledge and execution of shapes, jumps, turns, balances and rolls.  We will also spend a short time looking at traditional Scottish dances.

IDL

Our topic this term is science based and is space and its forces.  We will be investigating the planets in our Solar System, famous astronauts, phases of the moon, gravity and magnetism and the importance of the International Space Station.  We will also look at how technology has advanced since the moon landings and explore Elon Musk’s Space X programme as well as Virgin Galactic.

RE

In the month of November P7’s will be looking at the lives of Saints and understand that this month is dedicated to remembering the dead.  We will also investigate the notion of Heaven, Hell and Purgatory.  We will also look at the period of Advent focussing on the story from different Gospels and how Jews were waiting for a saviour.  During this term we will also complete activities related to our Pope Francis Faith Award.

Technologies

This term P7 will access 3D graphics programme and use Tinkercad to create a variety of 3D designs.  We will also use this to create things for our Christmas Fayre so keep your eyes peeled for our designs ready for sale!

Mr Bertoncini

We will be visiting all classes starting tomorrow offering poppies in return for a donation to The Scottish Poppy Appeal. Donations will be cash donations in school via a registered charity tin. 

Thank you for your support.  

Below is the link to send your donations directly to Children In Need this year:

https://app.parentpay.com/ParentPayShop/Foc/Default.aspx?shopid=12634

Donations are to be made only through this link . These donations will not show up on your Parentpay account.

There is payment item on Parentpay called “BBC Children in Need 2023” however, please do not use this as it is set up solely for  Children in Need bank account purposes.

We are delighted to introduce the newest member of our Mount Carmel family – Penelope Terras.

Huge congratulations to Mrs Terras, her husband and big sister Phoebe who welcomed Penelope on 19th October.

You can view our latest newsletter below:

November Newsletter (office.com)

Our winning house “Earth” enjoyed a trip to

@_junglemadness     

recently as their prize. Everyone had a great time and the pupils were complimented by others on their behaviour and manners!

Thank you to the wonderful staff at Jungle Madness who always make sure we have a great time and go out of their way to accomodate us.

Earlier this month Gerard from Missio visited the school . We had a “Wear Bright Colours” day and also a Missio Raffle  which helped us raise £120 for the charity. The lucky winner of the raffle was Gosia in P4. Congratulations Gosia, we hope you enjoy your prize!

Please find attached a link to information regarding St. Joseph’s carers:

St Joseph’s Academy Network-Carers | Biteable

 Our Primary 7’s will be visiting St. Joseph’s Academy next Tuesday, 31st October. They will be walking there and back, so please ensure your child has a jacket with them for the journey. Pupils will be leaving Mount Carmel Primary shortly after 9am.

Thank you

Kilmarnock Standard will be in school on Tuesday 31st October photographing our new P1s at 9.30am

Thankyou

Primary 4 parent/carers only

There will be a Sacramental Preparation Parent Meeting tomorrow evening  (24/10/23) at 7pm in St. Joseph’s church hall.

Gentle reminder that school will close at 3pm on Friday 13th October and reopen to children on Tuesday 24th October at 9am.

We hope you have a great October half-term break

Team MC

Wider Achievements

At Mount Carmel Primary School we want to showcase and recognise all of our achievements.  This includes items that they take part outside of school such as dancing, football, gymnastics, swimming – the list is endless.  Please take some time to detail some of the activities your child takes part in out of school and any special awards they might have received recently as part of this.  If you have any photographs that you would like to share please email these to eamountcarmel.ps@eastayrshire.org.uk

CALLING ALL SCHOOL PERFORMING GROUPS
Could you perform at Kilmarnock Christmas Festival?

Kilmarnock Town Centre-Sunday 26th November

Closing Date For Entries Friday 20th October

Calling all local singers, dancers and musicians! We are on the lookout for the very best local talent to be part of our entertainment programme at the Kilmarnock Christmas Festival.

If you would like to be considered for the event, please submit a short video of you performing (no longer than a 1 minute) by Friday 20th October. Videos can be uploaded via this link. Please read the FAQ’s before submitting your video. If chosen, you will be given a 15 minute slot to perform on one of the event stages at the main event.

Good Luck Everyone!

With Halloween fast approaching, we know this can be an expensive time of year with the added pressure of buying costumes etc. We keep  a supply of children’s costumes in school for borrowing. These will be available from next week in the foyer. Please feel free to come and have a look. Similarly, if you have any children’s costumes you no longer use/need please hand them into the school and we will add them to our collection.

Thank you 

Earth House!!!

Could all children who are in the winning house and going to Jungle Madness on Wednesday 11th October please wear comfortable clothes that day.