We are delighted to be continuing with our annual Reverse Advent Calendar initiative this year. This is a wonderful project which helps local families who may be struggling this Christmas.
Pupils can begin bringing in to school any items similar to those listed below. We will collect items up until Wednesday 21st December when Father Martin will then uplift them and take them to the Food Bank.
Please do not hand in perishable food stuffs
Doors will be open for access to our small hall half an hour before each performance, where parents/carers will be able to purchase items from our class Christmas crafts, order school class calendars and enjoy a cup of tea or coffee.
Doors open on Wednesday 14th at 1.30pm (performance at 2pm)
Doors open on Thursday 15th at 5pm (performance at 5.30pm)
Check back here shortly for pictures of the Christmas crafts which will be on sale.
For information, this week will be the last week of homework until after the Christmas break
We would like to say a big thank you to Friends Of Mount Carmel for organising our school Christmas Fayre last Friday. It was a huge success! Also thank you to all the staff and pupils who helped out on the night and to Ms. Donnelly and the school choir who opened the Fayre.
Our Nativity tickets are being given out daily to pupils, so please check schoolbags for them if you have already returned your order form.
We are not charging for the tickets this year, however, if you feel you would like to make a donation we would be extremely grateful. We are kindly asking for a donation of between £1 and £6.
This is now open on Parentpay.
Thank you
Please note the following changes will take p0lace to our lunch menu on Wednesday 7th December:
Fresh Tomato Soupl
Chicken Meatballs in tomato sauce with Pasta
Lentil & sweet potato Korma with brown rice
Gammon Sandwich
Cracker & Cheese or fruit selection
Thankyou
We have a number of children across the school with Gastro symptoms, Diarrhoea and/or vomiting. After seeking advice from the Health Protection Team they have asked for parents/carers to be reminded about the importance of washing hands and if a child does show symptoms they must be without these for 48hrs prior to returning to school.
Thank you for you cooperation with this matter.
Please read our December Newsletter
| As in previous years we will be selling class calendars. This will be a class picture. If you do not wish your child to be included in this class picture please contact the school directly today.
Class calendars will be available to order at the Christmas Fayre. Copies will then be given to the children before the end of term. |
Home baking donations for the Christmas Fayre can be handed in to the school on Thursday.
Thank you
We are looking for Primary 7 pupil helpers for our Christmas Fayre this Friday 2nd December. If your P7 child would like to help please ask them to inform Mr. Bertoncini tomorrow, or contact the school office.
Thank you
Please check school bags today for a letter about ticket allocation. Two tickets are available per family. Please complete the form and return to the school by Thursday 1st December so that tickets can be allocated.
Wednesday 14th December – 2pm
Thursday 15th December – 5:30pm
The SHOUT discount card is for children from birth to 11 years old living, or attending primary school, in East Ayrshire
The aim of the SHOUT is to provide children and families across East Ayrshire the opportunity to access an array of leisure services, visitor attractions and commercial services, ensuring that cost is not a barrier.
The cards are free and the benefits include:
Save money with lots of discounts to local visitor attractions and local stores*
Should you wish to apply for a SHOUT card for your child please use this link:
https://www.east-ayrshire.gov.uk/CommunityLifeAndLeisure/LeisurePasses/SHOUT.aspx
Please remember that for Wednesday’s trip to the Pantomime we ask that children only bring 1 small snack (small packet of sweets, crisps or 1 chocolate bar) and 1 small drink (bottle only, no fizzy juice). Thank you.
Thank you to everyone who has already completed and returned their child’s Christmas Lunch form. If you have still to do this, please return forms no later than Monday 28th November.
Thank you.
We are pleased to announce that we made a total of £77 in donations for Children In Need this year. Thank you to everyone who donated!
Just a reminder that everyone who donated via Parentpay will automatically be entered into our November Raffle.
Could any Mount Carmel children who are attend mass on Sunday 20/11 please wait behind after mass for 10 minutes to allow Father Martin & Mrs Brown to share some news with you.
Thanks
If you have purchased or have still to purchase a book from the Book Fair using your child’s “Book Fair Wish List” please return the completed slip to the school so your book(s) can be ordered.
Please do this no later than Monday 21st November.
Please check you have completed the following on the form prior to returning:
Child name and class
Payment Reference Number
Name and value of book
Thank you.
A reminder that tonight and tomorrow night are our parent/carer appointments in school. We are delighted that St. Joseph’s staff will be attending both nights. No appointments required, please just introduce yourself and ask any questions you may have no matter which primary your child is in.
There will also be the opportunity to look at pupil work and have a cup of tea/coffee. These will both be available in the small hall.
We are delighted to have our Book Fair back in school!
Every class will have the opportunity to visit the Book Fair today. Each child will be given a “Book Fair Wish List” slip which will be filled out in school and brought home with them with the title of one book they would really like from the Fair.
There is no obligation to purchase a book.
There is a portion at the bottom of the slip which parents/carers can complete in order to pay for the book if they wish.
The Book Fair will be available tonight and tomorrow night during our parents evening.
Please do not send cash into school.
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.
There will be a new weekly Killie Kickers (age 3-5) session for young people in Onthank launching on Thursday 17th November at 4pm. This will take place in the North West Area Centre, Western Road, Kilmarnock KA3 1NQ on Thursdays from 4pm-5pm. The cost is £4 per session with your 1st session free!
If young people would like to come and try, please can parents fill out their details on the form below and click Onthank Kickers, and “try a taster session”:
https://kilmarnockfc.co.uk/community/championing-our-young-people/kickers-kids-sign-up/
East Ayrshire Council are in the process of taking part in a national discussion that will hopefully ‘reform’ education and it is important that the views of our parents are heard along with others.
An event which will be jointly hosted by Connect and NPFS will be held on Wednesday 9th November between 19.30 – 21.00 please sign up for this event and have your views heard. Details of the event are below:
www.eventbrite.com/e/national-discussion-online-event-for-parentscarers-with-prof-alma-harris-tickets-457090358567
As you remember from our November Newsletter Primary 1-3 will be gifted a bag of book as part of Book Week Scotland. To celebrate this Primary 1-3 will complete some special activities in school on Monday 14th November. We are also asking that the children in Primary 1-3 come to school in their pyjamas.
As part of East Ayrshire Leisure’s celebration of Quentin Blake’s 90th birthday this year, we are inviting children and young people age 7 – 16 years to submit their own Quentin Blake inspired illustration artworks for a special exhibition in the Young People’s Gallery at the Dick Institute from 26 November 2022 – 25 February 2023.
Artwork brief
We want you to send us your Quentin Blake inspired illustrated artworks of lively and playful characters which look like they might be found on a book cover or in a poem! Click here for the full artwork brief.
Find all entry requirements here
The call closes for submissions at 3pm on Saturday 12th November 2022.
Entries should be handed in or posted to the Main Gallery desk at the Dick Institute (Elmbank Avenue, KA1 3BU) from Sat 15th October 2022.
Submitted artworks which fulfil the entry requirements will be showcased the exhibition
Primary 3 Blog Post (Term 2 Update)
Welcome to our curriculum update for term 2. It is sure to be a busy term as we prepare for all the fun and exciting activities, we will be part of in the run up to advent and Christmas!
Literacy
During term 1 our focus in reading was to predict what might happen in our reading texts and to think about sequencing parts of a story. We also began to think about summarising what we had read and to put this information into our own words. During term 2, summarising skills will continue to be a focus alongside our usual spelling and common word activities that help pupils retain and recognise their spelling sounds/phonemes and words in texts.
As part of our topic and to help children find specific information, we will also be working on recognising different parts of texts (pictures, diagrams, charts and headings) and how to scan for and locate key words or topic related facts in texts. Children will also use their knowledge of nouns, verbs and adjectives from term 1 and identify these in texts we are accessing in class. To build on from this, pupils will be focusing on punctuation and speech in texts and looking at the impact this has on texts for the reader, as well as beginning to use different punctuation in their own writing.
In writing, we have been focused on descriptive writing in term 1 and will now focus on report writing and narrative throughout term 2. We will also partake in some listening and talking games and activities to help children develop the key skills needed when in whole class or group discussions or when sharing information in a show and tell type activity.
Maths
Our focus in maths will be to regularly revisit place value, recognising sequences and patterns in numbers 0-100 and how these patterns continue in larger numbers beyond 100. In term 1 the focus was addition and subtraction strategies and although this will be revisited in term 2, our focus will move to multiplication, with pupils beginning to make the link to division. Children will spend time mentally counting on in 2, 5 and 10, then using this repeated addition strategy to apply to the other times tables.
In beyond number, children were focused on 2D and 3D shapes and their properties in term 1. The focus in term 2 will be time, analogue and digital with children learning to think about what the time will be in half an hour or in an hour’s time. Children will regularly use 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 any number problems.
Health & Wellbeing
All children will have the opportunity to be pupil of the day for a second time in term 2 and will continue to explore emotions, comfortable and uncomfortable and how we recognise these emotions within ourselves and in others. We will look at strategies for helping us deal with uncomfortable emotions and how we can help our friends if they are experiencing some of these emotions.
In P.E, our sessions will happen on a Monday and a Wednesday and our focus in term 2 will be football, gymnastics, and social dancing. Children will have the opportunity to partake in some fun activities which support teamwork whilst focusing on developing their listening skills, awareness of space and how to keep ourselves safe whilst using apparatus.
R.E
Our focus during R.E sessions will be on the creation and Mary in October, moving to Saints and Remembrance in November before visiting advent and the nativity throughout December.
Topic
In term 2 the focus of topic will be on social studies and looking at climates and weather around the world. The children will have the opportunity to measure our own weather, make weather reports and predictions as well as examine how living things survive in areas of extreme cold or heat. Pupils will research the impact of extreme weather such as tornadoes, floods, and drought and how climate change is affecting the planet.
We hope this is the start of another very successful term and that the pupils will continue to enjoy learning new topics across the curriculum.
Take care,
Mrs Travers
Hello again everyone. Here we are in term 2 with Halloween just gone and Christmas 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. There will be a particular focus on paraphrasing and identifying the man idea as well as continuing to explore and improve answering and asking a variety of question types. For writing, we are concentrating on report writing and aim to use these skills on a topic that interests them.
Numeracy
This term our numeracy focus is on multiplication and division incorporating aspects of fractions decimals and percentages. 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 MacKinnon will be investigating the concept of measuring and naming different angles and applying them to real life contexts in the form of bearings.
Health and Wellbeing
The PATHS focus this term is looking at organisation 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 exploring food and dietary requirements of people and factors which influence food choices. We will also be investigating different nutrients groups and the importance of each.
For our PE, we will be visiting Ayrshire College on Wednesdays and participating in outdoor activities. In school, our other PE day will be a Tuesday where we will be focussing on gymnastics. We will develop our knowledge and execution of shapes, jumps, turns, balances and rolls and even try some mini parkour! We will also spend a short time looking at traditional Scottish dances.
IDL
Our topic this term is science based and is forces and friction. We will be investigating the life of Sir Isaac Newton and his 3 laws of motion and discovery of gravity. We will also be conducting some scientific experiments and discussing fair testing and hypothesising.
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
French
After getting the opportunity to work with Mrs Donaghy from St Joseph’s, Mrs MacKinnon will now carry on the French with P7. This term the focus will be on conversations around food as well as talking about which country someone is from.
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!
I look forward to working with P7 in the coming year and hope to have lots of enjoyable experiences that will make learning fun and memorable.
A quick reminder that we will be going outside often, therefore, children should bring in appropriate clothes such as wellies or old boots, waterproof jacket and warmer clothes (hat, scarf, gloves) as we move into the winter.
Mr Bertoncini
