Category Archives: Whole School News
Mount Carmel-Mission to the Moon
Reminder- World Book Day Tomorrow!
Don’t forget it’s World Book Day tomorrow (Thursday 2nd March).
We are looking forward to seeing the children dressed up as characters from their favourite books if they wish OR you can just “Dress as you please” You don’t need to stress about buying a costume, why not customize some old clothes you already have at home?
And if you don’t feel like dressing up. that’s ok too, you can still take part in all the fun activities throughout the day!
Primary 7 Transition visit – Thursday 2nd March
Primary 7 will take part in their next transition visit on Thursday 2nd March. Children will leave for St Josephs just after 9am and will be back at Mount Carmel for lunch time. Please note that children should wear full school uniform this day (not own clothes as part of World Book Day activities).
Lenten Activities 2023
Thursday 2nd March – dress down for World Book Day
Wednesday 8th March – P3 and P4 Activity Day
Friday 17th March – wear green for St.Patrick’s Day (no football colours)
Friday 24th March – PJ and Movie Day
Friday 31st March – Easter Technology Challenge – bonnets/egg decoration and parade
Mission to the Moon
This is the first week of our “Mission to the Moon” where we are encouraging families in active travel to and from school.
Please encourage children to walk, cycle, scoot to school and help us build up our S-miles and reach our targets. If a Parent/carer/sibling participates too they also collect S-miles!
Lockerbie 2023
World Book Day 2 March 2023
Mission To The Moon
We are delighted to be participating in East Ayrshire Council’s Active Travel initiative Mission to the Moon. The aim of this project is to get young people walking to school in a bid to further reduce our carbon emissions here in East Ayrshire, while also reducing congestion at our school gates and promoting Active Travel.
Earning S-Miles (‘School Miles’)
Each time our young people travel to/from school by walking, scooting/cycling, they will earn an S-mile for their class.
Park & Stride – pupils will earn an S-Mile even if they walk part of the journey to/from school. Bonus S-Miles can be earned by parents/siblings/staff walking the journey to school too!
A walking circuit will be available in the playground for pupils who travel to school by taxi/bus and for any pupil who wishes to gather bonus S-miles for their class during break/lunchtime. Class walks, outings and Daily Mile time also earn S-Miles for classes.
Our Eco Committee will collate our S-Miles each week in school and send our totals to the Climate Change Team at East Ayrshire Council each month.
Our S-Mile Journeys
In Mount Carmel we have agreed that our first target will be to walk the length of the Zambezi River. This links to our Lenten SCIAF appeal, which this year is focused on supporting families in Zambia. Many children there walk up to 10 miles a day to get to school. The length of the river is 1599 miles and we hope to accrue the equivalent miles in 3 weeks.
We will try our best to collect the miles we need within the timescale we have set. Once we have reached our target destination, we will decide on our next destination and time scale.
The Launch!
We will begin collecting S-Miles week commencing Monday 20th February and continue on our travels during the rest of Term 3 and 4. Once all participating schools across East Ayrshire have banked 238,855 S-Miles, we can launch our EAC Clean Green rocket, sending it all the way to the moon!
We look forward to keeping you updated on our progress via our school app and blog throughout the year.
Mrs McGahon
Depute Head Teacher
Free Pre-Registration Training for a career in Childminding
Have you ever thought of a career in Childminding?
East Ayrshire Council provides Pre-Registration Training and support FREE to anyone residing in East Ayrshire who is looking to become a childminder. Please see the information leaflet below:
Ash Wednesday Reminder
** Reminder**
Please complete the form below only if you do not wish your child/children to receive ashes
The form Ash Wednesday Consent Form is now available and will take you 2 minutes to complete. Please be sure to submit it by 17/02/2023.
Thank you!
Learning Journals

The letter above went out to all pupils last week. Please check your emails (including junk) for your Learning Journals log in details. Please contact the school if you have not received your login email or are having problems accessing Learning Journals.
Thank you.
Ash Wednesday Consent Form
** Reminder**
Please complete the form below only if you do not wish your child/children to receive ashes
The form Ash Wednesday Consent Form is now available and will take you 2 minutes to complete. Please be sure to submit it by 17/02/2023.
Thank you!
St. Joseph’s Academy Mental Health Open Evening
Please find attached information about a Mental Health Open Evening at St Joseph’s Academy this Wednesday 8th February.
Dress to Express
****Reminder****
Dress to Express – Wednesday 8th February
Children are welcome to come to school in clothing to showcase their personality.
There is no cost for this.
Ash Wednesday
Please complete the form below only if you do not wish your child/children to receive ashes
The form Ash Wednesday Consent Form is now available and will take you 2 minutes to complete. Please be sure to submit it by 17/02/2023.
Thank you!
Pancake Day

Freshly made pancakes will be available at lunchtime on Shrove Tuesday as an additional item.
Toppings available will include:
Banana with natural yoghurt
Strawberries with ice cream
Active Schools Overview
February Newsletter
Childsmile Fluoride Varnish
Childsmile will be visiting the P1-4 pupils in school on Thursday 2nd February from 9.30am-11.30am for a catchup visit to administer fluoride varnish.
Dress to Express
Dress to Express – Wednesday 8th February
Children are welcome to come to school in clothing to showcase their personality.
There is no cost for this.
Change to PE Timetable
Updated PE days for all classes:
Multisports Reminder
*******Reminder*******
P4-7 Badminton Community Club
P1-4 Girls Football
Primary 7 to Secondary School Application Form
Dear Parent/Carer
As you are no doubt aware, your child is due to transfer from primary to secondary education at the beginning of the new school session (August 2023).
Secondary school hand books are available at: https://eastayrshi.re/SchoolHandbooks
Please complete the online P7 transfer application at http://eastayrshi.re/p7transfer
Multi Sports Sessions
Temporary Reduction in Breakfast Club Charges
As part of the cost of living support we are introducing free toast within the school dining hall to pupils for pupils to collect in the morning. In line with this we will also be temporarily reducing the cost of Breakfast Club food from £1.00 to £0.80.
Please note, this reduction to the charge is only temporary whilst we have Cost of Living funding available, and we will let you know when this reduction is due to end.
The Killie Winter Get-Together
The Killie Community are starting an initiative every Wednesday night from 5pm-7pm at Rugby Park, Kilmarnock, whereby you can come along for a tea/coffee, hot food and some company. It is called
“The Killie Winter Get-Together”
and will run weekly until the end of March. Entry is via the glass door to the left of the Killie Superstore. There is no registration required.
P7 Term 3 Curricular Update
Happy New Year and I hope Santa was good to you all. And so we enter P7’s final year at primary!! Good to see all the pupils back after the holidays considering so many had been unfortunately unwell shortly before the break. Here is a brief overview of our learning focus this term.
Literacy
Our focus this term will continue to develop all reading skills through Bug Club guided reading texts. We will also be reading texts to identify fact and opinion and discuss the reliability of sources of information. We will also be looking at Scots language and poems. For writing, we are concentrating on discussion texts (discursive essays) until the February holiday then look at the narrative genre with a particular focus on using dialogue to advance the story.
Numeracy
The emphasis of our numeracy this term is on fractions, decimals and percentages and how they interlink. Having completed the set Number Talk discussions, we will continue to use Number Talk strategies to develop mental strategies using all four processes. The class are also working on skills beyond number with Mrs MacKinnon and will be investigating data handling.
Health and Wellbeing
The PATHS focus this term is looking at respect and how to deal with conflicts and identifying positive steps to de-escalate situations. We will also continue to praise and compliment children through Pupil of the Day. We are also exploring risk taking behaviour including substance misuse and practise basic first aid procedures.
Our PE days will now be a Tuesday and Wednesday. We will be first concentrating on fun fitness, creating personal fitness plans and setting personal goals. We also aim to develop our team game skills through netball where we will understand different roles within the team.
IDL
The topic this term is Scottish based and is looking at the Highland Clearances. We will be investigating important historical figures involved in the event, how people lived during that time and the mass emigration from the Highland area.
RE
This term we will be aiming to complete our Pope Francis Faith Award journals, revising all the Gifts of the Holy Spirit and giving evidence of them being used in the school, at home and in the community or Parish. As well as this, there will be a final reflection on how the Gifts will help support them as they develop and grow.
French
Mrs MacKinnon will continue teaching French with P7. Through a range of talking, listening, reading and writing tasks, this term the focus will be on describing the weather and looking in to current affairs within France as well as using the verb etre (to be).
Technologies
This term P7 will look at coding and understand its importance within society. We will use block coding software to program small digital devices and explore various commands to create games and move characters within games.
I look forward to working with P7 in their final year and will enjoy accompanying them on their trip to Lockerbie this term.
Mr Bertoncini













