Friday 20th March 2020 16:27

Dear Parent/Carer,

Linda McAulay-Griffiths
Head of Education

Further Update from the Head of Education.  We have had some requests from parents regarding the definition of a key worker.  There will be a full and final definition of this provided by EAC later today.  This will then be provided to parents via the app and school website.

The staff at Mount Carmel PS would like to thank you for your support and understanding during these unsettled and worrying times.

All children have currently been issued with a home learning pack which includes EAC’s list of suggested websites, ideas for indoor play and their personal logins for Glow, Bug Club and SumDog. If children were absent from school this week their packs were delivered to them by school staff.

We are following the advice given from East Ayrshire Council and will continue to update you as information becomes available to us. It is anticipated that there will be further guidance from EAC today.

Letter to all parents and carers – 19.3.2020

Well done to Evie McIntosh from Primary 6 who correctly guessed the bear’s birthday as 16th July (Feast day of Our Lady of Mount Carmel).

As a result of this fundraising activity we raised £93.10!

A fantastic amount.

Please be advised that our upcoming parent’s afternoon and evening are cancelled . They will be rescheduled in due course.

Thanks you for your understanding in this matter.

On Friday 28th February the boys and girls of Mount Carmel Primary all came together to receive a great presentation from Primary 6 all about the weather cycle.

Congratulations to P5 on their superb recent class assembly all about the continents.

Hand washing.

In response to concerns about Coronavirus, staff are making sure children are washing their hands throughout the  school day. We have spoken at assembly about correct hand washing and watched video clips showing the correct procedure. East Ayrshire Council has given us extra resources to ensure we have sufficient supplies of soap and paper products.

We have taken the decision today to cancel ALL after school activities/clubs with immediate effect, until further notice.

Thank you for your understanding on this matter.

On Thursday 5th March we celebrated World Book Day. Children and staff were encouraged to dress up as a character from their favourite book. Everyone had a great day and some of the costumes were AMAZING!!. Here are some pictures of the children:

Please find a link below for the very latest “Stay at home guidance” for people with confirmed or possible Coronavirus:

Coronavirus- Stay at home guidance

Today we took part in the SCIAF-Day of Prayer. We came together as a whole school to offer our prayers to the people of the Democratic Republic of Congo. It was special to know that thousands of pupils and staff were all praying on the same day.

“Coronavirus – What is it? What’s happening? Will I catch it? Children ask lots of questions, but BBC Newsround has produced a series of helpful video clips to help children and young people understand more about what’s going on.  …..

We have added some up to date links on the Information page of our blog page to assist you when explaining and discussing Coronavirus with your child.

We are keen to support parents to ensure all young people are Cyber Safe, especially with the growing use of a wide range of Apps and online forms of communication :(WhatsApp/TikTok/Instagram/Snapchat etc.)

As part of our continued commitment , we are delighted to promote our new “Safer Schools” App. This App is a reliable source of advice on all things Cyber. It gives empowering, current and informative information on all current digital platforms/tools/apps in an accessible manner. We have a range of tailored user accesses (pupil, staff and parent/carers). To access your parent platform please:

• Go to your app store or Google Play and search for “Safer School”
• In school field type ” East Ayrshire Council
• The code for primary parents is: 7440

We would recommend that you discuss with your child about which apps and social media platforms they currently use/access. This will help ensure they know how to stay safe online-using the app to start these types of conversations is great.

You can now access our twitter feed via our blog main screen by clicking the twitter icon !.

Our twitter page is:

@eacMountCarmel

Don’t forget the raffle tickets for  Grand Easter Raffle are available to buy during all the fundraising weeks at a cost of 20p per ticket.

Congratulations to Zak Boyd from P4 who was 2nd in the recent East Ayrshire Sumdog competition! Well done Zak! Keep up the good work

Our whole school trip to the Science Centre in Glasgow is tomorrow!!

Please remember the buses are leaving the school at 8.30am prompt.

Children should bring a snack and a packed lunch (unless you have requested one from the dinner hall)

Buses returning to the school for 3pm

On Friday 28th February, we all said a sad farewell to our very much loved Lollipop man, Bill Robinson.

Here are some photos of Bill receiving his presentation from the children:

Don’t forget that our Lenten fundraising activity this week is ……Guess The Bear’s Birthday!

Available all week. It is 50p per guess and the money should be brought into school for this .

The winner will be announced on Friday…Good Luck!

If anyone has any World Book Day costumes that they can no longer use, please hand them  into the school as we can recycle them for next year.

Thank you.

As part of this years parents information evening/ afternoon, the DFS Committee will be holding a Roadshow! You can come and see all the resources we use in our school, like : IDL, Clicker 7, Ear defenders and lots more! Your input will go towards our Silver award. Look forward to seeing you!

Poppy and Tilly (DFS Committee members)

Well done to all the pupils (and teachers) who dressed up to celebrate World Book Day today.

Lot’s of photos still to follow from our amazing World Book Day today.

We are delighted to get a special mention on the official East Ayrshire Police twitter page. Our lovely campus officer PC Dempster visited today and read ‘Topsy and Tim visit the Police Station’ to the infant department.

……that the Primary 4 class assembly will take place on Friday 27th March at 2.15pm in the school.  We welcome all parents/carers who are able to come and join in .

Please remember that toys should not be brought to school daily. There are lots of wonderful activities for the children to complete outdoors. They should not bring their own toys from home to play with at break and lunch time. If the class teacher requests toys to come in for a special occasion then they will be kept safe in the classroom and again should not be taken out to the playground.

Thank you for your understanding on this matter.

Very soon you will see a big change taking place in the school foyer as we would like to create a uniform exchange area in the school. If you have any donations of school jumpers, cardigans,  skirts, trousers etc. that no longer fit your children but would still be great for others.

We will let you know more about this once we have properly created our area for the exchange.

At Mount Carmel we are excited to learn lots about other countries in the world. Over this term we are lucky to receive some additional support from Mrs Preston who is delivering some extra modern languages activities for both Spanish and French. This week she is teaching us all about Spanish Greetings.

Gracias Senora Preston !

Until Friday 6th March there is an East Ayrshire Schools Sumdog Challenge. All pupils can access this as home for additional Numeracy homework. The competition is based on accuracy and not number of questions answered – so read the questions very carefully.

Good Luck!