Following interviews held yesterday, I am delighted to be able to advise that Mrs Joanna McGahon has been appointed to the post of Acting Head Teacher, St Sophia’s Primary School.
Joanna is currently Depute Head Teacher at Mount Carmel Primary School, and will commence her post at St Sophia’s PS in the New Year.
I am sure you will join me in congratulating Joanna on her appointment.
A reminder that this Friday (29th) is our final dress down day of the month. If possible we are kindly asking for any donations of home baking for our Christmas Fayre.
A reminder that we have Tempest Photography coming tomorrow for individual pupil photographs. Please note there will be NO provision for sibling photographs this year.
Today we took delivery of an enormous delivery of brand new school uniform which was kindly and very generously donated to our school by Tesco Extra, Kilmarnock.
These items will be added to our Uniform Exchange.
This week, as part of Book Week Scotland, our Primary 4 class took a special trip to Crossgate Care Home. The children brought along their favourite storybooks and spent time reading aloud to the residents, who thoroughly enjoyed listening to the tales. It was a lovely moment of connection, with smiles and stories shared over some tea and biscuits.
After the storytelling, the fun continued with a lively game of bingo! The room was filled with laughter as everyone got into the spirit of the game. Our pupils were fantastic helpers, calling out numbers and celebrating every shout of “Bingo!”
It was another lovely visit and we’re so proud of the kindness and enthusiasm our Primary 4’s showed. A huge thank you to Crossgate Care Home for always welcoming us so warmly – we can’t wait to come back next week!
Here are some snapshots from Wednesday….
Happy Book Week Scotland from all of us at Primary 4! 📚✨
Primary 6 took part in the Day of Dance which saw schools from all over East Ayrshire showcasing their talents. It was a wonderful day and the children represented the school beautifully. A great big well done to each and every one of them! 💙
On World Children’s Day we celebrate children’s rights as it is the birthday of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. This year, this human rights law for children became a part of the law in Scotland.
This morning P4, P5 and P7 took part in a special online assembly led by Nicola Killean, the Children and Young People’s Commissioner. During the assembly we learned about the link between climate change and children’s rights, heard from other children who have created climate campaigns in their local area and shared our views with children across Scotland.
As part of Catholic Education Week P5 explored the letter which Pope Francis has written to people all over the world telling them about the Jubilee Year of 2025.
The theme is ‘Pilgrims of Hope’, and it will be a year of hope for a world suffering the impacts of war, the ongoing effects of COVID-19 pandemic, and a climate crisis.
After discussing the main messages of the letter P5 designed their own ‘Pilgrims of Hope’ logos!
The Book Fair will be on display and available to purchase books from during both our Pupil Progress Meetings; tomorrow and Thursday.
We do not accept cash for any purchases made from the Book Fair. Instead, there will be order forms available on both nights where you can order a book(s) and make payment online at the same time.
All order forms will then be delivered to the school office and orders made up and distributed to pupils in due course.
The SHA are hosting a come try event for all mini players, boys and girls (born 2014/2015 – roughly P5 and P6) and a female only event for two age categories – players born 2012/2013 (P7&S1) and players born 2010/2011 (S2&S3).
For young people to sign up, their parent/guardian must complete the MS forms that is linked below.
It’s that time of year when children will be making journeys to school and back in the dark. When the evenings are darker, visibility is greatly reduced for everyone which makes pedestrians and cyclists even more vulnerable than usual so help us promote:
‘Be safe Be seen day’ on the 22nd November.
We want to encourage all pupils to wear something bright on their journeys to school. Remember we are looking for as bright as they want, fluorescent and especially reflective clothing is so important when the days become darker.
We hope you have fun helping us promote this important road safety message and please let us know what great ideas you come up with and if sharing on your socials be sure to tag us #ayrshireroads.
Our special Pudsey Menu went down a treat at lunchtime, especially the popcorn! 🍿☺️ It has been lovely seeing everyone in their Children in Need outfits!
Remember you can still donate online following the link of Parent Pay 👍🏻
On Tuesday 19th November children in Primary 1 will receive their Bookbug Family Bag and children in Primary 2 and Primary 3 will receive their Read Write Count bags.
We will have a special afternoon of activities on the day. Children in P1-3 can come to school dressed in their pyjamas, bring a cuddly toy The teachers have planned a lovely afternoon for the boys and girls, where they will also enjoy a special treat of milk & cookies.
There is still time to purchase your tickets through Parentpay tickets for our November raffle where your child had the opportunity to win either a Barbie or Hot wheels Advent Calendar.
The Parent Council will be selling Raffle tickets at both of our Pupil Progress Meeting Events for all of the wonderful prizes that can be won at the Christmas Fayre
At Mount Carmel Primary School we want to showcase and recognise all of our achievements. This includes items that children 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. In order for us to share these achievements and recognise them at our special Wider Achievements Assembly on Friday 22nd November. If you have any photographs that you would like to share please email these to eamountcarmel.ps@eastayrshire.org.uk before Wednesday 20th November.
Do you have any Christmas Jumpers/party clothes which are too small for your child/children? If you do, we would be very grateful if you could hand them into the school.
It has come to our attention that there are two dates on the newsletter for our book gifting event, one of which being tomorrow. Please be advised that the book gifting event will take place on the 19th November. The children are invited to wear their pyjamas to school and bring in a soft toy on this date for this event. We apologise for any confusion and thank you for your understanding .
We are excited to announce that our Nativity performance will take place on Wednesday 11th December with both an afternoon and evening performance that day. For the afternoon performance doors will open at 1:30pm with tea and coffee being served in the small hall. Ticket holders will then be able to take their seats at 1:45pm, ready for the performance to start about 2:00pm.
Evening
On Wednesday 11th December we will also have our evening performance. We expect that all pupils in Primary 1-3 will attend this. If your child is unable to attend this performance please return the tear off slip in the Nativity letter which will be sent out 7th of November. This should be returned by Tuesday 12th November. All Primary 1-3 children should arrive at school at 5:00pm via the front entrance. Our doors will open at 5:30pm with tea and coffee being served in the small hall. Ticket holders will then be able to take their seats at 5:45pm, ready for the performance to start about 6:00pm.
Details about how to purchase tickets will be sent home in the coming weeks.
We will be holding Dress Down Days on every Friday throughout the month of November. We are kindly asking if, on those days, the children could bring in a donation for the bottle stall / tombola for the Christmas Fayre.
We are only asking for 1 donation per family and not 1 donation for every child in the family. Please note that all children are welcome to dress down even if they are not bringing a donation.
Below are suggestions for items on each Friday, however we will gratefully accept any donations on any of the 4 Fridays:
Pupils attending the cross country event tomorrow (7/11) should come to school wearing their PE kit (leggings, joggers) and school jumper. They should also bring with them full school uniform to change into when they return.
We are pleased to let you know that we have received a grant from “The Great British School Trip” which we will put towards the cost of our pantomime visit in December. This will therefore reduce the cost of the pantomime for every child from £15 to £12.
If you have already paid the pantomime in full, you will receive a £3 refund back to your Parentpay account. If you still have instalments to make, these will be amended and reduced by £3.
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