We are sad to inform you that today will be our lollipop man, Mr Sturgeon’s last day at Mount Carmel Primary. He has a new job and I’m sure you will all join with us in wishing him the best of luck in his new post.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank Mr Sturgeon for keeping our children and their families safe on their journeys to and from school.
There will be a Dress Down Day on Friday 13th February (no football colours) We are asking kindly for a £1 donation via ParentPay . Pupils who pay a donation will automatically get a free entry into our February Raffle. This item is now live on Parentpay and will be open for payments until Wednesday 25th February.
On Monday and Tuesday Killie in the Community will be opening the Hub for young people off school, where they can enjoy a free lunch along with football and sport all day as well as educational activities, and the chance to make new friends from 10am-3pm both days.
Our February Raffle is now on Parentpay tickets are £1.00 per strip of 5 and are available for purchase until Wednesday 28th February .
There will be a Dress Down Day on Friday 13th February (no football colours) We are asking kindly for a £1 donation via ParentPay . Pupils who pay a donation will automatically get a free entry into our February Raffle. This item is now live on Parentpay and will be open for payments until Wednesday 25th February.
Some of our P6 and 7 pupils recently took part in an Athletics Festival at the Athletics Arena in Kilmarnock. Everyone had a great time and gave 100%….well done!
We are delighted to have been awarded the Rights Respecting Schools Bronze Award!
Please see below link for the most recent Active schools Newsletter
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Please note that Primary 1 and Primary 7 will be taking part in the Childsmile annual dental inspection on Tuesday 3rd March
Thankyou
To avoid any unwanted visitors can we suggest that any children with long hair come to school with their hair tied up. Research has shown that the instances of infestation are lessened with this. It is also recommended that parents/carers check their child’s hair regularly.
Thank you for your cooperation with this matter.
Ash Wednesday will take place on Wednesday 18th February. All children who are in school will attend Mass that morning at 10am and will receive ashes. If you do not wish your child to receive ashes, please collect your child from school at 9.45 and return them to school at11am that morning. Thank you
We will be participating in the Rag Bag scheme again next month.
If you have any items of clothing, shoes, bags etc. that you no longer need or are having a clear out, please send items into school in a bin bag no later than 3pm on Friday 13th February as they will be collected the following Monday.
Thank you
Primary 4 enjoyed a interesting visit to Our Lady of Mount Carmel church this afternoon.
Sr Juliet talked to us about the Sacrament of Baptism, and we looked at some of the features of the church. We had an opportunity to look at the Baptismal font, and hold the special shell that the priest uses for baptism.
Thank you to Sr Juliet, we learnt lots! Well done to Primary 4 for being great ambassadors for our school, you were polite, respectful and well mannered.
We will be celebrating Burns day on Friday with our special assembly where our children will showcase the Scottish poems they have been learning in class.
Children are welcome to wear tartan to school on Friday with their ordinary school uniform.
Thanks
A massive well done to our Mount Carmel Football team. They played their first friendly game against Blacklands Primary school today. Although they didn’t secure a win this time, they representedtheir school brilliantly. A great big thank you, as always, to Ricky (our football coach) and Faye (our active schools co-ordinator) for all of their hard work in getting the team game ready. Well done everyone!!
Primary 1 Blog Post (Term 3 Update)
Hello and welcome to our term 3 blog post. Primary 1 pupils were very bust last term, organising and performing our Nativity show, ‘Hey Ewe!’ They did such a great job and all pupils enjoyed the festivities, parties and the pantomime before we stopped for Christmas break.
UNCRC – Class Charter
The focus of children’s rights this term will be: We will be looking at the articles and rights involved and associated in Holocaust Memorial Day in late January, Safe Internet Day and Children’s Mental Health Week in February, and World Book Day and World Water Day in March.
Literacy
Our focus in term three will be to learn the next set of initial sounds/phonemes through songs and actions. Through this, pupils will explore words that begin with each sound and start blending sounds to create 2- and 3-letter words, supporting word building and recognition of common words. This will allow pupils to begin accessing early writing skills as they use their knowledge of sounds to word-build and structure a sentence.
Our reading and spelling activities will allow pupils to access early reading books, starting with those that incorporate the sounds we are learning and progressing to those with simple sentences and picture clues. As their knowledge of common words increases, children will be exposed to more books and rhymes to support these developing skills. We will begin to ask and answer simple questions about the books we are reading.
Our focus in writing will be increasing our use of descriptive words to give more detailed sentences about characters or objects we come across in our reading books. As we progress, we will become more independent and use our knowledge of sounds and common words to write sentences with more confidence.
Numeracy
Our focus in numeracy will be early addition skills and familiarising ourselves with the number stories to 10, as well as doubles and near doubles to 10. Children will build on recognsing number figures for 11-20 whilst subitising and identifying number patterns through hands-on activities that will increase their knowledge and confidence in using numbers.
In beyond number, we will look at basic fractions of whole and half shapes and finding a half of a whole number. As confidence builds we will introduce the idea of quarters too, then we will link this with time, the seasons and the idea of o’clock and half past.
Health & Wellbeing
Our Paths Pupil of the Day will continue as will growing a deeper understanding of emotions, building friendships, and meeting our Paths animals again, who will help the children navigate the many different feelings we may experience.
In PE, our sessions will be on Mondays and Wednesdays, and our focus in term three will be racquet skills, fitness and gymnastics. Children will have the opportunity to take part in some fun activities that support teamwork whilst developing their skills in what keeps us fit and healthy, in categories of exercise and foods/nutrients our bodies need.
R.E
Our focus during R.E. sessions will be on prayer, 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 the Easter Story as we near the end of term three.
IDL
We will be focusing on ‘Weather’ and ‘Plants’ in term three, gaining an understanding of how weather affects the world and how weather changes depending on where in the world you stay and what season we are in. We will look at climates and the conditions necessary to grow plants and crops successfully, which will tie in beautifully with our ‘Plants’ topic. Pupils will learn to label and name different plants of a plant and describe the growth process from seed to plant.
Modern Languages (French)
In French lessons, children will continue to build on basic greetings. We will learn songs and rhymes to help us retain this information and begin looking at weather in French too.
Homework
Homework will continue in term three. Please check your child’s homework bag weekly to ensure all homework is completed. Homework will consist of sounds/spelling, common words, reading and number activities as the children’s knowledge and skills increase. Homework will be issued on a Monday and should be returned to school on Friday.
We hope this is the start of a very successful third term and that the pupils will enjoy all that we do.
Take care,
Mrs Travers and Mrs Strachan
Welcome back!
Our Eco committee are proud to share that we arrived at our astro base camp for Journey # 1 and completed 5801 S-Miles (110 S-Miles by Parents/Carers). Thanks to the Parents/Carers who helped add S-Miles and scanned the QR or clicked the link to record their journey, as they alone are worth 10-S-Miles to the school!
We are now starting our Journey # 2 to the Lunar base camp via the Scorpio route selected for our school. Please support us by helping us log our S-Miles by walking to school or taking public transport over the car. We would love to see more parents get involved. Please use the QR Code below or link. It takes less than a minute. All you need to do is add your name and your child’s school. Even grandparents can get involved by adding their journey too!
Voyage to Venus – Parent Supporter Link
MC Eco Committee
@EACdigi_LfS
Primary 7 Term 3
Happy New Year! We hope all our Primary 7 families had a restful and joyful holiday. It’s great to have the pupils back in school, we can’t believe we’re in Term 3 already. Many children will be looking forward to their Primary 7 residential to Lockerbie in February. We can’t wait for more learning this term and more preparation for moving to Secondary.
Literacy
Reading – We start Term 3 listening and responding to Scots poetry, songs and stories. P7 will look in depth at the Scots poem ‘The Auld Broon Troot’ by Sandy Thomas Ross and some pupils will recite this at our Scots Assembly later in January. through our WW2 IDL topic we will be focussing on non-fiction reading skills; notetaking, summarising, topic specific vocabulary and finding the main idea.
Talking and Listening – This will also be taught through Scot’s language with the children also developing their presentation skills as part of this learning. St Joseph’s currently have big focus on quality talking and listening and questioning. In preparation for S1 this will also be our focus in Term 3. Pupils will be taught to not just listen but respond or respectfully challenge each other’s ideas and opinions.
Spelling – The spelling groups will continue to experience the Active Literacy spelling program; this will introduce common words and focus phonemes pertinent to their level and stage. Most P7 will focus on including varied punctuation in their writing.
Writing – At the start of the term Primary 7 will experience writing in Scots using the Scots word kist. This term the focus writing genres are report and recount writing. These genres will be modelled and taught through our IDL WW2. Pupils will read chronological reports and identify features before writing their own. We will then read recounts from people who lived through WW2 and use this to write our own recounts. P7 will also have opportunities to write across the curriculum. There are two focussed handwriting lessons per week.
Numeracy
We will continue with the use of number talks which helps to encourage different learners to use and understand different strategies. The children show an excellent understanding of the strategies taught so far and are always eager to share their understanding with their peers.
Mrs Terras will concentrate on the core number processes and will concentrate on all four operations within whole number and decimals. Links will be made with money and finance. There will be a focus on learning multiplication tables as these permeate all other areas of Numeracy at second level and beyond. Some pupils will experience 3rd level Numeracy skills through extension and challenge tasks.
Mrs Canning continues to teach the Beyond Number topics and will start the term refreshing knowledge of Data Handling and then will move onto Time.
Health and Wellbeing
Our P.E. days are Wednesday and Friday and pupils are required to have a full change on these days. The focus for P.E. this term will be gymnastics and fitness.
Primary 7 participate in mindfulness after lunch every day, this settles them for learning and teaching in the afternoons.
Our PATHS programme will continue to help the children to develop positive relationships within the class and school. Delving into the emotions that the children feel will help them to understand why they are feeling this way as well as giving them the tools to cope with these emotions.
Our core health and wellbeing teaching will focus on food and health. Through this topic Primary 7 will understand about different nutritional needs and that some people may eat or avoid certain foods. They will also discuss the important of cleanliness, hygiene and safety and apply these principles to their everyday lives.
IDL
As P7 move to Secondary, they often begin to explore more complex topics in history, including World War II. This period in history is full of fascinating stories of courage, resilience and community. It can also involve themes that can be upsetting, such as conflict, loss and evacuation. Our WW2 IDL will be taught in ways appropriate for the children’s age.
At Primary 7 the focus of our IDL will be on:
Primary 7 will have the opportunity to lead and plan their IDL by giving suggestions about what they would like to learn more about during this period of history.
Spanish
Mrs Canning will lead a block of Spanish lessons on a Monday. Primary 7 will learn basic greeting, colours and numbers in Spanish and finish the block with focus on Salvador Dali.
Science/Technologies
Mrs Canning continues to lead Science in Primary 7 and will learn about Separation, the properties and use of water. Lessons will be practical and hands on.
Primary 7 are excellent at using Chromebooks to enhance their learning. Primary 7 will learn how to organise emails to make their inboxes efficient. They will also continue to uplevel their skills in using MS Office apps. Primary 7 are reminded about the appropriate use of digital technology both in and out of school and to have the confidence to speak out of they witness cyberbullying.
Expressive Arts
Expressive Arts will be mainly taught through the WW2 IDL
Music – Primary 7 will listen and learn to sing wartime songs and discuss how music supported morale through the war years.
Art – Pupils will create persuasive propaganda posters and continue with their stitching skills by stitching their own ration books. Mrs Canning will also be lead lessons on the Spanish artist Salvador Dali.
Drama – Focus will be on Freeze-frames of home-front scenes, role-play evacuee experiences and hot-seat characters from different viewpoints.
RME
P7 will finish collecting their final pieces of evidence for their Pope Francis Faith Award. Parish commendations have been sent to SCES and Primary 7 teachers in the cluster will be reviewing the PFFA journals at the end of February and awarding pupils accordingly. Pupils will continue to develop their understanding of the liturgical calendar, exploring key events and celebrations. In Term 3 P7 will look at what life was like for Jesus, the history of Judaism and explore The Ten Commandments.
UNCRC
As a school we are working towards our Rights Respecting Schools Silver Award. We will review the Class Charter from Term 2 and adapt if required. A focus this term will be on quality listening and talking and respecting others’ views and opinions.
As a school community we will be looking at the articles and rights involved and associated in Holocaust Memorial Day in late January, Safe Internet Day and Children’s Mental Health Week in February, and World Book Day and World Water Day in March.
Linking in with the Class Charter, Primary 7 enjoy using the Reward card system however we feel it needs a refresher. Primary 7 will have opportunity at the start of Term 3 to share how they would like to use the Reward card system and gain reward cards.
Learner Journals
Pupils will continue to Learner Journals to reflect on their progress and celebrate achievements. We encourage parents and carers to login to Learner Journals as it provides a valuable link between home and school.
Personal Target Setting
This term, pupils will reflect on their Term 2 targets and focus on setting their own personal targets for Term 3. They will reflect on their strengths, identify areas to improve on, and create achievable goals. Regular check ins will help them track progress, celebrate successes and develop confidence and responsibility in their learning journey.
Thank you for all your support,
Mrs Terras and Mrs Canning
Happy New Year! I hope Santa was good to you all and you had a restful Christmas break. Good to see all the pupils back after the holidays. Here is a brief overview of our learning focus this term.
Literacy
Firstly, we will be looking at Scottish texts, using Scots language and looking at Scottish poems and authors in preparation for our Scots Assembly. Our focus then will aim to develop all reading skills through Bug Club guided reading texts. For writing, we are concentrating on poems and narrative writing, before moving onto the report genre via biographies.
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.
Health and Wellbeing
The PATHS focus this term is on goal setting and investigating the lives of several people who are viewed as inspirational goal setters. Then we will look at the skills needed to make and maintain friendships. We will also continue to praise and compliment children through Pupil of the Day.
Our PE days are still Monday and Thursday and pupils must bring in their PE kit on these days to participate fully. 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 geography based, and we will be looking at Scottish landscapes including lakes, rivers and mountains. We will also be investigating famous landmarks and observing maps to identify these features.
RE
This term we will begin our Pope Francis Faith Award journals, giving a brief overview of all the Gifts of the Holy Spirit before focussing on the first 2 gifts: Knowledge and Piety. Pupils will be aiming to give evidence of them being used in the school, at home and in the community or Parish.
French
The focus for this terms French is “My Family” and pupils will be learning vocabulary to discuss different family members.
Technologies
This term P6 begin to use 3D graphics and use software to create and design simple models.
UNCRC
We will be looking at the articles and rights involved and associated in Holocaust Memorial Day in late January, Safe Internet Day and Children’s Mental Health Week in February, and World Book Day and World Water Day in March.
Mr Bertoncini
Welcome back! We hope you had a lovely Christmas and we wish you a very Happy New Year. Term 2 was a busy time for Primary 3 and they all worked really hard. Below is a curriculum overview for this term.
Literacy
Reading – This term, Primary 3 will continue to develop their questioning skills with particular focus on inferential questioning and creating their own questions. They will continue to extend their knowledge of retelling events from texts using what they have already learned about who, what, where and when to support this. In addition to this, pupils will work on identifying the purpose of notes as well as creating their own based on shared texts, personal readers and linked to IDL. Bug Club readers will continue to be used. Daily opportunities for reading will continue to be provided through personal reading time and where possible visits to the library will take place.
Writing – This terms writing genre will be explanation and report writing. Pupils will begin to identify the key features of a fact file whilst composing their own including diagrams and tables. Primary 3 will also be encouraged to continue to extend their writing through use of connectives, adjectives and openers to make their writing more interesting. In addition to this, weekly handwriting lessons will continue.
Spelling – New phonemes and common words will be introduced weekly. Active spelling activities will be used to support this learning.
Listening and Talking – When developing talking and listening skills, P3 will focus on asking and responding to questions as well as retelling stories and events in their own words.
Grammar – Primary 3 will continue to recognise and use speech marks and will be introduced to commas within texts.
Numeracy and Mathematics
This term, multiplication and division skills and strategies will be reviewed and revisited before building on this. Primary 3 will be learning to multiply and divide by 2,3,4,5,6 and 10. In addition, P3 will extend their understanding of number patterns, time and shape. Daily number talks will continue to be completed, to develop mental maths strategies.
UNCRC
Primary 3 continue to be mindful of the UNCRC Rights of the Child. We will be looking at the articles and rights involved and associated in Holocaust Memorial Day in late January, Safe Internet Day and Children’s Mental Health Week in February, and World Book Day and World Water Day in March.
Health and Wellbeing
Primary 3 will continue to access our whole school PATHS programme this term to develop their understanding of emotions. Pupils will also continue to learn about ‘Zones of Regulations’ focussing on energy levels and strategies to support this. Each child will continue to have the opportunity to be “Pupil of the Day”, receiving compliments from their peers. We will also continue with the Do Be Mindful programme which will allow us to be mindful each day, taking time to find calm and regulate during the busy school day. Furthermore, as we continue with our Germs topic at the start of the term, pupils will continue to develop their understanding of health and hygiene.
In addition to this, Primary 3 will learn about how to keep themselves safe in emergency situations, including medicines and people who can help them.
Physical Education
This term, Primary 3 will develop their stamina and endurance through fun fitness as well as their ball skills. Pupils will also continue to develop their gymnastic skills.
PE days are Monday afternoon and Thursday afternoon. All children will require a PE kit on these days. Please ensure any jewellery is taken off and left at home on PE days. If your child cannot take part for any reason, please contact the school.
Religious Education
In R.E. this term, Primary 3 will learn about the life of Jesus, learning more about his life through his parables and miracles. Pupils will also begin to prepare to receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation as well as learn more about Lent and the Easter story.
IDL
This term, P3 will complete our learning all about Germs and Micro-organisms and extend this learning by linking it to our HWB outcomes focusing on medicines, what to do in an emergency as well as learning about the importance of personal hygiene. Pupils will also learn about The Romans through IDL. They will investigate Roman artefacts, research Roman lifestyles as well as create their own Roman items including shields, chariots and mosaics. A number of cross curricular links will be made during this topic including social studies, expressive arts and literacy.
Music
This term Primary 3 will develop their musical performance skills by learning to sing with confidence and play various instruments. Pupils will learn about pulse and rhythmic accuracy as well as pitch control and expression. Primary 3 will have opportunities to share their thoughts and feelings about what they hear, responding to different pieces of music through voice and instruments.
Homework will continue to be distributed on a Monday and should be completed and returned on a Friday each week.
As always, Primary 3 look forward to sharing their fabulous learning with you throughout the term! Check out the Learner Journal app for regular updates from P3 where we will continue to share some of your child’s amazing work.
Thank you for your continued support and understanding, we are really looking forward to another wonderful term in Primary 3,
Mrs Dunsmore and Mrs Hope.
Primary 2 Curricular Blog Post – Miss Livingston and Mrs Strachan
Welcome back after the holidays. The pupils all had worked very hard last term on the Nativity, so we hope all pupils and their families/carers had a fun festive period and a lovely new year.
Literacy
This term we will begin a book study, “The Snorgh and the Sailor”. Pupils will be developing understanding of new features of text such as punctuation and vocabulary. They will also look at sequencing and retelling the story. This will help develop with our reading skills, in addition to our weekly reading books.
We will also continue to develop our understanding of phonics and practise spelling common words. This term we will also revisit the sounds we have learned so far to consolidate these. Within writing, we are focusing on narrative writing, as we start to write stories. This will be connected to our book study.
Numeracy
This term for numeracy we will be focusing on multiplication and division with Miss Livingston. This is a new skill we are introducing, pupils will focus on counting in 2’s, 5’s and 10’s and sorting numbers into equal groups. This will help before we start to look at the 2 times table. Mrs Strachan will focus on looking at fractions, this will help us when we introduce division.
We will continue to practise our addition and subtraction skills that pupils had worked hard on in term 2.
Health and Wellbeing
This term, our Health and Wellbeing topics will focus on our bodies and safety. We will look at what to do in an emergency and what to do if we feel unwell. This will be in addition to our PATHs inputs which focus on understanding our feelings, emotions and friendships.
Within PE, we start with a short block on fitness, and progress on to do Gymnastics with Mrs Strachan and racquet skills with Miss Livingston. Our PE days will remain a Tuesday and a Thursday.
UNCRC
This term we will be looking at the articles and rights involved and associated in Holocaust Memorial Day in late January, Safe Internet Day and Children’s Mental Health Week in February, and World Book Day and World Water Day in March.
Religious Education
This term we will begin by looking at the life of Jesus, focusing on his family and early life. We will then start learn about the importance of Lent and the lead up of Easter.
Pupils will continue to attend mass on the first Friday of the month.
Topic
This term we will focus on our book study till the February break. This will involve a lot of opportunities of inter-disciplinary learning. For example, we will be designing a boat and considering the materials we use to make it float or sink.
Pupils will then be involved in a mini-topic, “My Town/My school”, exploring our town, the local area and the school. We will be looking at our local area, as well as comparing Kilmarnock to other countries.
We hope this term is an enjoyable term for pupils, with lots of new learning taking place.
Miss Livingston and Mrs Strachan
