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 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).
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
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!
And they’re off!……………………….
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
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:
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!
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.
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!
Please find attached information about a Mental Health Open Evening at St Joseph’s Academy this Wednesday 8th February.
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.
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!
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
Looking forward to an exciting block of sports input from Active Schools
Primary 6 invite their parents and carers to a ‘Sharing the Learning’ afternoon on Tuesday 7th February at 2pm.
This is a chance for Primary 6 parents and carers to see the wonderful work that has been taking place . The focus will be on ‘Scots Language’.
I hope as many of you can make it as possible.
Thank you,
Mrs Terras
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 – Wednesday 8th February
Children are welcome to come to school in clothing to showcase their personality.
There is no cost for this.
Updated PE days for all classes:
Primary 5 had a lovely time with Mrs Elstone on Friday when she came to visit. She taught us all about factors and how these numbers can help us in our learning.
Hi everyone. The lovely Primary 5 have asked for their rainbow reward next Friday to be junk modelling. Could you please send in any boxes, milk cartons or kitchen roll tubes for this activity. Thank you!!!
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
Curricular update – Primary 5 – Term 3
I hope you all had a lovely family Christmas!! The children are now back in class and the hard work for term 3 has already began. Here you will find an update on what will be coming up regarding the children’s learning over the next few months.
Literacy
In terms of reading, the children will continue to develop their skills in their tool for reading such as using their prior knowledge to help them with a text or visualisation which allows them to use their imagination when descriptions are provided. There is a need for continued learning when it comes to answering questions regarding their texts. We will continue to work on the skill of notetaking. The children will develop an understanding that notes help to organise thinking and sort information into manageable chunks. They will also learn how to take their own notes. Within their reading, we will look at the language within texts, with a particular focus on persuasive language which will then link in with our writing this term.
Term 2 focussed on report writing whilst utilising a lot of different skills taught. The children wrote excellent newspaper reports on Guy Fawkes and the Gunpowder plot. This term, we will be learning all about response writing as well as discursive writing.
Due to the nature of discursive writing, our listening and talking focus will be on looking at the difference between fact and opinion. We will continue to complete listening tasks whilst working on our ability to listen for instructions.
Numeracy
I am so very proud of the entire class with regards to their learning in numeracy last term. The majority of the class used their knowledge of times tables to complete complex multiplication calculations using different number talk strategies. They worked extremely hard with Mrs MacKinnon to complete 3D shape, co-ordinates, and symmetry. They also learned about grid references. The children will continue to practise their times tables daily in order to retain these facts. This will help them when it comes to completing division tasks and fractions this term. The beyond number topics that will be taught are money and different aspects of measurement. These will be taught by Mrs MacKinnon.
Health and Well being
This term, we will have a focus on the children’s self-perception. We will look at the positive things they feel about their appearance as well as looking at what self-esteem and self-worth is. This is really important as they are the generation that are exposed to so much body image negativity in social media, it is extremely important that they understand how precious and perfect they are. As part of this, we will look at the achievements of each of the children and what areas of development they all have. There will also be a small focus on what potential careers each of the children could have and what will be required of them to achieve these goals.
Before we look at sexual health and relationships in term 4, we will first explore the meaning of the word ‘private’ and explore how important this is as we grow.
Within our P.E. lessons, we will learn about tennis, basketball and football and all of the skills and rules for each of these.
R.E.
This term, we will learn about how Jesus helps people who may have been considered as outcasts during this time. We will look at how Christians across the world are called to look after everyone, regardless of religion, race, culture and treat everyone with respect. Jesus called his disciples to follow him. We will revisit previous learning and examine the Jewish Sabbath and rituals associated with it. Towards the end of the term, the class will begin preparation for the celebration of Lent.
Expressive Arts
Art – Last term saw us explore colour and tone with paints. This term, we will be creating collages using different kinds of materials to create contrasts within a picture. We will use these skills to create art through our topic of Floods, tsunamis and landslides.
Drama – During our drama inputs, we will be learning about using different voices and how to use tone of voice to enhance characters. We will also be looking at giving constructive feedback to our peers.
IDL (Topic)
Our topic this term will be Floods, Tsunamis and Landslides. This topic will look at these natural disasters throughout our world and how climate control and climate change is impacting on these incidents.
Science
Our science topic this term is going to be diseases within our bodies. We will also have a look at pioneers in the world of medicine, such as Joseph Lister and Alexander Fleming.
ICT
The children’s understanding of ICT and how the hardware and software can be best used. They have a good understanding of how programs such as glow and word can be used to aid their learning. This term, we will learn how to attach documents to our emails, use hyperlinks and save our work on an online platform. The class are making god progress in their ICT learning.
French
Mrs MacKinnon is very pleased with the progress in French so far this year. The class will be learning the French vocabulary for hobbies this term and how they can use this vocabulary properly within French spoken language.
This will be a busy term. Our P.E. days continue to be a Tuesday and a Thursday. Please ensure that your child has a suitable P.E kit in school on these days. (Indoor shoes – NOT their school shoes, a pair of shorts/joggers and a t shirt)
As always, I would like to take this opportunity to thank you all for your ongoing support. If there is anything you need to discuss, please do not hesitate to contact me via the school office.
Many thanks, Mrs McCreadie
Welcome back to all families!
Pupils in the Oak Room have been very busy! The children love to come along to each session and are making great progress and great friends along the way!
This term pupils will continue to grow their social and emotional skills and will be using ‘Target Trackers’ in class to support them in this. As part of our Health and Wellbeing learning pupils will explore ‘friendship’ as a theme; we will focus on positive relationships and how we foster these and will explore issues and barriers to friendship such as bullying. Pupils will produce art work related to these themes and participate in group discussions.
The children are enjoying our group novel ‘Charlie Changes into a Chicken’, the pupils enjoy having a chapter read to them each day. This helps to regulate us and promotes conversation, attentive listening and group relationships.
Chat with your child around their attendance of the Oak Room, I am always happy to hear family feedback!
Mrs Crawford
