P7 St Joseph’s Parent/Carer Information evening
Thursday 17th June 6.30pm-7.30pm via Vscene
Please click on the link below for the details of forthcoming P7 Parents Information evening for St. Joseph’s Academy:
Vscene Booking – P7 Information Session – 17.06.21 Miss Cathie
A reminder that Sports Day is taking place on Wednesday 9th June.
Children should come to school wearing suitable clothing for PE activities. This year children can wear any colours as Sports Day is not linked to House Colours. Please no football tops.
Due to Covid restrictions parents/carers are not able to attend this. Primary 6 will be filming aspects of this. This will be shared with parents/carers via a password protected SWAY document.
Primary 1 have been learning all about the Muslim festival of Eid and today we finished our mini-topic by having our very own Eid party!
Dressed in our finest clothes, we decorated the party table with our personal Mendhi designs, danced with our Moon and Star wands, made special Eid cards for our friends and even had some tasty treats. Have a look at all of the fun we had!
Due to Covid restrictions up until this point children have been allowed to wear clothing suitable for outdoor activities. From August, we will return to full school uniform each day.
Tesco Uniform Embroidery Service has changed to “My Clothing“. For more information or to order school uniform please visit:
Uniform is also available from :
Walker & Templeton, The Strand , Kilmarnock and the National Schoolwear Shop , Queen Street, Kilmarnock.
Ideally our school uniform should consist of:
Grey/black trousers for boys, grey skirts for girls, blue/white shirt with Mount Carmel school tie or, alternatively, Mount Carmel polo shirt and royal blue Mount Carmel sweatshirt, jumper or cardigan.
No black jeans or leggings please!
Gym kit should consist of:
Royal blue shorts, pale blue plain round neck t-shirt and and black gym shoes. These should be brought to school in a drawstring back clearly marked with your child’s name.
****PLEASE PUT YOUR CHILD’S NAME ON EVERYTHING!****
We also have a selection of used school uniform available. This is always available in our “Uniform Exchange” area in the main foyer.
During the last week of term this we will be place outside for parent/carers to access.
If you are applying for a clothing grant for your child/children please follow the link below:
Please send all recipes for the FOMC Recipe Book by:
Monday 7th June .
Thank you
As you are aware, each of the classes are currently working on God’s Loving Plan. Please see the link below for more information about this and a link to a video providing more detail:
Please click on the link below at provide your views on our current method for providing homework. This survey closes on Sunday at midnight. The survey should take around 4 minutes to complete.
Thank you for your time.
Please click the link to view our Property Pledge:
file://educasset01/assetm/PUBLIC/DROPZONE/MountCarmel_PS_PP.pptx
We will be holding and end of term raffle on Friday 18th June . Tickets will be priced at £1 per strip and there will be one prize per class.
Money to be in for 16th June
FOMC are planning a ” Shorts and Shades” day on Friday 11th June. We are asking politely for a small donation via Parentpay which will go towards our Mount Carmel Fun Day on the 18th June.
Please click on the link below to view the May edition of the East Ayrshire Counselling Newsletter:
I hope everyone had a wonderful Bank Holiday weekend and enjoyed the glorious sunshine.
I can’t believe we are coming into June and the final month of Primary 6. This month is going to be busy. Below is information for parents and carers.
Buddying
We are hopeful that buddying will be able to go ahead in August. Thank you to all the parents and carers who signed the forms allowing the pupils to record videos for their P1 buddies. This week Primary 6 will find out the name of their P1 buddy and will record their ‘Hello’ videos introducing themselves.
God’s Loving Plan
This week we will be commencing our God’s Loving Plan unit. Primary 6 have been notified that this will be happening and have been encouraged to let their parents and carers know. Primary 6 are aware of what is expected of them during this unit. Please be prepared to discuss sensitive issues at home with your child.
Lastly, if the weather stays as it has been this weekend we will be spending a lot more time outdoors. Please ensure children apply suncream before coming to school.
Thank you,
Miss Mudge
A reminder that Monday is a Bank Holiday and the children are on holiday.
Next week we are told that the weather should be nice. Please remember to apply sun lotion before children come to school and send them with water.
From Hairdressers to Vets and everything in between…..the infant department had a great day time on World of Work Day!
Have a look at our slideshow gallery:
Please remember Rag Bag collection will be on 7th June. If you have any unwanted items of clothing, please fill the bag and return to the school before this date. Thank you.
We would like to say a huge “Thank You” to all the parents and carers who very kindly took the time to send in their World of Work videos for the children to watch.
They were all very interesting and the teachers and children enjoyed watching and discussing them on Friday .
Please make sure your child has a mask with them for Mass days. Thank you
A reminder to parents that we will be commencing our God’s Loving Plan unit this week. Please be prepared to discuss sensitive issues with your child.
We will also be visiting the church on Tuesday for a mass, so please ensure your child has a face mask.
Thank you.
Mr Bertoncini
Primary 4 have had a fantastic ‘World of Work’ day and had lots of fun throughout the day doing work related activities.
We started the day writing about what we’d like to be when we are older, thinking about the skills we have that would make us the perfect candidate for the job! We also had some fun creating some poetry, again discussing the fun we’d have being able to do our ‘dream job’.
We enjoyed watching the videos that were sent in from parents and staff around the school, talking about their occupations and discussing their jobs!
Later we had the opportunity to be an ‘engineer’ and design model playground equipment we thought children would enjoy using. We also had the opportunity to be an ‘artist’ and create some ‘doodles’, getting creative with our ideas.
We finished the day with Magic Mount Carmel games and activities this afternoon. The children have enjoyed their day and the costumes were fantastic. I enjoyed learning about what pupils aspire to be.
I am having some issues uploading photos but have posted a link to a collage of some of the fun activities we had going on today.
Just a wee reminder that primary 4 will be attending a church service on Monday afternoon. Could children come with a face mask as this will be required to be worn in church.
Have a great weekend!
Mrs Travers
A quick reminder that currently on Parentpay are the following “live” payment items:
Magic Mount Carmel Fun Day – a donation of between £1 and £10 (all pupils)
Primary 7 Activity Week – £40 per child -(P7 pupils only) due 11th June
Can children please bring a suitable jacket with them to school, preferably with a hood, as they will be outside playing at break and lunch even if the weather is inclement.
Thank you for your co-operation.
We are looking forward to seeing all the children dressed as what they would like to be when they are older.
Just a reminder about the Parent/Carer videos for World of Work Day to be sent in by today please to :
andrea.fergusson@eastayrshire.org.uk
Welcome back to the P1 blog where you can read all about the learning taking place this term!
Literacy
Reading and Phonics –
P1 are becoming more and more confident when using their initial sounds to word build. This term we will further develop our word building skills, including CVCC and CCVC words (e.g. park, drum). We will continue to use the Active Literacy strategy “say, make, break, read and write” to support this new learning. We will also continue to learn new ‘look and say’ common words every week.
In class, we are using our guided Bug Club texts to develop our skills in prediction, reading aloud and reading for understanding. At home, we are enjoying a range of independent texts on Bug Club at the same level.
Writing –
We will focus during this last term on using our knowledge of word building and common words to build sentences independently. The children will have many opportunities to develop their independent writing skills through weekly news, free writing and sentence tasks linked to their spelling sounds and reading books.
In addition to this, P1 will be developing their description writing skills. We will focus on describing number, colour, texture and size for familiar people and objects.
Letter formation will be developed through regular handwriting lesson and fine motor skill activities.
Talking and Listening –
Through a range of activities across the curriculum, P1 will continue to develop their talking and listening skills; understanding when to listen and when to respond, taking turns and communicating with others.
Numeracy
This term, P1 will consolidate their understanding of the concept of addition within 10. They will focus on increasing their mental accuracy of number bonds to 10. The children will have many opportunities to develop their mental accuracy through our daily Fast 10 and Big Maths Beat That. We will also be applying our knowledge of addition within 10 when working on missing number calculations using the ‘Lock in and Count On’ strategy.
When P1 are confident in their addition skills they will begin to focus on subtraction within 10. The children will transfer their skills to answer subtraction calculations and word problems. In addition to this we will consolidate our knowledge of numbers to 20 and beyond, including recognising number names.
Beyond Number
We will continue to develop our knowledge of measure, using familiar objects in our environment both at school and at home. We will explore mathematical language such as tallest/smallest, heavier/lighter to compare items. We will also use different non-standard units of measure (e.g cubes, hands) to estimate and then measure the length and weight of items.
We will also have a focus on money. P1 will learn to recognise and identify coins up to £2. They will also learn to differentiate between and use the language “pence” and “pound”. The children will use their knowledge of addition and subtraction to add to find totals within 10p as well as subtract to find change.
Health and Wellbeing
P1 will continue to develop their social and emotional skills through our whole school PATHS programme. The children continue to enjoy engaging with the puppets and love it when they visit our classroom. P1 love giving and receiving compliments each day as part of “Pupil of the Day”.
We will continue to develop our knowledge of ways to keep our bodies and minds healthy with a focus on making healthy choice every day and exploring mindfulness techniques.
Physical Education
This term P1 will focus on Athletics. The children will practice running, jumping, and throwing both independently as well as part of a team. Once we have developed our running, jumping, and throwing skills we will compete against each other in friendly relay races. Later in the term, P1 will also have a weekly session of Fun Fitness with our Active Schools co-ordinator Mark Devlin.
P.E. days will be Monday and Thursday. Please ensure your child comes to school dressed appropriately with either joggers or leggings and trainers. Your child must continue to wear their school jumper as part of their uniform on PE days.
Religious Education
This term P1 will think about Our Lady. The children will reflect on Mary as the mother of Jesus and the mother of all of us. We will create a special altar to Mary in our classroom and learn to pray the “Hail Mary”.
Through the use of God’s Loving Plan, we will explore the beauty of God’s creation and how we recognise this in others and ourselves. We will talk about our own skills and talents, focusing on how God has made us all individual and unique.
IDL
Growing Up – We have explored the timeline of human life from baby through to adult and particularly focused on the needs of babies. We looked at photographs of ourselves as babies and explored how we had changed since then identifying how many different skills we learned at nursery and in P1.
My Senses – Through a variety of sensory experiences, indoors and outdoors, P1 will learn about each of the five senses and their uses to explore our surroundings. We will also develop our knowledge of parts of the body and what they do, showing an understanding of our own health and wellbeing.
The children will be attending Mass next week and again in June, before the end of term. Here are the days each class will be attending:
Can all children please bring a face mask with them for attending Mass . Thank you
Primary 3 – Curricular Overview
Welcome back to Primary 3’s Learning Blog. Here is an update of what the children in primary 3 will be working on and what our learning expectations will be until the summer holidays.
Numeracy
Recap – In class we have been learning about Place Value with up to 3 digit numbers. We have practised partitioning numbers into hundreds, tens and units and rounding numbers to the nearest 10 or 100. We have also talked about if a number is odd or even and how we can recognise this.
We have been learning how to add and subtract 2 digit numbers with borrowing and exchanging. We introduced different Number Talk strategies that we could use to help us to add and subtract. Pupils are becoming more confident using their ‘Thinking it Through’ jotters to help them to solve calculations.
In term 4 we are now working hard to learn our times tables. We are also going to look at how multiplication and division are inverse operations. This term we will have a big focus on learning how to multiply a number and then linking this with division. We will look at this when finding the fractions a half and a quarter.
In beyond number we will be learning about measurement. We will continue to build on our mental maths strategies and revisit skills we have previously learned.
Please make sure your child spends 20 minutes on Sumdog to improve their mental maths. We also encourage some games on topmarks and YouTube times table songs.
Literacy
Spelling –
This term pupils will continue to have a different phoneme focus each week. They will also learn common words that we use frequently in our writing (for example words like: friend, because, cousin etc.). They will learn different spelling words related to the phoneme focus and take part in activities in class to help reinforce these words. At home they are expected to practise these words for homework and take part in a spelling test on a Friday. Pupils are being introduced to using ELKONIN boxes, when spelling words with joined phonemes.
Reading –
Pupils are currently reading different books in class using the core resource Bug Club. They work in different reading groups and complete comprehension tasks related to the texts. They are encouraged to read, discuss and answer different types of questions. Pupils are expected to spend at least 20 minutes a week reading at home. Books are assigned to their Bug Club accounts along with comprehension questions. I can see lots of pupils are doing this, so keep up the good work!
Writing –
This term we will continue with our weekly writing lessons. Pupils continue to write personal recounts in their news jotter. Pupils will write stories using a range of different genres we have just finished learning about instructions and will now focus on imaginative writing. We will continue to build on our use of punctuation. Also considering connectives, openers and vocabulary to help expand our writing. Children will be encouraged to write neatly, with finger spaces, full stops and capital letters. They are encouraged to use strategies when writing such as sounding out their words, using their personal dictionary and school dictionary. Pupils are also encouraged to start to use commas, exclamation marks and question marks when possible.
ICT
Most pupils are now able to confidently log into the school computers. They are able to log into websites such as Glow, Sumdog and Bugclub. We will continue to build on these skills. Pupils are starting to learn how to create their own PowerPoints related to our class learning.
Interdisciplinary Learning
We are currently working on our class history topic ‘The Romans in Scotland’. We are looking at reasons that the Romans would want to invade Scotland and what life was like back then.
Religious Education
In R.E. we are learning about Mary, Mother of God. We are learning about some of the Joyful Mysteries and revising the prayer Hail Mary. We will then be working on God’s Loving Plan and looking at bible stories more closely such as the Good Samaritan.
Health and Wellbeing
Primary 3 loved taking part in Health week. A big thank you to Mrs McGowan and primary 5 for organising! In P.E. this term pupils have been taking part in basketball lessons. We will now be moving onto athletics. Our P.E. days are normally a Monday or Friday. However, these can change dependant on the weather outside.
In Health pupils will continue taking part in PATHS lessons, Pupils enjoy being Pupil of the Day and giving each other compliments. In Paths we continue to identify emotions, strategies we can use to solve problems and recognising how to a be a good friend and transferring this in the playground and in the classroom.
We look forward to a fun term 4 in primary 3 and are excited for fun school activities such as World of Work Day and another walk to the Dean Park with our friends!
I can’t believe we’re into the summer term already! I was delighted to see all the children back at school safe and well after Easter. P6/7 have had a busy time since our return to school following lockdown restrictions. Below is an overview of the teaching and learning for the final term.
Literacy
Children will continue to use Bug Club resources for reading. We will be focusing on fully justifying answers using the Point, Evidence, Explanation method. Spelling activities will continue with children focusing on their identified root words, phonemes, suffixes and prefixes. We will also access Giglets texts to focus on higher order thinking skills.
In writing, the focus for this term will be narrative with a focus on dialogue to advance the story. We will also look at direct and indirect speech.
Numeracy
For the Circles, our focus in maths this term is time, data handling and beginning to tackle algebra. The Rectangles will develop their understanding of percentages and the relationship between fractions, decimals. They will also look at different forms of measurement. Squares will be investigating 2D and 3D shape as well as division. The Triangles will continue to work on subtraction and identify properties of 2D and 3D shape.
HWB
We will continue to follow the PATHS programme and all children have had experience of being Pupil of the Day. We have had many good learning discussions about how to resolve conflicts with others, make friends and improve self esteem – skills which will stand them in good stead as they progress and grow.
We will also look at the world of work, creating skills profiles and identifying careers and setting goals for the future. They will also participate in mock interviews for jobs.
For PE, we have been focusing on team work and playing a variety of games and activities to demonstrate the skills. We will also be playing outdoor field games and begin to look at orienteering.
RE
This term P6/7 have looked closer at the Passion of Christ. In particular, The Stations of the Cross and the role Pontius Pilate played in the fate of Jesus, As May is the month of Mary, we will also recite The Rosary.
We will also be coming on to discuss sensitive issues in God’s Loving Plan.
Topic
The last topic for this term is Politics. Children will identify the key party leaders, investigate how laws are made and discover how to become a politician. We plan to have mini debates within class and have a democratic vote to decide a winner!
If any parents/carers still have pre-election flyers, I would be grateful if you could send them into school.
Thank you very much for your continued support.
Mr Bertoncini
