April Newsletter

Trócaire

This year our Trócaire Lenten campaign raised the amazing total of £2,838.26. Thank you to all our parents and children for the fantastic support. A cheque will be presented to Canon Stevenson next week.

First Aid Workshop

A free one day First Aid course for parents will take place on Saturday 29^th April in school 9.00am to 4.00pm. A maximum of 12 participants only. Please contact the school office to register. First 12 names only.

 Gaelic League Winners 2017

Congratulations to the Ballyvalley team who are the Gaelic League Champions for 2017.

In what proved to be a very entertaining final both teams had opportunities to win the game but proved too strong with fine individual performances from Shea Malone and Callum Clement.

Our thanks to Mr McGrane for organising the Gaelic League. Well done to all who took part.

Time 4 Me

Referral forms for the Barnardo’s Time 4 Me service are available from the school website. Completed forms should be returned to the office marked for the attention of Mrs Flanagan or Mr O’Hagan.

Spelling Bee Champion

Congratulations to Padraig Murphy on winning the St Mary's Spelling Bee. Padraig will now go on to represent St Mary's against other schools in the Spelling Bee County finals. Good luck Padraig!

South Down Runners Up

Congratulations to St Mary's A team who were runners-up in the South Down 7 a-side competition held in Newry before the Easter break.  After reaching the final without conceding a single goal, St Mary's was narrowly defeated after an amazing 26 penalty, sudden death, shootout.  All the boys played fantastically well. Well done to Shea Malone and Tyler Gorman who had an excellent tournament.

Summer Scheme

Summer Scheme will open on Monday 3^rd   to Friday 7^th July and Monday 17^th July to Friday 18^th August. Registration forms and additional information will be issued to parents towards the end of May.

Dates

Confirmation for Primary 7 pupils will take place in St Therese on Sunday 7^th May at 3pm.

First Communion for Primary 4 pupils will take place in St Therese on Saturday 13^th May at 11.00am.

Sports Day - Friday 2^nd June at Cheney Park, from 10am.

PTA

Congratulations to all who took part in the Seapatrick 10k, 5k, Fun Run on Sunday. With over 500 runners and walkers this was a fabulous turnout. Thank you to our amazing PTA and volunteers, who assisted with setting out the route and organising the event. Thank you to all the Marshalls and everyone who donated food for the day. A special thank you to all our sponsors. Well done everyone! What a day! Over £3,000 was raised for our school.

A special well done to Samantha Burns-Atkin and Sean-Pol Gartland who were the first girl and boy home for St Mary's.

Calling all footballers! Our PTA & EVO Soccer School are organizing a ‘Fun Football’ tournament for friends and parents of St Mary’s on Tuesday 23^rd May at Cheney Park from 7pm.

The tournament is open to all at £10 per person. Teams will be picked randomly from all entrants. We hope to play a round-robin tournament of 6 teams of 7/8 players with semifinals and a final at the end. So why not come along and have a kick about and raise much needed funds for our PTA.

Leavers’ Disco will take place on Friday 16^th June from 6.30pm to 7.30pm for children up to P3 and from 7.45pm to 9.00pm for children from P4 to P7 in the school hall, admission £3.00.

A Night under the Stars will take place in the school grounds on Saturday 17 June. Further details to follow.

Team Theo - Marathon

We would like to wish our best to Julie Comiskey and all the staff and parents who are part of the Belfast Marathon this coming Monday for Team Theo. They will be raising funds for the RVH and Craigavon NICU, in memory of Julie and Neil’s son Theo who sadly passed away on 28^th January, 2016.

School will host a non-uniform day on Friday 28^th April to support the event.

Walk to School Week 2017

Walk to School Week 2017 takes place from 15 – 19 May and Travelwise NI is calling on all schools to get involved. Please encourage your child to walk to school.

Lip Sync Battle

On Friday 19^th May, the Belmont Hotel in Banbridge will host the much anticipated Lip Sync Battle.

This is a charity event in memory of our dear friend and colleague, Mechelle Harshaw. Unfortunately, Mechelle lost her battle with cancer in September 2016. Both school communities were devastated to lose such a special person. Mechelle was an active member of The Friends of Edenderry PTA, so both schools decided to collaborate and organise a cross community event in her memory. All proceeds from the night will be donated to Daisy Lodge, Newcastle - a purpose built respite facility to support families touched by cancer. This charity provided care and support to Mechelle and her family.

The night will commence at 7.30p.m. Please note, admission by ticket only. Tickets should be purchased in advance. Ticket prices: adult £7, child £4, family of four £20. There will be limited availability. Performing acts will be allocated a maximum of six tickets per child. Remaining tickets will be issued from the school office on a first come first serve basis.

Local hair dressing salon, L’il Miss Colour, has kindly sponsored the event and will style the hair of those performing in the Lip Sync Battle. Children will be informed of their allocated hair appointments nearer the time. Rehearsals are continuing in school. There will be final dress rehearsals in the Belmont Hotel the week of the event.

There will be a raffle and an auction during the interval when both school choirs will perform a selection of Mechelle’s favourite songs.

Our school is very excited to be part of this special event. We look forward to welcoming you all on the night.

School will host a non-uniform day on Friday 19^th May to support the event. £1 per child is requested.

School Build

The new school remains on course to be officially handed over on Friday 30^th June. We plan to close on Friday 23^rd June and to move furniture, books, and resources to the new school the following week.  Please send any cardboard boxes to the school to help with our move.

Admissions

P1, Nursery and Playgroup admission letters will be issued on Thursday 27^th April. Please return the reply slips to the school office as soon as possible.

NiRunning Mile 2017

'NiRunning Mile' will take place on Friday 5^th May 2017.

The ‘Mile’ will be run in conjunction with other sporting arenas all over the world and will take place at the home of athletics in Northern Ireland, the Mary Peters Track in Belfast.  The exciting race programme will be enhanced by two FREE kids 'Fun Mile' events (which will be coordinated by ALLSTARS SPORTS ACADEMY).  These will kick off at 6.30pm... with the timed Miles starting at 7pm.  As always, the timetable will include mile events for runners of all abilities, after all, EVERYONE needs a mile time! Further information and registration details are available at www.nirunning.co.uk/nirunning-mile.

Parking 

Please continue to use St Therese’s car park to avoid congestion on the Scarva Road. There is limited parking in St Patrick’s car park. The drop off arrangements are working well and we would encourage parents to either park in St Therese’s car park, if you wish to escort your child to the school playground,  or use the supervised drop off points in St Patrick’s car park. Clann na Banna car park is designated for staff parking only during the school day. It becomes very congested by 8.30am and parents parking there are putting children accessing the car park at risk. Please use the drop off arrangements.

School Certificates

Congratulations to Cathair Ruddy, Niamh McNally, Padraig Murphy, Maria Skatsolia, Dylan Thompson, Jude Irvine, Luke Balchin, Precious Dolan, Grace Udo, Shona Knox, Rafael Costa, Savina Dicheva, George Forshaw, Nora Toth, Evie Ward, Melissa Ross, Lukasz Rak, Jamie Trainor, Adam Molek, Aoibheann White, Rhys McConville, Ryan Gallagher, Samantha Burns-Atkin, Shayne Fitzpatrick, Connor Hussey, Josh Peniero, Conor Hutchinson, Tomas Olarte-Wade, Latoya Kelly and  Calvin Shead on being awarded a class certificate for great work and excellent behaviour during the week ending Friday, 24^thMarch.

Congratulations to Ryan Henry, William Mayne, Maddison Smith, Maks Hoppe, Jack Davis, Oran Devlin, Sean-Pol Gartland, Annie McEvoy, Jessica Mulgrew, Lydia Newbert, Ewan Hadden, Caitlin Grimes, Naomi Lcatus, Cathal Hill, Calvin Shead, Ellie McKay, Gianna Scappaticci, Caolan McGinley, Dena Daly and Paris Dolan on being awarded a class certificate for great work and excellent behaviour during the week ending Friday, 7^th April.

School Menu

Please check the school website for the monthly menu.

Please note school meals now cost £2.55 for P1 to P7 children and £2.45 for nursery children.