Menu
St Mary’s Open Night
St Mary’s Open Night, for prospective parents of Playgroup, Nursery and Primary 1 children, will take place on Thursday 10th December 2015 from 6.30pm to 8.00pm. Our Autism Specific Class and Junior Learning Support Class will also be open on the evening. Application forms are available to download from the school and Education Authority, Southern Region, websites or may be collected from the school office. The closing date for receipt of application forms is Wednesday 13th January at 12.00pm.
School PTA
Many thanks for the fantastic support at our children’s Craft Workshop on Sunday 6th December. It was great to see such a large turnout. Thank you to all our PTA members and volunteers who help make these events possible.
A special thank you to our sponsors of each workshop table. Our appreciation and thanks to;
Blend & Batch coffee shop
White Label Cleaners
Lennon Estates
The Belmont Hotel
First Trust Bank
Monkey Magix
Also our thanks to Pat Hurley, Tesco and the Coach for donating the prizes for the raffle. Our raffle winners were Brian Fitzpatrick in Miss Kelly’s P6 class who won an Amazon Fire Tablet, Mr Mckay won the Milford Santa visit and the Coach Meal Voucher was won by Lexi McPolin in Miss Duffy’s P3 class. This was a free event for everyone to attend but our PTA still managed to raise over £600 for the school. Well done.
The next meeting of the PTA will take place on Tuesday 19th January at 7.30pm. All support is greatly appreciated. Contact our PTA at stmaryspta1@hotmail.co.uk.
Cross Country
Well done to all the boys and girls who took part in the second Cross Country race of the season in Armagh last week. In terrible conditions Taylor Hill was first home for the boys (finishing 4th from 174 runners), Ryan Meara finished in 8th Place and Liam Vaughan finished in 9th Place. Cliodhna Wolfe was first home for the girls (finishing 30th from 144 runners). Well done to Chloe Mitchell and Cara Henning who were the other top finishers for St Mary’s. Thank you to Mr Devlin for taking the children to the races and Mr McGrane for organising the team.
Workshops
Thank you to all our parents who were able to attend our recent workshops. The last ParentingNi ‘Dealing with Children’s Challenging Behaviour’ workshop will take place on Thursday 10th December from 3.00pm to 5.00pm.
The next Literacy Workshop will take place on Thursday 21st January from 7.30pm. The next Maths Workshop will take place on Wednesday 27th January from 7.00pm in the school.
Christmas Shows
The P1 and P3 Christmas Assembly will take place on Thursday 17th December at 10.00am and at 1.00pm. Children may go home after the 1.00pm show.
The P2 Nativity Performance will take place on Thursday 17th December at 10.00am with our P1 and P3 year groups and separately at 7.00pm.
Performances will take place in St Patrick’s assembly hall. Please use the main entrance to St Patrick’s College. There will be a small charge of £1 per adult on the door. Our thanks to St Patrick’s for helping to facilitate our Christmas performances
Please switch mobile phones to silent and limit photography during the children's show, as this can be disruptive for the children. Children will be kept on stage at the end of their performance for photographs.
Text Santa appeal
On Tuesday 15th December we are inviting pupils to take part in Text Santa Christmas Jumper Day.
Children get to wear their silliest, sparkliest or cosiest Christmas sweaters and make a donation of £1 to help Macmillan Cancer Support, Make-A-Wish® UK and Save the Children give hope to families in difficulty at Christmas.
Please do not buy a jumper to take part – just decorate an old or plain jumper with tinsel, baubles or homemade snowflakes to create unique crafty crackers. To find out more, just visit the website at itv.com/textsanta.
Tune into UTV on the evening of the 18th December for the Text Santa Christmas Jumper Day show, to see how your child’s support will give hope to even more families in difficulty.
School Closures
School will close at 11.15am on Friday 18th December for the Christmas holiday and will reopen for all children on Tuesday 5th January. Breakfast Club will be open, as normal, on both dates.
On behalf of all the children, staff, our PTA and Board of Governors of St Mary’s may I wish everyone a happy Christmas and a prosperous New Year.
St Patrick’s Book Fair
St Patrick’s English Department are holding a Scholastic Book Fair in the school library this week. Parents are welcome to visit the school to avail of the books on offer.
