December Newsletter

St Mary’s Open Night

St Mary’s Open Night, for prospective parents of Nursery and Primary 1 children, will take place on Tuesday 10^th December 2019 from 6.00pm to 8.00pm. Our Autism Specific Class, Junior Learning Support Class and our Breakfast Club/Afterschool Club will also be open on the evening. The Education Authority Admission’s Portal will open from Wednesday 7^th January.  

First Penance

First Penance for P4 children will take place on Wednesday 4^th December at 11.00am in the Church of St Therese.

Fit to Dance

Thank you to everyone for the amazing support towards our “Fit to Dance” fundraiser. A total of £2,904.93 was raised for school funds over the past number of weeks.

Congratulations to Liam Gribben in Mr McGrane’s P6 class and Fionn McGrath in Mrs O’Hare’s P1 class on winning the main prizes in the Fit to Dance draw.

Thank you to David McKay from TESCO and Roy Burns Cycles who sponsored our prizes. Our thanks to Mr McGrane for organising the event to raise much needed funds for our school in times of continued education cuts. Well done to all our children!

Anti-Bullying Poster Competition

Congratulations to all the winners of our Anti-Bullying Poster competition. Thank you to our PTA for funding the winning prizes and judging the overall winners.  Thank you to Mr Mackle for organising the competition.

Banbridge Arts Festival

St Mary's had over 100 children participating at individual or group level, in the annual Speech and Drama Festival, in the Belmont Hotel. The Principal and staff of our school are so very proud of all the boys and girls involved in this significant public speaking event. The standard is exceptionally high. Many of our pupils won medals and certificates of achievements, in their individual classes. Well done to each and every one of you.

Kathy Colgan, our Speech and Drama teacher, entered a group of children, to represent our school in the group class, Dramatisation of a Poem, “Her Majesty’s Bounty.” The children achieved The Festival Cup for obtaining the highest score of the festival, for their interpretation of this poem. The judges were so impressed with this performance, that the children were presented with a Golden ticket and invited to perform it again as one of the Festival Highlights, in the Battle of the Champions. On this evening the children won the audience vote and were presented with a shield and a bursary of £100.

More impressive silverware for our school! We are so excited to be able to show off this collection to our school community.

We would like to express our heartfelt gratitude to Kathy Colgan and Derval Rea, for their passion and dedication, and instilling a love of Drama in our pupils. We know that we are very privileged to be able to avail of their talent and expertise.

Maths Week

Our First Maths Week has been a great success.  All our pupils were very engaged, had lots of fun and challenging maths experiences.  From helping Captain Morgan to find his lost treasure on Monday, the Happy Puzzle Company on Wednesday to our Sumdog Challenge, which came to an end today. Congratulations to all our Sumdog Champions:

P1=Jamie Cunningham, Sean Byrne

P2=Ronan McGrath, Niamh McCreedy

P3=Marielena Guerrero, Libby Rose Sullivan,

Luca Cregan, David Duffy, Ethan Church

P4=Conor Paxton, Harrison Smith

P5=Mya Jane Porter, Maisie Finnegan

P6=Laochra Hill, Matthew McAnespie

P7=Mya Cochrane, Lily McConnell, Corey Paxton, Calvin Shead

A special word of thanks to all the families who attended the family maths session with Captain Morgan. 

We also extend our gratitude to our amazing PTA, who’s contribution enabled this event to take place.

Thank you for your continued support.

Athletics

Well done to all the girls and boys who participated in the second Cross Country race at Portadown yesterday.  The girls team finished 4^th overall, narrowly missing out of the NI final by one place. However, Annie McEvoy and Isabelle Rea qualified for the final as individual runners. Annie finished a magnificent 3^rd in her race and Isabelle finished in 13^th place yesterday. Our boys team came second overall in their race and have qualified for the NI final. Well done to Cathal Hill who finished in 17^th place, Matthew McKevitt (20^th place) Joseph McCorry (21^st place) and    Jarlath McGinley (22^nd place). This is a fantastic achievement for the boys and girls.  

Thank you to Mr Devlin for taking the children and to Mrs Murphy for organising our athletes.

A full list of results is can be found at www.athleticsni.org/Results or from the school website.

EVO League

Congratulations to St Mary's A and B teams who took part in the third the EVO League 2019/20. Unfortunately, the A team was unsuccessful in the qualifying round after being defeated 1-0 on two occasions by Bridge A despite comfortable victories against Edenderry and Abercorn.

St Mary’s B team qualified for the semifinals for the second tine after fantastic performances against Abercorn A, Fairhill and Dromore primary schools. In the semifinal the boys were narrowly defeated 1-0 in a very close game. Well done to Fergus McSherry, Leon Brodacki and Matthew McKevitt who received the ‘Keeper of the Tournament’ award. Well done to Tyler Kerr, James McAleavey and Fionnan Cunningham who all had a brilliant tournament for the A team.

Thank you to Sean Devlin for helping with the football and our appreciation to Paul Evans and EVO Skills for organising the tournament.

Well done both teams! The next round of games will take place in February. 

School PTA

The PTA would like to express its delight and gratitude to all those parents and children who supported the school disco last Friday night.

It was a huge success. All money will be given back to the children of St Mary's, to enhance the teaching and learning experiences.

The PTA would like to extend its gratitude to GM Construction, Bann Waste Recycling Ltd, and Dean Unique/NEA for their generous sponsorship of our Halloween Disco. This financial support is invaluable to the success of our fundraising events. An epic £1,344.00 profit was raised from the disco.

Santa Sunday comes to St Mary’s on Sunday 7^th December, 2pm to 5pm. There will be a variety of entertainment and refreshments available. Tickets are now on sale for the school office.

The last date for receipt of Christmas card orders is Friday 7^th December. We aim to have all printing to be completed by Monday 10^th December. Thank you for all the orders already received.

Christmas Dates

Our P5 Christmas Play will take place on Thursday 12^th December at 9.30am and at 11.30am in the school hall.

Christmas Jumper Day will take place on Friday 13^th December. A £1 donation is requested per pupil for School Fund.

The P3 Christmas Assembly will take place on Monday 16^th December at 9.30am and at 11.00am in St Mary’s Assembly Hall.

The P1 Christmas Nativity will take place on Monday 16^th December at 10.15am and at 11.45am in St Mary’s Assembly Hall. P1 children may go home after the 11.45am performance.

The P2 Nativity Performance will take place on Thursday 19^th December at 11.00am and at 7.00pm in the school hall. There will be a small charge of £2 for adults on the door at all assemblies to support our School Fund.

School will close on Friday 20^th December at 11.15am. School will reopen for pupils, as normal, on Monday 6^th January 2020.

Please note P5 to P7 Friday Clubs are finished for the term and will restart on Friday 10^th January. 

Afterschool Club

Please note children attending the Afterschool Club must be booked in advance via the school office or directly through Afterschool Club. A space cannot be guaranteed for children not booked to attend.

Parking 

The school car park is for staff parking only. Parents should park in the Parish Centre if they wish to escort their child to the playground.

If dropping off at the school, please use the drop off bays. These are drop off bays not parking bays. Children can access both playgrounds from the bays. Supervision is in place from 8.50am. There is a set of steps next to the nursery which leads directly into the bottom playground. Children do not need to cross any roads or walk through the car park when using these steps.

Please do not park in the disabled bays, these are for 'disabled badge holders' only. There is no reason why anyone else would need to use these parking bays.

On wet or icy days children may enter their classrooms directly from 8.50am. P3 children may use the main entrance at this time. There will be no access before 8.50am.

Thank you for adhering to the above arrangements.

School Certificates

Congratulations to Sophie Toman, Jacob McAnearney, Eoghan Cassidy, Kara Casey, Megan Cairns, Cayden Kearns, Caoimhe Moore, Juila Pozor, Alfie Robinson, Odhran Darragh, Aisling Hyland, Annabel Mulligan, Liam McGivern, Jamie Richardson, Anna McAleenan and Mikolaj Dutka on being awarded a class certificate for good work and excellent behaviour during the week ending Friday 29^th November. Well done everyone! 

Congratulations to Abigail McConville, Caoimhe O’Rourke, Kevin Hillen, James Quail, John-Christopher Stokes, Conor Quinn, Danny Burns, Sarah McKevitt, Adam Stevenson, Peter McCreesh, Sophie Glendinning, Sarah Moore, Latoyah Kelly, Jack Mooney, Nicole Moore, Liam McAleenan, Mark Faxton, Sophie Bell, Adam Mitchell, Lucy Denning and Owen Moles being awarded a class certificate for good work and excellent behaviour during the week ending Friday 29^th November. Well done everyone!

Congratulations to Ethan Murtagh, Lochlann Agnew, Emmy Tucker, Erin Corkery, Mateus Moore, Kyran McChesney, Zara Martin, Josh Treanor, Conor Copeland, James Quail, Matthew McKevitt, Tyler Kerr, Zach Elliott, Viktorija Lorence-Liepa, Emma Skillen and Calvin Shead on being awarded a class certificate for good work and excellent behaviour during the week ending Friday 22^nd November. Well done everyone!

Congratulations to Tyler McArdle, Farrah Fegan, Maya Cui, Jay Devlin, Fionnuala Cowgill, Tulisa Reilly, Jaden Magennis, Shea Fullerton, Enda Quinn, Sophie Lynch, Bobbi Clydesdale, Thomas Forshaw, Skye McCreedy, Dennis O’Neill, Clodagh Conlon, Liam Winters on being awarded a class certificate for good work and excellent behaviour during the week ending Friday 15^th November. Well done everyone!Congratulations to Chloe Andrews, Cormac Poland, Jay McDowell, Oran O’Gormley, Jamie Watson, Etain McCourt Slevin, Lexi McPolin, Emily Kerr, Stephen Kelly, Grace Rea, Megan Hickey, Oisin Gartland, Cody McClay, Jack O’Hare, Ryan Creany, Brodie McCart, Eimear Gribben and Annie McEvoy on being awarded a class certificate for good work and excellent behaviour during the week ending Friday 15^th November. Well done everyone!

Congratulations to Niamh McCourt, Lucy Devlin, Jonah Matthews, Vakaris Navalinskas, Zara Cochrane, Aime McDowell, Freya Hesketh, David Lewinski, Catherine Convery, Emma McManus, Adrianne Finnegan, Odhran Darragh, Chloe O’Neill, Victor Fratescu, Ronin Devine, Amira Connolly, Kailab Lee and Caolan Douglas on being awarded a class certificate for good work and excellent behaviour during the week ending Friday 8^th November. Well done everyone!

Congratulations to Eva-Kate Gribben, Maisie Finnegan, Liam McAleenan, Amy Fullerton, Caiden McAlinden, Harvey Chapman, Matthew McAnespie, Cathal Hill, Naomi Murtean, Lucy Denning, Lean Brodacki, Cormac Cairns, Alan Motyka, Chloe King, Jordan McNamara, Shayne Fitzpatrick, Charlotte McConnell and Leo Cochrane on being awarded a class certificate for good work and excellent behaviour during the week ending Friday 8^th November. Well done everyone!

School Menu

Please check the school website for the monthly school menu.