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St Mary's Primary School Banbridge
 

January Newsletter

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31st Jan 2018

Post Primary Transfer

Please return completed P7 Post Primary Transfer Forms to school by Tuesday 6th February 2018. An early return would be appreciated. Please telephone the school if there are any issues regarding the completion or return of the forms.

Donation

Thank you to the St Vincent de Paul Society for the kind donation to our Breakfast Club. This is very much appreciated.

Football

Congratulations to St Mary's A Team who were joint winners of the EVO 7 a-side at Cheney Park today. After a 1-1 draw in the final, St Mary's and Edenderry Primary schools were declared joint winners of today's tournament. This increases St Mary's lead at the top of the EVO League with the final round of games to take place in March.

Well done to the A Team who comfortably won all their league games without conceding a single goal until the semi-final. With excellent performances from all the boys in particular Robert Lorencs, Carter Gorman and Connor Hutchinson.

The B Team were unlucky in their league section playing some of the top teams. However, with excellent performances from Noah Lennon, Luke Balchin and Jamie Trainor the boys only narrowly missed out on reaching the semi-finals.

For the first time this year we fielded a third team in the competition of mainly P5 and P6 boys. In a team with 4 debutants they did extremely well going down 1-0 in their first game, drawing their second and losing the third, again 1-0. Well done to Eoin Eakins who had an outstanding tournament and Tomas Olarte-Wade and James McAleavey who had brilliant debut in goals.

Thank you to Paul Evans and EVO Soccer School for organising the league and for the donations of footballs to our school. Well done all three teams! 

The final round of the EVO league will take place at Cheney Park on Thursday 8th March from 9.30am. Good luck boys!

Unfortunately the St Mary's 5-a-side team were unable to retain their South Down 5-a-side title at Kilkeel yesterday. After comfortably winning their opening games the boys struggled to fine the net in the final round of games missing out in a semi-final place on  goal difference. For the first time St Mary's entered a second team in the tournament, again they missed out on a semi-final place, needing a win in their final game, the boys narrowly missed out as the game ended 0-0. All the boys played fantastically well. Well done to Robert Lorencs, Jack Doyle and Sean McCreedy who all had an outstanding tournament. Our appreciation to Mr. Devlin for taking the boys to the tournament.

Please note the girls football tournament will take place at Cheney Park on Thursday 1st March from 9.30am.

Afterschool Club

Children attending the Afterschool Club must be booked in advance via the school office or directly through Afterschool Club on 07549097163. All payments should be made to Julie in the office. A space cannot be guaranteed for children not booked to attend.

NSPCC Workshops

The NSPCC’s Speak out. Stay safe. programme is visiting our school to make sure our pupils have the knowledge and understanding they need to stay safe from abuse.

The NSPCC, the UK’s leading children’s charity, will be delivering their Speak out. Stay safe. programme on 5th & 6th  March. This is a nationwide programme for every primary-school-aged child in the UK and Channel Islands. With the help of their friendly mascot Buddy, they’ll be presenting an assembly and workshop to the children in our school. A letter with further details will be issued to parents prior to the visit.

Cross Country

Congratulations to our Cross Country team who took part in the final race of the season at a very wet and cold Banbridge Academy this week. The boys and girls did fantastically well with Annie McEvoy and Mychela McAvoy  finishing 13th and 14th out of 82 girls.Carter Gorman had a fantastic race to finish 13th overall for the boys.

Well done everyone!

Our top finish places are listed below.

Boys’ Race:  96 runners

  1. Carter Gorman(13)
  2. Cathal Hill (17)
  3. Sean-Pol Garland (38)

Girls’ Race: 89 runners

  1. Mychela Mc Avoy  (13)
  2. Annie Mc Evoy(14)
  3. Samantha Burns-Atkin (30)

Well done to Annie, Michaela and Carter who have been selected for the NI finals of the cross country. A fantastic achievement!!!

Thank you to Mr. McGrane for taking the boys and girls.

Parking

Please continue to use St Therese’s car park to avoid congestion on the Scarva Road.

Please use the drop off bays in the school. Please do not drop off at the gate or zebra crossings or the entrance gate at this blocks access and is potentially dangerous.

Children can access both playgrounds from the bays. Supervision is in place from 8.45a.m. There is a set of steps next to the nursery which lead directly into the bottom playground. Children do not need to cross any roads or walk through the car park when using these steps.

On wet or icy days children may enter their classrooms directly from 8.50am. P3 and P4 children may use the main entrance, there normal entrance, at this time. There will be no access before 8.50am.

Catholic Schools Week

Thank you to Miss Geraldine McClory and Mrs Yvonne Carlin who lead our P5-P7 Catholic School Weeks Assembly on Friday. Each year group has had its own special assembly to mark Catholic School Week this week. Children from P3 to P7 all attended Mass, the children's excellent behaviour and wonderful manners was commented upon by member's of the congregation. Children from P7 also attended the special Catholic Schools Week celebration at St Peter's, Lurgan on Thursday.

Time 4 Me

A counsellor for The Barnardo’s Time 4 Me Counselling Service remains in place. Referral forms are available to download for the school website. Alternatively, she may be contacted on Tuesday mornings by telephoning the school office.

School PTA

Most schools have a Parent Teacher Association (PTA), which is an organisation of parents and staff. Its role is to encourage closer links between home and school. PTAs are best known for their fundraising work, but they have a beneficial social function too. Fundraising events provide an opportunity for parents, staff and pupils to get together. The main role of the PTA is to build strong working relationships among parents, teachers and schools, in support of students.  At most schools all parents/carers and teachers are automatically members of the PTA.

Most PTAs hold their annual general meeting in September, at the start of the school year. At this meeting a committee is elected to run the PTA – usually consisting of a chair, a vice-chair, a treasurer, a secretary and ordinary committee members. PTA committees usually meet once a month and set up smaller working groups to organise individual events.

Most PTAs raise money through events. They often hold one main event each month of the academic year.   They’re always looking for new fundraising ideas. Funds raised by the PTA are intended to provide ‘extras’ not already provided by the school's main income – often 'fun things' that make learning more interesting and exciting. The PTA committee and the principal decide how to spend PTA funds. 

The school community of St Mary's Primary School, is so proud of its very active and vibrant PTA. In the past 18 months the pupils of our school have benefited from £22,000. This is a substantial amount of money, and given tough budget restrictions facing all schools, we are extremely grateful for this financial support. All of this funding was amassed through the generosity of our parents. We thank you the PTA and the parents of our children for making such a difference to the teaching and learning in our classrooms.

There are many different ways you can help with the PTA, whether you have lots of time to offer or not. Some of the roles are time-consuming, although also rewarding. If you can’t commit to a big job, look out for things you can do less frequently (perhaps, running a stall at the Fun Day or baking for a cake sale). And you can always support PTA events by simply turning up. Regardless of what your exact interests are, you can be certain that your participation will be welcomed in our school’s parent-teacher organisation. Remember... PTAs are not just for mums! Many dads play an active role as volunteers and take on leadership roles in the organization.

Pictured in this photo is Mr John Eakins, PTA Chairperson, Mr Michael McCorry, Vice Chairperson and Mrs Denise Quigley, teacher representative on this year's PTA; a cheque for £6,000 is the recent gift to our children; each class teacher has £300 to spend on consumable products, glue, paint, art and craft materials etc, to enhance the availability of existing resources.

Thank you to the PTA!

Our annual PTA Coin Drive will take place on Tuesday 27th February in the school hall. Children are asked to bring any loose change from home on Tuesday. Each class will, in turn, make their own patterns and designs of coins around the hall. The class with the heaviest amount of coins will receive a prize. The coins will be counted and donated to the PTA.

A Valentine’s Day Disco will take place on Friday 9th February 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. £3.00 admission.

Our Coin Drive will take place on Tuesday 27th February.

Please note for your diary that the St Mary's Fun Run and 10k is scheduled for Sunday 25th March.

Dates

School will be closed from Monday 12th February to Friday 16th February 2017 (inclusive) for the half term holiday.

World Book Day- Thursday 1st March.

Confirmation for P7 will take place on Saturday 10th March in St Therese at 11.30am.

Green Day- Friday 16th March.

First Communion for P4 children will take place on Saturday 12th May in St Therese at 11.00am.

School Certificates

Congratulations to Mya-Jane Porter, Kayleigh-Ann Meara, Jamie Watson, Conor Quinn, Zach Burke, Laochra Hill, Cody McClay, Stephen Kelly, James Kearney, Tammy-Lee Devlin, Jasmine Groves, Adam Molek, Zara Pearce, Maks Hoppe, Aaron Keenan, Eoghan McAdam, Gianna Scappaticci, Chloe Ellis, Joesph McCorry, Ashton Winters, Tomas Olarte-Wade, Jack O'Hare, Niamh Poland, Orla Fullerton, Caiden McAlinden, Ellie McKay, Brodie McCart, Sophie Glendenning, Chloe King, Harry McGovern, Caolan McGinley and Danni Lui on being awarded a class certificate for good work and excellent behaviour during the week ending Friday 2nd February.

School Menu

Please check the school website for the monthly school menu.