November 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 11^th December 2018 from 6.00pm to 8.00pm. Our Autism Specific Class and Junior Learning Support Class will also be open on the evening. The new EA Admissions Portal will open from Wednesday 2 January.  

First Penance

First Penance will take place on Thursday 6^th December at 11.00am in St Therese.

Fit to Dance

Thank you to everyone for the amazing support towards our “Fit to Help” fundraiser. A total of £3,370 was raised for school funds over the past number of weeks.

Congratulations to Charlie Robb in Mrs Quinn’s class and Kate Finnegan in Mrs Murphy’s P5 class on winning the main prizes in the Fit to Help draw.

Thank you 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 the 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 and to our P7 children for their Dance at assembly.

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.

Banbridge Arts Festival

The annual Speech and Drama Festival was hosted last week, 5-9 November, in the Belmont Hotel, Banbridge.

St Mary's had over 100 children who participated at individual or group level, in this competition. The Principal and staff of our school are so very proud of all the boys and girls who were involved in this significant public speaking event. The standard was 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, including some of the older boys and girls from her drama group, to represent our school in the group classes of 'Dramatisation of a Poem' and Choral Speaking. Imagine the delight when the children achieved first place in both of these categories at primary school level. The judging panel was so impressed with these performances, that the children had to return on Friday night to the Belmont, and perform in the Battle of the Champions. Eight memorable acts delighted the audience with miming, singing, dancing and acting. It was such a treat for all there. After all the performances, it was up to the audience to cast their votes to find an outright winner. That winner was the cast of THE PIRATES.

Not only did we win the McKay-McKenny Cup for the audience appeal but we took home an array of silverware:

The Gillen Shield, awarded for the Dramatisation of a poem, ‘Pirates.

The Anderson Cup, awarded for group choral speaking, The Clowns and The Train

The INTO Rose bowl, awarded to the school that appeals most in any group, St Mary's Primary School, Banbridge.

£100 bursary, awarded to the primary school with the highest overall marks of the festival, St Mary's, Banbridge.

The Frances O’Hanlon Cup, awarded to Grace Udo, for her individual performance reading of the poem, Bubbles. A rapturous round of applause for Team St Mary's - Together We Achieve More!

EVO League

Congratulations to St Mary's A team on their third round victory of the EVO League 2018/19. After a draw in the first game against joint leaders Bridge Primary, St Mary’s went on to comfortably win their remaining games against St Mary's B, Dromore Primary School and St Malachy's Primary School. Abercorn A proved to be tough opponents in the semi-final with St Mary's progressing on the toss of a coin. In the final against Edenderry Primary School St Mary's dominated the game but struggled to score until a late winner from Lennon Bell. St Mary's are now 5 points clear at the top of the league. Well done to Adam McCann who received the Player of the tournament award, Lennon Bell and Pierce White and who all had an excellent tournament.

Our B team were unfortunately drawn into a very difficult group with St Mary's A, Bridge A, Dromore Primary and St Malachy's Primary schools. All teams which had reached the semi-finals previously. After a good start against St Malachy's, drawing a game they should have won, the boys were unluckily defeated 2-1 by Dromore, 2-0 by St Mary's A and 1-0 by Bridge. Well done to Jarlath McGinley who was nominated as Goalkeeper of the tournament, Jason Sands and Matthew Grimes who had an excellent tournament for the B 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 last chance to purchase our PTA Lotto tickets will be at Santa Sunday 9 December. The first draw will be broadcast live via the PTA Facebook page on Tuesday 11 December from 7.30pm.

Santa Sunday comes to St Mary’s on Sunday 11^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

Christmas Jumper Day will take place on Friday 14^th December. A £1 donation is requested per pupil. This year the funds raised will be donated to Niall O’Hare, the son of Mrs O’Hare, who is fundraising for the School Aid Romania Team which will be delivering medical supplies and food, along with other aid to villages in Romania. Our best wishes to Niall.

Our P6 Christmas Play will take place on Wednesday 12^th December at 11.30am and at 7.30pm in the school hall.

The P3 Christmas Assembly will take place on Monday 17^th December at 9.30am and at 11.00am in St Mary’s Assembly Hall.

The P1 Christmas Assembly will take place on Monday 17^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 Wednesday 19^th December at 11.30am and at 7.00pm in the school hall.

There will be a small charge of £1 for adults on the door at all assemblies to support our School Fund.

Please note P5 to P7 Friday Clubs are finished for the term and will restart on Friday 12^th January.

School will close on Wednesday 19^th December. Wednesday will be a normal school day. We will be closed on Thursday 20^th as an Exceptional Closure and will remain closed on Friday 21^st December. School will reopen for pupils on Monday 7^th January 2019.

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 Hanratty, Vanessa Reilly, Maisie Finnegan, Zach Burke, Bailey Knipe, Dan McEvoy, Chloe Andrews, Aoife McGrath, Kyran McChesney, Rhys McConville, Jasmine Groves, John-Christopher Stokes, Cora Malone and Riley Hesketh on being awarded a class certificate for good work and excellent behaviour during the week ending Friday 23^rd November. Well done everyone!

Congratulations to Owen Ward, Adam Devlin, Marc-Havier Lam, Caiden McAlinden, Aaron Keenan, Sophie Bernes, Holly McDowell, Riley Devlin, Oisin Quinn, Ryan Mulgrew, Aaron Duffy, Viktorija Paberza, Annie McEvoy and Lucy Denning on being awarded a class certificate for good work and excellent behaviour during the week ending Friday 16^th November. Well done everyone!

Congratulations to Sophie Lynch, Cormac Poland, Danny McPolin, Lee Andrews, Eimear Barry, Emma Clare McGovern, Daniel Leonard and Cliodhna McAlinden on being awarded a class certificate for good work and excellent behaviour during the week ending Friday 16^th November. Well done everyone!

Congratulations to Zach Elliot, Shane Reilly, Lucy McAlinden, Lauren Burns-Atkins, Caoimhe O’Rourke, Callum Penny, Brodie McCart, Eoin Larkin, Nicole Moore, Nora Toth, Ben McAteer-Lavelle, Eoin Eakins, Aaron Keenan, Grace Udo, James Quail, Tierna Fearon and Adam Devlin on being awarded a class certificate for good work and excellent behaviour during the week ending Friday 9^th November. Well done everyone!

Congratulations to Noah Savage, Olivia Fitzpatrick, Aimee Keeley-McDowell, Cody McClay, Lochlann Agnew, Jay McDowell, Harrison Smith, Darragh Moran, Isabelle Duggan, Sophie Toman and Erin Corkery Atkin on being awarded a class certificate for good work and excellent behaviour during the week ending Friday 9^th November. Well done everyone!

Athletics

Well done to all the girls and boys who participated in the second Cross Country race at Armagh last Friday.  As in race one Annie McEvoy, Isabelle Rea and Mychaela McAvoy were first home for the girls. The girls team were placed fourth overall.Well done to Cathal Hill, Joseph McCorry and Dan McEvoy who were first home for St Mary’s boys.  

Thank you to Mr Devlin for taking the children and to Mr McGrane for organising the runners.

A full list of results is can be found at www.athleticsni.org/Results.

School Menu

Please check the school website for the monthly school menu.