If your child left a coat, hat, lunchbox, football boots etc. in school, there is an opportunity tomorrow from 10 am to 12 noon to pick these up. Weather permitting they will be laid outside the main entrance on tables for collection. If weather does not allow tables will be placed in the dinning hall.
Please observe social distancing rules and if entering the school there will be a one in, one out policy, remember to use the hand sanitising station on entry.
Any items not claimed tomorrow, will be bagged up and sent to charity.
Good morning everyone and welcome to St Mary’s Sports Day 2020!
As explained at the start of the week, some members of our P7 class will demonstrate 8 activities for you in the video below. Written instructions are also available through the link at the bottom of the post. You can do as many or as few of these as you please and at a time that suits your family’s schedule. The video will be available all day. You may even wish to create your own programme of events instead. There is no pressure to run a big event at home, do what you can. Today is all about having fun, whatever you get up to. Hopefully, pupils in the older classes will help their younger siblings out if they need. If you do any physical activity today, please capture it and upload photos to your online classroom. Your teacher would love to see them.
To get Sports Day underway, the teachers have come together for a relay race. Check it out in the video. Enjoy the day off school work everyone and have fun whatever you get up to!
As mentioned at the beginning of the week, 79 pupils registered for the Healthy Kidz Virtual Sports Day which is due to take place tomorrow (Saturday) @2pm live on the Healthy Kidz facebook page. We wish anyone taking part in the live event good luck for tomorrow. As of 3pm on Thursday, 15665 points had been registered on the app from 1644 activities by pupils in our school. 23 of our pupils have achieved certificates for logging their activities since the app was launched. Well done to all of these children. Your teachers will upload your certificates to your online classroom for you to download.
A special mention must go to Anya Gartland, Una Kilkenny, Danny Murchan & Canlaoch McNulty who have each recorded a 20-day streak for logging activities on the app. As was outlined in the information shared at the beginning of May, these pupils will be entered into a prize draw for a £20 SPAR voucher. More details for this draw will be available next week. Indeed Anya & Una are the pupils who logged the most points in the entire school (over 2,200 points each). There will be a special prize waiting for the two girls when school re-opens.
In normal times, as we would approach the middle of June our attention would duly shift towards Sports Day. Despite the school building being currently closed, we hope this can still be the case this week.
Since we launched the Healthy Kidz / SPAR Virtual Sports Day on May 11th, 79 St Mary’s pupils registered on the app to take part. Well done to all of these pupils and we wish them luck. As explained at the beginning of May, any pupils who log activities for twenty consecutive days on the app will be entered into a special draw for a £20 SPAR voucher. More details on this will be announced on Friday. The Healthy Kidz Virtual Sports Day will be streamed live on the Healthy Kidz facebook page this Saturday, June 13th @2pm. It will consist of the 8 activities which the children were given the opportunity to practise over the past month (Sprint, Long Jump, High Jump, Egg and Spoon Race, Welly Boot Toss, Superstrong Challenge, Marathon Challenge & Create your own Obstacle Course). As we explained at the time, entering this event was entirely optional and parents / guardians did not have to register if they did not wish.
As a school staff, we felt it was important to mark a school day on the calendar for Sports Day. Therefore, this Friday June 12th has been earmarked for our own St Mary’s Sports Day. For the 79 pupils registered for the Healthy Kidz live event on Saturday, this will serve as a great practice run as the activities we post will follow the same format. If you are not registered to take part in the Virtual Healthy Kidz Sports Day on Saturday, that is no problem at all. You can still have a go at the activities at home on Friday for a bit of fun.
There is no pressure to organise a big event in your garden on Friday. We know how busy you, as parents / guardians, are at home in lockdown. The good news is that there will not be any school work posted to any online classes from Nursery right up to P7 this Friday. A video of some our P7 pupils demonstrating the 8 activities will be posted into all of the online classes @9am on Friday, but please remember that you can do as much or as little of this as you please. You can do it at a time that suits your family. You don’t have to follow the same format as suggested in the video and you may even wish to create your own events instead. Friday is designed to be a day for us to come together as a school community for some fun in our own homes.
A link to the Healthy Kidz guidance booklet which outlines the instructions / coaching tips / equipment needed for the 8 activities can be found below if you want to get a head start. This is the same booklet that was shared on May 11th. All of the information will also be posted into the online classes by class teachers tomorrow. Whatever you get up to on Friday and/or Saturday, we hope that you enjoy it and that the sun shines. If you do any physical activity, make sure to capture it and upload it to your online classes to show your teachers. Have fun!
Healthy Kidz have followed up their ‘Global Challenge,’ by launching their own ‘Virtual Sports Day’ pack in accordance with SPAR. These two organisations have supported our annual Sports Day for many years and they aren’t letting the school closures change that.
Click on this HK SPAR Road Map link to view the suggested plan of activities. It begins tomorrow, Monday May 11th and builds towards a Sports Day at home on June 13th.
Click on this HK Sports Day 2020 link to access all information, including some preparation tips and general guidance.
Click on this HK Sports Day Flyer link to find out how you can register your child to enter this great initiative. Our school has registered, but it is the responsibility of the parent / guardian to register their child to be in with the chance of winning some great prizes. The deadline is tomorrow, Monday May 11th @6pm.
Make sure to upload photos of you practising the different events to your class Seesaw or Google online learning platform along the way, so the teachers and Owen can see how you are getting on. Good luck with the preparation!
Due to the uncertainity of the current situation, the Education Authority has made arrangements to prepare and issue notification of placement letters for P1 and Nursery, to Parents/Guardians receipt of which will be on Wednesday, 29th April 2020.
The letter will outline the application outcome, provide information on the appeals process and links to the EA website for more information.
As it is possible due to the Covid 19 that some post may take longer to deliever than usual, the “Citizien Portal” will be opened on Wednesday, 29th April and Parents/Guardians who have applied online can log in to view, their child’s pre-school/Nursery or Primary 1 placement. Guidance on how to log in and access placement offers will be accessible on the EA website the link is given below.
This week the Nursery were invited to participate in our virtual circle time. Their responses were just the tonic we all need! So lovely to hear their voices and see the faces, after all these weeks away from school. Nursery, Foundation and KS1 are collaborating on new online early years teaching and we will be emailing out the information very soon. Nothing can ever replace the happiness that meeting the children everyday brings, but in these uncertain times we are working hard to provide a new learning experience for our Mullaghbawn children. We are looking forward to the new exciting opportunities that we will offer; keep a watch on your emails for updates. Stay safe and enjoy our circle time.
Hello, to all the boys and girls in P1a, P1b, P2, P2/3, P3/4 & P4 from all your teachers and assistants. We hope you are all keeping safe and well. We miss you all very much.
Dear Parents/Guardians,
If you haven’t already made contact with your child’s teacher can you please do so over the next few days via school email.
Ms N Murphy (Sub cover for Mrs S Mc Cann) nmurphy479@c2ken.net
Healthy Kidz remain committed to ensuring that all pupils remain active throughout the duration of the school closures by providing a vast array of content via their YouTube channel and various Social Media platforms, as well as free access to their revamped Healthy Kidz App for children to record their activity.
You are invited to sign up to the Global Challenge. Go to the Healthy Kidz website before next week’s Challenge begins (Monday 6th April). The link to sign up to this FREE initiative is https://healthy-kidz.com/healthy-kidz-global-challenge/. Previous usernames and passwords are not required. Many families connected to our school have already signed up and are taking part in this current week’s challenge.
Please also note that if a pupil manages to record a 7 day streak on the App, they will be in with a chance of winning some great prizes. This week’s winner will receive a Fitbit Advanced Health and Fitness Tracker, while next week’s prize will be a StatSports Apex Athlete Series GPS Performance Tracker (RRP £250).
