It was a busy week in St Mary’s as we celebrated Maths Week Ireland 2021. Everyone from Nursery to P7 enjoyed participating in an array of Maths Week activities. Congratulations to everyone who participated, all of our prize winners, P3a for guessing the correct amount of pumpkins in the jar, P6 for correctly guessing the weight of the pumpkin, and a special shoutout to Master McCoy’s P7 class for winning one of the St. Paul’s Maths Week Challenges. Thank you to everyone who helped to make Maths Week such a great success. Have a lovely Halloween break!
Application for Nursery and P1 admissions for September 2021, will open this Thursday, 7th of January 2021 at 12.00 noon and will remain open until Friday, 29th January 2021 at 12.00 noon.
This is a digital process through the “Citizen’s Portal” more information about the process and the steps you must take can be found at the Education Authority (EA) website, at the link given below.
Please note this year the EA have introduced a “document upload process” for all required supporting documentation. Please be advised (as in the EA picture above), to read the admission criteria carefully, this can be found on the EA Website and links are given below for your convenience. Please make sure to include all required supporting documentation including: birth cert, proof of address- 2 utility bills, proof of an older sibling currently or who will be in attendance at St Mary’s for the 2021/22 school year.
This documentation can take the form of a photo, a scan, a pdf or a doc. from either a mobile phone, tablet or laptop.
Once you have completed your application on the Citizen’s Portal you should receive 2 emails:
-the first will be confirmation of your application and an invite to upload the required supporting documentation.
– the second email will contain a link taking you to the upload facility.
If you experience difficulty help is available through:
the EA Digital Admissions Helpine – 028-95985595
“Virtual Clinics” through GoONNI –
The “Intercultural Education Service” which offers translation services for any Parent/Guardian for whom English is not their first language. Telephone: 028 9448 2210
Please keep an eye on the EA website and social media channels for further information/ reminders.
Smiles from those nominated in their classes for “Pupil of the Week” this week. Well done to everyone and keep up the great work. A special well done to Mrs Murphy’s P4/5 Class who were all nominated!!!
(Those missing from today’s post we will catch up with on Monday for a photo and post).
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!
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.
Congratulations to pupils who have been working hard to achieve Pupil of the Week for showing kindness, having a positive attitude, working independently and impeccable manners. Well done!
If you have a child due to start Primary school or Pre-school in September 2020, you will need to fill out an online Admission Form. The portal for this opens on the 7th of January and remains open until January, 30th 2020. It can be found at the following link:
In January, we will host a workshop in the I.C.T. suite, during which we can assist you with the on-line application process and answer any questions you may have. The date and time of this Workshop is yet to be confirmed, watch our Website, Facebook and Twitter feeds for further notification.
Parents, please note admissions are not on a “first come first served” basis, but follow our school’s admission criteria which can be viewed on the Education Authority’s Web Page.
In addition, to completing the online form you will need to supply your child’s birth certificate, (which will be returned to you) and two utility bills which verify your address.
We take this opportunity to wish you a very Happy Christmas and New Year, and we look forward to welcoming you to our Admissions’ Workshop in January 2020.
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