St Mary’s pupils and staff would like to thank Business in the Community Northern Ireland for their kind donation of 10 devices through the Digital Access Drive.
The devices were used by our families during our recent learning from home.
P2 Blog
Pupil of the Week- Foundation + KS1
Back to School for Nursery, P1, P2 + P3
Dear Parents/Guardians,
I look forward to welcoming back pupils in the following Year Groups: Nursery, P1, P2 and P3, from this Monday, 8th March, for two weeks. To help keep everyone safe I ask that you read through the following procedures.
P Mc Donnell
Returning to school Procedures Mon 8th March
All of the previous routines that were in place before Christmas relating to: sanitising and washing hands, class bubbles, toileting, play activities and movement within the school and grounds will remain in place. In addition please note:
- School buses to drop off and pick up as normal to begin with, but collection times may be revised when the demands of the secondary school have been established.
- Children to enter school at the same points as before lock down. Key-workers’ children to enter by the front door if they don’t have a sibling entering at another point.
- Children to exit from the same points as they entered school from.
- Breaks and Dinners will be at the normal times. School meals are available to all children who wish to avail of the service either though free school meals entitlement or by paying. This provision is also available for the supervised children of Key Workers.
- Pupils may use regular lunch bags, for packed lunches.
- We will continue to accommodate Key Workers’ children up to 3.30 pm. Younger siblings of these supervised children (and other pupils who need), can join with them after 2 pm when their classes end. Please arrange this in advance through the Office.
- Bus users may wait in school with the supervised children until the 3 pm pick-up. Please notify the Office if your child is to wait for a 3 pm bus.
- Supervised children who have been attending St Mary’s have been following the online activities/lessons posted by their respective teachers and this will continue to be the case. The use of personal devices, if available, would help to reduce the demand on school owned machines.
- If you haven’t already been using the supervision facility in St Mary’s and need a supervised place for your P4-7 child please contact us in advance on 028 -30888351 or email pmcdonnell667@c2kni.net
Safer Internet Day – 9th February
Safer Internet Day 2021 “Together for a better Internet”
Each year in St Mary’s we recognise the importance of Safer Internet Day by hosting Parents’ and Pupils’ workshops.
So this year we are asking families to take time to explore the Internet Safety tab on our school website where you will find links to information and stories related to this year’s theme “Together for a better Internet”
And why not check out tomorrow’s C2K Newsdesk story line made famous by ex president Donald Trump “Fake News”
Art Competition
The Ring of Gullion ,“Dragons in the Hills” Project have teamed up with local artists to bring an exciting art competition for all classes to take part in. The theme is: “Reptiles, Amphibians and Habitats”, it’s a great excuse for everyone to get outside, have a explore of some likely habitats,- ponds, marshy ground, stone walls, … Why not take some photos, and then once back indoors get experimenting with different media, paint, pastels, collage – choose the piece you are most happy with and submit a photo via the link given below!
All work must be submitted by 17th March There are some great prizes up for grabs!
Good luck everyone!!!
Thank-You
Dear Parents/Guardians,
We would like to say thank-you for all your support to St. Mary’s over the past year and in particular over the past difficult few months. You have helped us to support your child/children by ensuring that they have engaged with learning, both on and off line, it hasn’t been easy, we know. It was a steep learning curve for everyone and we appreciate you will have encountered many difficulties along the way, but you stuck with it and this very much encouraged us to continue with and develop new ways of reaching out to our children and families. The whole experience will have taught your children many new skills and developed important life skills- not least not giving up! We are very proud, our whole school community very much lived up to our school motto: “Never settle for less than your best!”
We are currently working on a plan for return to school in September we hope to be in a position to share this with you by the end of next week.
Thank you for all your messages and emails of support, we hope all our families have a lovely Summer Holiday and we look forward to working with you in the Autumn Term.
Stay safe, Stay well.
The Staff of St. Mary’s.
Lost Property
Dear Parents/Guardians
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.
Thank you for your co-operation
Miss Mulkerns
St Mary’s Sports Day 2020
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.
Sports Day 2020
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!
Blessing for P4 Holy Communion Class of 2020
P4 Class of 2020, you have been brave, you have been kind, you have been understanding and we are so proud of you.
Mrs Mackin and Mrs Murphy