Please find the link to the webcam in St Mary’s Church, Mullaghbawn copied below.
Both Confirmation ceremonies will be live streamed through this link. The camera will be turned on just approaching 5pm each evening, to allow any family members who unfortunately are unable to attend due to restrictions, to view the ceremony from home.
We wish the P7 year group the very best of luck as they make their Confirmation this week and ask everyone connected with our school and wider parish community to keep them in their prayers at this time. The first group will be confirmed @5 pm this Tuesday (April 27th) and the second group being confirmed @5 pm on Thursday (April 29th), with both ceremonies taking place in St Mary’s Church,
Our P7 pupils visited the Chapel this afternoon for their Penitential Service, “Builders for God” , in preparation for Confirmation next week. They heard that where there is Peace, Love, Forgiveness and Joy, the Holy Spirit is present.
Thank you to Fr Emlyn for leading us in prayer and best wishes to all our P7 as they prepare for their Confirmation.
Master Mc Coy’s P7 class proudly showing all the bags of litter which our P6 and P7 year groups picked up around the village last week. The P7 group pictured cleaned up around the Church car park to have it slick and span for Confirmation next week.
Well done to all the classes involved a great job!
Before the Sacrament of Confirmation can take place we will need a copy of your child’s Baptismal Certificate, if they were baptised in any Parish other than the Parish of Forkhill.
If you don’t have a copy of the certificate please telephone the Parochial House of the Parish in which your child was baptised and arrange to collect a copy or have it scanned and emailed to you.
Please email either of us at the addresses below to let us know if you are in this position.
Thank you in advance for your co-operation in this matter,
Who said group and collaborative work wasn’t possible during Lock down?…. It was no problem to our IT savvy P6 and P7 pupils!
As part of their “live” online RE lessons, pupils were divided into Groups and given a link to a Google JamBoard. Each group were tasked to create their own visual display of “The Beatitudes” which they had been learning about.
Pupils could see each other’s online presence and through the use of “Sticky Notes”, they communicated and negotiated with their JamBoard partners. Suggestions were made, tasks assigned and the overall appearance of their combined work agreed upon.
We were delighted with their combined efforts, why not click on the link to see for yourself the amazing collaborative work completed whilst physically distanced, well done to everyone!
I wish to thank you for the dedication and commitment you have shown in following the programme of online learning provided over this past number of months. I am very aware of the emotional impact that home learning has had on many and the provision of such learning has had on staff. Hopefully we have reached the end of this arrangement and can progress towards a more normal future.
Following on from the announcement by the Education Minister, Peter Weir on Tuesday 16th March, I write to remind you of procedures and protocols for the return of all children to school on Monday 22nd March.
In relation to returning to school we must continue to observe guidelines to reduce the threat of any further outbreaks of the COVID-19 virus
School Day
Four drop-off and pick-up points will remain:
Nursery car park for a Nursery child and older siblings
Front on the school for Year 1& 2 children and older siblings
Main school car park for Year 3 & 4 children and older siblings
Ti Chulainn car park where children can enter school grounds at the green house entrance for year 5, 6 and 7 children.
We will be asking children to come into school between 8.45 am and 9.30 am. This should allow the children to filter into school.
Classes will operate in Social bubbles as far as possible. Dinners times will remain as normal but only those taking school dinners will eat in the Dining Hall, where pupils will be seated in their class bubbles. Normal procedures for Nursery dinners will remain, were Nursery pupils will be served dinner in their own Classroom.
Break times and lunchtimes will be arranged in a manner that will ensure that just members of that class are playing together in a Social Bubble in the playground, each class will be assigned a separate play area.
We will continue to insist that children wash their hands at key times in the school day – when they come in, at break-time, before lunchtime, after lunchtime and before home-time.
We will be working within the Social Distancing advised by the Education Authority.
Normal pick-up times will be maintained:
1.30 pm for Nursery
2 pm for P1- P3
3 pm for P4 – P7
Pupils uniform, school bags and homework
Pupils can attend school in uniform or PE kit. They should not bring in school bags but can take in a pencil case which is to remain in school. Pupils cannot be sharing their equipment with others. Pupils should bring in a packed lunch in a lunch box or bag and a water bottle.
Cash handling in school
Payments should be placed in a sealed envelope and submitted to the class teacher by your child.
Visitors/parents to the school
There will be no visitors/Parents permitted into the school until further notice.
School Dinners.
All payments should be made on the first day of the week. £2.50 for Nursery and £2.60 for all other children.
Afterschool clubs and activities
There will be no after-school activities or games until further notice.
After school supervision is available from 2- 4 pm for those who need to avail of this service. For Nursery children 1.30 to 2 pm £1
A reminder to all P7 Parents, the closing date for application for Post-Primary School is: Tuesday, 16th of March @4 pm. Click on the link below to take you to the EA Website
This year W5 and Microsoft have teamed up to present, “An Hour of Code” Workshops to P7 classes across Northern Ireland. For our P7 Pupils, this will take place this Thursday, 11th March @ 11 am. A link will be sent on the morning, via Google Classrooms for Collaborate Ultra.
Tomorrow, in preparation materials necessary for the Workshop will be sent via Google Classroom to all P7’s. These can be printed off or a rough sketch made of the 2 worksheets needed. Access to a copy of the “Global Sustainable Goals” as shown in the image below is also necessary, as pupils will refer to it during the Workshop.
During the Workshop, pupils will 1. act like coders and 2. develop new skills and concepts including:
how to think computationally,
how to break down problems,
how to develop structured solutions and
how to design new ideas
In addition they will focus on the following concepts:
Coding
Algorithms
Bugs and debugging
Sequencing and loops
Decomposition
Pattern recognition and
Abstraction.
The activities will be linked to the Global Goals for Sustainable Development shown below.
We are really excited by this opportunity and look forward to seeing all our P7’s on Thursday
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!
We wish the P7 year group the very best of luck as they make their Confirmation this week and ask everyone connected with our school and wider parish community to keep them in their prayers at this time. The first group will be confirmed @5 pm this Tuesday (April 27th) and the second group being confirmed @5 pm on Thursday (April 29th), with both ceremonies taking place in St Mary’s Church,
