a new year 1 2014-15.pdfp4– molly horan p5-shannon scullion p6-tieghan graffin, lauren gordon and...
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St. Mary’s News
Edition No. 53
Term 1 2014-15 www.stmaryspsportglenone.com
A New Year
The start of the new school year brought
many changes : new classes, new teach-
ers, a new school committee and eco-
council and a new parish priest. We wel-
comed Mrs McCutcheon to P6, who is
covering Mrs McLaughlin’s maternity
leave, and Mr. McCutcheon to P4 to job
share with Mrs McGurk.
We also welcomed Fr. Curran into our
parish community. Fr. Curran celebrat-
ed mass at the beginning and end of
term with us and we are so grateful to
have him here in Portglenone.
All classes voted in new members to the
school council and eco-committee:
Gig in the Bann
On Friday the 12th of September we had
two very special guests in our school.
The Idyllic Dolls came in to play some
music for all the pupils and staff in St
Marys. Some of the songs that the girls
sang were from the charts and we could
sing along with them a selection of chil-
dren also got to play some instruments.
The song that is our favourite is ‘The
Rattlin’ Bog’, it is very fast and funny
with lots of actions to remember as well.
Mr Martin Kearney organised for the
Idyllic dolls to come to our school and he
came along to enjoy the fun as well. The
celebrations continued on through the
weekend as lots of people came to Port-
glenone to enjoy the Gig’n the Bann
festival.
By Primary1
Eco Committee School Council
St. Mary’s News Page 2
Credit Union Art Competition
P1 & P2 Christmas Outings!
St. Mary’s News Page 2
In St Marys PS we took part in an art
competition organised by Bannvale Credit
Union. The topic for this year’s competi-
tion was ‘Colour’. We had to either paint,
draw or use pastels to create a picture
with loads of colour in it. All of the school
took part and all of the entries were fabu-
lous but unfortunately the Credit Union
could only pick a few out of each class.
The winners were..
P1-Oscar Eddis
P3– Caoimhe Scullion and Ronan O`Neill
P4– Molly Horan
P5-Shannon Scullion
P6-Tieghan Graffin, Lauren Gordon and
Charlie McAleese
P7.-Matthew Milner, Laura McCann and
Orla Gribben
By Laura McCann and Orla Gribben
P.7.
The children from Primary 1 and Primary 2
were very lucky to have received two special
invitations in December - one from Fullans
Supermarket and a second from Café 316.
On Wednesday 10th September we set off to
Fullans, armed with our Santa letters, to
meet the main man and give him the all-
important letters. In exchange for a Christ-
mas tune Santa gave us a big bag of treats.
We had such a fun time singing and dancing
with Santa!
Our next trip was to Café 316 on Monday
15th December. We had a lovely cosy morning
with sausages and sausage rolls for mid-
morning snack before singing some Christ-
mas songs. Before we left we were each pre-
sented with a selection box - how lucky were
we?!
Thank you to both Fullans and Café 316 for a
super time!
Page 3 Page 3
Friends of St. Mary’s
Following a very successful reformation of
the Friends of St. Mary’s this year, we
have a great committee who work tire-
lessly organising events raising money to
benefit the children in our school.
We have had several fundraisers this
term including two school discos, a cater-
ing stand at Portglenone’s Banshee Hunt
and our first ever Christmas Craft Fair.
Our Christmas Fair was such a successful
event - it brought everyone in the commu-
nity together to share in the spirit of
Christmas as well as raising a lot of mon-
ey for school funds. There was a wide va-
riety of stands from baked goods and jew-
ellery to hair products and creative candy.
We even had our very own entertainer,
James Quinn, who sang Christmas songs
all night to ensure we were feeling fes-
tive.
After this year’s resounding success we
hope to make this an annual event.
As a result of our fundraising efforts the
school was presented with a printer and a
year’s supply of ink for every classroom .
This is an invaluable resource to each of
our teachers in their day-to-day teaching
and they are all extremely grateful.
Finally, despite their great effort to raise
funds for our school, Friends of St. Mary’s
also found time to host a Macmillan Cof-
fee Morning in the school assembly hall.
Our parents supplied buns, cakes and
treats and served up a lovely feast for
members of our school community. As
well as providing a great social opportuni-
ty for the community, we managed to
raise a whopping £485 for Macmillan
Cancer Care.
St. Mary’s News Page 4
Halloween Dress-up Day
Farewell Fr. Henry
St. Mary’s News Page 4
On the last day of term before
Halloween we had a dress-up day in
school. Everyone had to wear a scary
Halloween costume. We went to the
school assembly hall for our Halloween
parade. All the costumes were great. A
boy and girl from each class got a prize
for the best costumes. Everyone got a
treat for dressing up. After break we had
lots of fun dancing at our Halloween
disco.
By: Primary Three
Fr. Henry left our Parish and moved to
Belfast. We wanted to say a
special goodbye to Fr. Henry so we had an
assembly for him. Some parents and
grandparents came along too. We sang a
special farewell song that Mrs Friel
created and we gave Fr. Henry a bag of
treats for him and Purdy. We also gave
Fr. Henry a special book with lots of
memories that we have of him in it. We
are going to miss Fr. Henry lots.
By: Primary Three
Page 5 Page 5
Gift Boxes
P6 Assembly
During Decem-
ber we collected
shoe boxes filled
with lots of
treats. The shoes
boxes are going
to be delivered around the world to boys
and girls that normally get no toys for
Christmas. We put lots of
different things inside the shoe boxes.
We put in yo-yos, pens and pencils, dolls,
bouncing balls, hats and gloves into the
boxes. The school collected 83 boxes. We
know the boys and girls who receive our
boxes at Christmas are going to be very
happy.
Primary Three
Friday 14th November was the day when
Primary six had their class assembly. The
assembly was about saints and how to be
saint like. Everyone had a line to say. In
groups of three or four we recited a poem
called ‘All Saints’. We also sang one of St
Frances’ prayers called ‘Make Me a
Channel of Your Peace.’
My line in the assembly was ‘Saints like
Saint Patrick, Saint Bridget and Saint
Colmcille lived the kind of lives Jesus
wants us to live. As baptised Christians
we are all called to be saints.’ I also acted
a part from The Beatitudes, which is
about how you should treat
everyone with respect; how to be saint
like. After the assembly we all went back
to the classroom where the parents got to
eat chocolate biscuits and a cup of tea or
coffee while we showed them our work
around the classroom.
Hugo Eddis P.6
Library Visits
In October, P4 and P6 participated in
the Local Library Schools Programme.
We completed a range of activities to
develop our understanding of Fiction
and Non-Fiction as well as listening to
different stories and poetry. We are all
now registered members of the library
and are eagerly borrowing books.
Thank you to Deirdre and Louise for
welcoming us warmly to Portglenone
St. Mary’s News Page 6
Childline visit P6 & P7
Spanish for P1—P4
St. Mary’s News Page 6
On the 20th of November Gemma and
Patricia from ChildLine came to visit our
school. They gave a talk to the Primary 6
and 7 pupils on how to be happy and safe.
We learnt that keeping happy and safe
was very important for all children.
Childline is available all day every day
(24/7) and even on special days like
Christmas. You can call Childline for free
on any phone including payphones. We
memorised the website address and
phone number (08001111 and
www.childline.org.uk).
ChildLine brought Buddy, their mascot,
with them. Buddy is a green speech bub-
ble who symbolises to children the im-
portance of speaking out, having a voice
and being heard. They also brought a
large, white sack full of heavy blocks. We
took turns to
carry the sack around. It was heavy!
Gemma, from ChildLine, told us that not
telling a trusted adult about any worries
we may have is like carrying a heavy sack
around all day. At this point we
discussed how to make our sack lighter by
telling someone who we trust; this could
be, a teacher,
parent, grandparent, aunt or uncle or an-
yone else who we feel we can trust. Once
we tell someone it helps to make our load
lighter.
We really enjoyed our activities with
ChildLine. It made us more aware of pos-
sible worries and how to get help for
them. It is important what we are
always happy and safe!
Liam Kelly & Sarah O’Kane P.6
Every Thursday P1-4 have Spanish les-
sons with our new teacher Alexandra.
She is from Mexico. This year we have
learned the months of the year and days
of the week. Spanish is lots of fun and we
get to sing lots of songs in Spanish. We
love the ‘Bull Game’ where we have to
pretend we are bulls and run under Alex-
andra’s red towel.
By: Primary 4
Hola!
Page 7 Page 7
Aladdin
P5 Assembly
This year our school went to the Grand
Opera House to see the pantomime Alad-
din. On Monday 1st December the whole
school travelled on buses to Belfast. The
show began at 1:30pm and was over
about 4:00pm. It was really hilarious.
May McFetridge played Widow Twanky
and told lots of silly jokes. The costumes
were fantastic and the props were amaz-
ing. Aladdin flew out over the audience on
a flying carpet, the genie was an enor-
mous balloon puppet and the gigantic
Funky Monkey was very scary. P5 did a
survey to see which character was the
most popular and Princess Jasmine came
first with Widow Twanky a close second.
Another interesting character was PC
Plank who was a super ventriloquist.
Poor Siobhan McGroggan, our classroom
assistant was very embarrassed when she
was taken onto the stage with a teacher
from another school and asked to wear a
mask. The ventriloquist then pretended
she was his puppet and made her say silly
things.
As usual the story ended happily with
Widow Twanky getting married to the
Emperor and Princess Jasmine marrying
Aladdin.
We all had an enjoyable day out but we
were tired when we returned to school at
5 o’clock.
By P5
On Friday 17th October P5 did their
school Assembly. Mrs. Mullan and Sharon
wrote a script. We practised and prac-
tised. Then the day came.
We all said our part loud and clear .All of
the parents were there and the whole
school. Then at the end we all sang our
song ‘Whatsoever You do’. Afterwards we
came back to class room and our parents
came down to see our classroom.
We showed them our butterbeans and all
our work. The parents also got tea or cof-
fee and some biscuits. Mrs Mullan bought
some bars of chocolate for us. Mrs Milner
brought in the left over biscuits too. Most
of them were chocolate. We had a lot of
fun saying hi to all of the parents. It
was a blast. Then all the parents had to
say goodbye and Mrs Mullan gave out the
chocolate bars she bought for us. Mrs
Mullan and Mrs Milner were really proud
of us.
Our message was:
Don't forget to treat others well.
Aisling Dunlop
P5
Page 7 Page 7
Aladdin
P5 Assembly
This year our school went
to the Grand Opera House
to see the pantomime
Aladdin. On Monday 1st
December the whole school
travelled on buses to Bel-
fast. The show began at
1:30pm and was over
about 4:00pm. It was real-
ly hilarious. May McFetridge played Wid-
ow Twanky and told lots of silly jokes.
The costumes were fantastic and the
props were amazing. Aladdin flew out
over the audience on a flying carpet, the
genie was an enormous balloon puppet
and the gigantic Funky Monkey was very
scary. P5 did a survey to see which char-
acter was the most popular and Princess
Jasmine came first with Widow Twanky a
close second. Another interesting charac-
ter was PC Plank who was a super ven-
triloquist. Poor Siobhan McGroggan, our
classroom assistant was very embar-
rassed when she was taken onto the stage
with a teacher from another school and
asked to wear a mask. The ventriloquist
then pretended she was his puppet and
made her say silly things.
As usual the story ended happily with
Widow Twanky getting married to the
Emperor and Princess Jasmine marrying
Aladdin.
We all had an enjoyable day out but we
were tired when we returned to school at
On Friday 17th October P5 did their
school Assembly. Mrs. Mullan and Sharon
wrote a script. We practised and prac-
tised. Then the day came.
We all said our part loud and clear .All of
the parents were there and the whole
school. Then at the end we all sang our
song ‘Whatsoever You do’. Afterwards we
came back to class room and our parents
came down to see our classroom.
We showed them our butterbeans and all
our work. The parents also got tea or cof-
fee and some biscuits. Mrs Mullan bought
some bars of chocolate for us. Mrs Milner
brought in the left over biscuits too. Most
of them were chocolate. We had a lot of
fun saying hi to all of the parents. It
was a blast. Then all the parents had to
say goodbye and Mrs Mullan gave out the
chocolate bars she bought for us. Mrs
Mullan and Mrs Milner were really proud
of us.
Our message was:
Don't forget
to treat
others well.
St. Mary’s News Page 8
P5 Visit Portglenone Forest
St. Mary’s News Page 8
On Thursday 2nd October, P.5 went to
Portglenone Forest with Forest Guide Liz
O’Connor. We set off at exactly 9:30 am,
and so began our woodland hunt. First of
all, we went across the road and walked
through the farmyard climbing over sev-
eral gates on our way. We trudged
through the undergrowth, spellbound by
all the amazing things of nature (but not
that we were speechless, there was a lot
of chatting!) We picked up some cute
acorns and admired them before putting
them in our pockets to bring back to class.
After a while, we stopped again and Liz
gave us some birdseed to scatter for the
birds. Lucky them! We planned to check
on them on the way back.
Crisp smells started to waft in as we
neared the heart of the woods. Liz showed
us how to recognise leaves from the trees.
For example a beech leaf is wavy, like the
foaming, mysterious waves on Portstew-
art Beach. Then we stopped to have a
snack at a pleasant little enclosure with
lots of rhododendrons. I had an apple and
a Kit-Kat. We played on the entwining
trees for a few minutes while the grown-
ups talked. Shannon and Abby found an
ancient milk bottle.
We set off again, aiming for the tiny well.
When we reached our destination we
stayed there, looking at the murky depths
for a few moments, before walking away.
A short while later Liz took a little paper
game from her coat pocket and we played
with it for a few minutes. You had to pick
a number and answer a question about
the forest.
Now, dear reader, before you get bored
with this and flick to the next page, I will
tell you the most exciting bit of the trip.
Before we passed the pond, we stopped for
(estimated) half an hour, building hedge-
hog houses/hotels and scavenging for
mini-beasts. I scavenged for a while, find-
ing an adorable baby spider, but I found it
a bit boring, so after a while, I went to
find logs/sticks/fallen trees for a hedgehog
house. I fought my way through the bush-
es to find a little clearing, but oh! What a
clearing! I’ll never forget the sight of all
those logs lying there. It was heaven for a
hedgehog house maker like me. And all of
the logs were so light! Even the largest
ones! I worked with my friends to build a
house that any hedgehog would be de-
lighted with.
Soon it was time to return to school. We
retraced our steps back through the for-
est, up the farm lane and across the road
Page 9 Page 9
Term 1 Pupils of the Week
St. Mary’s News Page 10
Football & Camogie News
St. Mary’s News Page 10
The pupils of St. Mary’s continue to be
passionate about sport, particularly foot-
ball and camogie. The girls train on a
Wednesday with Ciara Duffin helping the
girls to perfect their skills and game tech-
nique.
The boys train on a Friday after school
with Ciaran Doherty, Paddy Carey and
Martin McLaughlin. Like the girls, we
also practise our skills and game play.
We are very grateful to all the
coaches for giving their time and exper-
tise to coach our teams.
The boys were lucky to take part in the
first tournament of the year this term.
Jack, Tomás, Ciaran, Sean, Michael and
Cormac were selected for the team. The
tournament was in the Antrim Forum
and there were teams from Cargin, An-
trim and Ballymena also taking part. We
drew our first match, won our second, lost
our third and won our fourth. It was a
very fun trip and everyone enjoyed it and
we all had a good time.
In addition to after-school coaching, all
our Year 6 and Year 7 pupils had a fan-
tastic time participating in the Partner
Primary School Links Programme with
PE teachers from St Louis Grammar
School Niamh and James. The six week
programme introduced them to and devel-
oped their skills in Camogie and Hurling
as well as promoting team skills and
physical exercise. Every pupil got to take
part in the sessions. We all found it very
beneficial and enjoyable.
On the final day of the sessions we had a
mini-blitz and one of our own past pupils
was there to help– Roisín Kelly. She plays
camogie for Geraldine’s and for St. Louis’
G r a m -
mar.
We are looking forward to the new year
and all the tournaments to come.
By Jack Addison P7
P6 and 7 Camogie Players
P6 and 7 Football Players
Page 11 Page 111
Service Of Light
Swimming Success in P6
On the 25th November the primary 7
children celebrated the Service of light.
The service of light marked the beginning
of preparing the primary 7 children for
Confirmation which is on the 14th May
2015. In class we made tea-light holders
out of clay and decorated them. We used
these to light up the altar for the ceremo-
ny. During the ceremony Fr. Curran
asked the primary 7 children to respond
to our promises, then the parents did the
same. Then, Fr. Curran asked the parents
to light our candles that were last lit on
our baptism day. When the candles were
lit our parents passed the lighted candles
to us. At the end on the service of light we
sang ‘Walk in the Light’.
Caitlin Walsh P7
This term all Primary Six
pupils attended weekly
swimming lessons at Seven
Towers Leisure Centre.
Our lessons focussed on
building our water confi-
dence and developing our front crawl
technique. Gareth and Darren are great
teachers and always made our learning
fun. We enjoyed diving for objects
and jumping into the deep end when we
were confident swimmers. At the end of
our programme we were very excited to
test our abilities by seeing how many
lengths we could swim without stopping.
Well done to Hugo Eddis, Liam Kelly
and Patrick Mooney who all swam 30
lengths. That’s an incredible 750m! How-
ever, the session we loved the most was
the final day when we got to go on the
slides. All of us received a certificate
for taking part in the programme. We
can’t wait until we go again in Primary 7!
P.6
St. Mary’s News Page 12
are we nearly there yet….?
St. Mary’s News Page 12
This year Primary 1 and Primary 2 clas-
ses performed the Christmas show ‘are
we nearly there yet…?’ Rehearsals be-
gan in November where everyone got
busy learning lines and new songs.
The story was on the Nativity. Mary and
Joseph began by setting off on their spe-
cial journey to Bethlehem. There were
lots of other people setting off on the jour-
ney as well. The Walker family’, the
shepherds, the wise men, angels, narra-
tors and some town criers all made guest
appearances. There was lots of singing,
dancing and laughs as well. Everyone got
to dress up and we all had special parts to
play. We got to go on the stage where
everyone could see us clearly.
Our dress rehearsal was on Monday the
8th of December and the next day we
performed twice, one at 1pm and the
evening show was at 7pm. There were
lots of people in the audience and the
stage lights were very bright. It was
great fun coming back to school really late
at night, but some of us were very tired in
school the next day. Mrs Milner, and all
our teachers and assistants said they
were very proud of our acting and our ex-
cellent behaviour . Because of this we all
got special treats for being fantastic su-
perstars!
By Primary 1 and Primary 2
Page 13 Page 133
Hey Ewe!
On Tuesday 9th December Primary 3 and
4 performed our play ‘Hey Ewe’ for all our
families. We did a dress rehearsal on
Monday for the whole school and on Tues-
day we did a day time show and an even-
ing show. Some of us felt a little bit nerv-
ous before the shows started but we still
had good fun. The sheep in our play was
very curious about the birth of Jesus and
in the end she gave him her fleece for a
present. We hope all our parents enjoyed
our Christmas Show as much as we en-
joyed performing it! By: Primary 4
St. Mary’s News Page 14
Nursery News
St. Mary’s News Page 14
Pyjama Day
At the end of November
we had our Pyjama Day.
Children arrived in
nursery in their pyjamas
and dressing gowns.
They also brought their
favourite teddy/bedtime
toy and introduced them
to the class. There were
all sorts and sizes of ted-
dies and cuddly toys. Orla’s teddy was
dressed in the same pyjamas as she was. We
met Jack and Joe teddies who were exactly
the same. After listening to some lovely bed-
time stories, it was lights out, blinds closed
and rest time for everyone while listening to
some soft lullaby music.
Nativity play
After a power cut on the morning of the play
and the prospect of having to cancel, all was
well when then the power was restored and
the show did indeed go on. All their hard
work and rehearsing paid off as they all did
themselves proud. The boys and girls were
absolutely fantastic. Well done everyone!
Afterwards it was back to nursery for some
well deserved treats and DVD ‘Frozen’ with
the children still in singing mode joining in
their favourite song ‘Let It Go’.
Page 15 Page 15
Nursery News
Santa at Fullan’s Supermarket
On Wed 10th the
children visited
Santa in Fullan’s.
Before reaching the
door they could
hear Santa ringing
his bell and shout-
ing “Ho ho ho”.
Each child had a
wee chat with San-
ta and got a photo
with him. After re-
ceiving a bag of goodies they promised Santa
they would try to be very good at nursery and
home. All arrived back in nursery in the nick
of time before the heavy rain came down.
We must say a great big “Thank you” to San-
ta and his helpers for their kindness and gen-
erosity.
Jack and the Beanstalk
On Friday 5th Dec the children went to the
Braid Centre to see a Jack and the Beanstalk
production.
I liked the giant best. He was very, very bad.
Mark
I liked the chicken that laid golden eggs.
Odhran.
I loved the cow best. She was funny. Her
name was Missy C. Micheal.
I liked Jack best. He was a bit silly. Shea.
Sign time
We are very grateful to Sign time, a local
graphics company who provided some lovely
bright graphics around the nursery. On the
outside wall at the front of nursery there are
some colourful insects ,while on the curved
wall in the quiet room is a beautiful mural
and in the hallway graphics of happy children
of different nationalities and cultures.
The nursery staff would like to
wish everyone a Happy Christmas
and a Happy New Year.
Christmas Card Competition
St. Mary’s News Page 166
Our Christmas card competition was a great success as always. All the children in our school
has the opportunity to design their very own Christmas card. Then Mrs Milner chose one
winning design from each class. The winning cards would then be printed out and sent to
lots of different schools, companies and friends of St Mary’s as the Christmas card form our
school. In Assembly Mrs Milner gave the winners a prize for all their hard work. The win-
ners are:
Eco Schools Christmas Decorations
This year we decided to organise an Art Competition in which we had to make a decoration for a Christmas
tree out of rubbish. The decoration had to be able to hang up on a Christmas tree. An unbelievable 132 pu-
pils took part and all the decorations were amazing. There was a lot of effort put into them. Natalie Ciochon
in P5 made a very big collection of decorations. One of her decorations was a huge star which was used in
the Christmas Show. Mrs Milner presented the winners with their prizes at assembly on Friday. Here are the
winners.
P1-Liam Rafferty P2-Christy McDonnell P3-Grace Collins-Law P4-Eimear Smith
P5-Peter Hanisek P6-Sarah O’Kane P7-Marie Kearney
Check out the
school website
to see these
and more!
Place P.1 P.2 P.3 P.4 P.5 P.6 P.7
1st Eoghan
Smith
Ronan
McCallio
n
Cait
Carey
Ryan
McKeever
Natalie
Ciochon
Tiegan
Graffin
Maya
Maron
2nd Thomas
Kearney
Dylan
Lagan
Katie
O’Boyle
Lorcan
McCarte
Dearbhai
l
Cara
McAl-
Orla
Gribben
3rd Liam
Rafferty
Connor
McAlister
Anna
Graham
John McAt-
amney
Abby
Brown
Amy
Magill
Dorisa
Walasze
k
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