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