Wednesday 21st  May @ 10am - 1.30pm Newry Shamrocks.

Dear Parents,

Tomorrow will be a very special day for many of our P4pupils as they will receive the Blessed Eucharist for the first time as they celebrate First Holy Communion. We pray for our boys and girls and their families; that they will have a holy and joyful day to remain in their hearts and memories forever.

P7s had a busy week, having received the sacrament of confirmation last week. They used their maturity to engage in the ‘Giving a little bit back’ project; undertaking a variety of tasks to make our school look beautiful. Some of them also undertook CPR training with Dr Davey and that will continue into the incoming week. We thank Dr Davey for his generosity. Both projects helped us to develop the pupils’ social maturity and responsibility in keeping with our school aim of ‘Loving Others- Amor Aliorum.’

On that note, I have dealt with multiple issues this week arising from pupils’ inappropriate use of social networking sites e.g. Tik Tok, Snapchat etc. I remind parents that these have age restrictions for usage which no primary school pupil meets. I urge you to monitor your child’s online activity as I was shocked and worried by the usage reported to me.

Whilst the weather is beautiful and we have lots of nice things planned in the diary, we are still very much ‘pushing’ the academic work and our pupils are busily undertaking assessments and working to term 3 targets in Literacy and Numeracy. Please support us by encouraging your children to keep up with their assigned homework, but also their reading at home (including their own reading to supplement what is given by the teacher). We will be doing the final reading assessment before the holidays and we want to see maximum gains for each child, a strong final effort will have a positive impact.

We will have the Sacramental ‘cake celebration’ for Primary 7 and 4 pupils next Monday and this will be followed by the May Procession on Tuesday @ 1.10 for these classes. I regret that only parents of these year groups can attend as we do not have the space to host other year groups. All other classes will have their own May procession organised by their teacher.

We have been so blessed with the wonderful weather which is predicted to continue for another week! Due to this, we have decided to bring forward the date of our annual P4-P7 Sports Day hosted by Newry Shamrocks.  It will now take place on WEDNESDAY 21st MAY from 10am-1.30pm.  We are so sorry if you have made arrangements to suit the initial date but hope that you understand our desire to monopolise on the sunshine, knowing that it may not last much longer.  We would love to see our families there.

I finish by thanking you for the masses of beautiful flowers that your children have brought in for our May altar, after I requested some at last week’s assembly. You are incredibly kind and your generosity and thoughtfulness is appreciated by us all.

Enjoy the beautiful weather this weekend, especially P4pupils and their families.

Yours in partnership,

Mrs Monaghan

All of our staff have to start work before 9.00 am to ensure they are in class for the children.

Increasingly I find that staff are circling the car park unable to find a car parking space.

I am aware that several of our nursery parents are parking between the 8. 45 and 9.00am drop off and this is taking up some of our very limited car parking spaces.

I remind parent that school operate a car drop off system and we do not have enough room to allow parents to wait with their children or walk them to the classes.

The only people able to do this are those who have been granted a parking permit based on their child being a 'blue badge' holder.

Please respect how difficult this situation is and work with us.

Yours in partnership

Mrs Monaghan 

I really need your help parents and remind you:

That we operate a 'drop off zone' and a one way system. We have had a few 'near misses as parents have not followed the one way system and have 'cut off' across the flow of traffic, to park in the area beside the canteen. I am very fearful that we will have an accident.

1. That you need to be so careful when dropping off children. Pupils should disembark onto the pavement- not onto the road/ car park side, where cars are busily trying to depart.
2. When driving off from your'drop off position' that you need to be mindful of other cars coming up from behind. We have had a few 'near collisions' re this.
3. That buses are being held up when some of you stay too long in your 'drop off' position. I have frequently seen the bus unable to take the bend to get to its drop off position because some of you have left your car unattended or are delaying your departure to make phone calls etc, unaware that your vehicle is blocking the way.

I know that with your support we can make the process safer for our school community.

Mrs Monaghan 

At the time of amalgamation it was agreed that funerals of staff of the former schools would not be attended by pupils from the newly amalgamated school. This was to avoid anyone being overlooked due to current staff being unaware of former connections with the schools.

That seemed like an appropriate arrangement at the time. However, having personally attended recent funerals of deceased former staff, I have become uneasy with this arrangement. Therefore, it will be modified as indicated below.

The family of a deceased member of staff of Abbey PS or St Clare’s PS, who retired from either school may request a school representation at their loved one’s requiem mass. If the mass is taking place during school hours and in a local church, we will try our very best to facilitate the request.  Requests may be made via telephone 02830262175.

We cherish the contribution that former staff made to both schools, from which we grew.

Mrs Monaghan