Quiz Team Champions

Our Quiz teams have had outstanding success recently

Our Junior team has won through to the All Ireland Final of the Credit Union Quiz Competition. The Finals will take place just prior to Easter. Well done to Eimear O Neill, Cormac Roe, Luke O Connell & Liam Broderick. Also many thanks to teachers Ms. Callanan & Ms. Skelly.

Meanwhile the 6th Class team of Sean Mc Crohan, Ellen Quinn, Jonathan Devoy & Joe Broderick were crowned Champions of Wicklow when they won the Cumann na mBunscoil Quiz Final against teams from all over the County. All their hard work finally paid off after finishing in second place on each of the previous two occasions.

William O Byrne

We are sad because William is leaving the school.  He has been a teacher in St Mary's for 38 years.  He teaches Maths & English and helps people to speak Irish.  William has been in the yard every morning from Monday to Friday with us.  William is very very nice to people.  He gives birthday angels to people on their birthday. 

We will miss you Willaim.

From all the pupils in St. Marys SNS

Parents Association

Thanks to the support of our very active Parents' Association who have provided a wide range of educational materials for the children that otherwise we would never have been in a position to provide. The fundraising provided by the Association has allowed us to establish a fully equipped Computer Room with 13 fully networked computers. It has also allowed us to ensure that each classroom has a full range of hands-on maths equipment. We also have 2 SRA Reading Kits which were provided by the Association. We have almost completed the cataloguing of all the library books in the school using the computer system the Association financed recently.

Without a doubt had it not been for the help of the Parents Association we would never have been in a position to fund the purchase of all this educational equipment and it is something that everyone in the school is extremely grateful for.

Anti-Bullying Week
Following the success of last year's event we will hold another Bullying Awareness Week this year during the week beginning Monday, October 4th.  The children will participate in a range of activities.  Following this week there should be a heightened awareness of what bullying is, types of bullying and the importance of always telling someone when bullying occurs.  Your help would be appreciated to reinforce these strategies.

Active School Flag

The school has just been notified that we have been awarded an Active School Flag in recognition of the huge amount af sports etc the children participate in while in school. This Flag is the equivalent of the Green Flag for physical activities.

Congratulations to all the children for their participation. The Inspector was very impressed with all of them on the day he came to judge us for the flag. A special thank-you to Ms Lisa Smith whose tremendous hard work and drive was the main reason we were awarded such high marks during the evaluation process.

Vegetable Garden

All the classes planted potatoes before the summer holidays. We put them in three rows. It was great fun. We dug them up last week and we got loads of lovely potatoes. They tasted great.

We also planted onions, carrots, beetroot, lettuce and scallions in our school garden. They tasted lovely too.

It was amazing how easy it is to grow your own vegetables. Most of us are going to try to grow some at home next year.

Spikeball
The school's mixed Spikeball Team travelled to Limerick to play in the All-Ireland Finals against teams fron all over the country on Tuesday March 10th. After a gruelling five games the team reached the knochout stage where they eventually finished third. A superb performance from the St. Mary's team.

School Garden

Our Green School Committee spent a long time planning and designing our new School Garden. The Garden is situated beside the pedestrian entrance coming in from the Main St. beside the Topaz Garage. The classes have just finished harvesting all our vegetables. Some great dinners were had all around Blessington with our potatoes, carrots and onions.

Quiz Masters

Our U-13 Quiz Team has reached the Credit Union Quiz All-Ireland Final after first winning the Blessington Area Final and then finishing a superb 2nd, after a tie-break in Chapter stage. They then went go on to appear in the All-Ireland on Friday, April 3rd in the RDS in Dublin.

Olympic Handball

Congratulations to the Girls' U-13 team who won the 2010 Dublin League Plate in fine style beating St Peter's of Phibsboro in the final.

Art Winners

We had three winners in the Credit Union Art Competition.

Uniform

New uniforms are available from the suppliers shop, Kaideen Knitwear, in Baltinglass (059-6481241) or if you wish you can order from them directly on-line at www.schooluniformsdirect.ie

Halloween Break
The school will close on Friday October 22nd for the Halloween break, and will re-open on Monday, November 1st.