In September we were delighted to have a visit paid to us by a past pupil Adam Watchorn who has qualified to train with the U18’s Leinster Rugby squad.
Adam Watchorn Leinster Rugby
Adam generously gave his time to our students answering all their questions about what motivated him to start playing rugby and how he fits in his training around school. To add to his generosity he gifted to some students a rugby ball for asking such great questions at the Q&A!
Our students would’ve have gladly continued speaking with Adam for the entire morning if they had their way, and a huge range of questions were asked. Thank you once again to Adam for returning to St.Mary’s.
This summer we saw a lot of changes to our school with a reconfiguration of a classroom to create a second ASD class and the construction of a modular unit to accommodate the students who were displaced from the reconfiguration. The completion of all building is expected by the middle of October 2023. All our students have been excitedly watching the new building progress on a daily basis and we’re delighted to welcome all our lovely new students and teaching staff to the school as a direct result of these school developments.
It has been an eventful few months! Our playground space also saw some great developments this summer, and we’ve the grandparents and parents of our school to thank for this as many, many years of fundraising was used to create this magnificent space for our 110 students!
Obstacle courses for all
Our playground welcomed the installation of monkey bars, swinging log bridges and a log traverse. This has been the best money spent to date, with children on a daily basis practicing their skills on the monkey bars in particular. We predict a huge surge of gymnasts to local coaches as a result!
Aistear play space
Our Parent’s Association funded the creation of this wonderful Aistear play space for our infant students, although in reality all children are welcomed into the space. We have hopes and dreams to expand upon this space as the years go on.
Additional ground space for wet days
The final installation was of this huge tarmac play space which will prove extremely useful during wet days over the Winter months where previously all students were crammed onto a smaller playground space and where play equipment had to be reduced for safety reasons. Now with all this space, we can use every part of our playground to its fullest with few restrictions regardless of weather.
We are delighted to have received sanction to open a second special class for the provision of children with ASD to our school for the school year 2023/24.
The Board of Management and Principal to the school are working alongside KCN and a design team to reconfigure a classroom in our school to accommodate our new class. A modular building has also been sanctioned and will be on site for one of the mainstream classes by the 2023/24 school year.
We hope to open for enrollment to our special class very shortly, once we receive confirmation from our Design Team that our project will be delivered on time for our reopening in late August 2023.
Should you wish to enroll your child to our new ASD class please contact our secretary Catherine to request an application form. Our school phone number is 059-9721021 or email: stmarysnsbagenalstown@gmail.com
Congratulations to Alex, on his wonderful art work which he submitted to the ‘This is Art!’ competition by RTÉ. His art piece ‘The Big Chubby Fish’ is on display on the Kilkenny Rd coming out of Carlow for all to see. Well done Alex!
Dave’s Jungle came to visit all the children at St. Mary’s N.S. on Thursday May 26th 2022. The children learned so much about the albino king corn snake, snapper turtle, tree frog, scorpion, tarantula, chameleon and a rhino iguana. The children from junior infants to sixth class got to hold and touch the animals! Dave’s Jungle was fantastic fun!
On Friday May 27th, St. Mary’s School held a sponsored run and bake sale in aid of Ukraine. All the children baked delicious sweet and savory treats. Fifth and sixth class did a fantastic job organising and selling all the food to parents and children in the school. The sale was a major success and the children raised a huge amount of money for Ukraine.
This week, the fifth and sixth class children got the opportunity to take part in an orienteering activity in St. Andrew’s Secondary School. Everyone got involved and had fantastic fun! We were treated to crisps, chocolate and drinks. There were medals given to the pairs of children who came first, second and third. Well done to everyone who took part!
The children of third, fourth, fifth and sixth class visited St. Mary’s Church this week. Rev. Kevin told the children all about St. Mary’s Church. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed exploring inside and outside the church together.
