Christmas 2012 Newsletter

 

 

Mercy Primary School, Birr

Christmas Newsletter 2012

With Christmas upon us, we bring you our final newsletter of 2012. As you have seen over the last 2 newsletters, Mercy Primary School is a busy and active school and the month of December has been even busier!

We started December with a beautiful Advent Prayer Service. Thanks to Sr. Bríd for organising this lovely event.

Maths for Fun continued in 4^th and 5^th classes and the children and Mammies were presented with their certificates by Ms. Treacy.

Our Junior Infants’  “Big Read” reading initiative in the library finished with a movie and a little party. Certificates were presented by Birr Library to all the children, the mammies who read and even the teachers! Lovely!

Origami classes with George Dempsey continued and the girls produced wonderful Christmas decorations. These were displayed in the hall and helped add a festive air to the school.

Knitting took place in 6^th class. Some mammies/grannies came in to teach the girls how to knit. It was very successful.

Some children took part in the Tesco Christmas Card competition for the St. Vincent de Paul.  The sale of last year’s cards by Tesco brought €150 back to the school. This will be used to buy novels for the senior classes. Jerro’s Birr also sold cards made by the children and money will be given back to the school.

We had some wonderful performances in the school this month.  5^th class performed a pantomime called “Cinderella and Rockerfella”. It was brilliant. A lot of hard work was put in to ensure a good performance and the girls certainly managed that.

Junior and Senior Infants performed “Whoops-a-Daisy Angel”. As always they were very cute and did a great job. Well done to all involved in both performances.

We all practiced very hard for our Christmas Carol Service which took place on Wednesday 19^th December.  The girls did a wonderful job and all who attended said that it truly was a beautiful service and marked the beginning of Christmas for them. Well done to Ms. McDonnell and Ms. Treacy who trained and conducted the choir and to Ms. Cleary and Ms. Morrissey who did a wonderful job accompanying the girls.

Classroom Activities:

Junior and Senior Infants:  Practiced and performed “Whoops a Daisy Angel” for parents and other pupils.  They also had a very enjoyable visit to Birr Theatre to see “A Hippo for Christmas”.  At art made Santas, reindeer and angels.

1^st Class:  First class had a fun filled December.  They made snowmen, golden angels, salt dough Christmas tree decorations and used old CDs to make sparkly snowflakes.  We decorated our classroom and sang beautiful Christmas carols.  We completed our Christmas Booklet which included writing our own story and lots of Christmas activities. We read stories to Junior and Senior Infants.  We learned all about Christmas in Poland from two of our classmates and compared it to Christmas in Ireland.  Lots of girls won prizes in the Birr Tidy Towns Competition and one girl got her name in the paper.

2^nd Class:  2nd class has been transformed into a magical winter wonderland.  We made beautiful snowflakes, Christmas decorations and Christmas pictures in art class.  Every child will receive a fabulous Christmas card this year made by the children themselves.  We have been busy singing carols.  The girls have been great at attending mass this year.  This will continue in the new year and is great preparation for the sacrament of Reconciliation and First Holy Communion.  Huge congratulations to Makalah, Hannah and Lorraine who won prizes in the Tidy Towns Art Competition.

3^rd Class:  E-mailed Santa and received a reply.   They made their very own Christmas wrapping paper.  They started their class novel ‘Fair is Fair’.

4^th Class:  Decorated the Christmas tree in the Library with egg decorations.  They had a Christmas wreath making session with Mrs. Treacy . Fourth Class also made angels from clay.

5^th Class:  Rehearsed and staged their panto for parents and pupils. They finished origami lessons with George making a fabulous Christmas Tree.

6^th Class:  The girls are currently studying World War 2.  They had a very successful visit to the Courthouse and Birr Garda Station with Garda Padraig Connaughton.

 

Santa came to visit the school on Thursday 20^th December! We were all delighted to see him and encouraged him to head back to the North Pole and make sure all our presents are ready for Christmas Eve!!

We have our final assembly on Friday 21^st December and we will give out certificates for Full Attendance and Almost Full Attendance.

At 12.15p.m. we will say GOODBYE and HAPPY CHRISTMAS and will close the doors of Mercy Primary until Monday January 7^th 2013!

Thanks to the Board of Management and the Parents’ Association for their commitment, dedication and hard work for the school. The Parents’ Association newsletter is attached.

We are looking forward to a well-earned rest over Christmas. A HUGE “thank you” to the very dedicated and hard-working staff of Mercy Primary School.

Dates to remember:

• School closes at 12.15 pm on Friday 21^st December.
• School re-opens on Monday January 7^th 2013.

We wish you a happy, holy and peaceful Christmas and New Year.

Le gach dea ghuí í gcomhair na Nollag agus na hAthbhliana.

Barbara Hanamy, Principal