News Category: News

In celebration of the 10th anniversary of Shared Education, the Magherafelt Learning Partnership hosted a public speaking event for Year 9 pupils on Tuesday 9 and Thursday 11 October 2018.  

On 6 November 2018, the traditional group from St. Mary’s Grammar School, Magherafelt will take to the stage of the Royal Albert Hall, London.  

They will perform alongside young musicians and singers from across the UK in the renowned Schools Prom organised by the charity, Music for Youth.

St. Mary’s Grammar School will be hosting an Online Safety Information Evening on Wednesday 10^th October 2018 at 7pm, for parents / guardians of pupils in KS3.

Tuesday 2 October 2018 marked the beginning of the Shared Education History Project for Year 10 pupils.

Students in St. Mary’s have been privileged recently to listen to the inspiring words of Sister Rose Devlin, a Holy Family Sister and past pupil of St. Mary’s Grammar School.

Sister Rose was awarded an MBE in Buckingham Palace on 2 March 2017 for her services to improving community relations in schools in  Northern Ireland.

Eight St. Mary’s pupils travelled with twenty-two other young people to Our Lady’s Shrine in Fátima in Summer 2018 with the Armagh Diocese. The students had a jam-packed week beginning with a tour of the Sanctuary in Fatima, the specific place where the Virgin Mary appeared to the three young shepherds in 1917.

As part of the Muiredach Cross and John Paul II Awards, nine pupils from St. Mary’s Grammar School gave up their Saturday morning on 29 September 2018 to lend a hand at New Row Primary School, Castledawson.  

Action MS Chief Executive, Mrs Ann Walker, visited St. Mary’s Grammar School this week for a special Awards Presentation to thank Year 10 pupils for their tremendous efforts on behalf of people with multiple sclerosis.

Organised by Mr Brady (Head of Year 10), pupils took part in a Walk for MS in June at Meadowbank Sports Arena and raised a total of £2,346.98 in aid of Action MS, Northern Ireland’s Multiple Sclerosis Charity.

Sharing Vision, Sharing Effort,Sharing Success

On Thursday 13 September 2018, St. Mary’s Grammar School held its Annual Awards Ceremony to acknowledge the achievements and successes of pupils throughout the last academic year. 

The theme for the evening was: “Sharing Vision, Sharing Effort, Sharing Success”.

St Mary’s has been awarded the British Council’s prestigious International School Award in recognition of its work to bring the world into the classroom.

The Principal of St. Mary’s Grammar School, Magherafelt has described this year’s GCSE examination results as “outstanding”.

A Level students in St. Mary’s Grammar School had cause for celebration following the publication of this year’s examination results. Ms Gillespie, Principal, reported that an outstanding 95% of all examinations taken by students resulted in A*-C grades.  81% of all entries resulted in A*-B grades while 44% of all entries resulted in A*-A grades.

A team of Year 9 and Year 10 pupils from St. Mary’s Grammar School, Magherafelt recently participated in the UK Final of the National Magistrates’ Court Mock Trial, organised by the Citizenship Foundation, and hosted in Birmingham’s Victoria Law Courts.

A Year 13 student from St. Mary’s Grammar School, Magherafelt has been awarded a place on the Human Oncology and Pathogenesis Programme (HOPP) at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Centre in New York.  

St. Mary’s Grammar invites P6 pupils to register for the 2018 Summer Camp.

Limited Number of Places Available

Following the passing of Mrs Hynds, Assistant Principal, a Book of Condolence will be open in the Main Reception area of St. Mary’s from Tuesday 17 April 2018 – Friday 27 April 2018 between 10am and 3pm each week day.

Members of the St. Mary’s community, including past pupils, former colleagues, parents and friends of the school, who wish to remember Mrs Hynds are invited to visit St. Mary’s to sign the Book of Condolence. May she rest in peace.

It is with deep regret and sadness that we learned today of the passing of our esteemed Assistant Principal, Mrs Irene Hynds (RIP). Please remember Mrs Hynds and her family in your prayers.

Following the passing of Mrs Hynds, St. Mary’s will close all day on Wednesday 18 April 2018.  Mrs Hynds’s Requiem Mass will be held in the Church of the Assumption, Magherafelt on Wednesday at 11am.

Ulster University would like to invite parents and guardians of Year 12 and 13 students to their Parents’ Information Event. Students are welcome to attend.

Saturday,14th April

9.30am - 1.00pm

Belfast Campus.

The Life Advocate Award Essay Competition is a prestigious award which receives a tremendous response from students all across Ireland. The annual essay-writing competition was set up to encourage research and critical thinking on right-to-life issues.

Heather Miller, Community Fundraiser for Marie Curie Cancer Care, accepts a cheque from pupils and staff in St. Mary’s Grammar School, Magherafelt.  The money was raised through a raffle on the Gala Evening of the school’s production, Guys and Dolls.  Included in the picture are: Mr G. Quinn (Senior Teacher), Miss U. Donnelly (Head of Music), Heather Miller (Marie Curie), Mr F. Dunlop (Vice-Principal), Tiarnach Donaghy, Odhran Lynch, Roise Pelan, Daniel McNamee, Anna McCloskey, Oisin Duffin and Adam Connolly.

St. Mary’s Grammar School, Magherafelt hosted its annual Primary School Gaelic Football Tournament on Wednesday 28^th February 2018 in Meadowbank Sports Arena.  It was a bitterly cold and wintry day, but that did not stop 12 primary schools competing. 

Year 14 students were invited to attend a workshop, facilitated by Aware NI, on Mental Health Awareness. The workshop, entitled ‘Mood Matters’, aimed to give young people knowledge and skills which they can use to maintain good mental health and build resilience in order to better deal with problems and challenges.

Congratulations and thanks to all the students involved in the recent Ulster Secondary Schools’ XC Championships Finals Held in Mallusk Playing Fields.

On Friday 23 February 2018, Year 9 and Year 10 pupils from St. Mary’s Grammar School, Magherafelt attended an e-safety presentation in the school.

Delivered by Wayne Denner and facilitated by the Policing and Community Safety Partnership (PCSP), the presentation explored issues around internet safety, online reputation and responsible use of social media.

We are delighted to be able to introduce you to another new development in our communications - our new St Mary’s Grammar School Magherafelt, school-app.

More than ever, communications with parents is of vital importance and the school-app is another creative step in our efforts to provide the best and most convenient ways of reaching out to you and the wider school community.

Year 13 pupil, Ciara Malcolm, has been selected to represent Ulster at the Irish Schools Interprovincial Championships to be held in Dublin on Sunday 15 April 2018.

On Saturday 3 February 2018, Year 13 student, Cate Bateson, was placed 2nd in the Northern Ireland Final of Soroptimist International of Great Britain and Ireland’s Public Speaking competition.

Year 13 pupil Cate Bateson will travel to Hillsborough to take part in the Northern Ireland Final of the Soroptimist Public Speaking Competition on Saturday 3 February. Cate has worked very hard to prepare for both the local heats and the Northern Ireland Final. We wish Cate the best of the luck for Saturday.

Two gifted Year 13 pupils from St. Mary’s and their friend impressed judges in the TIMON Open Data Hackathon at Queen’s Computer Science Building last weekend. 

St. Mary’s pupils enjoyed success in the District C Cross Country event on Thursday 25 January 2018.  The top 15 individuals and top 3 teams in each race qualified for the Ulster competition which takes place on 21 February 2018. 

Year 10 pupils from St. Mary’s represented the school in the recent Northern Ireland Final of the Gael Linn competition in the Ashburn Hotel, Lurgan

On Tuesday 23 and Wednesday 24 January 2018, St. Mary’s held its annual Open Evenings. We were excited to open our school to prospective pupils, their parents and the local community. 

The St. Mary’s team look forward to welcoming you to one of our Open Evenings next week.

​Due to adverse weather conditions and in the interest of safety for all, St. Mary’s will be closed today - 17 January. 

Three free sessions of SEN Training, provided by Empower will take place in St Mary’s in the upcoming weeks.

On Friday 17 December 2017, Year 12 pupil, Mark Comer, visited BBC Headquarters in Belfast to complete his participation in BBC Radio 4’s Pen Pals programme.

In St. Mary’s, the Shoebox Appeal is an annual event and every year, students, parents and staff show their outstanding generosity by contributing to this appeal.  In conjunction with the charity, Road of Hope, the St. Mary’s Shoebox Appeal will help to bring festive cheer to some of the poorest communities across Eastern Europe.

It was with immense pride and joy that we learned that St. Mary’s students were among the highest performing candidates in Northern Ireland in various subjects in the 2017 GCSE and A Level examinations.

Students in St. Mary’s staged the Broadway classic, ‘Guys and Dolls’. The Colourful characters, hilarious comedy and memorable music combined to make Guys and Dolls a real crowd-pleaser.

In November, St. Mary’s students and staff stood in solidarity with schools and dioceses all over the world to remember Christian martyrs and those who have suffered or died for their faith

The group stage of this year’s Casement Cup was a very mixed one for St. Mary’s.

Going in to the final group game, the boys travelled to an impressive set-up in Dungannon to take on St. Patrick’s, Armagh.

On 16 November 2017, six pupils represented St. Mary’s in the regional heat of the Soroptimist International Public Speaking Competition in Ballymoney.

During the week beginning Monday 13 November 2017, 55 pupils across all Key Stages took part in the annual UK Bebras Computational Thinking Challenge.

On 7 November 2017, six pupils took part in the regional heat of the Poetry Aloud competition in the Linenhall Library, Belfast. The competition required pupils to perform from memory a prescribed poem by Patrick Kavanagh and a poem of their own choice.

In October, former pupil of St. Mary’s, Ciara Hampsey, visited the Art Department to deliver a Halloween special effects make-up workshop. More than 60 pupils from Year 10 - Year 14 enthusiastically took part in the exciting event which included a demonstration by Ciara as well as the opportunity to experiment with the shocking special effects techniques themselves.

On Thursday 26 October 2017, pupils from six local primary schools got into the Halloween spirit as artist and past pupil, Ciara Hampsey, demonstrated special effects techniques and led a special effects workshop

Universities from throughout Ireland and England attended a University Roadshow organised by Head of Careers, Miss Donoghue.

In its 90^th anniversary year, St. Mary’s Grammar School, Magherafelt is proud to present the musical comedy, Guys and Dolls.

​School closed tomorrow (Tuesday 17 October) as precautionary measure in light of weather warnings.

On Tuesday 10^th October A Level and GCSE Drama pupils attend the Bord Gáis Energy Theatre in Dublin to see the thrilling, soaring and spectacular, Miss Saigon

On 26th September A Level and GCSE Drama pupils took a trip to the MAC theatre Belfast to see a production of The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole.  

On Saturday 30 September 2017, cast members from St. Mary’s Grammar School’s forthcoming production of Guys and Dolls held a bag pack in Tesco, Magherafelt to raise funds for the show.  Thank you to everyone who contributed to this fundraising activity.  Pictured with Anne-Marie Hegarty, Community Champion for Tesco, Magherafelt are members of the cast who were involved in the bag pack. 

We are delighted that Liverpool University will be here on Monday 16 October delivering a talk about their University. Liverpool is a very popular university choice with our students particularly those hoping to study Medicine, Dentistry, Veterinary and the Health Therapies. Y14 students who have applied to Liverpool and any Y13 & Y12 students who are considering Medicine, Dentistry, Veterinary/ health therapies as a possibility next year should come along as this is their opportunity to ask directly about the interview process, how UKCAT is used, what work experience they expect and the GCSE/AS profile they require.

Social Work Information Evening Wednesday 15 November 2017, 6.30pm-8.00pm. Whitla Hall, Queen’s University.

The Children’s Texaco Art Competition has an annual entry of up to 50,000+ entries throughout Ireland each year.

Blanche Cases, Year 9, has been awarded a ‘Highly Commended’ Certificate which means she has been placed in the top 18 in each category for her artistic entry.  The judges of the competition commented on the exceptional standard of this year’s entries in each age category and we are so proud of Blanche for rising to the top as one of the best entries.  For this we would warmly congratulate her on this truly superb achievement. Well done, Blanche.

On 18 September 2017, Mid-Ulster Council recognised the sporting achievements of St. Mary’s pupils at a Civic Reception in the Seamus Heaney Home Place in Bellaghy

Celebrating the successes and achievements of the academic year 2016-17, the annual awards took place in the school on Tuesday 12 September. As well as celebrating the outstanding attainment of pupils in recent GCSE and A Level examinations, the evening also provided an opportunity to recognise the accomplishments of pupils in a range of extra-curricular activities, ranging from sport to public speaking.

Year 13 prefects received professional training with Brian Moore, Geraldine Stinton and Lydia Startin from Belfast YMCA. 

The training was interactive, informative and it introduced the prefects to the idea of ‘coaching’.

Principal Ms Gillespie has described the 2017 GCSE examination results as “simply superb”. Ms Gillespie reported that a remarkable 100% of students achieved 7 grades at A*-C, including English and Mathematics. Impressively, 63% of all grades were A*/A

A Level students in St Mary’s Grammar School had cause for celebration following the publication of this year’s examination results.

Ms Gillespie reported that an outstanding 95.2% of all examinations taken by students resulted in A* to C grades. 43% of all results were an A or A*.

​On Friday 9^th June more than 100 inspirational students, teachers and Athlete Mentors attended the Sky Sports Living for Sport Awards at Twickenham.

The day was held at the home of rugby, where Sky  Sports Pundit and World Champion boxer, Johnny Nelson kicked off the day’s events and led a full day of activities and celebrations alongside twenty amazing Athlete Mentors. 

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Year 12 student Catriona McCoy, has been awarded second place in a national essay-writing competition for senior cycle students. 

The Life Advocate Awards were set up to encourage  research and critical-thinking on human rights and right to life issues.

Students were asked to discuss the words of  Martin Luther King who said: ‘Our lives begin to end, the moment we become silent about the things which matter’.

The Gaelbhratach has finally arrived in St. Mary’s!

St. Mary’s Grammar students received the prestigious Purple Flag award at a ceremony held in Leopardstown recently. The Gaelbhratach is awarded to schools who not only incorporate the Irish Language into the school community in a planned, structured and fun way but also those who carry this through outside of the classroom. 

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St. Mary’s Grammar School, Magherafelt, has been awarded a prestigious Eco-Schools Green Flag by the environmental charity Keep Northern Ireland Beautiful.  

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A Sixth Form pupil from St. Mary’s Grammar School has won the Concern Worldwide Fundraising Newcomer Award. 

St. Mary’s students enjoyed great success at the Salters’ Festival of Chemistry held at Queen’s School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering.

Congratulations to fourteen of our Year 12 pupils and eight of our Year 13 pupils who recently took part in the British Physics Olympiad competitions. Year 12 pupils completed the GCSE Physics Challenge while the Year 13 pupils completed the AS Physics Challenge. 

​Year 10 pupils from St. Mary’s Grammar School, Magherafelt have won first prize in Quiz 5 of the Children in Crossfire Maths Challenge which was held recently. 

​A Year 13 student from St. Mary’s Grammar School, Magherafelt has attended the CCEA Celebrating Excellence ceremony at Titanic Belfast. 

Caoimhe McKay has recently reached the final of the prestigious, ‘Richmond Centre Miss Earth NI’ competition. Miss Earth, which is one of the top four beauty pageants in the world, is unique because it uses the beauty pageant platform to promote environmental issues. This meant, in addition to questions about hobbies and interests, Caoimhe had to outline how she would utilize such a platform, as part of her application

St. Mary’s Grammar School, Magherafelt has recently become a Fairtrade School and has been awarded ‘FairAware’ status from theFairtrade Foundation. The ‘FairAware’ award represents the first of three tiers; the School aims to work towards the highest of these and win ‘FairAchiever’ status as part of its ongoing commitment to the charity.

Our Year 14 pupils attended a prayerful Faith Awards Ceremony in Armagh Cathedral to collect their John Paul II Award. Archbishop Eamon Martin presided over the ceremony which recognises and celebrates the participation of youth in the faith life of Armagh Diocese.

St. Mary’s Grammar school wishes to alert parents to an increasingly popular app named SimSimi. We strongly advise against the use of this app and recommend that it is deleted from all mobile and personal devices immediately. This app randomly generates generic messages and responses, the content of which is inappropriate and, therefore, can lead to incidences of cyber bullying.

St Mary’s Grammar School, Magherafelt has become the 2017 Danske Bank MacRory Cup.

Making its third appearance in a MacRory Cup final on St. Patrick’s Day, the school made history when it collected the trophy for the first time following a 0-19 to 0-13 victory over St. Colman’s College, Newry.

St. Mary’s Grammar School, Magherafelt is hoping that it will be third time lucky for the school when its senior football team meet St. Colman’s College, Newry in the final of the Danske Bank Ulster Schools’ MacRory Cup competition in Armagh on St. Patrick’s Day.
Having previously made it to the final of the competition in 1996 and 2003, St. Mary’s has yet to enjoy a MacRory Cup victory but there is optimism within the school that this could change this year.

St. Mary’s Grammar School, Magherafelt has established a new Fair Trade Committee.  Led by Miss Burns, Head of Religion, and Miss McGouran, Head of Citizenship, the committee will organise events to raise awareness of Fair Trade throughout the school and work towards becoming an accredited Fair Trade School.  Throughout ‘Fair Trade Fortnight’, awareness of fair trade matters has been promoted through assemblies, lessons and food tasting events. 

St. Mary’s Grammar School, Magherafelt is joining the global Safer Internet Day campaign to promote the safe and responsible use of technology.

Coordinated in the UK by the UK Safer Internet Centre, Safer Internet Day will take place on Tuesday 7th February 2016 with the theme ‘Be the Change: Unite for a Better Internet’.

Celebrated in over 100 countries, Safer Internet Day will see St. Mary’s Grammar School join hundreds of organisations right across the UK and globally to ‘be the change’ and help create a better internet.

Year 8, 9 and 10 pupils participated in the NEBSSA Cross Country event at Ulster University, Coleraine on Tuesday 13th December 2016. The Year 8 boys finished fourth overall with Year 8 girls finishing in seventh place. The Year 9 boys had an excellent result finishing first overall.  The Year 9 girls finished fourth in their competition and both Year 10 boys and girls finished third.  A fantastic effort was displayed by everyone who took part.  These were extremely impressive results considering there were a total of 19 schools participating and, therefore, made St. Mary’s one of the top finishing schools on the day.
A special mention to Niall O’Donnell (Year 8), Frank Duffin (Year 10) and Annie Kilpatrick (Year 10) who all finished in third place in their respective races in which over 60 competitors took part. 

St. Mary’s has been announced as a 2016 Capita and C2K ICT Excellence Award winner.  Having been shortlisted in the category for ‘Transforming Teaching and Learning through Technology’, the school was named as the overall category winner at an awards ceremony in The Merchant Hotel, Belfast on 8 December 2016 which was attended by Miss Hagan, Director of e-Learning,  and Mrs Gillespie, Principal.

On 1 December 2016, world concert pianist, Ruth McGinley, visited the Music Department and  gave an inspiring piano master class to Year 11 and Year 12 GCSE Music students.   Three Year 12 students - Katherine Shields, Aoife Mulvenna and Catriona O’Neill - performed a variety of pieces for her and were guided through the importance of communicating a story or emotion to an audience.  Ruth worked with each girl in turn, paying particular attention to one aspect of their chosen piece.   She also discussed her life as a concert pianist, including the challenges she faced and how she overcame the difficulties of always having to be ‘perfect’.   Ruth was most recently seen performing in the Last Night of the Proms concert at the Titanic Slipway in Belfast and has just launched her own album.

The 2016-17 Eco-Schools Committee was formed in September 2016 and, since then, the group has been busy promoting environmental awareness within the school.  As well as the ongoing focus on reducing litter and saving energy, the Eco-Schools Committee has been involved in three main projects this term. Firstly, the school’s greenhouse has been prepared for the planting season.  Secondly, as the cold weather approached in November, the Science Club and Eco-Schools Committee worked together to make ‘bird cake’ which was distributed around the grounds of the school, including the House Garden, in the hope that this effort will entice the birds back to our school following their absence as a result of the work in developing our new school extension. Finally, in December, this year’s ‘Cash for Clobber’ initiative was launched to promote the recycling of old clothes.

The well-established Irish language lunch time club, Club Mhuire, was back in action this year for another term of promoting all things Irish.  So far, Year 8 Irish pupils have been learning songs in Irish, playing a variety of games using Irish vocabulary and generally enjoying the language beyond the classroom environment.  The Irish Department is grateful to former A level and current Ulster University student, Medb Ní Dhúláin, who has joined the department as part of a Tutoring in Schools project.  Medb has been the driving force behind Club Mhuire this year.  For any student who has enjoyed the Club Mhuire experience, we recommend a Gaeltacht course this summer!

In September, we welcomed our new Year 8 pupils. It has certainly been a busy term for Year 8 as they made the transition from primary school. As the end of the first term approaches, the pupils are happy, settled and very much part of the St. Mary’s school community. We wish them every success throughout their time in St. Mary’s and look forward to their contribution to the life of the school.

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On Tuesday 6 December 2016,  Year 12 pupils took part in a Study Skills workshop to launch their revision for the Mock Examinations in January 2017.  The workshop was presented by Young Enterprise and focused on individual learning styles to allow students to maximise their performance.  We wish them success in the forthcoming examinations!   

On Wednesday 1 December 2016, Year 11 pupils took part in the Young Enterprise Personal Economics Programme.

Congratulations to Year 14 students who were successful in the Cambridge Chemistry Challenge. Emma Boyle, Daniel Bradley, Sarah Downey, Shania O’Boyle and Ellen Skelly each achieved the Copper Award in this prestigious competition.  Organised by Cambridge University, the Chemistry Challenge requires students to complete a ninety minute written examination with the aim of stretching and challenging students in all aspects of A-Level Chemistry.

On 1 December 2016, 17 Year 10 pupils joined 55 other pupils from across the MLP at Queen’s University, Belfast to celebrate the culmination of the three-year RCUK / SUPI initiative between Queen’s University and MLP schools.  The RCUK / SUPI programme aims to foster links between local schools and motivate young people to aspire to university study.  Over the three years, MLP pupils have worked with members of the Biomedical Science Department, the Pharmacy Department, the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department, the Law Department and the Drama Department at Queen’s University, to name but a few.  At the celebration event, the results of a poster competition were announced and St. Mary’s pupils swept the board.  Lile Keenan and Beth Dixon were highly commended for their posters in the Technology and Communication category.  Meanwhile, in the Pharmacy: Drug Development from Concept to Clinic category, Helen Doherty achieved Third Place, Erin Forbes secured Second Place and Rory Harman won First Place.  Well done to everyone involved. 

On Friday 25 November 2016, 28 courageous Year 10 pupils faced their own ‘bush tucker trial’ as they undertook to eat snails for charity. Motivated by their interest and curiosity in French cuisine, pupils tasted delicious molluscs in the Home Economics Department in the presence of their French teachers, Miss Venot and Miss MacOscar, and Miss Hagan, who also took part in the challenge.

Between 23 – 28 November 2016, two St. Mary’s pupils competed in the European Shotokan Karate-Do Championships.  Having been selected to represent Northern Ireland in the event, siblings Kevin Diamond (Year 12) and Laura Diamond (Year 11), travelled to Chalkida in Greece to participate in the competition.  Kevin competed in the Cadet Men Kumite and Cadet Men Kata categories, while Laura competed in the Children’s Female Kata and Children’s Female Kumite categories.  Participation in this competition was a huge sporting accomplishment for Kevin and Laura who have to undertake two squad selections each year to obtain a place on the team and who train at least four times per week to sustain such a high standard of karate.

Year 13 students put their entrepreneurial skills to the test whilst raising an impressive £1000 for local charity, Action Mental Health.  Twenty students from Business Studies and Economics participated in a Young Enterprise scheme that saw the students set up their own mini-company.  The group personally customised mugs and designed school hoodies which they sold at St. George’s Market in Belfast and throughout the wider school community.  Students decided through a class vote to donate £1000 of the money raised to Action Mental Health. 

St. Mary’s actively promotes health and well-being and encourages pupils to make healthy lifestyle choices.  This year, there is a particular focus on promoting positive mental health and raising pupils’ awareness of mental health issues.  Year 12 pupils attended a ‘Wellness Seekers’ presentation, Year 11 pupils participated in a mental health workshop and Year 10 pupils took part in a ‘Mood Matters’ workshop.

Careers Education continues to be an important focus in St. Mary’s, ensuring that pupils make informed choices about future courses and career pathways.  Throughout the first term, many events were organised by the Careers Department to support pupils in making important career decisions. 

In St. Mary’s, the Shoebox Appeal is an annual event and every year, students, parents and staff show their outstanding generosity by contributing to this appeal.  Linking up with the charity, Road of Hope, the St. Mary’s Shoebox Appeal will help to bring festive cheer to some of the poorest communities across Eastern Europe. Miss Burns, Head of RE, explains: “This year, the campaign was launched to Key Stage 3 pupils and, thanks to their overwhelmingly kind response, we were able to send off 264 shoeboxes. Those who would not have ordinarily received a gift at Christmas will now be able to experience the joy of opening a Christmas present this year. A whole-hearted thank you to all who contributed.”

As the cold weather approaches, the Science Club and Eco-Schools Committee have been working together to make ‘bird cake’.  The bird cake was distributed around the grounds of the school,  including our House Garden.  We are hoping that this effort will entice the birds back to our school following their absence as a result of the work in developing our new school extension.  Thank you to the members of both groups who took part in this project.    

On Tuesday 22 November 2016, Year 14 students had the opportunity to attend a hard-hitting and thought-provoking demonstration and presentation on Road Safety delivered by members of the local Emergency Services.  The purpose of the event was to promote safe driving habits among young people as they become drivers and to highlight the potential consequences of driver carelessness in an effort to reduce road traffic accidents.

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On Tuesday 22 November 2016, a group of Year 12 students attended the Chemistry at Work Exhibition at Queen’s University in Belfast.

On Thursday 24 November 2016, the whole school community united in a joint fundraising effort to support Concern Worldwide.  Each Year Group selected a fasting activity and sought sponsorship for their efforts. Year 8 pupils fasted from bad attitudes while Year 10 fasted from behaviour points.  Girls in Year 12 gave up make-up and cosmetics for the day and Year 11 went on a ‘digital detox’. Year 9 pupils took to the grounds of the school to do a litter sweep as part of their fast from litter. Year 13 and Year 14 students, along with Miss Burns, Mrs Higgins and the Senior House Master and Mistress for each Pastoral House, took the lead in organising the ‘Go Fast Spin for Syria, Lift for Lebanon’ spinathon.  Staff and students all became involved in what was a high energy day.  St. Mary’s also welcomed a film crew to capture footage of the fundraising event which will be used by Concern Worldwide to promote the work of the charity and encourage future fundraising efforts.

It has been a busy few months for Shared Education in St. Mary’s.  Since the start of the new academic year, three year groups - Year 9, Year 10 and Year 12 - have been involved in Shared Education projects with our post-primary partner schools within the Magherafelt Learning Partnership.  Building on the success of last year’s Drama project for Year 9 students, this programme is being delivered again to the current Year 9 group.  All Year 9 pupils experience a block of six lessons exploring issues of conflict, diversity and reconciliation through drama games and performances.

On 17 November 2016, three students - Orla Mallon, Laura Kane and Lottie Kelly -participated in the Soroptimist International public speaking competition in Ballycastle.  Each girl delivered her speech with great zest and enthusiasm and all pupils were highly praised for their performances.  Orla Mallon was awarded Second Place for her speech entitled, “Living to 100 - Good or Bad?”  She was commended for her natural delivery, originality of topic and her fervent humour throughout.  All three were wonderful ambassadors for St. Mary’s and a great night was had by all.

Building contractors, Connolly and Fee, launched an art competition for Key Stage 3 pupils.  The competition invited pupils to create a suitable design for a mural representing life in St. Mary’s for display on the temporary hoarding at the front of the school as building work on the new school extension takes place.   The winner of the competition was Year 9 pupil, Emma Meeke, whose design was judged to reflect both the breadth of the St. Mary’s pupil experience and the spirit of the school community.  Emma received a prize of £100 from Connolly and Fee for her excellent design.   Meanwhile, Carla Doherty, also in Year 9, was named runner-up in the competition. On Saturday 1 October 2016, both girls, along with some Year 12 pupils and Art and Design staff, came together to complete the painting of the mural.  Professional mural artists, Jamie Harper and Ed Reynolds, were on hand to provide technical training in mural painting.  The final mural is now on display at the front entrance of the school.