Nazareth House Primary School

Our prize-giving ceremony took place on Friday 25th. We were entertained by our orchestra and our school choir before the proceedings got under way. This year saw the first set of Academic awards with the specially commissioned school badges in English, Maths, I.C.T. and Endeavour. We also had special excellence badges for children who had had exceptional success during the year. In addition this was the first year we presented our St. Cecilia’s Award for Performing Arts.

Well done to all the prizewinners and for those who were not successful perhaps they will redouble their efforts next year.

There wasn’t a dry eye in the house as M&M productions brought their production of Charlotte’s Web to our school. All classes from P1 to P7 were enthralled by the performance, the P6s especially so, as this is their class novel.

P1 and P2 classes had a special treat recently when international film star, Genevieve the Goat, visited them to reinforce healthy eating habits. The were loads of fruits and vegetables abound and the children showed great understanding of the topic. Genevieve was well pleased. She thinks Nazareth House children are the BEST!!! No Kidding!

Our Technology Challenge team were successful in the first heat of the challenge held at N.W.T.C. on Friday 16th April. The results of all their efforts were there to be seen as they sailed into the regional finals in Omagh. Well Done!

Team members were… Rebecca O’Connor, Ellen Kindlon and Noel Doherty. The regional finals will take place on May 18th.

Work continues on the Technology Challenge in preparation for the finals in Omagh. As you can see … it’s not all plain sailing!

All children who had 99% or over attendance since September all received Easter Eggs as a reward. Well Done Everyone.

Our P7 children have been working with Mr. Micahel Carr, Hegarty/Carr Architects, looking at their local area and ways they might improve it. They had to take lots into consideration, including things like safety, pollution, disability access etc. All in all they made a great stab at the work which culminated with a presentation by each group.

Well done to Mrs. Barwise and the children involved and thanks to Michael for his attention, help and support.

On Monday March 22nd, Mount McDevitt, once thought to be dormant, erupted without warning in P6. Children could only look on in amazement as tons of lava spewed out of the crater and slid down the side of the volcano, destroying everything in its path!

Sounds exciting, doesn’t it? However, it was only a science experiment in Mrs McDevitt’s class. There were no casualties and everyone got on with the rest of their work afterwards!

Our P7  pupils have been working with our P3 pupils in a paired reading programme. Of all the paired reading programmes we have held this has been the most successful. P3 children have had lots of encouragement to get stuck into books and the P7s have shown great maturity and caring in their approach with the younger children. We are very proud of all of them.

This was an interesting programme as this group of P3s have been immersed in the Revised Curriculum and have had lots of experience of Linguistic Phonics. The P7s hadn’t so it was very interesting to see how it would work. What we found was that this group of P3 children come armed with lots of reading skills taht most definately help them learn to read better. The P7s very quickly latched on to what they were doing and their own experience of linguistic phonics suddenly became very relevant.

Well done all round.

Our launch proved to be such a resounding success. It was amazing how many parents turned up with their little monsters. It was a bit like the miracle of the loaves and fishes only we used fresh cream and aple cake. Hopefully the children will continue to make good use of the library, and remember parents… there is a book exchange there for you as well!

Our staff had a very productive School Development Day on Friday, September 25th. Training in  and planning for Linguistic Phonics was facilitated by Mrs McDaid and Mrs Higgins and they did a great job. Any parent wanting information on Linguistic Phonics should contact the school where we will direct you to the relevant information.

The second half of the day was given over to development planning but the highlight of the day was most definately the lovely pot of soup provided by Ester!