Principal's Update
Dear School Community,
Welcome to our very first digital newsletter! This edition is for this first half term! It has been a busy and exciting six or seven weeks, and we are thrilled to share some of the highlights with you. A special and warm welcome goes out to our new Year One children, who have settled in remarkably well and are already making wonderful contributions to our school family. One of the standout moments from September was the unforgettable visit from the victorious Armagh Senior Football team, who brought along a certain friend named Sam Maguire. We owe a great deal of gratitude to the players who took time out of their work or their studies to join us on the day. We had the pleasure of the company of our very own past pupil Oisin Conaty, Stefan Campbell, Barry McCambridge, Sean Conlon and Conor Magennis. The excitement of the day filled our hall, and our school even had a moment in the spotlight on BBC Newsline following the celebrations that evening! Thanks also to Mark Sidebottom for agreeing to pay us a visit.
Upcoming Events:
• Halloween Parade •
Halloween at St John’s, a spooktacular place to be.
On Friday 25th October, all classes will participate in a Halloween parade - this year, our loved ones are invited to come along to see all the ghouls and ghosts dressed up in their spooky best.
Foundation Stage - 9.30am
Key Stage One - 10.00am
Key Stage Two - 10.30am
Prizes for best dressed, home made costumes in each key stage.
The Hatch Coffee Cart will be there for the duration of the Halloween parade for spectators to enjoy a cup of coffee or tea.
We look forward to seeing you all then.
Important Upcoming Events
Pumpkin carving / decorating competition
This competition is open to all children in our school who wish to enter. Entry costs £1 and winners from each key stage will be announced on Friday 25th October. Carved/decorated pumpkins should be brought into school no later than Wednesday 23rd October with the child’s name and class clearly attached. We can’t wait to see these creations.
Sam Maguire Visits St John The Baptist
What a day the children and staff had when Sam paid us a visit. The most memorable days local football has enjoyed in twenty two years, Armagh senior footballers winning the All-Ireland title for the second time. Sam Maguire was accompanied by our very own Oisin Conaty, Barry McCambridge, Stephan Campbell, Conor Magennis and Sean Conlon. Eoin Breen, our Tir Na nOg coach also joined us alongside a very famous Kerry man from our parish, Fr Sheehan. To top it off we were delighted to welcome Portadown Times photographer Tony Hendron. If that wasn’t enough we were joined by BBC NI pundit Mark Sidebottom. The boys and girls were a credit to our school, our families, our community and our county. We sang The Boys From the County Armagh in Irish, G is for Geezer with a special twist for Oisin, we enjoyed a Q and A hosted by BBC’s Mark Sidebottom and had lots of photos taken with the players and of course with Sam himself. It’s safe to say that was an afternoon none of us will ever forget. A huge thank you to the players for giving up their time to be with us in school, to Liam McCorry, Sam’s keeper for the day and to all the media representatives who readily accepted an invite to the school today. Thanks also to the staff who decorated the school inside and out and to the parents who supplied us with many personal memories of their journey with the Armagh squad. Finally, thank you to Mrs McDonald who invested lots of time into making today one that none of us will forget too quickly. Here’s hoping there’ll be many more celebrations just like this one in the years to come.
Our Sensory Room
Work has been carried out on our Sensory Room over the summer months. We wish to extend a huge thank you to Mrs Coleman, Mr Mc Conville and Mrs Mulholland for their hard work and commitment to this project.
The Sensory Room is a vital space for our children to manage their emotions, build confidence and improve their ability to learn. It provides a calm stress free environment that can help children’s mental health and well-being as well as developing social skills and concentration. Our Sensory Room has been designed with a dark area alongside a calming room to meet the specific needs of our children. We are very fortunate to be able to create this space within our school and hope the children enjoy and benefit from it.