Holy Cross Girls’ PS opened its doors to a wonderful new school for girls in the parish on May 12th 1969. Under the Principal, Miss Mary Hanson and her staff, the school provided exceptional education and was an oasis of calm during the political unrest at that time.

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the school the present principal, Mrs Maura McNally, and staff organised a special mass in Holy Cross Church on Thursday 31st May. The school orchestra and Primary 7 girls provided beautiful music. The P4 First Holy Communion class lead the congregation in the Our Father. The staff and children offered prayers for all those who worked over the years in Holy Cross Girls to make it the outstanding school that it is today. However, the highlight of the mass was the P1, P2 and P3 children who sang on the altar the beautiful hymn, Our Lady of Knock. The performance was followed by well-earned applause from the congregation many of whom had a tear in their eye.

On Friday 24th May St Ciaran’s College Ballygawley were delighted to be awarded ‘Post Primary School of the year’ at the Irish News Awards held at Wellington Park Hotel Belfast.

The GAA provision in St Ciaran’s College’s is true to our school motto ‘Including everyone, inspiring all to succeed’. The staff are committed to furthering the pupils’ experience of Gaelic games by providing coaching at lunchtime, afterschool and during school holidays. As a school we embrace strong community links, facilitating a vibrant primary schools links programme which provides coaching and competitive games, in the form of our annual ‘Canavan Cup’ for our partner primaries.

Carrick Primary School pupil Charlie Denner has been crowned County Down Spelling Bee at the annual competition, sponsored by Eason.
Charlie came out on top against 21 other spelling enthusiasts and will now go on to compete in the Ulster Provincial Spelling Bee final at the end of May.
The Eason Spelling Bee is now in its ninth year and encourages kids throughout the country to fall in love with literacy, grow in confidence and expand their vocabulary from an early age.
Anne Cassidy, principal of Carrick Primary School, told the Reporter that spelling is an important part of the school’s curriculum.
“We have been trying to improve spelling in the school for a few years now and it is one of the school priorities,” she said.
“We have done a lot of work on planning for spelling and the delivery of spelling. Last year, for the first time, we entered the spelling bee. We came fifth last year so we were very determined that this year we would make even more of an effort.”
Mrs Cassidy said that the whole school is so proud of Charlie, who won the competition after successfully spelling the word ‘hemidemisemiquaver’.
“He has a real flair for spelling and he’s a great child,” she said.
“We’re really delighted for him, he is a real asset to the school.”
Brendan Corbett, Group Head of Marketing at Eason, said; “We’re now in the ninth year of the Eason Spelling Bee and we’re incredibly proud to see it going from strength to strength annually. Each year, the children involved continue to impress us with their level of spelling skill and it’s wonderful to see schools across the country continuing to support this competition.”

 

Steelstown PS from Derry have won the Northern Ireland Primary School Road Safety quiz after coming out on top at the final which was held at the NI Fire and Rescue Training Centre, Belfast on Monday 3rd March.

They were followed by St Colmcille's Primary School, Ballymena in second place and Fairview PS, Ballyclare in third place.

The quiz is open to teams of 4 P7 pupils and covers road safety, road signs and general knowledge.  It has been running for over 20 years and this year over 220 schools entered across the 11 regional heats based on council areas.  A total of 22 teams contested the final in front of an audience of over 150.

Dean Maguirc College, Carrickmore is celebrating the success of winning the Danske Bank Rafferty Cup when their U – 16 team defeated St. Pius X College, Magherafelt in the Ulster Final. This indeed was a momentous win given that it came after extra time and a subsequent replay.
Remarkably the team has made history as prior to this victory, this group of young players had captured the Gerry Brown Cup and Paddy O’Hara Cup in the previous successive years.
Congratulations on three in a row!

Photograph: The winning team pictured with their managers Mr. Enda Kilpatrick and Mr. Terry McCann and the Principal, Mr. James Warnock