It has been many years since the idea of a new school for Congress Avenue and Fatima schools was first proposed. Now after years of planning and countless meetings of many dedicated people the dream is very nearly a reality. On September 1^st  the boys and girls of St Mary’s Parish will move into their new custom-built school on the Bryanstown cross-route.  The new school is a fantastic building with 36 classrooms, dedicated rooms for Special Education, a full-sized PE Hall, a library, outdoor ball courts and lots of green space and trees.  

 Despite Department of Education funding there will always be costs that need to be met to make sure that the school is exactly tailored to our needs, with small changes to the building and to make provision for the future. We need the school community to help us cover these additional costs. The steering committee has set a goal of raising €100,000 euro to cover the additions to what is provided by the Department of Education. The main costs will fall under a number of areas: 

• Providing extra hard court play areas and adjusting the car park to function as additional play area – €30,000
• Building additional storage units -€20,000
• Enhanced security and lighting – €25,000
• Structural preparation for to allow the addition of a large multipurpose room above the library – €20,000
• Internal artwork to make the building more child-friendy – €5000

 We appreciate that many people are facing financial hardship so rather than ask for a direct donation the Parents Councils of Congress and Fatima have decided to run a fundraising draw. We have not asked run any of our usual fundraisers during the year so we are hoping for as much support from parents as possible. Tickets will cost €10 each or a book of 6 for €50. All families will be asked to take 4 books of tickets. If you are not in a position to buy tickets directly we would ask that you try to sell them to relatives, friends, neighbours. The draw will be held in the new school on Friday April 27th.

The Drogheda Pantomime Society will stage the well-known Beauty and the Beast in January 2012. This will incorporate traditional pantomime with an emphasis on multimedia to bring the show alive on stage. The show will be audience interactive with well known musical numbers and exciting dance routines. Tuesday 24^th January has been allocated to St. Mary’s andFatima and a portion of the ticket sales will go towards the new school. Tickets are available from the school or the TLT. Adult tickets cost €15 euro, €10 for children and a family ticket costs €45.

Goal jersey day is on the 7th of October.If you bring in 2 euro you can wear your favorite jersey! We  hope to raise loads of money for the charity GOAL.GOAL is a charity that helps people who have no clothes, food,water and houses.GOAL is a brilliant charity and now you know where your money goes!

The new student   council is doing  a fantastic job.So far this year they have made the 5 school rules with the help of the other classes and they made posters for the goal jersey day.This is the layout of the new student council:

PRESIDENT- ANDRJUS

VICE-CHARLIE

WEB-SEAN

SECETARY-AARON

TREASURE-TAIGH

NEWSPAPER EDITOR-LUKE

We would like to take this opportunity to welcome you all back this year. All of the boys look fantastic in their new uniforms. We hope that everyone keeps up the effort for the rest of the year.

We look forward to a busy and final year in Congress Avenue. There will be lots of activities taking place as usual through out the school year such as music, drama, dance, soccer, gaelic and chess. Be sure to get involved!!!

Mr. Weir and all the teachers will be keeping their eyes open for good behaviour, manners and effort when choosing student/class of the month. So be sure to try your best ALL of the time

 

 

The end of year play is all about history in the locality of the school. It is called “Little and the Time Machine”. It is taken from a sequence from two years ago. There could be another “Little Johnny” in a year. The date of the play is not yet decided. Boys from 2nd to 6th are in it. The play will be in the P.E. It is the goal for Mr. Darcy’s Drama. The drama class has been going on since last term. Feelings about the play are very strong throughout the school. We actors are getting nervous but very excited as the big date comes closer and closer. We cannot wait for one of the best days on the school calendar!

The Green Schools Commitee makes sure we have a clean and more environmentally friendly. When I went to interview Ms. Briscoe I particularly wanted to know of their recent changes.

Now school notices are sent by text to parents and staff. This means paper isn’t used for notes and the message is sent immediately.

Now notes from teacher to teacher by email. This means that messages are sent quicker, it keeps boys in class and shows we’re embracing technology.

The committee still do the bins and keep             our yards tidy everyday.

On behalf of the students would like to thank Green Schools Committee for their work throughout the year.

By Charlie Kinsella

The science fair was on April 12th and 13th. Tracey from Armagh Planetarium and Deirdre Kellaghan came into the school and told us about space. All students went into a dark dome to learn about constellations. Some characters from Harry Potter take their names from space e.g. Serious Black. We learned about the horse in ‘Clash of the Titans’. All classes were well behaved and we had a brilliant time.

by Cian Glynn

There have been many fun days in the school but the biggest fun day of all is probably the school tours so here’s where everybody is going or went:

1^st classes are going to Newbridge Farm.

2^nd classes went toTaytoPark. (check out the photos in the front hall)

3^rd classes are going to Oldbridge house.

4^th classes are going to a bbq and fun day.

5^th classes are going to Fantasia Water park.

6^th classes are going to theTransportMuseum.

And that sounds like another successful bunch of school tours.

By Conor Pentony

Book Reading Week

This week was reading week. Every day the bell rang ten minutes early before break and we had a chance to ‘drop everything and read’.

Earlier in the week the infants had a special visitor. Ricky Gerrard came in to read stories to us. We loved listening and joining in.  Have a look at the photos.

It was a brilliant week.

Book Swap

On the 12^th of May there was a book swap. All books were put into the Infants corridor. There were all sorts of books. People from all classes who brought in a book got a book token to get a new book from the book swap. We got to do this because it was reading week from the 9^th to the 13^th of April. Ms Murphy planned a busy week for us. Mateusz from 4^th class said “It was great fun. Most people got very good books.”

by James Mc Aleer

Bookmark Competition Winners

CLASS TEACHER           WINNERS

MS.Watters  2^nd       Liam Stafford

MS.Mongey  2^nd      Jamie Durney

MR.Mullen    3^rd      Conor Vaugh

MR.Shaw      3^rd       Eoin Reilly

MR.Kelly        4^th     Cormac O’ Loughlin

[prefab]

MR.Kelly     4^th       Conor Brennan

MR.Quinn   5^th       Emmenuel Edomwonyi

MR. Darcy  5^th        Brandon Conlon Birch

MR. Larry 6^th          Robbie Doyle

MS.Tiernan 6^th       Mark Mc Donnell

                                    By Conor Kelly