Author Archives: scoilmhuirebelcruit

At the beginning of December 2018 the teachers embarked on a new initiative to help encourage the children to be the best that they can be in all aspects of daily school life. The teachers may award any child with a ticket in recognition of hard work, acts of kindness, sporting success, good manners and any other positive behaviour both in class and in the yard. At the end of each month the child in each classroom with the most tickets earns the title of ‘Student of the Month’ along with a certificate and token prize.

Introducing our inaugural Students of the Month:

We had our Christmas Carol Service in St Mary’s Church on Monday 17th of December. It was a lovely event that we shared with our families and friends and members of our community. The children in the junior classroom acted out The Nativity and everyone joined in the beautiful singing, with some of our students taking on solos for the first time. When the service was over everyone was invited back to the school to enjoy a warming cup of hot chocolate and some festive treats. See our gallery page for more photographs.

Our good friend Buddy came back for his annual visit from the north pole. He was a lot more mischievous than he was in the past and even recruited a couple of companions to help him on his nightly adventures around the school. He did keep a sharp eye on everyone during the day and we are sure that he was able to give everyone a glowing report when he returned to Santa’s headquarters in time for Christmas Eve.

Have a look, if you dare!! at the creepy, spooky, scary characters that invaded our school on Thursday 26th of October.

Well done to all our students who took part in the Summer Stars reading program in conjunction with Leabharlann Phobail na Rosann this year.

We were very happy to hear back in May that we had been awarded our fifth Green Flag after a busy two years learning all about biodiversity and the environment. Ms O Donnell accompanied by Eve, Dylan and Ruby went to the presentation ceremony in Letterkenny to receive our flag from the Green Schools team and meeting Frank Mc Glynn, Donegal senior footballer, made it even more special.

As part of our research and learning about Biodiversity we had another visit from Dale Treadwell. We spent the day learning about our native flora and fauna and Dale planted wildflowers and two trees in our school yard.

The Parents Association helped us all get into holiday mode with a lovely afternoon of fun and games back in June. The day started with our end of year mass with Fr Pat. After mass we made a presentation to the family of our caretaker and cleaner, Patsy and Mary who retired after 15 years of dedicated service to everyone here at Scoil Mhuire. We had hoped to have them both with us on the day to raise our latest green flag but unfortunately they were unable to attend but Fr. Pat stepped into the breach and performed the task very well.

The arrival of  ‘The Happy Camper’ caused great excitement, among children and adults alike and it wasn’t long before the queue for pancakes was as long as the snake painted in the school yard.

The parents association had lots of different activities lined up to keep everybody entertained. We had face painting, Karaoke, novelty races, fairground games and lots of cheeky children took delight in the chance to ‘Sponge the Teachers’.  While many people spent the afternoon using loads of energy getting involved in the different events and games others just took the chance to enjoy each others company while soaking up the summer sunshine.

It was also the a memorable day for another reason as we had the inaugural recital by the Scoil Mhuire Marching Band. Ms O Donnell worked with the junior children and they put on a fine display of marching and music much to the delight of everyone.

On Friday 1st of June 2018 we had a walk and picnic in aid of Relay for Life. We all walked to the bridge into Cruit and spent some time enjoying the lovely sunshine. We also took the opportunity to invite one of our past pupils, Laoise, who is now an instructor with Irish Water Safety to give the children a talk on how to stay safe while at the beach. Laoise also showed the bigger children how to do some simple rescues from the shore and when we returned to the school she gave a demonstration of basic life support.

The Ballymanus mine disaster occurred on 10 May 1943 when local villagers attempted to bring ashore an unexploded marine mine. According to reports, the mine had been spotted by a number of people, including a local coastguard and two local youths waded out and tied ropes around it in an attempt to haul it ashore. They were then joined by other men and boys from the local area but as it was being hauled along the beach it is believed to have struck a rock and exploded, killing 18 young men between the ages of 13 and 34. Another died the following day. More than 40 houses in the nearby village were damaged by the blast. This year, 2018, marks the 75th anniversary of the the disaster and the children in the senior class paid a visit to the site, where a monument has been erected in memory of those who died. Local historian Jimmy Duffy was on hand to tell the students about the events of that day.

Some photographs of our annual spring clean of the areas around our school.