Loading ...For the 4th year in a row we entered a team in the annual Wexford Schools’ Cup golf competition in Rosslare Golf Club. Many thanks to John Meyler who accompanied the girls on the day and also arranged coaching and practice in advance. The girls really enjoyed the experience and played very well. Perhaps we will see some of them continue on with this great sport after they leave the school.
This year again we are very grateful to Richie Browne from Wexford Celtic for coaching the soccer team. We are delighted and very proud that the girls won the final of the Wexford Town tournament and then went on to the South Leinster finals in Arklow. Here they exceeded all expectations by winning all their games to reach the final. Unfortunately they were pipped at the post when their opponents scored with 8 seconds to go in the match. It was very disappointing to lose so narrowly, but Richie and the girls should be very proud of their achievements. Already we are planning for next year.
The week of April 29-May 3rd was designated “Active Schools’ Week” and thankfully the weather improved so the school playground was a hive of activity every day. Many classes took extra PE time. We also had Jason Kehoe from the Vols in doing GAA coaching and Noel Ferguson from the Wexford Wanderers doing rugby. As if that wasn’t enough our Rounders, Camogie and Soccer teams all played matches and our golfers were preparing for the up-coming schools’ cup in Rosslare.
If the weather stays good then every week will be Active Schools’ Week in The Mercy School. 
As part of our ongoing Bullying awareness programme, we decided to hold a friendship week in school from April 15th-19th 2013.
The aims for this week were very straightforward : to highlight the skills involved in forming and maintaining friendships, whilst also stressing the idea that combating bullying is a collective responsibility. The message to be passed across to our pupils was that there are no innocent bystanders when it comes to bullying. Teachers also reinforced the building of resilience and self esteem in all pupils (an ongoing skill developed through our Stay Safe and S.A.L.T. programmes).
Prior to Friendship week, a survey was distributed to pupils from 1st-6th class, querying their computer and mobile phone usage. These results were used as a foundation for lessons in netiquette (appropriate internet use) throughout the week.
Accompanying the lessons on bullying and friendship , each pupil was given a task and a thought for each day. These tasks involved activities such as doing a ROAK (random act of kindness), passing on a compliment, or Mix it Up Lunch (where a child sat beside a child they wouldn’t normally interact with).
Friendship Week culminated in an assembly where children were encouraged to identify bullying type behaviours through role play and to share their thoughts and experiences about the week. We recited the school’s Anti Bullying pledge (promising to stand up for others and against bullying. We also performed the school’s Friendship Week Theme song :You’ve got a friend in me. Pupils and Teachers then proceeded outside, to form a friendship spiral around the school yard.
All in all, it was a very productive, rewarding and enjoyable week for all involved. We can’t wait to put our newly learned skills to continued use.
Friendship Spiral.
The second term seems to have flown by and Easter is almost here. Catch up with the latest news below:
1. Over the last few months the choir, with Ms Hughes and Ms. Sheridan have been rehearsing really hard for their production of “The Wizard of Oz”. All we can do now is tell them to “break a leg” on the night. We will have photos of the show up here soon.
2. Recently our mini-sevens camogie and football teams took part in the school’s Rackard League competitions.
3.In February 5 quiz teams participated in the Credit Union schools’ competition.
4. Our chess team travelled to Piercestown N.S. for a friendly tournament. Later 2 teams played in a tournament, also in Piercestown. See http://wexfordmercy.wordpress.com/
5. Our Second class girls have already received their “First Penance” and are now looking forward to their First Communion in May.
6. Fifth and sixth class had a really interesting talk on “bio-diversity”. Mr. Kings class had a really good seminar from transition year students from Presentation Secondary School on “Cyber-Bullying”. The other fifth and sixth classes will be getting the same talk after Easter.
7. World Book Day took place on March 7th.
8. Bhí Ceolchoirm iontach le gach rang agus ”Tráth na gCeist” mór do ranganna 5 agus 6 againn le h-aghaidh “Seachtain na Gaeilge”.
9. Recent prizewinners: Robyn Black won an award from Wexford Lions’ Club for her excellent piece of writing on Selskar Abbey. Sinéad O Reilly and Shónagh Cuddihy won prizes in the INTO handwriting competition.
Can you find 10 on the one hundred square for the dog?
http://oswego.org/ocsd-web/games/Dogbone/gamebone.html
Ms. Mc Hugh’s and Ms. English’s classes made two beautiful panels for our school garden with Helen Mc Lean. One is based on the things that grow in our “Gairdin Glas”, and the other features creatures that live in the garden or come to visit. They will brighten up the garden even more, just as the flowers begin to blossom. The panels have marks at the side so that children can check their height by standing beside them. Thanks to Helen for all her help. Click on the link below to see how we made them (after the document downloads it may take a minute or two to see all the photos).
The Environment ~ by Shay
The grass is green, please keep it clean.
The trees are tall, don’t make them fall.
The water is clean, let’s keep it this way.
So look after the environment everyday.
The Environment ~ by Rachel
Recycle the rubbish, don’t throw it away.
Turn off the lights, during the day.
Save water whatever you do.
To make the environment a good place for you.
On Monday December 17th we performed our Christmas play
for all our families. It was called Little Angel. We were so excited about
showing everyone our play. Our teacher thinks we did an amazing job
and I’m sure you all agree! Here are some photos from our performance.
Well done to everyone for saying their lines and singing so beautifully.
Happy Christmas everyone!
Thanks to all families who generously supported our annual raffle. At the latest count we have raised just over €5000 which is a tremendous sum of money. We will be in touch soon to let you know what we intend to do with the money. As mentioned in our recent Newsletter €1000 has been spent on upgrading the sound system in the hall. We will also probably spend some more on “sprucing-up” the hall with new blinds and some paint. In the last couple of years we have also funded the upgrading of the stage lights and the purchase of new stage curtains.
Again thanks to all for the great support for all our fundraising efforts. Click below to see a full list of all prize winners and prizes and thanks to all who contributes prizes for the draw.
Mercy Parents’ Council.
We painted a picture of Santa Claus. We zoomed in on him.
After finishing reading the story ” Spooky Monster” in our reader we made these pictures. We used a graded colour wash for the background. We printed the body, first we put blobs of paint on the page, then we folded our page in half and pressed/pulled the paint along the page. Finally we used oil pastels to add details to our monsters.
We have been learning all about different materials in our environment. We went on a material hunt in school. At home we looked for samples to stick on our worksheet.
We used pencils and charcoal to draw our favourite fruit.
Fruit ~ Charcoal & Pencil Drawings
As part of our Green School we are busy making recycled Christmas cards. We will not give cards to friends in our class.
Instead we will make one card each from recycled material and teacher will draw cards out of a hat near Christmas.
This helps reduce waste and trees being cut down to make paper and card.
Cards will be on display in the Halla from Monday 17th December.
We had a fantastic response to our recent Recycled Christmas decoration
competition. The children made their decorations using as much recycled material as possible. The
results were truly amazing and well done to everyone. Once again Helen McClean
kindly gave up her time to come in and judge the decorations last Thursday. There
was great excitment in the school on Friday morning when Mr Gately announced
the winners over the intercom. The winner of each category goes forward to
Wexford County Councils Recycled Christmas Decoration competition and the
runners up each received a selection box. The results of each
category are below. Finally please make sure to inspect the decorations if you are
in visiting your child’s christmas play, they will be on display in the Halla.
Category A – Junior/Senior Infants and First Class
1st Lewis Hession – Ms Hughes
2nd Jacob Krcznski – Ms Flynn
3rd Neil Hession – Ms Doran
Category B – Second/Third/Fourth Classes
1st Clíona McCormack – Ms Woodbyrne
2nd Patrycja Radej – Ms Woodbyrne
3rd Shonagh McCourt – Ms English
4th Victoria Ogaza – Ms Woodbyrne
4th Aoife Washington – Ms English
Category C Fifth and Sixth Class
1st Eve Hession – Ms Shannon
2nd Gia Simmons – Mr King
3rd Isobel Hudson – Ms McKiernan
Category D – Group
1st Emma O Leary, Anoushka Nolan, Karen O Reilly – Ms English
2nd Sally Bruen and Anna Cooney – Ms Shannon
Here is a photo of all the prize winners with the overall winning entries:
Click on the link below to see some writings from our pupils with their thoughts on the meaning of Christmas:
Click on the link below to see news of a chess tournament attended by Senan O Reilly and some members of our chess club. Thanks again to Senan, Michael, Diarmuid, Therese, Marian and Lucia for all your help with the chess club.
http://wexfordmercy.wordpress.com/
