Tús maith, leath na hoibre!

"A Good Start is Half the Battle"

Introducing St.Mary's P.S. Draperstown

Click on the link below and scroll right to left to watch the video and find out more about life at St. Mary’s.

What Sets Us Apart?

We are leading the way in Ballinascreen

See our extensive array of awards across many areas of learning including Sport, Music, STEM, Eco-Schools, Wellbeing and Outdoor Learning

We have strong lines of communication. We keep our families well informed with weekly Sways

Check out our Digital Prospectus to find out more

School is open for Breakfast Club from 8.20am every morning

(Drop your child off on your way to work)

P1 and P2 children can stay from 2.00pm - 3.00pm every day for

"Stay and Play"

(Just one school run at 3pm for your family)

KS2 children enjoy the widely acclaimed annual My Marathon event and Foundation Stage and KS1 enjoy Mini-Miles. Both are celebrated and recognised  as good practice across (NI).
My Marathon has won a regional and national award and has been sponsored by Nike  

We have large rooms with ideal class sizes, averaging 24 children

No composite classes :

P1 - P7 straight classes

We have a state of the art ICT Suite which is second to none  

We have a well known musical heritage. Our children practise and learn in our dedicated Music Room, with highly skilled wind and string Music teachers.
Our acclaimed Harp School celebrates it’s tenth anniversary with our first  pupils now passing on their skills as music teachers.

Our musicians have had rich recognition and won many awards. 

Come and see our extensive  playgrounds with celebrated creative learning spaces including our award winning gardens. We have easy access to our acclaimed biodiversity area, full-sized playing pitch, 3G pitch and Backrow Hall. 
We are the only accredited Forest School in the parish 

We are the only school in Ballinascreen to have been crowned Derry and Ulster Camogie Champions
 

We have recently achieved the Investors in Mental Health Award. This celebrates excellence in the area of Wellbeing

We have a rich array of after- school activities. 
 

We have a creative Sensory Space and a beautiful new quiet reading area - The Book Nook.
 

We are in the final stages of completing our 60th Anniversary Development Project.  We look forward to unveiling our new indoor and outdoor learning space after Christmas. Watch this space! 
 

Click on the yellow stars below to find out more.....

ADMISSIONS CRITERIA SEPTEMBER 2023

INDUCTION TO P1 

We have a busy Induction Programme, which starts in January and follows through until your child is settled into P1. 

This involves..

*An invitation to visit Santa at our Open Night 

*Ms Coyle and Mrs Kearney visit the pre-school settings

*An Induction morning for our new P1 children

*A Parents' Information Morning

*Our Festival of Fun with sports and activities for our pre-school children

* Connection with our new P1 children and their families via Seesaw

*Clear lines of communication and advice for parents of children with Individual Needs

Click on the Yellow Star below and have a look at our Welcome Sway for P1 September 2022.  It will give you a feel for how we adapted our P1 Induction process last year.

NEWCOMER ADMISSIONS

We welcome families from a wide and varied selection of cultural and ethnic backgrounds.  We enjoy celebrating diversity.  Our children speak a variety of languages including Irish, French, Polish, Lithuanian, Czech, Romanian and Slovakian.  

Find below a Newcomer Welcome Booklet giving basic information about the school.

FIND OUT MORE ABOUT ST. MARY'S P.S.

At St. Mary's, communication is key.  Click on the link below and you can see what's happening in our school each week.  We communicate with our parents and in this fabulous digital format. This allows us to use text, photos, videos and links to share information. We pride ourselves in being one step ahead with e-learning. 
Ms Coyle was asked to present our e-learning practice at a C2k Good Practice Webinar for all schools in Northern Ireland in June 2020.  She shared the fabulous work of our school's Online Learning Hub during lockdown. You can view this work in the Lockdown Sways. 

PREPARING FOR PRIMARY SCHOOL