Extra-Curricular Activities
Derry and Ulster Cumman na mBunscol Camogie Champions
Cycling Proficiency Autumn 2017
The Passion Play
HALLOWEEN FUN
P4 ART CLUB
Watch this page to see our work progress!
Week One - We are learning to mix paints to create more shades and tones of blue.
Week Two - Experimenting with mixed media.
Lots of fun as we put the finishing touches to our pictures
Autumn has Arrived!
The Passion Play
Pictures from the dress rehearsal for our 'Passion Play' The pupils and teachers have worked extremely hard to prepare for this Thursday evening's performance.
Lá Fhéile Pádraig
Lá Fhéile Pádraig
After-School Activities
We have a wide and varied selection of after-school activities for the children to enjoy and to enhance skills. These include Boys and Girls Football, Camogie, Hurling, Golf, Beginners Music, Advanced Music, Gardening Club, ICT Club, Art Club and Dance.
The timetables are attached below.
Term Two After-School Activities 2015
Looking forward to festival 2015? Here's a taster of some of the fantastic talent we staged in 2014.
Our Music Club will be busy practising for this year's performance.
Best Fest 14.mp4
Fabulous Fun at the Annual Festival
Moyola Golf Club Welcomes St. Mary's
And a picnic in the garden, all added to the fun!
2014 Derry Hurling Champions
Congratulations to our hurling team on being crowned Derry champions. This is a result of hard work and commitment from the team and all of their coaches. Well done everyone.
Road To Croker
On Monday 14th of April, twenty-one pupils from Primary six and seven travelled to Croke Park to compete in a national Go-Games Blitz. All players got to play three games on Croke Park against pupils from various schools throughout Ireland.
Thank you to Chris Collins from Derry GAA, and Damian McCullagh, Eunan Murray and Cathal Murray from Ballinascreen GAC for organising such a wonderful event.
South Derry Track and Field Competition.
Congratulations to 'Our Girls' who won the overall first place at the event!
We had several more winners, securing first place in their events!
Golf
A number of pupils from Primary 5, 6, and 7 have just completed ten weeks of Golf tuition with an experienced professional coach. G.P.A. Golf Pro Tony Mulholland led the course. The children attended training sessions in Tobermore Driving Range and in school. We are looking forward to showing off our skills at Moyola Golf Course in the near future. This course was possible due to funding from the Sports Council of Northern Ireland.
A Variety of After-School Activities
ART CLUB
There have been several Art Clubs and Art Projects completed in St. Mary's.
Recently we worked with schools in our community and artist, Barbara Mc Intyre to complete a collaborative painting, representing our school, the local surroundings, sport, music and culture.
Initially we discussed all the important 'things' about St. Mary's, and came up with this list!
- The Draperstown Community
- The beautiful mountains and surroundings (where we are so fortunate to live.)
- Our school building (where we meet, work, play and spend time together)
- Our garden (which continues to grow and develop each year)
- Sport (an integral part of our history and our healthy approach to keeping fit)
- Music (always important in Ballinascreen, but especially in our school with so many talented singers and musicians)
Our ideas amalgamated and developed into a wonderful painting that we are proud to display in the Key Stage 2 building.
Still Life Studies
Music Club
The Music Club has been running in St Mary's for over 20 years and has offered children the opportunity to learn how to play tin whistle, fiddle, and in more recent years, harp. Great emphasis is placed on our local music, collected from this area by the great collectors. Among these was Edward Bunting, who also collected the music played by Donchadh Ó hÁmhsaigh, who owned and played our famous Ballinascreen harp made here by Cormac Ó Ceallaigh in 1702. As far as we know Cormac was from Doone.
One of our retired teachers, Mrs Anne McAllister, helps with teaching the harp at our Music Club on a voluntary basis. Her work is hugely appreciated and although only a small number of children get the opportunity to avail of these lessons due to the number of harps we have, we hope this will improve in the near future.
The Music Club made a decision three years ago to cater for children who have left our school and wish to continue their study of Traditional Irish Music. To this end we had some Saturday morning workshops. The older children are still playing and we have kept in contact with them, encouraging them to play at any suitable events that come up.
Pond Dipping
in the
Biodiversity Garden
We are very fortunate to have access to a large biodiversity area, including a pond, where the pupils can develop their awareness and knowledge of the environment in their local landscape. Sperrins Gateway Landscape Partnership have been very supportive in helping us develop our outdoor learning experiences.
Helen Kelly from Sperrins Gateway Partnership, provided useful resources to help us identify many of the different mini beasts from the pond. This is definitely the season for tadpoles! We look forward to seeing them change and develop into frogs.
Don't worry, no creatures were harmed in our investigations.
They were all safely returned to the pond within the hour!
Check out some of the other projects Sperrins Gateway have completed.
Visit the website - helen@sperrinsgateway.com