Santa School Trip-Tues 21st December

As a reward for a good first term's work, including stellar performances in our Christmas Concert, the school is taking the P1-P4 children to Navan Fort in Armagh to visit Santa in his ice house. The children will enjoy a range of activities and a gift from Santa. The trip is on Tues 21st December and the bus leaves at 9.20am and will return for lunchtime. There is no charge for this trip.

Christmas Show

The Christmas Concert on Thursday night was a great success. The children all performed well and it was great to see a packed hall to support them. The boys and girls have gained so much confidence from this experience and we are proud as a school to have entertained our local community. A major thank you goes out to all those who helped with the show; including the local community centres for their facilities and resources, local businesses for donations to the raffle, Mrs Tracy Kelly for being our sound engineer and of course, the staff and pupils for all their hard work in putting together the performances.

School Closure

The school will be closed on Tuesday 7th December due to the severe weather.

Severe Weather!

The bad weather shows no signs of ending so please remember to ring the school or check teletext to see if the school is open. We had to close on Friday because of the weather as the snow started to fall heavily in the morning. Remember to ring and check if dinners are being served as when the High school is closed we may not be able to get our dinners.

School Closure

School closed on Friday 3rd December due to the severe weather. Please note that choir practice for Saturday 4th December has been cancelled for the same reason.

Snow Days!

Unfortunately we are experiencing bad weather these mornings and we have had to have one exceptional closure. Please ring the school or check BBC teletext (Page 160)or this website to check if the school is open. Remember we are St. Michael's Newtownhamilton P.S and not Newtownhamilton Primary School! I will endeavour to open the school if possible. There are occasions when the dinners may not be available so if your child takes dinner, please be sure to ask, when calling, if dinners are available or not. If in doubt send a packed lunch with your child. If school is open, parents are asked to be careful on the journey and if conditions are treacherous where you live, then it is best to not venture out. Safety, as always is paramount.

Road Safety Certificates

Road Safety Officer, Lorna Duggan called into St. Michael's to present certificates to the boys and girls of Miss Carrragher's class. The children successfully completed the 2nd year of their Road Safety Training. Well done to the boys and girls.

Community Choir

A children's choir for budding singers in the Newtownhamilton area is being formed. The choir will get together every Saturday morning and the aim is to have fun singing songs that are old and new. The choir is open for children in P.1 to P.7. If interested call or leave your name into the school office and who knows....this could be the first stop on the road to the X factor!

Credit Union Poster Competition

The winners of the local Credit Union Poster competition have been announced and the list of lucky winners included two pupils from St. Michael's. The theme this year was 'Local, Trusting, Serving You.' All local schools submitted entries to the Newtownhamilton Credit Union. Rokas Gostautas from P.6 was 2nd overall in the 8-10 age category and Clodadh Gibney from P.7 was 3rd in the 10-11 age group. A great achievement by both who will receive their prizes from the Credit Union soon.

Halloween Fun At St. Michael's

Before Halloween we had a dress up day in aid of H.A.N.D. (Helping Autism in the Newry District)All the children came dressed as all manner of ghostly and ghastly characters. We even had a clown and a bee buzzing around the corridors! A great day was enjoyed by all and it gives us pride to support this worthwhile local charity. Sean Quinn of the HAND charity dropped in to leave a treat for each child as part of our spooky day, so a big thank you to Sean from the children.

My Armagh Draw

The school raised an incredible £994.00 through ticket sales for the My Armagh draw. The money raised goes towards the promotion of Gaelic Games in our school. Half the total goes to the county board to enable them to continue sending county coaches to the schools and the other half goes towards our transport bill for blitzes. A big thank you goes to our local club, St. Michael's GFC who sold tickets on our behalf. Conor Davidson in P.6 was the top ticket seller in our school and indeed the 3rd best seller in all of Armagh! For Conor's efforts he won a prize of £200 from McKeever Sports. Well Done Conor. No doubt with all this investment it will be no time before Armagh are back winning All Irelands and the giving teams like Tyrone a run for their money!

Road Safety Walk

On Tuesday 26th October Miss Carragher's class went for their road safety walk up through Newtownhamilton. The walk took in the main street right up to Meadowvale estate. The walkers were accompanied by Road Safety Officers, Lorna and Vivian. This is the second year of the scheme and it is an important part of our PDMU program in St. Michael's, as a lot of our children walk to school.

Sticky Fingers come to town!

The drama group Sticky Fingers came to St. Michael's on the 15th October to perform 'Down in the Garden'. In the play the children learnt all about minibeasts. In the audience with our own P.1 and 2 class were the Little People Playgroup and Newtownhamilton Primary School, who came along to enjoy the show. A good time was had by all and it was a good opportunity for the children to meet new friends.