Literacy lift off occurs up to 3 times a week in Senior Infants-2nd class and is an intensive programme of Reading and Writing, which gives the pupils lots of opportunities to read books at their own level of competency.
Reading buddies is a program in which two or more individuals read together. For example, older students can read with younger students, and volunteers from the community can read with students of all ages. A Reading Buddies program can help model good reading.
Here in St. Mary’s we have 2 fully stocked libraries, one junior and one senior. All classes enjoy spending time here browsing through books and listening to stories read aloud.
Over the past number of years we have been granted 6 green school flags for all our work in caring for the environment and working towards a sustainable future. Here you can see our sensory garden, orchard and bug hotel which have been fantastic additions to our school.
Here in St. Mary’s one of our main priorities is the happiness and welfare of each and every student. Both our yards have a colourful buddy bench to help ensure that everyone has a friend to play with.
We are very lucky to have a large lunch room equipped with modern cooking facilities. Classes and small groups often take part in cooking lessons both with teachers and volunteers.
Junior Infants enjoy going to our Aistear room to engage in play based learning. Here the children get the opportunity to learn new vocabulary, develop their problem solving skills, work as part of a team as well as developing communication and play skills.
We have an amazing range of sports equipment in our P.E store room. Along with that, we were gifted a fleet of bicycles from ‘Go Dungarvan’. The children receive coaching during the year in a number of sports and everyone enjoys our fabulous Sports day.
All classrooms have interactive whiteboards and access to Ipads. The computer room is in constant use by the children for research/projects/programs designed to support specific teaching points. Our HSLC runs IT courses for parents.
