Email: info@stbernardsps. newtownabbey. ni. sch. uk

Tel No: 02890844634

Web address: www. stbernardspsglengormley. co. uk

Important Dates for your Diary

E-Safety Parent Workshop -

Tuesday 11th February at 9.10am.

School closed - Monday 17th

February - Friday 21st February.

Year 7 Confirmation - Monday 9th

March at 11am.

St. Patrick’s Day Concert - Friday

13th March.

School Closed - Monday 16th and

Tuesday 17th March.

Year 5 Passion Play - Wednesday

8th April at 1.15pm in the school

assembly hall.

School Closes at 1 2noon on Thurs-

day 9th April for Easter Holidays.

School reopens on Monday 20th

April for the start of Term 3.

First Communion - Sunday 26th April.

School Closed - Friday 8th May.

Sports Day - Thursday 1 4th May.

Nursery Sports Day - Friday 15th

May.

School Closed - Friday 22nd May.

School Closed - Monday 25th May.

Nursery and Year 1 Induction -

Thursday 28th May at 7.00pm.

Summer BBQ - Thursday 4th June.

Nursery Graduation - Wednesday

24th June at 9.30am and 1.00pm.

School Closes - Thursday 30th June

at 12.00pm.

January 2020

Bernard’s Buzz

If you have a concern regarding your child, their progress or any pastoral issue, we do have procedures in place to help. First port of call should be the teacher. If an issue persists or if you as parent remain concerned you can make an appointment with Mr Kavanagh (VP) or Mrs Walsh (Senco.) If you remain concerned then please make an appointment with Mrs Cruiks the school Principal.

Digital Leaders visit the Apple Store - Our Digital Leaders spent an exciting morning at the Apple Store on Tuesday 21st January. The were developing their coding skills and learning new skills using the Sphero balls and Swift Playgrounds. They are looking for-ward to showing the rest of our pupils how to use these coding apps.

Year One and Nursery Admissions - The parent portal for making online applications to pre-school or primary school in September 2020 is now closed. Any applications received now are considered late. Please ensure you bring all verifying documents to school by Friday 7th February.

Internet Safety Awareness - We would like to invite all parents and grandparents to an information session about Internet Safety on Tuesday 11th February at 9.10am in the Assembly Hall. This is Internet Safety Day and the PSNI will be in attendance to deliver the important message of using the internet safely and how you as parents can help.

Please check Facebook, Twitter, the School App and our school website for important information and reminders of

what is happening in our school. www.stbernardspsglengormley.com myschool app

St. Bernard’s Primary School, Glengormley @stbernardspsgg

Congratulations to all our Year 7 pupils in their recent Transfer scores. It is hard to believe you only have 5 months of primary school left. We are proud of all of you.

To all our school community. Welcome back to the new school term and a happy and healthy new year to all. Our Bernard’s Buzz newsletter each month contains lots of information about forthcoming events. Please print these off and keep on file at home. You can download a copy from our school website and our MySchool App.

Child Protection Update If a child makes any form of disclosure to a member of staff there is a clear procedure which the school cannot deviate from. It is important that parents understand this procedure as it can be a worrying and stressful time for the family. 1. The staff member reports disclosure to the Designated Teacher (or whoever is deputising). 2. The Designated Teacher rings CPSS immediately. 3. CPSS tell the school exactly what to do and we MUST follow their directives. At times we are told NOT to discuss anything with parents. This can be very upsetting for parents but we clarify that WE MUST FOLLOW THE PROCEDURE.

4. In many cases Social Services and even PSNI become involved but we hope that parents have an understanding that this is necessary to protect the children who ARE at risk.

Worker of the Month 3MC - Corin Gillen 3SR - Marnie Curran 3TW - Annie Bunting 4DD - Sophia Grew 4MM - Maria McCarron 4LT - Katie-Rose Douglas 5DTDM -Aoibheann Caldwell 5CL– Sophie Donaldson 5CD - Eva Scallan 6EMK - Maebh Privilege 6BC - Rohan McTaggart 6FM – Amy Mullan 7PM–Caden McKinney-Floyd 7MMC - James Kennedy 7SC - Abbie Rose Quinn

CAPS Trait - Honesty 3MC - Noah McKee 3SR - Annabel Quinn 3TW - Katie Brown 4DD - Anthony Hill 4MM– Hope Kiddie 4LT - Cara McGill 5DTDM - Steve Santhosh 5CL - John O’Neill 5CD - Joseph Franklin 6EMK – Cillian McStravick 6BC- Sinead O’Hare 6FM – Caitlin Scott 7PM - Shay Mulholland 7MMC - Caitlin Scott 7SC– Matthew McCann

Achieving Success Outside School Congratulations to Anna McNeill in 5CD on being selected to compete at the Scottish Acrobatic Invitational gymnastics competition in Glasgow. Well done to Lisa Robinson & Caitlin Scott who played traditional music at the NI Hospice with other students from Glengormley School of Music. Congratulations to Oliwa Rzonca from P4 MM took part in Acrobatic Scottish Invitational 2020 on Saturday 18th of January. If your child has an achievement you would like us to celebrate, please put it in writing to Mrs Devine or by email to ddevine921@c2kni.net

From the Principal’s Desk Health month is over and our Fitness Friday is complete. I do hope you are all feeling a healthy and happy start to the new year. We began our year with our Safeguarding assemblies and our assemblies on ‘Honesty.’ In February we now turn to ‘Diligence.’ Hard work and determination are always evidence in St. Bernard’s but we are going to put extra special effort into completing our mid-year targets. All the teachers and children know what these targets are so hopefully everyone will feel a great sense of achievement.

I want to extend a huge thanks to all the wonderful gifts, hamper donations and presents for pounds sent in to school over December. We were able to send over 30 hampers into the community and we presented a cheque for £771.70 to the Cancer Fund for Children at assembly last week. I appreciate all the kindness and generosity shown.

We had a great ‘Fitness Friday’ last week and I thank everyone who helped with the organisation and the participation. Mrs Thompson, one of our teachers and Mrs McCotter, one of our parents, organised a fantastic day which every child really loved. A huge thank you to all the students from Belfast Metropolitan College who joined Mrs McCotter to help the pupils work in small groups. Let’s hope we keep up the good intentions.

Only two weeks to mid-term and we have Spring to look forward to. Keep watching for changes around the school in the coming months. You never know what might ‘Spring’ up! Mrs Cruiks

Health Month - We have had a very exciting and enjoyable Health Education month with lots of visitors talking to our pupils. Thank you to Action Cancer for visiting each year group to talk to them about different health related topics.

A special thank you to Mrs Mc Cotter and her students from Belfast Met for giving up their time to lead Fitness Friday. The children thoroughly enjoyed their fitness sessions.

We raised a total of £520 for ’Action Cancer’.

Parent Workshops - Thank you to all the Year 1 and Year 2 parents that attended our Numeracy Workshop on Wednesday 22nd January. A copy of the presentation is available to download on our school website.

Catholic Education Week is being celebrated during the week commencing 27th January. We celebrated Grand-parent’s Day on Wednesday 29th January with Mass in St. Bernard’s Church. It was lovely to see so many parents and grandparents there. Thank you for joining us on this special occasion.

What Grandparents are for? Grandparents are for stories about things of long ago. Grandparents are for caring about all the things you know. Grandparents are for rocking you and singing you to sleep. Grandparents are for giving you nice memories to keep.

Youth Club - This month there were more exciting things happening in our Youth Club. We had Nerf Wars, a visit from Ecomantella with his birds of prey and Wheelworks with Digital Music and Augmented Reality.

Coming up next month we have Gathering Drums, Science Party Professor, Ark Open Farm, Bricks4kids and Kelly’s Roller Disco.

Busy Bees - If parents wish to enrol their children please contact Mrs Rea on 07522067376. The Busy Bees will open during mid-term (17th - 21st Feb) if we have enough children. Please make sure you return your forms to Mrs Rea before the end of the each month.

Service of Light for our Year 7 children is on Monday 1 0th February at 7pm in St. Bernard’s Church.

PTA - St. Bernard’s at the Movies! The PTA are holding a movie night in the school assembly hall. When: Monday 10th February P1&2-5:00pm-6:00pm, P5&6- 6:30pm- 8:00pm Tuesday 11th February P3&4 - 5:00pm-6:30pm P7- 6:45pm-8:15pm. Admission: - £3 to be paid on the night.

Presents for Pounds - Thank you to everyone who donated money at Christmas for ‘Presents for Pounds’. We raised a total of £771.70 which was donated to the NI Cancer Fund for Children. Well done!

Maths Challenge - The January / February Maths Challenge will be sent home on Monday. Please check your child’s schoolbag for this. Please remember to return all completed challenges to your class teacher.