Thursday 8th December 10.30am Mass in Schull Church. Children will walk from the school to the church and return to the school immediately afterwards.

Saturday 10th December The Scoil Mhuire NS Parents’ Association Tree of Light (Christmas Wish Tree) will be lit on Saturday 10th of December at 6pm outside the Bunratty Inn. A raffle ticket will be given to each child present at the event and one lucky child whose ticket will randomly be picked out will be awarded the honour of turning on the lights on the tree. A very special visitor along with his entourage is expected to visit during the event and there will be hot chocolate and treats for the children afterwards. All are welcome to come along to join in the festivities!

The concept of the Christmas Wish Tree is to remember a loved one who is not here, be they no longer with us, abroad or elsewhere for any reason. A light will shine on the Christmas wish tree at the top of the village throughout the Christmas season. Your intentions will be remembered at mass and service on Christmas Day. A gift card comes free with the light which costs €5. A list of those for whom the lights are dedicated to, will be posted on the tree. All proceeds go to Scoil Mhuire National School Parents’ Association and will be used for the benefit of the children. Cards are now on sale in various outlets throughout the village.

Sunday 11th December Carol Service in St. Mary’s Church Schull at 4.00pm followed by treats for the children which will be donated by the Parish Council.

Wednesday 14th December A whole school trip to the Pantomime ‘Red Riding Hood’ at the Everyman Palace in Cork City.

Friday 16th December Christmas Concert in Fr. Hurley Hall, beginning at 10am with the Junior and Senior Infant performance. A detailed schedule has been given to your child on a note.

Wednesday 21st December Christmas Jumper or Festive Clothing Day in aid of the Simon Community. More details to follow next week.

Thursday 22nd December Christmas Holidays at 12.00pm

During the past summer, Paddy O’Driscoll, a former pupil of Scoil Mhuire NS had the distinct and prestegious honour of being chosen to play on the Cork Primary School Football Team! This was a fantastic achievement as after several trials Paddy was among an elite group of 22 players picked from among thousands of other pupils in schools throughout Cork city and county.

Many athletes in the past who made their inter-county debut in the Primary Game have gone onto greater things. Cork footballer Brian Hurley, Kerry footballers Anthony Maher and David Moran, Championship soccer player Conor Hourihane, Premier League and Irish soccer player David Meyler and Munster and Ireland scrum half Conor Murray are all graduates of the Primary game in their respective counties. Paddy was chosen on the team to play at half time of the Munster Football Final but unfortunately through no fault of his or his team mates, the Cork Senior footballers failed to overcome Tipperary in the semi Final, meaning the Cork Primary team missed out on their chance to showcase their skills in front of tens of thousands of people.

We’re very proud of Paddy here at Scoil Mhuire NS. Now in 1st year at Schull Community College, whilst here he was a great student and role model for younger children and we’re sure that with continued dedication and hard work this is only the beginning of Paddy’s athletic career in the green and white of Gabriel Rangers and in the red of Cork!

School re-opens after the summer break for all classes on Tuesday 30th August at 9.20am. 

Children attending Scoil Mhuire NS are required to wear a school uniform and it’s imperative that all children attending our school wear both the correct and complete uniform every day at school. Please carefully read exact details below of our uniform.

Girls
Merlin blue jumper with school crest (available at Barnetts, Schull). Pale blue candy striped shirt with school tie. Grey skirt, pinafore or trousers. Black/Grey tights or socks. Black sensible shoes or black runners (no high heels or platforms).

Boys
Merlin blue jumper with school crest (available at Barnetts, Schull). Pale blue candy striped shirt with school tie. Grey trousers. Black/grey socks. Black sensible shoes or black runners.

PE Uniform

Navy blue track pants and sweatshirts, baby blue or white polo shirt. (Note; No sports branded or club tracksuit top or bottoms). Runners may be any colour but please ensure they are safely laced/velcroed. Avoid loose lace styles such as DC’s.

*Please ensure that your child’s name is clearly marked on his/her school jumper.

We kindly ask for your co-operation in this and if your child cannot wear his/her full uniform for some particular reason, please write a quick note to your class teacher explaining this. Thank you.

The finish line is in sight!

Since we last updated you, The Little Way Charity Shop once again came up trumps and gave us yet another donation of €500! Thanks as always to Nellie and her team of volunteers.

We also held a Table Quiz in the Bunratty Inn which brought in a total of €693. Much thanks to all the brainiacs who took part and also the sponsors who donated spot prizes on the night.

A Cheval Ride took place on Sunday May 22^nd. This was a joint fundraiser in aid of both Anam Cara and Scoil Mhuire Building Fund. The event was a huge success with a great selection of horses, traps and carts on view all the way from Lowertown to Schull and back. Check out some of the images below. A huge amount of organisation went into the event and sincere gratitude is extended to everyone who helped in any way to make it a success. A total of €767 was presented to the Scoil Mhuire NS Building Fund.

Finally, we were recently made aware that Scoil Mhuire NS Building Fund was the recipient of a bequest to the value of €5000. This was an extremely generous and thoughtful gesture and one which we are and always will be extremely grateful for.

All these fundraisers and figures mean that our debt is now of a very manageable size.  Exactly one year and five months ago, the debt totalled almost €30,000 so a timeframe of three years was set in which we hoped we could whittle the amount down to zero.  17 months later and the debt now stands at just €4,526!

As always thanks to everyone who contributes in any way big or small. Whether it is baking, collecting on the street, donating spot prizes, coming along to our events, or any other way, your help never goes unnoticed and is very much appreciated. We hope you’ll join us again in September as we strive to make one final push in a small number of fundraisers so that we can completely eliminate the remaining debt – one full year ahead of schedule! Go raibh míle maith agaibh go léir!

Our fundraising total continues to grow and our debt continues to fall! Recent fundraisers included a cake sale on the day of our Easter holidays. This brought in a whopping €307.29 and huge thanks must go to all the people who contributed cakes, buns and spot prizes for the event.

Schull Drama also kindly donated a share of the proceeds of their most recent production ‘Be Careful What you wish for’. This generous gesture resulted in our debt being reduced by a further €600. It was very much appreciated and is a brilliant example of local people not only being generous of their money but also of their time.

On Easter Saturday we held our annual Flag Day collection on the streets of Schull. Thanks firstly to all the parent volunteers who gave up some of their holiday weekend to brave the elements and collect on behalf of Scoil Mhuire NS Building Fund. Thanks also to everyone who contributed to our cause by digging deep in their pockets which resulted in us raising a total of €1110 on the day!

The net result is that our Building Fund debt has now been reduced to just €11,495.71. This is fantastic progress considering we began with a debt just shy of €30,000 fifteen months ago. Once again, many thanks to everyone on our Fundraising committee and to everyone else also who has contributed thus far. Please continue to support us in our future fundraisers in our attempt to completely eliminate the debt by the end of this year, one year ahead of our initial target!