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St. Mary's Junior School Welcome message from the Junior School Principal, Mary O'Donnell ETHOS St. Mary’s College is a Catholic school with essential Christian core values, educational aims, teaching methods and aspirations for its students. We see our school as a family, a meeting place, and a learning community, where we pride ourselves on personal care for our pupils and aim to nurture them as individuals within the framework of our ethos. As a Catholic school, we have a Religious Education programme, facilities for Mass and the sacraments, liturgies for the important events in the life of the school, and preparation for First Confession and First Communion as well as Confirmation. ADMISSION Entrance to St. Mary’s Junior School is usually at Form 2 level, when pupils are aged 7 to 8 years. Parents seeking admission for their son fill in an Application Form, which is kept on file. Contact will be renewed in the Autumn term prior to the year of admission, following which a literacy and numeracy assessment will take place to ensure that each boy’s need can be met here. It is advisable to send a boy to St. Mary’s as early as possible, as admission to 5th and 6th class, or especially First Year, cannot be guaranteed. ACADEMICS Classes are of mixed ability and boys are generally placed in alphabetical order where there are two classes. We follow the National Primary School Curriculum in English, Irish, Maths, Religion, History, Geography, Science, Art and Music. French is taught at Form 6 level. The Walk Tall programme is followed each year. Individual music instruction is available after school. A school report is sent home every three to four weeks, which indicates application (especially), conduct and deportment. Term reports, indicating progress, are sent to parents following Christmas and Easter tests. STAFF In addition to the regular class-teacher, we have a full time Resource Teacher and teachers in specialist subjects such as Art, P.E., Music and Drama. A dean assists the Principal and school secretary in school administration. TIMETABLE Door open at 7:45am each morning. Children are supervised until 8:55am, when classes begin. First break is at 10:55 (15 minutes); Lunch break is from 12:10-12:45pm. Classes conclude at 2:30pm. GAMES We feel it important to encourage every pupil to enjoy and reach his full potential in sport and other activities and thus benefit to the maximum from their formative value. A magnificent new Hall has just been provided particularly for the extra-curricular activities. Games played in the Junior School include Rugby, Cricket, Basketball, Athletics, Tennis, Golf and Table Tennis. There is optional supervised Swimming with instruction each Monday after school in Rathmines Pool. Tennis coaching is available year-round in Leinster Tennis Club Rathmines for all forms. Tennis for Forms 2 and 3 takes place on the school grounds. For Swimming and Tennis there is a coaching fee. On Wednesday morning all classed have house league matches. On Saturday mornings rugby training for Forms 2-6 takes place usually on the front field. During the year matches are arranged against other schools and pupils take part in their class leagues.
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