It was with a great sense of joy, hope and anticipation, that Mrs McGuinness, along with all the children and staff of St Mary’s, warmly welcomed a packed congregation in St Mary’s Church to our Christmas gathering - ‘Carols and Hope by Candlelight’ on a mid-December evening. For, as we were invited to continue our journey as ‘pilgrims of hope’ in this Jubilee Year 2025, we gathered together in the season of Advent, being further encouraged and guided to look at the nativity story as one of hope.
It was truly an evening wherein our students and staff shared in and celebrated the birth of Jesus - the greatest hope for the world - as a light to guide us and a hope to hold onto, with parents, grandparents, families, members of our school’s Board of Governors, friends, and members of our wider parish community, both present in the church and via the church’s webcam. We sincerely thank everybody who joined us in our celebration and trust that you shared in the meaning, hope and joy of the evening - through song, music, dance, prayer, hymns and reflection.
Hope is with us in all our decisions and in all our endeavours and it was surely meaningful to pause and ponder and look at the nativity story as one of hope. In this special Jubilee Year, our students reflected upon and invited us all to look once more on the manger figures… From the wise men to the shepherds, from Mary to Joseph, each one faced struggle, strife and hardship to be present at the crib; yet, each one made it as a ‘pilgrim of hope’… Our prayer is that may each one of us, wrapped in these days of December darkness, welcome the birth of the Son of God, the light of lights, the Prince of Peace, the greatest hope that the world has known…
We say thank-you to every single girl and boy who contributed to our gathering in a tremendous myriad of ways. You are wonderful young people of hope! Much appreciation is also extended to our entire school staff for the hard work and collective efforts over a number of weeks, and to Fr Alwill and to Paddy for kindly supporting and facilitating us in the church in the weeks prior to our gathering, and on the evening itself. We also convey a most special word of thanks to three outstanding young men in Primary Seven - Cian, Conor and Darragh - for your superb help in editing, compiling and creating the video presentations of our evening's gathering, as below. Your dedication, determination, resilience, attention to detail and creativity, has been a joy to witness and behold.
In the final days of Term One, our children have very much enjoyed partaking in a range of activities and experiences: from arts and crafts and Christmas decorations, to a trip to the Ardhowen Theatre, Enniskillen (for our younger children in Years One - Three), to enjoying our annual Christmas dinner! We trust sharing in some of the photographs of same below will bring you a smile or three! We wish our entire school community every peace, hope and good health this Christmas time and for the new year of 2026.
