A Word of Welcome.
Thank you for taking time to visit our school's website.
I hope you notice that we deliberately feature the children and their work.
In St. Michael's N.S. the pupils are the centre of everything we do.
We are a community school. We involve ourselves fully in the life of the community in Ardaghey and, in return, the community supports us and involves us in all its activities. We are a school 'at the heart of the community and in the hearts of the community'.
Our parents are very involved in our school. We have an active and enthusiastic PTA who organise so many activities for the pupils. The PTA ensure that the children get to enjoy their time in our school and their fund raising ensures our pupils have access to the latest technologies and the best resources for learning. Our parents volunteer to train our runners, maintain our school and take our annual photos. Our parents are fully behind of all we do in our school.
Our staff are beyond dedicated. It is not unusual for me, as principal, to get a message or phone call from a teacher late in the evening who is worried about a child or who is thinking of a way of helping their class. The teachers voluntarily complete extra courses specifically to meet individual needs of our pupils. They are endlessly kind and compassionate. The families of our staff involve themselves in the life of our school and assist throughout the year with our shows, furniture moving and decorations.
But, our school is run for the children. Long before the term 'pupil voice' became a buzz word in education our pupils were encouraged to use their voices. They have a say in everything that happens in our school.
In our school we have only one rule, which applies to the adults and to the children equally.
The rule is 'BE KIND'.
Our pupils practice being kind to each other, kind to the staff and kind to themselves.
And all of this is before I mention the education the pupils receive. As someone who spent most of my career in larger schools I know there is a perception that 'smaller schools couldn't possibly cover the whole curriculum'. Well we do.
Our multi grade classes mean that pupils are unconsciously listening to the work being done with other groups and so are, either, preparing for next year's work or receiving valuable repetition of last's year's work. We have a sign on the wall that each child sees each day. ' In our school mistakes are expected, respected and inspected'. The children are encouraged to 'give it go' to 'try your best'. And in the words of a boy who moved to our school last year, 'No one ever shouts'.
The best compliment I received, as principal, is a parent who moved her child to our school and in our first chat told me another parent had told her, 'it's like a family in there'.
As teachers, we care for each child and in return, the parents and the community care for us.
For our staff,this is a lovely place to work and for our pupils, it's a lovely place to learn.
I look forward to meeting you in person,
Séamus Grundy
Principal.
Thank you for taking time to visit our school's website.
I hope you notice that we deliberately feature the children and their work.
In St. Michael's N.S. the pupils are the centre of everything we do.
We are a community school. We involve ourselves fully in the life of the community in Ardaghey and, in return, the community supports us and involves us in all its activities. We are a school 'at the heart of the community and in the hearts of the community'.
Our parents are very involved in our school. We have an active and enthusiastic PTA who organise so many activities for the pupils. The PTA ensure that the children get to enjoy their time in our school and their fund raising ensures our pupils have access to the latest technologies and the best resources for learning. Our parents volunteer to train our runners, maintain our school and take our annual photos. Our parents are fully behind of all we do in our school.
Our staff are beyond dedicated. It is not unusual for me, as principal, to get a message or phone call from a teacher late in the evening who is worried about a child or who is thinking of a way of helping their class. The teachers voluntarily complete extra courses specifically to meet individual needs of our pupils. They are endlessly kind and compassionate. The families of our staff involve themselves in the life of our school and assist throughout the year with our shows, furniture moving and decorations.
But, our school is run for the children. Long before the term 'pupil voice' became a buzz word in education our pupils were encouraged to use their voices. They have a say in everything that happens in our school.
In our school we have only one rule, which applies to the adults and to the children equally.
The rule is 'BE KIND'.
Our pupils practice being kind to each other, kind to the staff and kind to themselves.
And all of this is before I mention the education the pupils receive. As someone who spent most of my career in larger schools I know there is a perception that 'smaller schools couldn't possibly cover the whole curriculum'. Well we do.
Our multi grade classes mean that pupils are unconsciously listening to the work being done with other groups and so are, either, preparing for next year's work or receiving valuable repetition of last's year's work. We have a sign on the wall that each child sees each day. ' In our school mistakes are expected, respected and inspected'. The children are encouraged to 'give it go' to 'try your best'. And in the words of a boy who moved to our school last year, 'No one ever shouts'.
The best compliment I received, as principal, is a parent who moved her child to our school and in our first chat told me another parent had told her, 'it's like a family in there'.
As teachers, we care for each child and in return, the parents and the community care for us.
For our staff,this is a lovely place to work and for our pupils, it's a lovely place to learn.
I look forward to meeting you in person,
Séamus Grundy
Principal.
Our Principal with his 'look a like' at a school sponsored walk.
