The Loreto Times
The Christmas Edition of the Loreto Times is now available.
The December 2022 Edition encapsulates Life at Loreto for Term 1 of academic year 2022-2023.
Year 13 Newsletter- November 2022
Year 13 Newsletter- November 2022
Keep up to date with Year 13 News and Events.
Loreto Carol Service~ Christmas 2021
A beautiful moment was shared by our whole school community during our Carol Service this year.
Year 9 pupils, accompanied by their form teachers, attended the Carol Service in the Sacred Heart Chapel. The rest of our school engaged in prayer remotely via the parish webcam.
Sinead captured the true essence of the Nativity Scene and the through her haunting rendition of ‘O Holy Night.’
Loreto Christmas Markets 2021
A wholesome day of Christmas Festivities!
Loreto Christmas Markets were a perfect opportunity to sample produce and products made by our school community. Stalls varied from baked treats, homemade crafts, chutney, jam and much more!
A huge congratulations to our amazing Student Council and Mrs McGuigan for executing a polished and well organised event!
Head Girl ~ Sinead McGowan
Hello everyone, my name is Sinéad McGowan and I am so delighted to have been appointed the role of Head Girl of Loreto this academic year.
I transferred from Holy Family Primary School but despite coming from a big primary school, I was still nervous about making friends, settling in and experiencing new subjects. However, as soon as I stepped through the front doors on the 4th September 2015, I immediately felt this was where I was meant to be. Between the greetings from the staff and the prefects at the front door, I felt so welcome.
This school has wonderful extracurricular activities such as our renowned Junior and Senior Choir led by the wonderful Mrs McGirr. I have been a proud member of the choir for the past 7 years here in Loreto. In 2018, we travelled to Prague where we competed against choirs from all across Europe. I am proud to say we won the Prague Choral Festival!
Enjoying a school trip in Europe.
The school musical, Thoroughly Modern Millie, was one of my highlights.
Performing in Thoroughly Modern Millie.
There is always something for everyone at Loreto. For example, if you enjoy sports there are a variety of clubs such as netball, football and athletics. Or perhaps you are musical and enjoy playing a musical instrument, you could join our Traditional Group. If you have a particular flair for public speaking and have an avid interest in making a meaningful social difference, you can become part of the Student Council!
Competing in BBC Young Soloist of the Year Competition.
I will finish with some advice I wish to impart to you all.
Enjoy every day, every single moment, every single second that you spend in Loreto.
It won’t be long before you are in my position, saying goodbye to the school and embarking on a new adventure. We hear it said so often that time flies so quickly, and I now know this to be true!
I encourage you to join as many clubs as you can, make as many friends as you can and savour the Loreto experience, for it is truly one of a kind!
And even in moments of self doubt or challenge, just remember the reassurance given by children’s author A.A Milne, “You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, smarter than you think and loved more than you know.”
Loreto Senior Choir Perform at Omagh Winter Wonderland
Mrs McGirr and her breathtaking choir performed at Omagh’s Winter Wonderland (20th December 2021).
Listen to this hair-raising rendition of ‘Somewhere in my memory’!
‘Let’s Chat Climate Change’
Head Girl Sinead and her team, proudly present a new series of short pupil interviews during Loreto Environment Week 2021.
How young people understand and engage with climate change is a critical question. The interviews aim to generate an ambitious societal response in our school community and explore pupils’ views on this challenging topic.
Loreto Environment Week 2021
Episode 1:
Episode 2:
https://youtube.com/shorts/aNn43jxN2Ys?feature=share
Episode 3:
Talk Tuesday with Lily Rose – Year 8
On Tuesday 10th November our ‘Talk Tuesday’ slot featured a Year 8 pupil called Lily Rose. She talked about her experience of starting secondary level education in Loreto in the middle of a global pandemic.
What I Have learned about myself, my family, my community and my faith during lockdown – By Una McCrory
Friday the 13th can often be considered to be an unlucky day. As a Year 8 student at Loreto, Friday 13th March 2020 was to be the last time I sat in a classroom situation, laughed and walked with my friends down the school corridors, ate my lunch in the canteen and travelled home on Ulster bus. As my school principal rightly said ‘these really are unprecedented times’.
These last three months have been surreal. I never could have imagined that a pandemic could have threatened our very existence. I have learned to become so resilient and tried not to worry about what lay ahead. I felt many lows in the first few weeks at not being able to see my friends, my grandparents. My whole routine of getting up on weekdays at 7.30am changed quickly. Also, I soon realized I had to look at the positives of my life. I love to bake so I focused on that skill which my family appreciated. I never before had time to go for long walks without it being on a schedule. I enjoyed the calmness of this. I miss my football training and camogie. Especially the whole team element.
My family are one of the units I really started to appreciate more. My mum is a teacher so she kept the whole day structured around school routine. I liked this as it meant that everything was organized in some way. Also, it meant that the weekend was different from the rest of the week. My dad had to continue working through most of the pandemic as he runs his own business and they were identified as being key workers. If there was a power cut or line damaged, he was on call. I appreciated my sisters so much during this time. The fun and excitement were never short in our home. I missed the visits from my extended family and especially my Grandad.
My community proved instrumental through the pandemic. The NHS saved lives throughout the whole of the north. The leadership from politicians ensured the smooth running of services during this time. Our GAA club organised food drops to help the local SVP society to feed the aged and vulnerable. It was nice to see people work together to help others.
My faith was tested at the start of this as suddenly a virus in China reached our small island. I thought, how could God allow this to happen? Yet I continued to attend Mass every Sunday morning virtually at 11am and I found comfort in listening to the words of the priest. My prayers helped me stay happy and not to fear the days ahead.
My Experience in Lockdown – By Meabh Ward
My experience of lockdown has been rather good so far. I have kept myself busy and lockdown has given me the chance to de-stress from my hectic, busy life. I have the chance to do things I enjoy that I never had time for before; for example, yesterday I baked a lemon drizzle cake, did some gardening, went for a cycle and fixed the fence in one of our fields, all of which I would never have dreamed of having the time to do.
I keep myself busy every day by home schooling. Home schooling is quite enjoyable in my opinion, it means I can continue learning and preparing for my GCSE’s next year. I like how I can create my own schedule and work at a time that suits me. Another bonus to home schooling is that I will never forget a book (which happens at school way too often!)
The negatives of home schooling for me is when all the teachers send me work at the same time on a Monday morning and you have to try find a balance of how to evenly spread out the work over the coming week. The work can be baffling at times too, as there is no teacher present to explain it so it’s sort of like teaching yourself. However, overall I am enjoying this new experience of home schooling despite whatever difficulties that come with it.
I miss being at school every day (but I definitely do not miss getting up every morning at 7am). I miss seeing all my friends and I miss my class and how we would be spending our last 2 months together as 10A4 before being split up in September.
I really miss my family as well; I have a total of 7 vulnerable people in my family, so I don’t get to see most of them at all. Every day I cycle to my granny’s house and wave to her from outside her window, then I would start to maybe cut her grass or trim a hedge. It really makes her day whenever my brother or I call with her. My brother is 18 in 2 weeks, so my family were thinking of throwing him a party with a barbeque and cake (but with only my family attending of course) so at least that’s something to look forward too!
I am very lucky to live right next to the Gortin Glens, so even though the park is closed, there is lots of neighbouring forests for me to explore. I am also very grateful for ‘Zoom,’- the app lets my zoom some of my friends that don’t have FaceTime and it is fun to have a chat with them. It brings a bit of normality to my lockdown life.
Altogether, I am enjoying my lockdown experience, but I can’t wait until the day I get to go through the Loreto gates!