Keep up to date with all the news happening in school at the moment.

• Drums purchased with donations.

  Mon 02 Feb 2026 Mrs Vaughan

  Primary 4 got the opportunity to try out the drums that were purchased with the money raised from the Donation Boxes at our Christmas Nativity! Thank you to all who popped something into the boxes- you raised £265 and we have purchased a range of African Drums, Bongo Drums, Floor Drums and Hard Drums with Beaters! 🥁🛢️🪘🎉

  

• Carmen wins the Flower Shop Cup at Portadown Festival!

  Sat 22 Mar 2025 Mrs Vaughan

  P4 Star! 

  Carmen Bird from P4 was presented with the Flower Shop Cup in the Primary Section at Portadown Speech Festival, for her impressive recital of ‘The Wind’ by Dorothy Grayson. 

  

• Masked Readers celebrate World Book Day

  Sat 22 Mar 2025 Mrs Vaughan

  We had a fantastic range of Masked Readers on World Book Day! The boys and girls decorated masks using a book for their inspiration. We loved hearing all of the children reading from their books too! 

  

• Pupils shine at Portadown Speech Festival

  Sat 22 Mar 2025 Mrs Vaughan

  Donacloney Primary School pupils were in fine voice this year again as they represented the school at Portadown Speech Festival. 

  27 children from P1-P7 travelled to Portadown to recite their poems and all achieved 80% or higher. We are so proud of each and every one of them as they bravely stood in front of an audience and adjudicator to deliver their poems clearly, loudly and with appropriate pausing and expression. 

  Special mention should go to the following children: 

  Carmen Bird (P4), Tilly Radcliffe (P5) and Stephen Kirkwood (P7) were awarded First Place in their year groups. 

  Ella Wallace (P4), Mayah Sole (P5) and Tom Emerson (P7) won Silver Medals for second place. 

  Lucia Larmour (P6), Nancy Emerson (P6) and Alexandra McLaughlin (P7) were awarded Bronze Medals for third place. 

  Sarah Morrow (P6) and Poppy Dunwoody (P7) won Certificates of Merit. 

  Well done to all of the children and thank you to all of their grown up helpers, who I’m sure could also recite the poems now! 🌟

  

• Wednesday Evening's Performance- some photos to remind you of the stars of the show!

  Wed 12 Feb 2025 Mrs Vaughan
  

• Some more photos from Tuesday Evening's Performance. Oh what a night!

  Wed 12 Feb 2025 Mrs Vaughan
  

• More than a hint of success with our School Pantomime, 'A Hint of Snow White'! Here are some photos from Tuesday's Evening Performance.

  Wed 12 Feb 2025 Mrs Vaughan
  

• New Librarians

  Wed 16 Oct 2024

  Have a look at our lovely new Librarians!

  P7 students recently applied for their post and have now received their badges.

  Each class will have one session in the school library per week when they will have time to choose a book and spend some time reading.

  Congratulations we know you’ll do a great job 😊

  

• Literacy Plans

  Fri 06 Sep 2024 Mrs Vaughan

  Good afternoon everyone,

  Just a little message to keep you updated on our Literacy plans for the year ahead.

   

  We all appreciate the importance of reading and understand how it is often the key to future success, so as part of our School Development and Literacy Plans, we aim to focus specifically on how we can help our children progress through the different developmental stages of Reading: from the emergent and early readers in the Foundation Stage, to the progressive and transitional readers in Key Stage 1, to the confident independent readers in Key Stage 2.

   

  In order for children to move successfully through these stages, the teaching of reading strategies and comprehension skills, through Guided Sessions in school and reinforcement and encouragement at home, are essential. To assist with the process, we are using Bloom’s Taxonomy, a hierarchical model that categorises learning objectives into varying levels of complexity, from basic knowledge and comprehension to advanced evaluation and creation.

   

  We appreciate the pressures and demands on parents in the afternoon and evening, and understand how challenging it can be to get quality time to read with our children.

  Please continue to complete your child’s reading homework with them, ensuring that they can read the text, and maybe more importantly, understand what they are reading, by discussing the story and characters, and by asking questions ranging from the literal to the more inferential and evaluative.

   

  We’re looking forward to starting our reading sessions on Monday and would appreciate it if you would sign your child’s diary to confirm that they have completed their reading homework. Also, continuing to ensure that reading is part of your child’s bedtime routine will improve sleep quality, while also reducing stress and anxiety.

   

  Thank you for your continued support.

  Kind regards,

  Mrs Vaughan ☺️

• Exciting new books!

  Fri 06 Sep 2024 Mrs Vaughan

  Last term, we used profits from our 2023 Pantomime and 2024 Book Fair to purchase a range of new reading books which your child will benefit from.