Page 5 - St Marys Newsletter March 2023

School, Ballina state-of-the-art campus
What do you miss
most about the old
school?
VOX POP
Georgia Bourke, LC
“The classrooms for
lunch”
Angelina Harley, LC
“The toilets…”
Louise Kenny, LC
“The base rooms.”
Lisa Munnelly, LC
“Being in the
classrooms for
lunch”
Christy Cares! By Kate Cooney McHale
It's no doubt that we have a big
school that needs a lot of work to
maintain – between the school
and its vast grounds. With
caretakers Martin Browne and
Christy Donnelly, literally taking
care of everything, a typical and leaves at 5pm. " When I
workday for these two men can normally come in, I have a
be extremely busy. general walk around". We
Despite this, Christy agreed to asked him what
give a few minutes of his time for his favourite part of day was,
a chat with Daily Mary’s. A rare his response was "When I
opportunity to see him take a come in-in the morning and
seat, he joined me in the canteen. see all of ye!" Christy and
When I pitched the idea of this Martin tend to a lot of jobs at
interview, all my classmates were school, Christy said "In summer
curious to find out more about
time it would be most hectic
what the general day to day work
of a caretaker is really like. because we have to do loads of
outdoor jobs like mowing the
Christy revealed that he arrives at
school "around 8:30 am" grass."
Keeping St. Mary’s campus clean
By Kathleen Geraghty & Emma Holmes
A NEW school brings new faces – especially at the start of each term.
This year, as September dawned and our new First Year students arrived
at the brand-new campus, they weren't the only ones facing a whole
new beginning. In essence, everyone who walked through our brand-
new shiny doors was a 'newbie' but for one person life was changed
dramatically.
Meet Tara – our new full-time cleaner – who has the unenviable task of
trying to keep our school, which measures.... over two floors...clean,
hygienic and presentable.
We stole five minutes of Tara's precious time and caught up with her to
chat to her about her job. Tara revealed that she worked in St. Mary’s
last year also, however, her role started in the evenings after the
students had left the buildings. “Now I work from 10am until 3pm when
everyone is here and I cover about 15,000 steps in that time.”
Unsurprisingly, when asked her least favourite job she volunteered:
“Cleaning the toilets, as there is a lot of toilet paper around the place.”
What can students do to help Tara? Her answer was clear and concise:
“Be aware of crumbs and make sure to pick any toilet paper you drop.”
One thing’s for sure, St. Mary’s is sparkling but we can all do our bit to
keep it that way!