SHARED EDUCATION 'SPORTS TASTER SESSIONS'

As part of the Shared Education Project, P4 and P5 have been joining with P4 children from St Patrick’s Primary School for Sports Taster Sessions on the pitch at the Community Centre. These sessions have been funded by a grant received from Building a United Community Fund.

The children are enjoying coaching on four sports:- Football/Soccer, Gaelic Football, Cricket and Olympic Handball. Today was their second session and they all had great fun learning new skills and then playing matches in their groups.

SHARED EDUCATION AUTUMN ART WEEK 2

Our P3 and P4 children enjoyed their second art session at St Patrick’ s Primary School on Wednesday 9th October. There were four art projects;

  • Fairytale Settings

  • Dot Painting : Owls

  • Forest Sketches

  • Zentangle

Each group did two of the activities and next week they will do the other two. They all did some great work and we now have a lovely selection of Autumn Art which will be displayed later on.

'KEY TO LIFE' EXHIBITION

Today, P6/7 visited Buick Primary School where Scripture Union had located the ‘Key to Life’ exhibition lorry. Children enjoyed an interactive presentation discussing the story of Jesus.

They looked at what Christians believe the bible teaches, including who they thought Jesus was. They also looked a a Bible timeline, miracles Jesus performed and some prophecies from the bible.

LUNCHTIME AWARDS SEPTEMBER

Everyday in the dinner hall and in the playground, Mrs Morrison and Mrs Wilson look for children who do something special. This can include:- ‘I ate all my lunch’ ‘I talked quietly to my friends’ I used great listening skills’ I used lovely manners’ I was a super server’ I was a good example’ I showed great sportsmanship’. These children get a certificate and then at the end of the month one person from each classroom gets picked, to receive a special prize. Our September special prize winners are pictured below.

SEPTEMBER ASSEMBLY AWARDS

September assembly awards were presented for ‘Being Kind and Caring’, ‘Excellent Class Presentation Skills’, ‘Great Reading’, and ‘Good Organisation’.

AUTUMN ART

On Wednesday 2nd October our P3 and P4 children had their first art session with P3 children from St Patrick’s Primary as part of the Shared Education project. They had the opportunity to create four different pieces of art :-a hedgehog, a scarecrow, autumn trees and pastel autumn pictures. We were very impressed by the standard of art and are looking forward to the second session on 9th October. Thanks to Miss Richmond for her preparation for this first session.

WHEELWORKS ICT PROJECT

Our P6 and P7 are very excited about getting started their Wheelworks ICT Project. Their first session took place on 26th September. Using the Virtual Reality headsets and controllers the children entered into the Virtual Reality room. In the room there was a robot and they had to make the robot wave, insert a disc and print, using their controllers.

They have also started a six week block on 3D animation. They created and edited their ‘person’ - ‘character’ and created a world for their character. This involved choosing such things as hair colour, environments and props. They used their mouse to scroll left and right and up and down. They were introduced to a third axis, ‘z axis’, which allowed the children to get a birds’ eye view.

SHARED EDUCATION 'AUTUMN' ART EXHIBITION

As part of our Shared Education project this year, our P3 and P4 children are working together with P3 children from St Patrick’s Primary School, to create an ‘Autumn’ Art Exhibition. On Wednesday 25th September they all went to Roe Valley Country Park. Firstly they visited the Visitors’ Centre where they saw lots of stuffed animals and did lots of other woodland activities. They then had a very long walk through the forest looking for signs of autumn and they even managed to see two squirrels in the treetop. The children were very hungry after their walk, and they all enjoyed their picnic lunch in the sunshine. Afterwards they had a scavenger hunt around the forest, looking for items for their project.

The children will soon be starting their art project and now they have lots of ideas and materials to help them with this.

VISIT TO RADAR

On Monday 23rd September, P6 and P7 travelled with pupils from Ballykelly Primary School to RADAR in Belfast. Radar stands for Risk Avoidance Danger Awareness Resource. RADAR is Northern Ireland’s first fully interactive, safety and life skills education centre. It’s interactive, fun, and informative. RADAR gives  people a unique chance to explore dangerous situations in a risk free environment. 

Our children took part in the Key Stage 2 programme which dealt with six main areas.

  • Bus safety - travelling safely and respecting other passengers and the driver

  • Social Media Safety - being careful about the information we share on Snapchat, Instagram etc. NEVER arrange to meet a stranger.

  • Anti-social behaviour - taking care of public areas like parks. The children were shown the consequences of anti-social behaviour. - being arrested!

  • Road safety- how to safely cross at a crossing.

  • Hazard House - looked at dangers within the home, tripping, suffocation, chemicals etc

  • Fire safety - looking for electrical hazards and planning an escape route in case of a fire.

Our children really enjoyed the trip and were given lots of information in a very interactive and visual way.

WHEELWORKS ICT PROJECT LAUNCH

We are delighted to have been one of four schools (Rasharkin PS, St Patrick’s PS, Clough PS and Glenravel PS) selected to take part in an innovative ICT project. Our P6 and P7 children will be working with tutors from Wheelworks staff, on four main areas -

  • Film making (special effects, camera positions, sound recording)

  • Game Design (platform style game using characters the children have created)

  • Augmented Reality APP Development

  • 3D Animation & Virtual Reality (VR). VR is - being inside and surrounded by a digital world

On Thursday, P6 and P7 travelled to the launch of this project in Adair Arms Hotel Ballymena. Here they met the tutors from Wheelworks. They took part in lots of ‘Getting to know you activities’ with the other three schools. The project, as well as providing great ICT opportunities, aims to teach children about their communities, their shared history, what things are the same and what things are different about our communities/schools. The children had a really good morning, and after a delicious lunch, headed back to school with everyone very enthusiastic about starting this project. For more information see https://www.wheelworksarts.com/

BULB PLANTING

Autumn time is the time to prepare for spring time. The children have been helping to plant the tulip and daffodil bulbs for next spring. They will soon be helping to plant the bedding plants to bring a splash of colour to our front flower beds.

SIGNS OF AUTUMN

P3 and P4 are looking at the topic ‘Autumn’ in World Around Us. Yesterday they took advantage of the lovely sunny weather to have a look around the school grounds for some signs of autumn. They found lots of leaves and cones.

LUNCHTIME PRAYER

Congratulations to Sharon from P7, whose prayer was chosen to be said by everyone, every day in the lunch hall. We had lots of really good prayers and the teachers had a very difficult task choosing a winner. Runners up were :- Jeorgia, Ellen, Grace, Wiktor amd Mark.

SCHOOL COUNCIL

Following on from the success of last year’s School Council, eight children from P4-P7 have been chosen to serve on School Council for 2019- 2020.  All our children wrote a manifesto giving reasons why they should be chosen to be on the School Council.  There was then a class vote, and the following children were elected:- Annie P6, Dan P4, Tom P6. Tilly P4, Chloe P7, Ethan P5, Cameron P7 and Flora P5. In assembly the eight new School Council members read their manifestos.  They are now looking forward to working alongside the teachers, to try to implement some of the changes that pupils have suggested, to make our school a better place

DIGITAL LEADERS

Four P7 children have now been appointed as ‘Digital Leaders’ for our school. The role of the Digital Leader is to help teachers to set up laptops and iPads for their classes, and also to assist the younger children with some of their ICT projects. Congratulations to Jodie, Ella, Isaac and Jack who are our new Digital Leaders.

WHO'S GETTING MARRIED?

Congratulations to Rev Blue who is getting married in early October. Mrs Howe presented him with a gift from Board of Governors, staff and parents from our school. We hope he has a lovely day and that he will have a very long and happy marriage.

SEPTEMBER SPECIAL ASSEMBLY

We were delighted to once again welcome Rev Blue to take our assembly on Wednesday. His message for the children was - ‘God is with us and He will carry our burdens’. To illustrate this , Rev Blue had his really heavy school bag with him. It contained lots of things that are not needed in school. When he took them out he was left with a normal bag, with only the necessary school things in it Remember to give any burdens, troubles or fears you have, over to God. He will carry them for you.

NSPCC - SPEAK OUT STAY SAFE

On Monday we had a visit from three trained volunteers, with the charity NSPCC (National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. They were Margaret, Shirley and Alice. They came to deliver the Speak out Stay Safe Programme to our children.

Here is what the programme covers -

‘Our specially trained staff and volunteers hold interactive assemblies and workshops. With the help of our mascot, Buddy, we cover topics like bullying and abuse, but without using any scary words or adult language.. Pupils learn about the different types of abuse, in a child-friendly and age appropriate way, so they can get help if or when they need it. We help them identify a trusted adult they can talk to if they're ever worried about themselves or a friend. They learn about Childline, and how it can support them'.

P6 and P7 had a workshop entitled ‘Magnificent Me’ where they identified things that make them feel happy and safe.

There will be a collection for the work of NSPCC at our Harvest Assembly in October.

LOADS OF CARROTS

P1 and P2 had lots of fun harvesting the carrots which have been growing over the summer months. The children had sown the carrot seeds in the springtime. They looked at their carrots and worked out who had the longest and shortest carrots. They also noticed that there were some very strange looking carrots!

PADDINGTON ON TOUR

We are delighted to welcome our new Primary 1 children to school and are pleased to say that they have all settled in really well. To help them to find their way around our school, Paddington Bear took the P1 and P2 children on a special tour. They saw all the classrooms, office and the assembly hall, and they saw where to leave their lunch boxes and coats in the morning.