Congratulations to the pupils in P4 - P7 who received certificates for Accelerated Reading for this half term.
We all had great fun at the Harvest Hoolie yesterday. Everyone got the chance to make a scarecrow, do line dancing, duck for apples, make a chocolate apple and do games. Thanks to all the teachers and classroom assistants for organising the Harvest Hoolie.
The annual report has been published for 2017/18, on our website. This can be found by clicking ‘For Parents’, ‘Links’ and scrolling down to ‘Other’. This report contains information of the work of the board throughout the 2017/18 school year. We sincerely thank all of our governors for their dedicated service to our school.
At our Harvest Assembly, Mrs Howe reported that we had received £1500 from Tullaghans Solar Farm. Finvoy Young Farmers’ Club was tasked with distributing the funding from the Solar Farm, and Alix Campbell from Finvoy Y.F.C. presented the cheque to our school. The P1 and P2 children are looking forward to using the large outdoor building blocks which will be purchased with some of the funding.
Our Harvest Assembly was held on Wednesday 24th October. We were delighted that so many parents and friends came to join us for this special occasion. Thanks to the P1 - P3 children who sang ‘One, Two, Three Little Acorns’ and the P4 - P7 children who sang ‘Everything I am’. Michelle McDaid from N.I. Air Ambulance spoke to us about the new Air Ambulance. It takes two million pounds per year to keep the Air Ambulance in service. One of our parents, Dr David Green, who is also one of the doctors who goes on the air ambulance, reminded us about keeping safe, especially on farms. Thanks to everyone who contributed to this really worthy charity at our Harvest Service. Rev Blue reminded us to be thankful for everything that we have. Afterwards, tea and coffee was served by members of the Parents’ Association.
Congratulations to Emma in P4 who was the winner of the Accelerated Reading Cup for this half term.
On Thursday we had a visit from Ken the school photographer. Everyone was looking very neat and tidy. We are looking forward to having the photographs in the next few weeks.
This half term in P.D.M.U (Personal Development and Mutual Understanding),the P6 and P7 children have been looking at who makes our laws and who makes decisions that will help to make Northern Ireland a better place to live. They are also focusing on what children can do to help make this happen.
James, from N.I. Assembly Education came to do a workshop with P6/7. He told them how the Assembly works, and how laws are made. They also learned how our voting system works and they got the opportunity to do a pretend election. The Technology Party got the most votes. Maybe the promise of a free mobile phone to everyone, helped sway the vote in their favour
P2 have been learning how to write lists. During Outdoor Play, they collected five items and put them into bags. They then made a list of all the items they had collected. P1 children collected five items and they took turns to describe some of the items in their bags.
Thanks to all our children who eagerly helped to plant bulbs and flowers at the front of school. We are looking forward to watching them grow.
Each year our children get the opportunity to support this charity by buying, badges, teddy bears and ducks. Thanks to everyone who supported the appeal and to the P7 children who gave up some of their lunchtime to sell the badges.
P4 and P5 were given another STEM Challenge. This time in their groups, they had to build a castle with Lego. It had to contain moving parts and be around 20 cms tall. They created some wonderful castles with moving doors and revolving tables. One castle even had a swimming pool. The winning castle was built by, Ewan, Sam, Emma, Ethan, Cameron, Hana and Oliver.
RADAR
On Thursday 4th October P6 and P7 travelled to RADAR in Belfast. RADAR stands for Risk Avoidance Danger Awareness Resource. The children all really enjoyed and benefitted from their visit to RADAR and were given lots of practical information on road safety, personal safety. fire safety, and dangers of alcohol and being a good citizen. One of the main areas covered was Internet Safety, which is becoming an increasing danger to even primary school children with the use of ‘Snap Chat’ etc.
Detailed below is information that the children were given, to help keep them safe online:
all setting should be set to private
don’t share personal details online
don’t invite someone to be a ‘friend’, if you don’t know him or her well enough to invite to your house
Use ‘Ghost Mode Snap Chat’, otherwise everyone can see where you are even if you are not using Snap Chat.
Once again we are delighted that the library van is calling at school once every two weeks. Children in P3 - P5 have the opportunity to take out books from the van. The older children are always excited to get books that they can do Accelerated Reading quizzes on!
Nine children from P4-P7 have been chosen to serve on School Council. 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:- Lily, Emily, Harley, Ella, Jodie, Lucy, Oliver, Emma and Sam. In assembly, the nine 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.
Congratulation to all the pupils who received certificates for September. Certificates were awarded for ‘Being Kind and Caring’, ‘Great Reading’, ‘Good Organisation’, and ‘Excellent Class Presentation Skills’.
Parents and carers may find these sites useful.
This is the link to the ‘Take a Peek’ campaign, to help combat head lice.
http://www.onceaweektakeapeek.com/
This link is to an interesting article challenging adults in how we allow our children to experience and deal with risk in their play.
Rasharkin Primary and St Patrick's Primary School have been working together over the past number of years in the Shared Education Project. This year P5 - P7 have been joining with St Patrick’s children for six Sports Taster Sessions at the pitch at Rasharkin Community Centre, and later at Dunloy Sports Academy. They have all enjoyed football, Gaelic football, cricket and handball. Thanks to Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council and the Executive Office District Council Good Relations Programme for funding these sessions.
P4 - P7 had their first Hockey Coaching session on Wednesday after school. John their coach from Causeway & Glens Borough Council, taught them new skills this week and will continue to do so over the next few weeks.
Today in assembly, we all got the chance to sing a lovely new song called ‘Everything I am’. Thanks to Flora, Emma and Hana from P4 for volunteering to sing part of the song on their own.
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