Well done to our football team who, once again, were unbeaten at the tournament on Wednesday.
Primary 1 Applications for school year beginning September 2024 will open on Tuesday 9 January 2024 at 12 noon. Have a look at our flyer here, or the Admissions tab of our website. We would be delighted to welcome visitors to our school on Wednesday 10th January 2024.
P6 and P7 have been taking part in the ‘Shaken’ Programme where they have been thinking about things they can do to help them, if their lives are ‘shaken’.
Having completed the Shaken Programme, the children had a ‘Pizza Party Celebration’. They were reminded that each of them are unique and decorated their own pizzas to illustrate this. All enjoyed freshly cooked pizzas and then were presented with certificates.
Many thanks to a grant from Northern Area, Mental Health & Emotional Wellbeing and Suicide Prevention Model Groups that made this possible.
Thank you to everyone who contributed to the Harvest Offering for ‘MadLug’. We were able to send £150 to Madlug which will go to help fifteen children in care to carry their lives in dignity. Click Link to view letter
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Congratulations to Bethany P5, who was chosen by Keri and Jess from Coaching For Christ, as player of the month for October 2023. Bethany and a pupil from Dunclug were chosen for ‘ showing great attitude and determination throughout their Coaching For Christ Sessions’. Well done Bethany!
Our P1 and P2 children have enjoyed tidying their flower bed. They have now planted different bulbs and are looking forward to see what flowers appear in the springtime.
P1 and P2 have also been taking part in the Beyond Bricks Programme. Details of the Programme are in the Beyond Bricks P3-P5 blog. Here are some pictures of P1 and P2 children during their sessions.
We are delighted that we have received funding which has enabled P1 - P5 children to take part in the Beyond Bricks Lego Based Programme. What is Beyond Bricks?
Beyond Bricks is a legacy programme which sees schools fully equipped to deliver a series of interactive workshops aimed to increase the emotional health and wellbeing of Children.
MindWise will work with schools to support the pupils recover and discover new skills to enable them to overcome challenges in their lives, by focusing on the five key aspects of emotional wellbeing as identified by the Education Authority ‘Emotional Health and Wellbeing Framework.’
Coping
Self-awareness
Motivation
Social resilience
Self-control
Pupils will take part in a 5 week interactive programme in their school with their own teachers co-facilitating the programme with trained Beyond Bricks Associates. Each pupil will leave with a personalised toolkit to help them cope with all five areas of the Emotional Health and Wellbeing Framework to navigate their future with confidence.
During the sessions, there is always a Lego building section. In groups of three, the children work as a group to complete Lego models - one person looks at the instructions and communicates what pieces are needed, the second lifts out the required lego pieces and the third constructs the lego model. It has been great to watch their confidence grow, week on week as they complete these tasks.
Rachel from Beyond Bricks, and the class teachers and classroom assistants have been helping the children complete their Beyond Bricks workbooks. P3 - P5 have been making Coping Jars.
On Friday 17th November as part of ‘Anti-Bullying Week’ we celebrated by having an ‘Odd Sock Day’. Here are P3/4 showing off their odd socks, which we used as important lesson to help us understand that everyone is unique, and we should respect differences.
Other important themes covered included:
- Definition of bullying & types of bullying
- ‘Make a Noise’ about bullying
Tell someone if you or someone you know is being bullied.
- What makes a good friend?
Many congratulations to our football team who recently won all four of their matches, in the local small schools’ tournament.
One of the suggestions that our new School Councillors had proposed, was to start an after school Cookery Club. We are delighted that Mrs Sharleen Calderwood and Mrs Ruth Armstrong have agreed to run this club. Their first session was on 7th November when sixteen P1 - P3 children and twenty three P4 - P7 children enjoyed making ‘Snowballs’. This week they made delicious ‘Fifteens’. Everyone is really loving the new Cookery Club.
Thanks to a grant, from the Northern Locality Mental Health & Emotional Wellbeing and Suicide Prevention team, P6/7 have been able to participate in the ‘Shaken’ programme. This programme is facilitated by ‘The Big House’ and is designed to help children think about things they can do to help them when their life is ‘shaken’.
Congratulations to these children who received certificates for hard work during September and October. Certificates were awarded for passing Accelerated Reading targets, Being Kind and Caring, Great Reading, Great Organisation and Reading Eggs.
Harvest Fun! All the children had a wonderful time at our ‘Harvest Hoolie’. They enjoyed making Chocolate Apples with Mrs Howe, a Harvest Craft with Mrs Henry, a Harvest Quiz with Mrs Peden and Harvest Games with Mrs Calderwood. Many thanks to all the staff who worked hard to make this fun, end of term celebration possible.
Our ‘Poppy Shop’ will be available in school each day from Monday 6th November - Friday 10th November, at lunchtime. Click here for prices and details of what is available. New recyclable plastic poppies are also available (suggested donation 50p).
Many thanks to our P7 ‘shopkeepers’, who helped with great sales, totalling £136.51. Thanks to all the parents and children who donated money to the Poppy Appeal who have expressed their thanks too.
We are delighted to be able to give pupils the opportunity to develop their football skills, alongside hearing an important message about how to keep both their bodies and minds healthy, based on stories from the bible. Pupils have also the opportunity to stay after school for football sessions too.
We were delighted to receive our Sustrans Silver Award from Johnny McCrystal. The award celebrates the work the whole school community does to make active travel choices.
This week children had a special focus on this with a ‘Ditch the Dark’ non uniform day on Monday to kick start the ‘Active Travel Week’. Many thanks to all parents who made the special effort required to add an active travel choice each day.
To give pupils the opportunity to have the responsibility of helping others and sharing their expertise in ICT with others, we appoint Digital Leaders. Many thanks to these pupils who have volunteered their time for this role.
Congratulations to Joy P6, who was the winner of the Accelerated Reading Cup for this half term. Joy achieved more than 600% over her Accelerated Reading Target for this peiod. Well done Joy.
Our Harvest Service was held on 18th October. It was great to see so many parents and friends joining us for this special occasion. Thanks to the P1 and P2 children who drew some lovely harvest pictures for our programme. We enjoyed songs from P1 -P3 and then P4-P7. Our guest speaker was Mr Colin Tinsley who told us the story of Ruth from the Bible. The chosen charity which we are supporting this year is Madlug. Madlug stands for 'make a difference luggage' Their work focuses on giving a pack-away travel bag to a child or young person in care.
Thanks to Mrs Caroline Boal for agreeing to serve tea and coffee after our Harvest Assembly
