Going Green
Congratulations to everyone who helped us to attain our 7th Eco-Flag. To qualify for this honour pupils, staff and parents have saved energy, recycled all sorts of things and spent hours tidying and enhancing the school grounds. The Eco-committee escorted the judges around on Thursday and they were most impressed by their knowledge and the variety of projects going on. They showed the judges the bug-hotel and the on-going changes to the wildlife area, our willow garden and our ‘Dig for Victory’ vegetable patch. They also told them about our success in recycling with our own paper bank and our regular ‘Cash for Clobber’ collections. Thanks to all those who have given their time to help or contributed to our recycling efforts. A special word of thanks to Mrs Anderson and her committee for co-ordinating all the work.Book Week
We had another very successful book week at the beginning of March with art competitions to win vouchers to spend at the book fair and a fancy dress to celebrate World Book Day. We ended the week with a visit from past pupil William Steele who now works for Templar children’s books, designing the layouts and covers for a wide range of books. He told us about the process a book has to go through between being written and appearing on the book shop shelves. We also learned that there are all sorts of jobs you can do connected with books, apart from being an author or illustrator. This includes editors, graphic designers and even paper technicians (who design the pop up books). We also got to preview their latest books which come out this summer. The title for ’Fairythorn Tales’ was inspired by the fairy thorn in Kilrea.
Class Updates
P1, 2 and 3 are learning about giants. They have been reading bible stories about David and Goliath and our own local giant Finn McCool. They have found things which are taller or smaller than the famous giant and painted pictures. They have also been reading Jack and the beanstalk and have now planted some beans of their own. I wonder what adventures they may have when their beans start to grow.Primary 4 and 5 have been learning about World War 2 and how their lives would have been very different. They have imagined what it would be like to be an evacuee and learned about rationing, working out what they could buy with their clothing coupons in a year, as well as the different jobs people could have had. However the highlight of the week is catching up on the latest episode of ‘Spywatch’ and deciding whether Mr Grainger and Miss Millington are spies or merely nasty pieces of work.
P6 and 7 have been out and about in March and April. First they had the privilege of taking part in the 2013 Peace Proms which were held in the Waterfront Hall Belfast. Over 1000 school children from Northern Ireland and the border counties formed the choir which accompanied the Peace Prom Orchestra. The audience enjoyed a wide range of music, both modern and classical from the orchestra and a range of guest soloists and musicians. There were lots of highlights including the percussionist who tap-danced during ‘The Typewriter’. Perhaps some of our own young musicians will be inspired to keep practising.
