Term 1 Newsletter 2019

DOWNLOAD Term 1 Newsletter 2019

St. Columba’s wishes all our families a Happy New Year!

Highlights

Student Council
Our pupil voice is very important to us and we listen closely to the views of the children. We also take action e.g by moving the pond and creating another playground!! Like in previous years, all pupils presented their speeches to their peers informing them of their good ideas and how they would make a difference to the life of the school. Then the ballots were cast and the election results were announced.
We wish all those who were elected great success with their post.

Sustrans!!

We are working collaboratively with the charity Sustrans who aim to increase the amount of active and sustainable travel to school.P6 pupils brought their bicycles in for a full MOT by Sustran’s officer Ronan McLaughlin.The pupils also completed cycling proficiency and had lots of fun in doing so.

Shared Education

Shared Education aims to improve both educational and reconciliation outcomes. Our school has an excellent partnership with Tobermore PS that commenced in September 2017. Through Shared Education we aim to empower young people to develop their potential. We hope this helps them to make informed and responsible choices and decisions throughout their lives. We also hope this helps them develop as individuals; as contributors to society; and as contributors to the economy and environment.

Cross-Country

Our teams ran so well. They had great fun and a super sense of achievement. Well done to Michael Higgins who finished as 3^rd boy overall.

Wind Farm Visit – Crockandun

P7 studied renewable energy as part of their STEM project so it was great that they were able to see the ‘real deal’. Thanks to Brookfield Renewables for organizing this great trip!

Roots of Empathy

Roots of Empathy is an international, evidence-based classroom program that has shown significant effect in raising social/emotional competence and increasing empathy among school children. Mrs. Kelly is now a fully trained instructor and is doing this programme with our P7 pupils. Baby Freya is our wonderful teacher!

P3 and P4 Visit Carrickfergus Castle

P3 and P4 studied the topic of Castles in ‘World Around Us’ in Term 1. They had a wide variety of connected learning opportunities e.g. they made clay castles in art, constructed castle empires, took part in role-plays as knights, queens and kings and made working drawbridges …

It was a wonderful opportunity therefore to visit a real castle to bring all this learning to life.

Building Work

The building work in our school has been progressing well and we are really looking forward to the finished product. We would like to thank all parents and families for their co-operation during this time and also McCusker Contracts in helping us to ensure that school life continues to run as smoothly as possible.

A New Playground!!

In the last number of years our school population has grown and the area for play became very tight. The Student Council and pupils noticed this and lobbied to increase the play area. This was initially done by getting rid of the old pond area and moving it to the sensory garden. Then an area at the back of the school that was very wet and inaccessible to the pupils for most of the year became a priority.

An bhfuil Gaelige agat?

P6 and P7 have had a ball learning Irish!

P1 have settled in so well and have great fun at school!