RASHARKIN HISTORY WALK

This year our school is once again working with St Patrick’s Primary School in a Shared Education Signature Project. Our P4 and P5 children will be working with the P5 class from St Patrick’s Primary School to create Interactive Books using Book Creator on the I-pads. Their subject is ‘History of Rasharkin Village’. Today they met for their first session which started off with an ice-breaker to get to know each other. They then went on a guided walk of Rasharkin with Liam McCart from the local History Group. The children were given lots of information about the old shops, churches and police barracks, and they were amazed at how many different shops used to be in the village. They are now looking forward to creating their books in future sessions.

Ice-Breaker - Getting to Know you

Liam told the children the History of St Olcan

This used to be the old filling station down near the Turnpike. The children heard lots of stories of Highway Men travelling down the road at the Turnpike.

St Andrew’s Church

This was the old police barracks

This was the most recent police barracks.

The children all managed a few minutes play time in the park.

Resurfacing

We are delighted that the Education Authority has started work for resurfacing of the school playgrounds. The children are delightfully anticipating a smooth surface to play on and have displayed very mature attitudes to the disruption during the work. We ask that parents and carers also have patience when dropping off and collecting children during this time.

A letter has been sent to all residents in Bamford Park letting them know of the planned work and possible disruption. We wish to minimize this and ask that you help by thoughtfully choosing your parking space, or perhaps even arriving a few minutes early so you can park further away and walk to the school gate.

With special thanks to our Board of Governors for their support in this.

Internet Safety Week

Children in P4-7 were thrilled with the opportunity to play a variety of games in school on Thurs 14th February and learn important messages about choosing games wisely and ‘stranger danger’ whilst gaming. The point was illustrated by asking the children the simple question, “What would you do if a stranger tried to talk to you / offered you a bar of chocolate at the park?”. Playing games with people you don’t actually know in person is similar.

Mike, from Godmodex, also spoke to some parents about how to set parental controls on game consoles and the importance of checking (and understanding) the ‘PEGI’ ratings. He suggested parents watch YouTube trailers of games to help them decide if a game is suitable for their child or visit the website commonsensemedia.org which reviews the ratings of games and offers feedback from other users.

'WE' CHARITY

On Tuesday 11th February in assembly we welcomed Olivia from the WE Charity. WE Charity, formerly known as Free The Children, is an international development charity and youth empowerment movement founded in 1995 by human rights advocates Marc and Craig Kielburger. The organization has development programs in nine countries, focusing on education, water, health, food and economic opportunity. Olivia encouraged our children to get involved in trying to improve the quality of life for children all around the world. After assembly, Olivia ran workshops for P5 children. Their focus was on ‘bullying’. P6 and P7 had a workshop on ‘Waste’ - wasting water, food etc.

Thomas,Sam, Flora, Kirsty and Demi helped to demonstrate the issues that the We charity are trying to focus on.

P5 working on their anti bullying project with Olivia

ANTI - SMOKING

A special thanks to two of the staff from Kennedy’s Pharmacy who came to school to speak to the P6 and P7 children about the dangers of smoking.

THE GREAT BOAT RACE

P1 and P2 have been learning about the work of Coastguards as part of their WAU topic - People Who Help Us. They designed and made their own boats and then had a very exciting boat race. Have a look at their fantastic designs and the competitive boat races.

ACCELERATED READING CERTIFICATES

Congratulations to everyone who received a certificate for Accelerated Reading this half term. We are really encouraged by the effort that our pupils put in to achieve their individual targets. We are also delighted that the Accelerated Scheme has developed a love of reading throughout our school.

P5 children with their Accelerated Reading Certificates

P4 children with their Accelerated Reading Certificates

P6 children with their Accelerated Reading Certificates

P7 children with their Accelerated Reading Certificates

ACCELERATED READING CUP

Congratulations to Flora, P4 who was the winner of the Accelerated Reading Cup for this half term. Flora had achieved an amazing 43.8 points!

VISIT TO HASSON'S ENGINEERING

P6&7 have been looking at the topic ‘Thrills and Spills’ in World Around Us. As part of this they have been thinking about the different forces in play all around us.  Hasson’s Engineering kindly invited P6/7 to view a bridge they had been working on, in the final stages of construction.  The children enjoyed seeing first-hand the work that goes into the creation of a bridge and learning about the science behind it.   Many thanks to Hasson’s for giving up their time to host our visit.

EXCELLENT ARTWORK

Congratulations to Ethan, Emma, Molly and Grace whose artwork was chosen to be displayed in Children’s Work on our website.

ASSEMBLY AWARDS

January assembly awards were presented for ‘Being Kind and Caring’, ‘Excellent Technology Skills’, ‘Excellent P.E. Skills’, and ‘Progress in Literacy’.

Kirsty, Thomas, Susanna and Tyler received the 'Being Kind and Caring Award' for January 2019

Ryan, Robin, Dan and Sam received certificates for 'Excellent Technology Skills'.

Stephen, Ethan and Annie received certificates for 'Excellent P.E. skills.

Oliver, Anna, Amelia and Jodie received certificates for ' Progress in Literacy'.

ROAD SAFETY CERTIFICATES

In assembly this week, Stephen, Grace, Alexander and Andrew were presented with their certificates and shields, following their success in the recent Road Safety Quiz. They are now looking forward to the Northern Ireland Final on 4th March in Belfast.

LUNCHTIME AWARDS

Congratulations to Susanna P5, Hana P4 and Joy P1 who received lunchtime awards for ‘Being a good example’. Matthew P7, received his lunchtime award for ‘Being a really patient server’. Tyler P7 received a special award for being exceptionally helpful to the younger children in school in the dinner hall.

Susanna P5, Hana P4, Matthew P7 and Joy P1

Tyler P7

MUSIC SUCCESS

Congratulations to Isaac P6 who was awarded a Distinction in his Initial piano exam. Hannah P6 was awarded a Merit in her Grade 1 Clarinet exam. Both Isaac and Hannah are pupils of Mrs Heather McAleese who teaches piano in our school.

DOUBLE MILLIONAIRE!

Congratulations to Alexander in P7 who has now read more than two million words in the Accelerated Reading Scheme. He already had one million words last year!

Keeping Children Safe

We are very aware of our responsibilities to keep children safe whilst they are entrusted to our care. Our Safeguarding and Child Protection policy has recently been reviewed and updated and can be found under the ‘Policies and Documents’ section of our website.

Mrs Lorna Wylie has kindly agreed to serve as Designated Governor for Safeguarding and Child Protection.

We are also holding a parent information session to help parents understand how to keep their child safe whilst they are playing games online (Thurs 14th Feb @ 11.30am, in the school library).

KRD CREDIT UNION QUIZ

Grace, Alexander, Stephen and Andrew took part in the Kilrea, Rasharkin and Dunloy Credit Union General Knowledge Quiz, today, Although they did not come 1st or 2nd they did really well and answered lots of questions correctly.