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
Each year we encourage children to think about others and use their lunchtimes to help younger pupils. Beth, Ruby, Evie, Joy, Lily and Hollie were all selected after they submit applications of a very high standard. Many, many thanks to these children for all their help with others.
On Monday 2nd October, as well as walking and riding to school, pupils came to school wearing bright colours to remind us of ‘Be bright Be seen’
Jonny McCrystal from Sustrans was with us for a special assembly and for some lessons.
Jonny presented our school with a Sustrans silver award for our continuing efforts to promote healthy lifestyles through activities.
Four of our pupils in P6 and P7 Beth, Evie, Joy and Lily had prepared a brilliant Powerpoint on Take5 which they presented to the whole school in assembly.
Take 5 is a special health inititive which seeks to encourage children to take 5 steps to help with their wellbeing.
These steps are
Connect
Take Notice
Keep Learning
Be Active
Give
Jonny then had an outdoor lesson with P3 and P4 which gave the children ideas on how to take these five steps.
Other classes had road safety lessons and P5 used chalks to design bright T-shirts on the playground.
In Rasharkin Primary School we believe it is important to take care of our bodies and minds. After being awarded our ‘Take 5’ status we choose some children each year who will help share this message with the whole school community. This year, Beth, Lily, Joy and Evie worked on creating a PowerPoint Presentation for assembly to tell others about how they can ‘Take 5’. Johnny McCrystal (Sustrans) was in present in assembly to present the ambassadors with their titles.
We are delighted to be continuing with the Sustrans Active Travel Project Week initiative. This is a week-long event across the UK to encourage families to cycle, scoot or walk to school. It's a great way to celebrate the huge benefits an active school run brings. This year it takes place from 2nd October to 6th October. We are delighted to see many families parking at Rasharkin Presbyterian Church car park (kindly granted to us) and then walking, riding or scooting to school.
Congratulations to Mia P7 whose prayer was chosen to be the lunchtime prayer for this year. We had some great prayers from all our children. Mark, Izabelle, Minnie, Harvey Beth and Jace also received a special prize for their prayers
Congratulations to the eight children who have been selected to be School Councillors for 2023- 2024. All children in P4 to P7 had to write a manifesto to outline why they should be considered to be on the School Council. Two children from each class were chosen. They will meet every month to bring their ideas, and also the ideas from the other children in their classes, on what can be done to impove things around our school. We are very excited to see what great ideas they will have.
After finding out about WWII during World Around Us lessons, pupils dressed up as evacuees to visit NI War Memorial museum in Belfast. This was a great opportunity for pupils to increase their understanding of what life was like in NI during WWII, with an engaging workshop and opportunities to handle artefacts from the period.
We ended off the school year with our annual talent show organised by P7. We were entertained by a variety of acts from singing, dancing, gymnastics, and playing musical instruments to football and scooter skills! Well done to all those children who took part and to the P7s for organising. Thank you also to our judges Mrs Armstrong, Janelle and Riannan who had a very difficult job and also to Mrs Armstong and Riannan who showed everyone their talent at playing musical instruments!
The P1/2 winners were Penny and Emilie who did ballet, P3 winner was Lily who did roller skating, P4/5 had 2 winning acts - Kain for scooter tricks and Evie, Bethany and Lily for gymnastics. and the P6/7 winner was Hollie who played the accordian. The overall winners were Sophia, Beth, Evie, Ruby, Katie and Jane who wrote and performed their own puppet show! Well done everyone!
