We have been working on a project about the impact of 2023 Downpatrick Floods. Ross very kindly organised to bring in a sandbag to let us see how it could be used as a great defence against flood water. We had great fun estimating the weight of the sandbag and then trying to lift it to understand the physical strain involved in preparing for floods with sandbags.
This week we are celebrating Catholic Schools Week and the theme this year is 'Alive in Christ'. We have been exploring how to live life to the full in our community of friends, our faith community, our families and for the common good of all.
Today we explored the theme of "Life to the Full in Our Families" which was marked by our favourite celebration - Grandparents Day. Grandparents hold a very special place in our family and school community, helping us to live life to the full. Today we honour the vital role our grandparents play in our lives - nurturing us, supporting our talents, encouraging us, and passing on the faith from one generation to the next.
To show our love to our parents and grandparents, we made cards filled with messages of appreciation, gratitude and love for our loved ones and then we will post them to our relations.
In Term 2 we have introduced ‘STEM Fridays’ - a slot in our timetable to explore Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths in experimental ways.
Today the pupils enjoyed making gas-powered boats as part of their chemical sciences experiment. It was very exciting to see which group’s boat travelled the farthest and what adaptations resulted in this effect.
Today we had a very special trip to St Colmcille's High School in Crossgar to watch their performance of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.
We were blown away by the talent of the St Colmcille's pupils and were very inspired by their performance of our class song, Song of the Kings. We were especially delighted to meet the cast at the end of the production.
Today our Primary 5 and Primary 6 pupils enjoyed a visit from Chloe and Sarah from the Dairy Council.
The ladies delivered a very informative and interactive workshop on the importance of getting the balance right between food and fitness and how we can help our bodies to perform optimally each day.
Today we welcomed Alex from Table Tennis Ireland for some coaching. For most of us, this was our first ever experience playing table tennis and we thoroughly enjoyed it! Alex brought portable nets so we moved our desks and had a table each so we were able to enjoy 45 straight minutes of table tennis skill development and play! Thank you Alex - we can't wait for next week!
Today we showed our support to the Down Senior Football Team ahead of their Ulster Semi-Final clash against Armagh by wearing red and black to school. There was an exciting buzz in the classroom today as we learned about the history of the Down team, used our creativity to redesign the Down jersey and engaged in some Down GAA trivia to learn about their historical successes. Up Down!
Our brain break task today unlocked a world of creativity as we were tasked to use a single paper clip to make a picture. At first we were only allowed to use straight lines, circles and triangles to make our pictures until we progressed to having free reign to draw whatever we could think of. Miss Sweeney was blown away by the imagination and creativity shown by everyone and we made some very impressive pictures!
As our topic focus on Rainforests is coming to a close, we have used our knowledge about the various animals in the rainforest to create hybrid creatures. We explored elements of a range of animals that we liked and then we added our favourite features together to make weird yet wonderful new species. We will now begin writing non-chronological reports to provide more information about what makes each of these animals unique.
If by any chance you do see any of these animals in real life, we recommend that you run as fast and as far as you can!
Today we visited our local library here in Downpatrick. While some of us make regular use of this facility, we all learnt how invaluable this resource is. We first met with the lovely librarian who told us all about the purpose of a library and we were excited to learn that you can get more than just books here - you can get audiobooks, Microbits and attend the Chess Club. We were also very fortunate to have a tour of the archive collection and learn about the history of Downpatrick.
Today we wore odd socks to school to celebrate World Down Syndrome Day- a global awareness day which has been officially observed by the United Nations since 2012. As a school we chose to wear odd socks to start conversations; when people ask why we're wearing odd socks we can discuss Down Syndrome confidently. In class our focus today was to learn about Down Syndrome and how we can promote inclusion both in school and in wider communities.
All of our Primary 6 children were very lucky to have had cricket coaching in Term 1 led by coaches from the Northern Knights.
We used our time with the coaches to understand the rules of cricket and then develop our skills in fielding and batting.
To showcase our skills, we were invited to participate in an indoor cricket festival coordinated by the Northern Ireland Cricket Union.
We were able to bring two teams and both enjoyed their games, proving confident and motivated against some very talented teams.
