Reindeer Food

I have just got round to counting up the money raised in a very nice wee fundraising gesture by Fiona McCurry. She packs up sparkly food for reindeer, which those of us with wee relatives buy up and get them to scatter on the lawn. Fiona raised £25.00+, and particularly + what I owed, which I of course had forgotten to hand in, but have now remedied - honest, Fiona.

Fame at Christmas

Two of our broadcasters were at work over Christmas. Catherine Kelly, our head of drama, had her play broadcast on RTE on Sunday night. I have to confess that i didn't wake up in time to hear djfelan on Big Toe Books at 7.00am on Christmas morning, but 'Listen Again" is a fantastic facility, and as soon as I was awake, i tuned in to hear Felan, beautifully clearly, introduce the show and lead in Richard Briers, who read the featured book, "Beastly Boris".

A Great Last Day

We had a great last day, with disco by djfelan and djsara, with Bruce Springsteen Lambe and Van Morrison Lambe to round off. Over to St John's Church for the Carol Service, led by Ivor Anderson and Rev. Brian Cadden of Castlewellan. As has become a tradition, our Scripture Union provided a short sketch for us to think about.

Rachel Wins the Big Prize

We are very impressed that Rachel Robinson has won a photography competition. Her task was to compose a photograph which encapsulates the idea of diversity. She has won herself a digital camera and her winning photograph will be featured in a 2008 calendar. As soon as we get a copy of the photo, and details of the calendar, we'll get the details onto the CreativityBlog.

res nostra

The res nostra group in school continues to go from strength to strength in it's new one-day format. Twelve year 8 students successfully completed the first two units of the Cambridge Latin Course in one day on Wednesday 19 December, bringing them up to where most first year classes would be at this stage anyway. We will repeat our one-day event at the end of the Easter and Summer terms, and are pleased to have found this way to keep Latin alive as an optional subject at KS3 without infringing on the timetable for other subjects. We are grateful for the support of the Classics Department of Belfast High School and Friends of Classics.

djfelan on Christmas Day

We have just heard that djfelan will be broadcasting on BBC7 on Big Toe Books on Christmas morning at 7.00am. This is really a fantastic achievement, broadcasting on national radio, and is a great tribute to all Felan's work on our local station, and all the time and effort he has put into training.

Welcome P7s

we had a wonderful P7 day, with a a chance for P7 pupils from our feeder schools to experience a post-primary school day. Every primary visitor had an opportunity to try out seven subjects, with an emphasis on the subjects that aren't always part of the primary school day: media studies: ICT; new languages; workshop technology; basketball - as well as some of the more familiar subject, such as maths, RE; art, music It was great to see so many P7s whom we already know through our Sharing Education Programme teaching languages in our feeder primaries. a really happy day.

djmcmillan is at it too.

djmcmillan is piloting a languages slot on a local station. Details of our famous presenters as soon as i find out where to tune in to.

djfelan and Big Toe books

djfelan has been head hunted by Big Toe Books, a radio programme broadcast on BBC 7. Felan was a guest on the programme last year, and the producer was so impressed with Felan's radio presenting skills that he has been invited back to take part as presenter in new pilot programmes. Recording starts on Wednesday 28th.

Geography Winners

There was hot competition for top honours in the Year 8 geography competition. Competitors presented their designs for a tourist leaflet for Newcastle. Class winners were as follows: 8b Ian Nikolaus and Lucy Lakin; 8C Sian Ogle;8D Erin White; 8M ryan Cairns and the overall winners is Sian Ogle. Copies of the leaflets go off to our European Studies partner schools: St Angela's Ursuline Convent, Waterfors; Cheyne Middle School, Kent; St Cecilia's College, L'Derry; Ysgol Uwchradd Bodadern, Wales.

Sputnik Success

Conor Cuthbertson won himself a prize close to his heart in the recent science competition organised to celebrate the anniversary of Sputnik. The prize of a skateboard ramp was awarded in recognition of the design expertise and scientific understanding exhibited in Conor's winning design. Is somebody going to get me a picture?

Award Success

Our wonderful Students' Council was presented with the Dermot Curran Young Achiever Award. Our representatives, Chris, Marie and Matthew took part in the enterprize challenge and picked up a very useful £250.00 for the college, and a pile of prizes to share with the rest of the Council. Hosted by UTV's Business Correspondent, Jamie Delargy, the Awards event recognises outstanding individuals in Down District who have demonstrated the entrepreneurial spirit and determination needed to achieve success. The programme kicked off with an opportunity for all attending to express their creativity with Shell Livewire and the chance to win an iPod MP3 player. Jamie Delargy spoke on the value of enterprise, and was followed by an awards ceremony which incorporated Down district Schools Team Awards, South Eastern Regional College Award, Down Business Centre Graduate Award, Invest NI Award as well as the over all 2007 Dermot Curran Young Achiever award. The Students' Council has been working hard on their assembly for Anti-bullying Week, and it will give great publicity to their work when they also present their Award to the college on Monday 18th November. The Students' Council hopes that you have all had a look at the new noticeboard at the front hall, and will send your views to the Council via your form reps.

A Prestigious Nomination

Great news today, that our Students' Council has been nominated for a Dermot Curran Award, and have been invited to the awards ceremony in Downpatrick tomorrow. Our Students' Council will be represented by Chris Leneghan, Matthew McAvoy and Marie O'Halloran. We wish them the best of luck. the nomination is well deserved for the work they, and fellow Students' Council members have done to revitalise the student voice. Look out for the new Students' council notice board and get in touch through the message box. anti-bullying week is coming up and the Students' Council will be making a presentation in assemblies.

Salsa, food and all kinds of languages

A group of our students got the chance to return to their Salsa obsession when they headed up to St George's Market to the languages fair Opportunity Europe. Also on offer were workshops in languages we haven't tried yet, food from all sorts of places and meeting lots of other linguists.

Taking Over the Airwaves

The launch of Wills McNeilly's rescued yacht was featured on BBC Radio Ulster last week. He gave a great account of the rescue by the Mourne Underwater Rescue Team, raising the model yacht from the depths of Castlewellan Lake. Between Ian McMillan, djfelan (see comments) and Wills, we may be taking over the airwaves.

Facing Homelessness

The Simon Community came in to work with each of the classes in our year 9. The work was all the more powerful because of the input of people who have experienced homelessness. The was a really important visit, which gave everyone huge amounts to think about.

Famous, talented staff too

Anybody else hear Ian McMillan's terrific first broadcast? We really have a very talented staff.

Gorgeous Staff and Parents Too

but don' worry, your secrets are safe from blogs! but a good time was had by all at the DNA gig on Saturday. Lots of devils and witches in evidence for Hallow E'en, and the bands were great - DNA and the devilish one. German teachers and air guitars aren't really a secret .......

German Writing Links

On Monday 29th, we join an exciting Comenius link with Germany. One of the best things about the link is the involvement of ex-Shimna teacher Dr Matthew Martin, who now teaches in St Mary's University College. He is a fantastic teacher of writing, and it will be wonderful to have him involved with our students again. The project will mean that we can draw the English language in to our Languages Specialism, which already includes French, German, Spanish, Irish, Polish, Russian, Turkish and, soon to come, Italian.

Formal Gorgeousness

This year's formal was terrific. Staff were honoured to be invited and thoroughly enjoyed themselves. The smooth running of the evening was a tremendous tribute to the hardworking formal committee and everyone who pitched in. Matt was an amazing compere, and the awards a hoot. As always it was great to see everyone back together again and to catch up with the news.

A Milestone in Expedition Terms

This weekend our Duke of Edinburgh's Award Silver group complete their expedition, and for many of the group, this will mean that they have completed their Silver Award. This expedition also marks the end of Joanne Anderson's time as leader of our Award Scheme. Joanne set up the scheme in the college when she first came to teach at Shimna, and she and Jess have been the driving force behind generations of successful Award holders. It is very appropriate that the baton now passes to ex-Shimna students Paul Swail, for the expedition section and Rebecca Murphy for the other sections. Joanne and the Award scheme have made an enormous contribution to the college, and we are very excited that Joanne's retirement from this aspect of college life coincides with news of a Gold Award presentation coming up soon for Naebh Dunn.

Taking Charge of Europe

On Tuesday, Mark O'Reilly, Tanya Murray, Rachel Cleary and Stephen Lowry chaired the meeting of the Mock European Commission at Stormont. Shimna has previously taken part in the Commission in the role of Germany in 2005, Leichtenstein in 2006 and took on the ultimate challenge of the chair this year. A huge amount of research and effort went into the preparation, and our students bought with them a dose of confidence, preparation and chutzpah to carry them through. Word has it our students did a great job, with the debates starting slowly, and building up to really challenging argument. Very well done to all, including Janet Moffat and Clare Murphy who supported our students in taking on the role.

Delicious Islamic Dinner

A minbus full of Shimnites set off for Killough for the Islamic dinner, courtesy of our visitors from Utrecht. The word today is that the food was fantastic, and the Islamic craic equally good. Everyone seemed to report that Hanan had a particularly good time. The rest of us wonder why that was! Clear grounds have been established for this link to continue. We would love to get to Holland on a return visit sometime, and learn some Dutch as well as Turkish.

Friends from Utrecht

We hosted a fascinating visit from a group of twelve students and four staff from a school in Utrecht. The group included students from families who have settled in Holland from other countries such as Turkey and Morocco. The group is spending the week in the Kinderhaus in Killough. Our students worked with their visitors on a Holocaust project, which included planting bulbs as part of our Holocaust Memorial. The group's cook discussed with us the foods available in our canteen which the Muslim student in the group would and would not eat. Next came 8B's first ever lesson in Turkish, as part of our feature on Turkish as our language of the term. It was a real boon to have real speakers of Turkish to take part in the lesson. Kemal and Sait Can Ozdemir, who live in Turky during the summer had an unexpected opportunity to practice their language and to support the group and 8b. The afternoon comprised a forest walk, with Newcastle looking its best in the sunshine. Our staff and students are now invited to a special Muslim meal, prepared by the group's chef, in Killough on Thursday. The meal will be particularly interesting for our group of Islam scholars who completed thier GCSE in Islamic studies last year. A very fruitful visit for all.

Red Hot Chile Blog

Just back from my trip to Chile on Sunday. I was one of 19 principals from Great Britain and N Ireland to be chosen to take part in a leadership project linking with Latin American and Carribean countries. The trip was really amazing. I visited 5 post primary schools in two days, one in Santiago, the capital, two in Linares which is a four hour drive from Santiago, and two in Talca, a large town athree and a half hour drive away from the capital. After the visits, all the principals of the schools came to Santiago where there was a three-day conference on leadership, delivered by me and a primary school principal from England who had linked with 5 pjrimary schools and whose principals also attended the conference.

Visiting the schools was truly an eye-opener, with 45 students per class and buildings in a serious state of disrepair. However, the principals and staff were amazing, showing great dedication and determination despite conditions, as were the students who were really open, friendly and interested. The plan is to link my five schools with schools in N Ireland, with the principals visiting the schools next Spring. There is a huge discrepency between private education for those who can afford to pay for it and public education for everyone else. The day before General Pinochet, the military dictator, left power, he brought in a law which effectively enshrined the privileged place of the private schools and disadvantaged public schools. There is currently legislation going through parliament which will attempt to redress this imbalance.

While I know that I will get little sympathy, the schedule was extremely tight and the travelling exhausting, but it was totally worthwhile. Highlights included the people, who were wonderful, the scenery, and in particular the Andes, the food, with meat and fish to die for, and the visit to the house of Pablo Neruda in Isla Negra. Neruda was a Nobel Prize-winning poet who is still adored by Chilenos, which says a lot about Chile's culture. Evidence of Chile's bloody recent history is everywhere and on one evening I witnessed a demonstration outside a former torture house of the Pinochet regime, during which the disappeared "los desaparecidos" were again remembered.

I am looking forward to the visit of the principals next year and to developing links with our new-found friends and colleagues in Chile.

Languages Classes

Our programme of language teaching has begun, with French and Spanish underway. There will be English classes for Polish people, and Polish classes for the rest of us. Later in the year, there will also be outreach language classes for the parents and local communities of the many primary schools in our Sharing Education Programme.

European Day of Languages

I was so sorry to miss European Day of Languages, and loved seeing the picture show on the modern languages webpage. The salsa dancing looked terrific.

While I was gone

I was away from college for sad reasons for the last few weeks. Thank you to everyone for the comfort and support of cards and flowers and licquorice and chocolate and lasagne and soup and home made bread and toffee and emails and texts and phonecalls. I felt very hugged and am profoundly grateful. Since I have been back, I have found so many things that students and colleagues have just stepped in and done for me.

Farewell Minibus

This week you will see in the newspapers that our college minibus has gone to join all the other local minibuses in the ACTS pool. This means that our minibus will be better cared for, and hired out by us when we need transport. It also means that the bus will be available to other local users within the ACTS partnership. Our bus was a contribution to integration donated by Royal Mail and the Communication Workers Union. It is a real step forward to have the bus involved full time in cross community work. Brendan Downey of ACTS was presented with the keys today.

Welcome Friederike and welcome back Charlotte

We are particularly pleased to welcome Friederike from Germany for a year in sixth form. It is also great to have Charlotte back from her sixth form year out in Germany. The A level German class will be particularly glad to see them both, and they may well find themselves out teaching our in our primary partner schools.

Special French Success

We celebrate our first year as a Specialist Languages School with fabulous additional results achieved by students across the age range in French: Perrine carried off a GCSE grade A in year 10; our three independent French learners, Tanya, Helen and Niamh all achieved A or A*; Max achieved a grade B in his A level French while still in year 11.

Great results hit the press

Excellent GCSE results arrived this week. We are very proud of all of you. We got very photogenic A level results this year, and hit the front pages of the press. Good thing our students got the results to match their good looks!

Terrific A level results

Congratulations to everyone on the wonderful A level results. Confirmation of offers are pouring in and come September, ex-sixth form will be heading off to all parts, some to college and some to exotic years out. Keep in touch everybody, and we'll see you all at Presentation Evening in December.

Lifeboats

We have just received our DVD copy of the RNLI review of the year for 2006. The very first feature on the film is on Silin and Patrick, members of our sixth form and of the local lifeboat crew. The film is great, and very worthwhile for the focus it brings to high academic achievement and volunteering. Thanks to all the students, and Ivor Anderson, who all volunteered to be the A level statistics class. We'll find a way to show the clip on our website.

Action Packed Last Week

The last week saw the year 11 complete their first full GCSE in science, and the PE class complete their expedition work over four days at Ardnabannon. Two groups had a brilliant time at Killyleagh watersports centre, banana boating until their mascara ran! Our final assembly was a pleasure" Kevin wore his CWU tee shirt and explained the reasons why a union might decide to choose strike action; Caroline McCann gave an empassioned account of the imprisonment of Presbyterian Evangelicals in Eritrea and our students' contribution to the Amnesty International letter writing campaign; Katriona Kirwan read out her prize winning poem on behalf of a long list of our students whose work is about to be published(see CreativityBlog); Grainne Tobin read out her prizwinning poem from the BBC/WELB competition(see Creativity Blog); Kevin ransacked his repertoire to sing us out with Tupelo Honey, the Beatles and of course ending with everyone on their feet for "Brown Eyed Girl". Then we all ran away.

Lucky Barbecue

Our Parents' Council barbecue for new year 8s was a great success, and we just got packed up before the heavens opened. Burgers and ice cream, and a fantastic science show. Thanks to all of the current parents who made such a successful day for our new students, and gave such a good plug to the Parents' Council.

Fantastic News for our Primary Languages

We have just heard today that we have been successful in our bid for substantial funds to extend and develop our primary languages work. The funds have been provided through the Sharing Education Programme, by Atlantic Philanthropies and the International Fund for Ireland. The project will be led by Queens University, and will run until 2010. We are already offering languages to P6 and P1 pupils in seven of our feeder primaries. The new funding will enable us to bring in additional schools, and also to set up high quality, sustainable links among our primary partners. You will have seen some of the great pictures of primary link events iin the local press. Our staff have loved teaching the primary children, and we have had great feedback from the primary pupils. We are very excited by the enthusiasm locally for language learning and for the international dimension. Watch this space!

What we Raised

The amount we raised for the Underwater Search Team was £300.00, which was a terrific amount given that the fundraising was down to the junior school, as many of our senior students had left to concentrate on their examinations. Well done to the students who organised the collection and the assembly that inspired the collection.

Underwater Search Team

We were very pleased and moved to welcome representatives of the Steele and the McAlinden families at our assembly. They came to talk to us about the reasons behind our fundraising day for the underwater search team. It is a brave action to undertake talking to an assembly hall full of students about such a recent and harrowing experience as losing family members by drowning. We really appreciated the visit, and will be forwarding the funds we have raised. Total as soon as I know.

A Suggestion from Sweden

We have just received a lovely email from the Swedish visitors we welcomed last week. They would like to twin with us, and have come up with a really useful suggestion. They have suggested that they could host Shimna students for work experience. Students who study French, German or Spanish will always want to go to a country where the langauge is spoken. However, Sweden, where English is widely spoken could provide a really different destination for students looking for work experience in other subject areas. If we get started on this link now, and students interested start saving from September, a group could be working away in Sweden come next February. Anyone in current year 12 interested, have a word with Alicia, who will be following up the suggestion.

Our Candidate

It's amazing to see an old friend of Shimna, Westminster Education Secretary Alan Johnston, run for Deputy Prime Minister. See below on this blog for a photograph from his last visit, when he was guest speaker at our 2006 Presentation Evening.

Good Luck to the Exam Years

Our wonderful year 12s had their tea party on Thursday, and the first written GCSE exam was today. Equally wonderful year 14 gobbled up their fry today and headed off for A level. The very best of good luck to all, and keep in the closest touch.

Dutch Visitors

We welcomed Dutch visitors to Shimna today. They have connexions with the Kinderhaus in Killough, which has long been involved with reconciliation work. They had a very interesting tale to tell. The business of the Kinderhaus used to be reconciliation of our two main traditions in Northern Ireland. NI groups still use the Kinderhaus, but since our peace process has been underway, the work has become more international. First came groups from other conflict areas such as Bethlehem and Bosnia. In Autumn this year, a group will be coming from Holland itself, from Utrecht. The group will include Dutch young people whose family roots are in Holland and Dutch young people whose roots are in Somalia, Turkey and North Africa. Our visitors have proposed that a Shimna group meets up with the group during their stay. Activities will include a soccer match and a session of Teach my Friend a Language. It turns out that one of our visitors is a Catholic priest, and is very willing to visit assembly and RE classes when he comes over several times a year to the Kinderhaus. It will be great for integration to have this input. Our local Protestant clergy come in often, and we have always known that balance is essential.

Teacher Fellow in Holocaust Education

I am delighted to pass on the news that Chris Skillen, our head of Integrated and Religious Studies, has been appointed to a Teacher Fellowship in Holocaust Education for 2007-08. He will take part in an exciting programme which includes: taking part in a summer institute at the Imperial War Museum in London; working with our students on a Holocaust programme throughout the year; attending an International School for Holocaust Studies at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem; going on a study tour to sites of the Holocaust in Poland and Lithuania. Appointment to this programme is a fantastic achievement, and a tribute to Chris's work on many faiths, and particularly the work he has invested in promoting our understanding of the Holocaust. Everyone will benefit from this Fellowship. I found Chris's application a fascinating read, and a timely reminder of the quality of our Shimna staff and the breadth of the experience they bring to learning with our students. I'm going to force him to run a Holocaust Education blog so we can keep up with him! Millions of congratulations, Chris.

We've Won a Sheep

We have just received a letter announcing that our very active charity and lobbying group has been awarded a sheep by the charity Send a Cow, which provides livestock for communities in need in developing countries. The sheep was awarded to our group in celebration of their Giving Nation Award diary, which is available to read on this website. Our group has not yet completed a huge number of diary entries, but the sheep was awarded in recognition of the strength of the lobbying work represented by the group's efforts at Presentation Evening in December. The group was not dismayed by the fact that there wasn't time to present their lobby to Education Minister Alan Johnson, but rallied to send a photo of themselves, a giant AIDS ribbon and their lobby letter to him in Westminster. The group has since received a very encouraging reply. Our sheep in Africa will help a family by giving them a reliable income and hope for a better future. Well done our g-nation group.

In Recovery

Now that I have recovered my gastronomical equilibium, I am going to torment the rest of you with the full menu, so that you will know what you missed. Patrice taught us to appreciate: Bordeau Chateau Haut Rocaud; Cotes du Rhone Villages Reserve; Burgundy white Montagny; Blason de Bourgogne. Starters: spring rolls and curry puffs from Malaysia; garlic mussels and oysters from France; Chapche, pork noodles, from Korea; Dolma, vine leaves, and cacik, cucumber, from Turkey. Main courses: tandoori chicken and blackbean and mushroom from India; pilau rice from Uganda; stew from round here; spaghetti from Italy; dahl, lentils, from Mauritius; chicken curry and aloo gobi from Pakistan. Desserts: almond tarts and cookies from Denmark; potato/apple fritters from German. All of this delicious stuff was prepared by Shimna people with roots in these many cultures, and we owe them a huge thank you and sigh of appreciation.

I must also include a tribute to those who provided the raffle prizes: Asda; Tesco; Postively Spiritual; Ahead with Reita; Irwin's Bakery; Slieve Donard Hotel; Kilmorey Arms Hotel; Motor Factors, Ballynahinch.

A Fabulous Evening

Our Parents' Council did the college proud with a fabulous evening of international food and drink - details of what was on offer when I recover sufficiently to sit up straight and find my menu. Patrice Bonnargent set us up for the evening with a spot of sniffing and swirling as we learnt a bit of wine tasting. There followed an amazing menu of starters, including the local oysters and mussels which usually make us panic, alongside stuffed vine leaves and Korean noodles. Then, after a little chatting and soothing strains from Ollie Elsholtz and Niall Greer of 'Ten Pin Blues', we tucked into chicken dishes of various nationalities, lentil dahl from Mauritius, curries and Irish stew. More wine, more music, winning of prizes for the lucky people and we rounded off with delicious almond cake, followed by tea and coffee with Danish cookies. There was more, and more and more. A very special treat came as we gradually realised that the background music wasn't a recorded artist, but out own Niomi O'Rourke playing piano and singing her own songs - a perfect ending to a perfect evening. Remembering all the thankyous makes me as nervous as remembering all the dishes. I just had too good a time: first and foremost, Joy Bonnargent without whose enthusiasm and creative skills the evening would never have happened; all the other parents; our own Anne Carlin for sharing her precious kitchen; our wonderful musicians and singer; all our guests who brought the craic - everyone else, who momentarily escape my curried mind!

Visitors from Sweden

We welcomed seven teachers from Sweden today, who traveled all the way from Dublin on the train and bus to follow up their interest in Shimna. The teachers were all teachers of languages and were keen to visit us as a Specialist Language School. They were equally interested to find out how our education system worked and were amazed to find that parents had had to set up Shimna themselves to have for their children and integrated, all-ability, 11-18 school. It was lovely to be able to show off Newcastle in the sunshine, and hard working students, concentrated on their KS3s, their coursework and their preparation for their orals. A level students, Clare, Riona and Katrine along with Chris Skillen were the lucky ones selected to join the Swedish visitors for posh lunch in the Coffee House and Deli at the harbour (lots of Shimna and Shimna via Lagan connections here) and to further the discussion on integration and languages. A real coincidence emerged. One of the teachers had been involved in piloting the Swedish version of the Montanalingua outdoor education materials, the same materials as our language students piloted in German. Their pilot wasn't so successful, and we suggested we could send some native speakers of English on a trip to Sweden to help out!

Stars in Yer Eyes

Thank you to all our wonderful musicians, singers and dancers for their contribution to a terrific night of music at the Regional Finals. Huge congratulations to: Cormac and band; Johnny and band; Danielle and dancers; Caroline and dancers. It was great to see such a strong turnout of families and friends. Very special thanks to Catherine Henry and Alison Bahadoor for all the hard work of organising and logistics. It was also great to have Shimna's Northern Ireland winners of last year as consultants.I suppose it wouldn't be fair if we swept the boards every year! Congratulations to this year's winners, St Patrick's. Special mention must also go to Margaret Rogan, who danced away through the tail end of a debilitating virus, and to backing singers Emma and Anna, who should themselves consummate professionals by throwing their all into their performance despite realising their microphone simply wasn't doing them justice.

Students' Council Request

It is great to see that our Student Council has been so active this year. They have a request for parents and friends:

IF YOU OWN A BUSINESS, WOULD YOU LIKE TO SPONSOR A SHIMNA TEAM STRIP? HOW COOL WOULD IT BE IF YOUR SON, DAUGHTER, NEICE OR NEPHEW WAS WEARING YOUR BUSINESS NAME ON THEIR TEAM STRIP!

SPONSOR SHIMNA SPORT!

If you are interested please contact Matthew McAvoy, year 8 and Student Council member. Our girls' soccer team has already been sponsored and is proud to wear the logo of The Loft Restaurant.

Racing Driver

I saw a great photo today of Shimna Old Scholar, Jennifer Mullan. She was there at the wheel of a racing car. Jennifer is living in Dublin and racing away. Hope to hear more soon.

Matt's Film Success

Matt McComish's film lifted third prize at the Integrated Schools film awards. We all think there is no film to beat it. Matt's film doesn't go for the obvious, and there is real examination of integration at the heart of it. Well done you. We need to get a link onto this website.

Ruairi and Jana

Maria Steele of our English department has a new wee son called Ruairi. 12B are now the proud "parents" of two babies, Ruairi and Jana.

MontanaLingua

This is a double up from the GermanBlog, but other wise you might miss it. Our students who took part in the German immersion outdoor activities trip in November trialled learning materials for MontanaLingua. Montanalingua has now published their wonderful series of modules and we are very proud of the part our students played in perfecting them. When are we going back for more?

Mathematiques Sans Frontieres Awarded

Our mathematicians have been swanning around at the Ramada Hotel in Belfast celebrating coming in the top two schools in the SEELB in this prestigious competition. We are particularly delighted to have such an excellent record in this competition, representing as it does our students' high achievement both in languages and in maths. Well done all.

Joseph the Catch a Star Adventurer

We have just heard that Joseph O'Hara has won a prize in Catch a Star Adventurers, and international competition for school students organised by ESO - the European Organisation for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere and the European Association for Astronomy Education. We are really proud of Joseph, and of all the other year 9 students who took part in this high powered science competition. The list of prize winners is really impressive and truly international.

Streetwar on Want

Those of you out and about in Newcastle on Easter Saturday will have seen seven of our sixth form students valiantly street collecting for campaigning charity War on Want. The volunteers doing the development work depend on the volunteers at home willing to make nits of themselves on the streets of their own home town. Well done: Silin Mallon; Karl Graham; Sara McCartan; Sam McNeilly; Ethan Hanna; Alex Knight; Christine Campbell.

News from Damien Venney

Great to hear from Old Scholar Damien Venney, who is working away in L/Derry. He juggles his time between family, work and continuing his studies, this time evening sessions in health and safety.

Irish Presbyterians

Newcastle Presbyterian Church welcomed our students for a special service in the Irish language. Minister the Rev. Ivan Patterson greeted the students in Irish, and the guest preacher was the Rev. Dr. Bill Boyd. Dr. Boyd's interest in languages led him to learn Irish after retiring from the full-time Presbyterian ministry. He returned to Queen's University to win a first class honours degree in Irish, over fifty years after his original student days. Dr. Boyd urged our students, like St. Patrick, to look for God's plan for their lives. He was very interested to hear that Shimna is Northern Ireland's first Specialist School for languages, and that all students study two languages from the four available: French, German, Irish and Spanish. We look forward to strengthening our links with the Presbyterian Church in Newcastle, and have plans for a Harvest Service in the Autumn term.

Goodbye to Moritz

German visiting student Moritz left us after almost two weeks. It was a pleasure to have you with us, Mortiz. It was just amazing how quickly you settled in. Every time I called into a class to make sure you were OK, you were working away alongside the rest of them. It was great that the Ozdemirs were able to offer him a base to stay at. Maybe he picked up some Turkish as well as English during his stay. Come back soon and stay for longer.

Local History Essay Prize Winners

The top award winners in the Local History Competition were: Sam Marsden who received the Essence Cup from Alex Henderson; David Johnston who received his award from First Trust Bank manager Aisling Press; Julia Martin who received her award from Christine Cunningham of the Northern Bank; Andrew Skillen who received the HF Law Jewellers Cup; Glen McCormick who received fifth prize, sponsored by Hale's Fruit. There were also fourteen students whose work was highly commended and who all received a money prize: Nicole McCartan; Ryan Shaw; Chris Feenan; Natasha Murphy; Clare Smyth; Nathan Mullan; Tessa McMahon; Chloe Skillen; Adrian Salamin; Piera Cirefice; Jane McEvoy; Luc Bonnargent; James Ward; Helen Sawey. The range of entries was fascinating, spanning the history of Newcastle, of Donard forest, of Clough Castle and delving into family history of people who dug the Mourne tunnel, who built the Titanic, who fought in WW2, who played a role in searching for peace. So many of our students had put a great deal of work into their research, writing and presentation of their essays. We are very grateful into our sponsors, Laws, First Trust and Northern Banks, Hale's Fruit and Essence. We are grateful for the awards and prizes, but also for the interest taken in reading and judging the essays. Knowing that they had an audience to write for gave real impetus to our students.

Moritz comes to visit

Almost forgot to mention that Moritz, please see February blogs, arrived last week. The reason I forgot to celebrate his arrival is that he is getting on so well, everyone thinks he has always been here. He is staying with Sait Can and Kemal Ozdemir, and blending completely into year 12. I visited him in a GCSE German class and everyone was benefiting from a bit of up to the minute German to add to their oral presentation.

Back from Spain

Great to see our Spanish trip back. Shame that some students lost a day through illness, but everyone seemed to have made the most of a wonderful trip. Photos for the website please?

Old Scholar

Great to run into Leah McAtamney and hear her news. She is in the final stages of her degree in Bio-Medical Engineering, working hard and loving every minute of it. A year off and then a PhD Leah? Good also to see Selena McConkey and her sister setting up in business in Downpatrick. We'll be seeing our Shimna uniform on sale there. Chris Redmond has realised his ambition by gaining PGCE place in Glasgow. He's been building up experience in Edinburgh schools for a year following his graduation.

Off to Spain

Ian McMillan, Janet Moffat, Clare Murphy and twenty eight students landed safely and are already having a great time in Spain while the rest of us struggle towards Easter.

Mathematiques Sans Frontieres Success

Our fantastic mathematicians have again come in the top two teams in the SEELB, and our invited to the prize giving bash at the Ramada Hotel. This is a particuarly wonderful competition to win, because our students have obviously gained the full value of excellent maths and excellent language learning in four languages. Well done all.

English at the Slieve Donard

A further element of our Specialist Languages Programme got underway this week, as our classes began for Polish employees in the Slieve Donard Hotel. The classes are taught by our indefatigable head of German, Ian McMillan. Our classes for parents and friends in Spanish and French continue every week, and its exciting to have the EAL classes underway too.

St Patrick's Celebrations

Shimna was full of St Patrick's events this week, with table quzzes, prize draws, music, dance, leprechauns, theories about St Patrick etc. etc. etc. Our wonderful head of Irish led from the front, with great support from the students of Irish, with some students of French adding their bit. Sarah Mone, our solo dancer, deserves special mention. I wonder if staff member Rebecca Murphy remembers that in 1995 she was that solo dancer as a foundation student celebrating St Patrick's Day in our very first year! Special mention too for all those who achieved Fainnes of various shades from the McCracken School, who visited us on Tuesday, examining students and Ian McMillan in spoken Irish. Next week sees our traditional St Patrick's service in the Irish language, this year in Newcastle Prestbyterian Church. We are very pleased to be back at the Presbyterian Church, for the first time since our carol service there several years ago. Plans are in train now for an annual service there, perhaps at Harvest time. We are very grateful to Rev. Patterson for his help in organising our services.

Hip Hop Collects

A visitor from Childline NI came to Shimna to be presented with a cheque for £400. The money was raised by year 9 students at their sponsored Hip Hop Challenge. Well done to all.

Stars in Their Eyes

Our Shimna heats of 'Stars in Yer Eyes' produced a fantastic showcase of talent among our students. A huge number of students had been auditioned, and only the very best selected to perform on the night. After an impossibly difficult voting process, four of the acts go through to the regional final, to compete for the opportunity to appear at the Waterfront Hall, where Shimna students Lee McMahon, Mark O'Reilly and Nathan Kelly became Northern Ireland champions last year. The four to go through are: Stephanie Mullan and her dancers; Cormac Nellis and band; Caroline McCann and dancers; Johnny Houghton and band and backing singers. Congratulations to everyone who performed, not least the farewell performance of the Freddie Mercuries, Alec Cole, James McCombe and Ryan Doran.

Letter from Alan Johnson

Our Charities Group, who used the occasion of Presentation Evening to do a spot of lobbying on behalf of African victims of HIV/AIDS. On the night, Minister of State Alan Johnson was swept away in his limo before they had time to approach him. However, undeterred, the group sent him the letter they would have presented to him along with a photo of themselves with the huge envelope they had prepared, complete with huge red ribbon. On Friday we received an appreciative letter in response, promising to take the group's argument on board. The letter included a hand written note saying how much he had enjoyed his visit back to Shimna. Alan Johnson was a good friend to Shimna before he was famous, and it's great that he has maintained his interest.

Great maths and Irish visits

Great visits and visitors. Year 8 set off for a day of maths puzzles with Kjartan Poskitt. Then today, year 8 hosted a visitor from the St Patrick's Centre who entertained them with fantastic stuff as a lead up to St Patrick's Day.

Fundraising for Shimna with buy.at

First of all if you have been shopping through buy.at on our website, thanks a million. Many of the retailers are genuinely generous with the percentage they donate to the college on each purchase. However, we want to pass on a tip for maximising your fundraising. Amazon is one of the most popular retailers for on-line shopping. Unfortunately, Amazon has reduced its contribution to 1%. We would point out that there are other booksellers on the buy.at site. Waterstones is a good example, which gives the same offer of free postage with orders over £15.00. More retailers join the scheme every month, and there are now several charities to support while also making a bit for Shimna too. The Ethical Superstore, which won the Observer Award this year, is a really interesting site with lots of products that are hard to find locally.

Hip Hop Challenge

Ryan Shaw of year 9 organised the visit of Childline to present their fundraising Hip Hop Challenge for our students. Sixty students raised sponsorship for Childline and took part in the challenge. Eamonn McAnulty surprised himself with his star turn, and by the end of an hour's lesson, everyone was hip-hopping away. The money count starts now, and a great big cheque will be sent off to Childline. Everyone who took part was given a fridge magnet reminder of the Childline number, because no one knows when they or a friend might need it.

Bebo update

Students have been asking how to get rid of stuff they wrote on Bebo when they were younger and now regret. Anne Fitzpatrick went on a course last week run by CEOP, the people who provide the anti cyberbullying link on this website. At the course, which was excellent, she found out that Bebo has, just a few weeks ago, signed up to the CEOP guidelines. This means that students can expect Bebo to take them seriously if they ask to have nasty stuff removed. The upset caused by cyberbullying is so serious that we would recommend all students to have a look at the CEOP link on our website. Parents who want to understand texting, msn, Bebo etc. could do with taking a look as well. Free speech is extremely important, but so are privacy and peace of mind.

February half term

Week beginning 5.2.07 was a great week for the netball squads, who both beat Down High in their league matches. Week beginning 12.2.07 is a complicated week, with the ski trip away, the Hip Hop Challenge raising funds for Childline and A level students on work experience. Students are off Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. In case you want to sympathise with the staff, we are only off on the Friday, and have training days on Wednesday and Thursday getting ready for the new curriculum for next year. Everybody comes back on Monday 19th February.

French Students on Work Experience

Our French visitors and their Shimna host students enjoyed a farewell reception at the St Patrick's Centre after a week's hard work in the Centre, in the Slieve Donard Hotel and in Tesco's. We were delighted with the support from the employers and from Down District Council in launching our Euro work experience scheme. Our students then set off for their week in France, and the following week in Germany.

Mein Austausch nach Irland -Jelka Kuehne

hello everyone / hallo allemiteinander^^
ich bin Jelka Kuehne, ein 16 jaehriges Maedchen aus Hagen, eine Stadt im Westen Deutschlands. Ich komme von einer Rudolf Steiner Schule und gehe dort in die 10. Klasse.
Ich bin schon seit langem interessiert gewesen an einem Austausch in ein Land wo ich Englisch sprechen kann. Und jetzt bin ich hier. An dem Shimna Integrated College.
Und so hat alles begonnen: Eine gute Freundin, Nina, welche selbst schon Shimna besucht hat, hat mich an zwei Maedchen vermittelt und so bin ich jetzt hier fuer drei Monate und lerne English.
Mir gefaellt es hier sehr gut, auch wenn es am Anfang alles ein bisschen durcheinander war und ich noch immer mit dem Plan des Schulgebaudes durch die Gegend renne, da ich mich ohne Hilfe nicht zu recht finde. :)
Ich finde das die Leute in meinem Unterricht sehr nett sind, (netter als manch Deutsche) und am liebsten esse ich die Chips (man is das schwer, chips sind ja hier pommes^^- also crips!) aber nur die in der gruenen Packung.
Ich mag den Musikunterricht, da man seine Instrumente mitnehmen kann und selbst Stuecke komponieren kann. (wir sind noch nicht mal annaehernd so weit, in unsrem Musikunterricht in Deutschland, wie die hier in Irland.)
Ich bin froh, dass ich die Gelegenheit gekommen habe einen Austausch zu machen und empfehle jedem, der interressiert ist an Sprachen und etwas neues auszuprobieren, einmal einen Austausch zu machen. Es ist das Beste um eine Sprache zu lernen.
(auch wenn es am Anfang schwer ist und man sich fuehlt als ob der Kopf gleich platzen wuerde, da man so viel auf einmal an neuen Sachen mitbekommt und ausgesetzt ist)
liebe Gruesse aus Irland / - Jelka Kuehne - / greetings from Ireland :)

Visitor from Germany

Jelka Kuehne has just joined us from Germany and has made a very cheerful addition. I'll get her to blog about what she's up to. Our A level French students are visitors themselves, off to France on their work experience. The French students who came to Newcastle for their work experience last week had a great time and worked hard at their placements in the Slieve Donard, Tesco's and the St Patrick's Centre in Downpatrick. Watch out for the photo in this week's papers of the glamorous farewell do.

Rejuvenated pitch

A Saturday visit found tractors and sand and new posts all out on the pitch, great work from our partners, Newcastle Football Club. This has been one of our hardest winters on the pitch, with all the warmth and damp, and the surface had been horribly churned up. It will be worth all the student pain of staying off the pitch at break and dinnertime when the sand settles and the grass grows back strongly. Lets hope both the Shimna and the Newcastle teams produce playing form to match.

Election time

Interesting occurence - representatives of our Students' Council were due to go to the NICCY conference on 6th February to meet up with representatives of local political parties and to hear what they had to say about the rights of young people. The conference has been postponed until June. Let's hope that means that the politicians are too busy getting ready to integrate and move on. Our representatives, Iana, Fionnuala, Cormac and Chris are disappointed, but hope that the recovened conference will be all the more interesting if the Assembly is up and running.

This picture was taken on Open Day in the music room.

Open Day

We had a wonderful Open Day on 27th January, with many, many visitors. This is a very short post, because a successful Open Day inevitably results in exhaustion. It was great to have students, staff, parents and governors all working hard to share the load. Thanks to everyone who worked so hard, and to everyone who came to see us.

Poetry Prize

Yo! Grainne Tobin, our wonderful head of English has just won the Mourne Observer Poetry Prize, offered in conjunction with the Down Writers' Group and Down District Council. We have a very talented staff as well as students. Also this weekend, there will be a strong Shimna contingent in Belfast to hear Shaun Robinson in performance.

Gateway to the Mournes

Everyone in the college is invited to visit the exhibition of plans and designs for the proposed Mourne Gateway Centre. The Centre is an innovative and exciting project to provide Newcastle with the long awaited swimming pool combined with: an InfoHub for all the local outdoor and environmental organisations; a sports hall; changing facilities for outdoor matches; a climbing wall; a hydrotherapy pool; lots more. Visitors to the exhibition have already suggested a cinema and ICT access and space for a youth club. The exhibition is on display on the balcony above the gym, and includes a folder of architect's plans. Innovative aspects of the project include: the self-cleaning reedbed to service the pool; the 'living roof' which will help minimise the visual impact; the careful design to maximise the impact of the fabulous views; the eco-friendly heating system etc. When you visit the exhibition, you will find a response sheet, and it is really important to the campaigners to have your views. You will also find a box in which to leave your completed sheet. Support for the project is being carefully documented by Newcastle 2000 and will be a huge help in finding support for the project.

Art Commission

As Shimna is one of the first twelve Specialist Schools in Northern Ireland, our A level art students have been invited to submit designs for: a logo for the Northern Ireland Specialist Schools; a logo for the schools with a specialism in languages and the international dimension, of which Shimna is the first. When I find out how to post the logo designs on this blog, you will all get to see them!

Happy New Year

This post is just to get us started.