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.