Languages for Christmas

Geseënde Kersfees en 'n gelukkige nuwe jaar!
Geseënde Kersfees en 'n voorspoedige Nuwe jaar! Feliz Navidad y un prospero Año Nuevo ; Joyeux Noël et une bonne annéé. Il buon Natale ed un anno nuovo Felice! Prettige kerstdagen en een Gelukkig NieuwJaar! Zalig kerstfeest en gelukkig nieuwjaar! : Boas Festas e Feliz Ano Novo ;: Fröhliches Weihnachten und ein Glückliches Neujahr; Lystig Jul og et Glad Nytt År: Gun Tso Son Tan'Gung Haw Sun; Kung His Hsin Nien bing Chu Shen Tan choctav: Yukpa, Nitak Hollo Chito: Maligayang Pasko at Manigong Bagong Taon!

Wonderful Presentation Evening

Another milestone was passed in the development of Shimna Integrated College as, for the first time, an OldScholar, Dana Jaber was the guest speaker at our Presentation Evening. Dana outlined what an Integrated Education had meant to her, and told of her experiences representing the UK at the World Economic Forum pre-session in Dubai. Kevin gave a report on the successes of our students this year, and Dana then presented our students with their GCSE and A level certificates. There then followed the presentation of awards in all sorts of areas of achievement in the life of the college. Newly donated awards this year included the Oliver Tobin Award for Irish, won by Caroline McCann, and the HF Law Centenary Award, a particularly impressive trophy, won by Oliver Elshotz. Music was provided by Niomi O'Rourke singing her own composition, Michael O'Brien and Danny White on "Duelling Banjos" and Jeannine Bradley and Niomi O'Rourke on "Chopsticks Variation". The evening finished off with tea and mince pies, and the raffle of the wonderful Gingerbread House built by the A level ICT class, with money raised going to Cancer Research. The evening was a tribute to our wonderful students, their parents and our staff and friends of the college. None of it would happen without organisation by Deborah McDowell. As always, the very best thing about Presentation Evening was the return of our OldScholars from their first term at university, from their Gap Year, from their new career.

Signing for All

Our British/Irish signing class has been going great guns. We now have an internet mini-course available on the study centre section of our website for anyone else who would like to learn some. Have a go!

Foreign Film Night

A well chosen "Woman on the Edge of a Nervous Breakdown" gave us an admittedly dark but very funny close to our Foreign Film season. As ever, the languages committee was on hand to serve up tea, coffee, popcorn, biscuits and sweeties. Look out for the next date, on which we intend to branch out east and go for an Eastern European film. Look out for the consultation fliers for a community cinema in Newcastle. Shimna would be happy to host it in its early days, and the Newcastle 2000 Gateway project has space for a cinema in the plans for the swimming pool and community centre.

International Again

We have just heard that we have passed the first stage of our bid to win the International Schools Award for the second time. Everyone in Shimna contributes to our International Schools work, but Clare Murphy, our wonderful Languages and International Co-ordinator pulls it all together and makes us fit to receive our Award. Thank you Clare.

More First Aid

St John's Ambulance Brigade Cadet Stephen Polson has passed a weekend residential course in leadership; which will allow him to progress to Cadet NCO in the near future, another Cadet from Lagan College also passed this course. Stephen along with Andrew Polson and new Cadet Dylan Russell passed the Young Life Saver Plus course in the last week. It's really good to keep up with this kind of news of student success outside as well as inside school.

NICIE AGM

We went up to Hazelwood Integrated College to attend the AGM of the Northern Ireland Council for Integrated Education. It was an inspiring night, with an address from Ciarnan Helferty, an Old Scholar of Oakgrove Integrated College, who shared his experience of going on to university from an integrated school rather than a segregated one. He made a persuasive case for the value of integrated schools, and pointed out that it is only later, when you realise there are still so many young people in Northern Ireland who never meet anyone from the other community. The second presentation was by Tony McCauley, who has led our training days in Shimna. He presented his very practical plan for bringing down the Peace Walls in Belfast, with community support. As he pointed out, the Peace Walls in Belfast, and all the other divided towns, have survived the Berlin wall. Within the integrated community, Hazelwood Integrated Primary School has ended up with a Peace Wall right through its grounds. An inspiring night.

The Weirdest Trip

Our A level Travel and Tourism group organised to take our A level Business Studies students on a trip, and they chose Predator Games as their destination. Very weird! How did you all get on?

Nathan Wins

Remember the NI Stroke Association competition which went out with our last newsletter? Well Nathan Burden won, and now has a DV8 voucher to ease his Christmas spending. Well done Nathan.

Never Mind Jordan, We Saw Ben

Jordan may have been the life and soul of hypnotism at the formal, but we saw brother Ben leading the YMCA performance in the middle of Newcastle for Hallow E'en. Look to your performance laurels, Jordan.

Fabulous Formal

This year's formal at the Hilton Hotel was a terrific event. Huge congratulations are due to the organising committee. The ones I know about, because I saw how hard they worked, are Hannah Dummigan, Geraldine Fitzpatrick and Abby McGreevy. Everyone looked gorgeous, and we hope the hypnotised snap out of it soon! Thank you from all the staff for inviting us and for organising such a successful event.

Learn to Sign Week

Learn to Sign Week restored British/Irish Sign Language to its proper place as one of the languages we offer as a Specialist languages School. Students and staff throughout the college learnt a week's worth of Sign Language. The Signers also raised £150.00 for the British Deaf Association. It doesn't stop there. A full course of Signing classes starts soon after school, and we may even be able to offer Signing as a GCSE next year. It's great to have Stephanie Donnelly back for all sorts of reasons.

World Poverty Appeal

Students of 10 Commedagh led a powerful assembly today highlighting the problems suffered by one family in Africa who have been visited by Daniel Stansfield of 10C. Five members of the class outlined the problems and the ways in which poverty made those problems so very difficult to solve. A slide show shared visual images which held everyone in the room understand what this family is up against. 10 Commedagh then invited us to contribute to the Smile Foundation which is attempting to gather money to fund the lifesaving operation the youngest member of the family requires. The assembly was so powerful that 10 Commedagh have been asked to make their presentation again on Monday, this time to years 11-14. Well done to everyone who contributed, including form teacher Miguel Navarrete.

Jeans for Genes

Our annual Jeans for Genes Day began with a special assembly which focused on the reasons why we support this charity. Research into genetic disorders is crucially important in the fight to ensure that future generations can live without the discomforts and disabilities which have blighted previous generations. One of our Shimna families which lives with seriously disabling, genetic disorders very bravely organised this assembly for precisely that reason. Every student taking part paid £1.00 towards the Jeans for Genes charity. Thanks to everyone who took part.

First Aid Expertise

We have just heard that Orla O'Connor has qualified in the St John's Ambulance 'Total First Aid 'course, having completed her training over the summer. Stephen and Andrew Polson and Tim Knight will attain the St John Young Life Saver course in the next month. All four of our students are founder members of the new division of St John's, and have worked hard to support getting the new venture off the ground. Well done all round.

Not Just Languages

As well as all the celebrations for European Day of Languages, we had A level maths students off to W5, and A level geography and biology students at the annual sixth form conference, where they met up and worked with A level students from other local schools. Specialism really does mean achievement right across the curriculum.

Very Important Visitors

We welcomed Education Minister, Caitriona Ruane, to our European Day of Languages. She made an excellent contribution herself, speaking both Spanish and Irish fluently. However, she also met our speakers of German and French on the day. Equally important visitors were four of our feeder primary schools, who took part in and International Storytelling session, performing in French, German, Spanish and Irish for an audience of their teachers, the Minister, each other and our Shimna students. The Minister then had time to call into the huge languages table quiz underway in the hall, where she was full of praise for all the language work she had heard. She had a chance to have a look at the display of European badges and posters contributed by our students, before the prize giving got underway. Enthusiastic answers took us up to bus time. We have a wonderful languages department and wonderful students all round.

International Astronomical Success

Shannon White has won a certificate in the International Catch a Star competition. She won her award for her project entered into the competition organised by the SEO-the European Organisation for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere and EAAE-the European Association for Astronomy Education. The project involved work across two departments, as students made successful entries in science and in art. Shannon's project called Starry Skies was entered into the category of Catch a Star Researchers, where students had to research an astronomical topic of their own choice and discuss how large telescopes such as those of ESO Very Large Telescope, could be used to make observations to provide new insights into their chosen topic. Students from 30 different countries from all over the world took part - Argentina; Belgium; Bosnia & Herzegovina; Bulgaria; Chile; China; Colombia; Cyprus; Czech Republic; Denmark; Finland; France; Germany' Greece; Hungary; India; Israel; Latvia; Lithuania; Luxembourg; Norway; Poland; Portugal; Romania; Serbia; slovakia; Spain' Sweden; Turkey; United Kingdom.

A Great Great Result

We have just received a letter telling us that Shimna student Friederike Thomas has achieved on of the top five marks in A level German. Friederike was a pleasure to have as a student at Shimna, and we are delighted that she has received this accolade.

Great Results

Our year 13 and 14 students received their terrific A level and AS results yesterday. By today, the vast majority of students had been placed on their first choice of course. We are very proud indeed of our students, and wish them well as they head off to their chosen future, or buckle down to fulfil their promise in year 14. As well as the hard work of our students, we salute the hard work of the staff and the support of the parents/guardians.

Winning a Farm Visit

We have just appeared on the website of the Year of Food and Farming as winners of a farm visit. Our prize is for twenty students to visit a beef farm and to follow the beef to the point of sale. As a vegetarian, I don't think this visit is for me, but it will be fantastic for our first home economics classes which start in September.

James Spotted

Did you all spot James Dillon in the picture in the Mourne Observer of local young people receiving their awards for their efforts in improving local policing. The ceremony took place at the St Patrick Centre and each member of the Down Advisor Group was thanked for their contributions to the initiative which was established just over 12 months ago. The Police Service's Down District commander, Chief Inspector Brian Hanna stated, "The Down Youth IAG has eceeded all my expectations and it richly deserved the accolade of making it into the finals of the prestigious PSNI Police with the Community Awards." Involvement with the group has been demanding and required a huge commitment, particularly for students, like James, who are also completing demanding A levels.

Oxford Aspirations

Edward, Bronagh and Tanya headed off with Alicia, Gerard and governor Isobel Jones to Oxford University open days. They were hosted in various colleges, attended a Bach recital, met tutors, watched presentations on interview skills, haunted Blackwell's bookshop and met lots of students currently studying at Oxford. A wonderful time was had by all, and all were very grateful to Isobel for giving her time and expertise.

Boasting

While Kevin was in Liverpool, Ellen took his place at the first conference of Specialist Schools, and gave a presentation for schools which might consider applying to become specialist. It was a real pleasure to get to boast about all the work our staff and students have done in our first two years as a Specialist School. The warm response is a tribute to everyone in Shimna.

Support from our Sponsors

We are very proud that our main sponsors as a Specialist School are the Communication Workers Union. Kevin was again invited over to their conference, in Liverpool this time, where he reminded the conference of the origins of the link between the college and the union through our joint response to the death of Newry postman Frank Kerr. The union has again been extremely generous, and the money raised will go directly into our new ICT facilities for languages.

Students at the Helm

If you had taken a wander round the college earlier on Wednesday evening, you would have been welcomed by Conor on reception. If you had gone upstairs you would have found Chris invigilating a room full of nervous adult students of Spanish, who were slaving over their hot examination papers. It is great to see so many complete the course and take their assessment. I hope that Una Cole was a well-behaved candidate, and that Chris didn't have to intervene to get her to concentrate!

Around Midnight

I was sitting in school at an unearthly hour of Wednesday night, when a great big coach drew up an hordes of our year 11s poured off. They were on their way home from their day out to Brussels, and full of frites, waffles and dames blanches. Moules anyone? After the students had sorted themselves out and met their parents, the two staff members and all their shopping tumbled off. No self-restraint those two - they claimed the bags were full of fathers' day presents. all the bags? It sounded like a fantastic trip, suggested by the students themselves, who had originally wanted a day trip to Paris, but were delighted with Brussels as a Francophone destination within reasonable reach. I am just consumed with envy!

Celebrity Shimna

They won't thank me for this blogtitle, but Mark, Rachel, Calum, Tanya and Kevin all had their celebrity moment this morning on Radio Ulster's Sunday Sequence discussing the nature of celebrity itself, and its influence on the current school age generation. They did a great job of putting across a reflective and personal response, distinguishing between celebrities they felt had earned their fame, for example Alan Sugar and Quentin Tarantino, and those who had become famous for being famous, for example, Jade Goody and Katie Price. Good to hear you on the airwaves.

Dr Gallagher Bursaries

We are absolutely delighted that two of our students have been awarded Dr Gallagher Memorial Bursaries which will guarantee them both substantial financial support for their studies at university. Matt McComish and Natasha Ferris both had to make written submission, provide references about their work and commitment to study and also attend for interview. Both of these students have made a real success of their time at Shimna, and we are very happy to see them win support which will help them continue their hard work and love of their subject at university level. Very well done.

Very High Fliers

Very, very early on the morning of Sunday 18 May, 8 wide awake students, plus Alasdair Spence and Michael Trotman, met up at George Best City Airport for the Bombardier ‘High Fliers’ event. The free flight was in a Bombardier Q 400 aircraft, which is partly built at the Shorts factory in Belfast, and operated by FlyBe from the City airport. The weather was good, and pilot Alan Reynolds announced that we would fly up the Antrim coast to the Giants Causeway. At 2000 feet all the way there were great views of the Antrim Coast, Rathlin Island , Portrush and Portstewart. For Nathan Mullan, Carrie Mc Alinden and Ryan McQuitty it was their first flight, and they received special certificates. Thanks are due to the parents who got up so early to drive everyone to Belfast. The flights were won by the students in a science competition this year.

Peterson Toscano

I've just been listening to Sunday Sequence on the radio, to an interview with Peterson Toscano, who is in Belfast for one performance of his one man show. We area very fortunate that Peterson is also coming to Shimna to give workshops for our year 8s - a real coup! Watch the CreativityBlog to see how the visit goes.

Best of Luck

The very best of luck to all our year 12 and year 14 students who headed off today to start their examination season. You are a wonderful bunch, and we fully expect that you will carry on Shimna's outstanding academic tradition.

Nuestros amigos chilenos

Hoy hemos recibido a nuestros amigos de Chile. Yo, Kevin, estuve en los cinco colegios en octobre del ano pasado y fue muy interesante. Esta semana han vuelto ellos y les he introducido a cuatro colegios mas. Ha sido una experiencia tan buena pero la verdad es que fue †an fantastico encontrarnos con gente tan amable y perfecta. Vamos a continuar a comuninicarnos con ellos y trabajar jun†os. Somos muy amigos. Newcastle y Chile.

WebAlumnus Arrives

Training has taken place today on WebAlumnus, the website for our Old Scholars which will help us gather together news of all our past students. Even within our short history, amazing stories have emerged, and great success. We hope the WebAlumnus site will launch in time for us to start our new tradition of Old Scholars being invited to speak at our Presentation Evening.

Nearly Forgot France

I nearly forgot to mention two other lovely visitors, from France this time, the work experience exchange partners of our students who travelled to France in February. The girls supported our students in class, and took time out for some sightseeing and shopping in Downpatrick, and met up with Eric Tomassini to cheer him up with a few words in his native French. This link with France is a very valuable one, which will provide opportunities for our students for years to come. Its Chilean visitors next...

Lovely Swedish Visitors

We had a great time with our Swedish visitors.. They got here on Friday, joined classes throughout the school, and gave excellent presentations about Sweden, a country we didn't know half enough about. The three lovely Swedish staff members took us out for our tea on Friday night, and we heard all sorts of rumours about what the Swedish students got up to! All concerned, however, retrieved their reputation by being at the first bridge on time for a 9.00am start to our walk to the saddle. Donard wasn't a possibility because our visitors had to catch their bus to Dublin. We were joined by Shimna students Mark, Eamon, Conor and David, and everyone made it to the wall despite the bitter wind. We have the photos to proved it. Thanks a million to Martin and Elaine for leading the way, and to Greenhill for hosting our group. Real friendships were made, and real work experience placements floated for next February. We were very pleased to receive a Swedish cookery book and Swedish sweeties as our thank you present, and look forward to a very fruitful partnership with Sweden.

Compliments to Enjoy

This is a quotation from Dr Ana Kerr of Queens University and the NI Languages Strategy: "I just wanted to take a moment to thank you for accommodating my visit to the school on Wednesday 12 march 2008. Not only was it very informative, it was most enjoyable due in no small part to the manner in which I was hosted by your pupils. the young people made a great impression on me and you would have every reason to be very proud of them. the group a s a whole were welcoming, interested, articulate and helpful giving me some new perspectives on the issue of language learning. Indeed, there were some amongst the group who could serve as worthy ambassadors of language learners here in Northern Ireland! ...Please extend my heartfelt thanks to the young people and staff concerned.

Yo! This makes very good reading, and we are grateful to Dr Ana for taking the time to write.

Great GOML Results

Congratulations to all our nightclass students who sat French and Spanish exams in Janary. Everyone passed and we are all very proud! Lessons continue on Wednesday nights in French, Spanish and Polish. Enquiries should be made to Clare Murphy via the school office.

We're all exciting

We are all exciting, waiting for our visit from President Mary McAleese. This is a particularly interesting visit to prepare for within an integrated community. To some of us President McAleese is the President of our country, to some of us she is the President of our near neighbours and to some of us she is the President of a foreign state. We welcome her heartedly in all of those capacities.

Awesome Fundraising

I'm just getting my head round the scale of the success achieved by the year 11 sponsored silence. The total was heading away over £700.00 the last time I passed the counters. All this fundraising through the soccer match with staff and the sponsored silence has been organised on the initiative of year 11 students through their citizenship classes. The were eager to make some practical use of the lessons they had learned on activism and social responsibility. We know that a third year 11 group has plans in train for the new term, and staff may look forward to having their cars washed. I'll try not to take this fundraising idea personally. Final total and presentation details as soon as we get back.

Happy St Patrick's Day

We had a great St Patrick's Week, including quiz, treasure hunt, ceili, buns, poc fada, prizes and ending up with a fantastic assembly involving students throughout the college. You'll see details on the other Shimna blogs. We always make the point at this time of year, that our St Patrick's Day celebrations form a parallel with our Remembrance Day commemorations in November. These two points in the year have traditionally been appropriated by one side of our community to the exclusion of the other, and it's one of the privileges of being together in an integrated college to be able to explore the process of sharing both.

The best thing about St Patrick this year is that he has joined himself onto Easter, so that we get two weeks well earned holiday. Enjoy!

Germans in the Forest

Our students of German have been up in the forest for the last three days, taking part in this year's German immersion outdoor activities residential. They all had a great time, and had a great time, even if the canoeing had to be replaced by a bit of hotrock given the terrible weather on the last day.

Pink Gentlemen

Today's fundraising event was an invitation to wear pink in support of Action Cancer. Louis and Johnny didn't think they would look good in pink, so they made a fantastic gesture of dressing up in tuxedo - they've never looked better. Thanks to everyone who contributed so generously.

Guilty as Charged

9 Commendagh and 9 Meelbeg took off to Downpatrick courthouse on Friday to take part in all sorts of legalities. They were finger printed, had their DNA sampled (all finger prints and DNA samples were returned to the owners). Robbie Cars, alias Callum Shields was tried and convicted for his crimes, despite able defence by paul McGuigan. His raucous family, alias Karen Malone and Sambie Lee, among noisy others, had to be removed by the Magistrate, who was real! Lots of other people played lots of other parts. Everyone concerned came home with terrific goodie bags!

Feedback and Plan Forward from Utrecht

It was great to have a visit from our contacts in Utrecht, with messages from the students who visited us in the Autumn. The students were hugely pleased at our interested in their Muslim heritage, and their lives, often divided between Holland and Turkey. They really enjoyed their visit to our school, and their strongest impression was of very good discipline and relationships. I send back the message that our students had particularly enjoyed the fantastic food from the Muslim meal, and the chance to talk about their islamic studies to Muslim students of their own age.

Political News from Westminster

Our politics students also had a great time in London, and staff had nothing but praise for the enthusiasm and interest in everything there was to experience.

Poetic News from Spain

Our contingent in Soria are having a great time. Today is the anniversary of the death of Antonio Machado the poet after whom the school is named which our students are visiting. Staff member Clare Murphy and student Sait Can Ozdemir took part in the commemorations, reading poems at the graveside. This evening Grace Sargent and David Cox will be taking part in a commemorative concert, playing music and reading further poetry. Clare and Sait Can featured on Spanish television.

Everyone's run off

The International Dimension end of our Specialism has taken off with a whoosh. Students are: just back from work experience in France; heading off to Austria to ski; heading to Soria in Spain on an exchange visit; heading to London to visit Westminster and tackle MPs; filling in their paperwork to head to Poland. That's not including the immersion German group heading to Greenhill, followed by the integration group heading in the same direction. Then there are the twelve students heading to join their partner schools on the Key Programme, based at Kilbroney and Greenhill.

Work Experience in France and Spain

Just back from a great week in France are Tanya and Rachel. Just setting off to Soria in Spain are David Cox, Grace Sargent, Niamh Lindsay and Sait Can Ozdemir, along with Clare Murphy as support. Helen Crane and Ashlene Fearnon set off on another Spanish opportunity, organised through our Spanish assistant this year. The work experience trips offer a really useful way for our A level students of languages to make real links in their target language and to polish their speaking and listening skills. We wish all our students a safe and happy trip.

St Valentine's Disco

Our sixth form council along with the Parents' Council jointly organised a St Valentine's Day disco. The organisation was impeccable, and everybody pulled together to give the disco-goers a great night out.

Physics at Home

Andreas Bitter and Scott Hamill impressed the judging panel and the audience with their presentation ‘Inside an Atom’ for the ‘Physics@Home’ competition held at the Department of Physics and Astronomy in Queen’s University. Teams had to explain a principle of physics using only household items. Scott and Andreas used a soup bowl and a bag of marbles to recreate the discovery of the atomic nucleus. Once the nerve racking bit of actually making their presentation was out of the way, our team could relax and watch the rest of the entries. Schools from across Northern Ireland were represented with topics including ‘Make your own loudspeaker’, ‘Why boats float’, ‘Fun with forces’ ‘It’s magic?’ and ‘The raisin for the bounce’. All agreed it was a fun and interesting day out, and a free lunch to boot.

Look What I Got Next

Hello,

Thanks for getting in touch with Big Toe. Sorry not to have replied earlier, but I've been off for the Christmas break.

Felan did really well and I'm glad you liked the programme. Please send thanks to all the staff at the school for letting him have the last lesson off so that he could do the recording. He's definitely a voice to keep an eye for in the future and it's good to know that he's got such enthusiastic support!

Best wishes,

Ann

Ann Charles
Assistant Producer | Big Toe Books
BBC 7 | Broadcasting House | Portland Place | London W1A 1AA

Exterminate

Watch out for the new Dr Who club starting this month - Wednesdays after school. See the posters, or contact Shirley McMillan of our English department. Woo hoo, diddely dum etc.

Look what I got.

After I heard Felan on BBC7 I emailed the programme, and this is the reply I got:

"Hi Ellen,

Thanks for your email! We all think Felan is great, and we were very pleased to be able to have him on over Christmas. He's very talented and a pleasure to listen to. I'll show your email to the producer who worked with him, too.

Best wishes,
Big Toe Books"