Happy Valentine's Day

The Sixth Form Council and Parents' Council did a great job running the Valentine's Disco for years 8-10. The parents did a wonderful job decorating the hall, and designing beautiful Valentine's card and stocking the tuck shop with jelly hearts and roses to buy. Michael O'Brien and the sixth form team ran the disco and kept everyone safe and happy. I got so tired by the end of the evening - it's all Gerard McConkey's fault for making the elderly dance - that I put a packet of biscuits into my bag and shut my mobile phone in the biscuit tin. Ryan McQuitty had to rescue me from my own daftness and I am very grateful. A good time was had by all and money raised towards the sixth form formal. Thanks to all involved.

Two MLAs and an MP

First thing on Friday morning Jim Wells, DUP MLA, was our first visitor. He came in to talk to our A level Travel and Tourism class about his views in support of the Mournes becoming a National Park. Then cam John Mcallister, OUP MLA, who brought with him Owen Patterson conservative MP, Shadow Northern Ireland Secretary, who headed up to talk to our A level politics class. Busy, busy, Busy. Jim Wells remembered his last visit to Shimna, many years ago, when Shimna student Thomas O'Rourke won a poetry competition organised by the National Trust, where Jim Wells worked at the time.