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.