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"