Irish Stars

A*s that is. Our wonderful year 9 students of Irish chalked up spectacular results in their GCSE Irish, and Meadbh in year 11 achieved a grade A in her AS Irish. Well done all. A real boost for all our Irish Medium students.

Celebrate

Education Minister Caitríona Ruane and Employment and Learning Minister Sir Reg Empey both came to Shimna on A level results day to help us celebrate our most fantastic results yet. We celebrated our third year as NI's first Specialist Languages School with Tanya's place to study French at Oriel College, Oxford. Tanya leaves Shimna with her A level French, GCSE in French and Irish and today she collected a grade A* in German. Other fantastic results include Rachel Skillen winning her place to study Veterinary Science at Nottingham University, Callum Henderson off to Westminster to study television production, Lee McMahon off to study at Paul McCartney's LIPA, Niamh Lindsay off to study English and Spanish at Glasgow University - and so on and so on. Tanya, Callum and Lee were interviewed on Radio Ulster, and Orla O'Connor got to show off her four As on teatime TV.

InnoTaytorWinners

1. Luck of the Irish – Ruben Mills, Cade Douthwaite & Aaron Latus
2. Twist, turn, taste on your tongue - Ellie May Jennings, Faidhnait Brady & Jessica Lauren Taylor
3. Taco Sauce – Can you handle it? - Thomas Maguire, Eve McAnallen & Tighearnach Murphy Dawes
4. Smoked Salmon - Lisa McMillan, Katie Graham & Mary Jane Fitzsimons
5. Chilli Chicken – Can you handle it? - Chloe Park, Callum Stevens & Danny Needham
6. Salted Sea Food - Conor Wylie, Josh-Marshall Boyd & Michael Cooney
7. Beans on Toast - Claire Malone, Stephen McClean & Ryan McAnulty
8. Sweet Chilli Chicken Tubes - Ellen Dennison, Stephen Ward & Matthew Pringle-Rice
9. Ham & Cheese - Matthew O’Sullivan, Ryan McVeigh & Shannon Kennedy
10. Chicken & Chocolate/BLT Split pack - Jonathan Mills, Jamie Holmes & Jack Rogan
11. Popcorn Flavour - Alexander Crory, Josua Bartley & Aimee Forde
12. Spicy Chicken Kebab - Dieter Cunningham, Ryan Johnston & Ryan Maguire
13. Ribs in Peking Sauce - Emma Addis, Lauren Sloan, Hannah Croman & Kirsten Diamon

Well done all those winners. Good luck in the main competition!

Midgie Bites and a Tan

Our intrepid Gold Duke of Edinburgh Expeditioners arrived back this afternoon from their Trossachs five day hike. They did a great job, along with the Limavady High School group, with Shimna into the campsite first every day (well almost every day!). Campbell did a great job organising, watering and minding them all and deserves a gold award too. Very well done all. Look out for a very embarrassing slideshow soon!

InnoTaytor

During their Moving On day on Tuesday, year 8 were introduced to the exciting InnoTaytor Challenge. On Wednesday they all turned up back to the gym to work in teams on their innovative ideas for new Tayto products. Watch this space for the list of winners whose ideas will go forward to the main Tayto competition.

Sporting Fundraisers

Amnesty International raised £100.00 at their sponge throwing event, and huge thanks are due to the victims. The Students' Council are still counting their loot, and deserve to have raised a huge amount for the huge effort they put into organising a fantastic alternative element to our sports day. Thanks for: buns; egg and spoon races; sack races; face painting; nail designs; ice pops and all sorts of other things. Trojan effort.

Father Murray Comes Home to Shimna

Our wonderful Irish department are this year's winners of the Father O'Mhuirigh Cup for Irish.  It will be brilliant to have the huge babybath of a trophy back in Shimna.  Our winners will head off to Cookstown in June for the celebrations.  If you're inspired, have a go at Irish