Our students participated in the combined Christian school choir on Easter Monday evening, singing “O Wonderful Wonderful Word Of The Lord” and “When I Survey”.

Thanks to Martyrs Memorial Belfast:
https://www.facebook.com/Martyrs-Memorial-Church-167598460065458/
https://www.sermonaudio.com/martyrs

Please take a look at some of our activities during 2018 and see how the Lord has blessed our school and students.

UPDATE: As advised by the MET Office, school will remain closed on Tuesday 17th October.  We apologise for the inconvenience, but safety of all is most important.  We will reopen on Wednesday 18th October DV.  Thank you!

School will be closed on Monday 16th October, as advised due to the extreme weather warning.

We pray everyone remains safe.

WBD: Where‘s Wally 30th Party!

Year 1-4 pupils and their Literacy teacher dressed as Wally and Wenda for WBD 2017.

First, they had to search for Wally as he had disappeared on his 30th birthday!  He had left a rhyme to provide clues to find letters, which spelled out his location when unscrambled.  ALL of the pupils found Wally and got their ‘I found Wally’ certificates!

Wally? Wally? Where are you?
Under something red; above something blue:
Follow this pattern – times two –
To get a HUGE clue!

One letter was hidden under the teacher’s red chair!

We also had to find 30+ things – like 2 helmets, 4 buckets, etc. – in a ‘Where’s Wally’-style excavation site picture!

Busy searching!

We designed National Book Tokens for the ‘Oodles of Doodles’ competition

Where are all our Wallys?

We had a 30th birthday cake for Wally!

Victorian Tea Party

Mrs Watson, the KS2 History teacher, prepared a sumptuous tea for her Victorian guests, who varied from the Queen to a pauper!

KS2 pupils dressed as Victorians!

During their tea party, the pupils (aka. Victorian guests) showed an awareness of the Victorian context through their conversation – some upper class ladies bewailed the discrimination between the classes and stated they would permit their children to play with those of the lower classes.  Guests also demonstrated exemplary etiquette – excepting the poor pauper who had not been educated in mannerly conduct.

All of the classes joined the tea party!

Following the reading of an account about a Victorian girl’s experiences of working in the mine, the pupils examined pictures of conditions in the Victorian mines for child workers, making observations.  Then each pupil wrote three questions he/she would like to ask the child workers.

After this preparation, each pupil adopted the role of an MP for South Down and participated in a parliamentary debate about the conditions in Victorian mines.

THANK YOU to everyone who helped make our WBD 2017 a success!

WE’RE A ‘SCHOOL OF BOOKS’!

We are DELIGHTED to announce our Y1-4 pupils won 3rd prize in the National World Book Day Award Competition 2017!  The prize won was £1000 worth of Walkers books for the school libraries.  In addition, the pupils were given a signed copy of A Child of Books by Oliver Jeffers and a framed limited edition print from the children’s book for the classroom.

This year, the creative challenge was set by picture book giant, Oliver Jeffers and acclaimed fine artist, Sam Winston.  Pupils were asked to create their own ‘world of stories’ display inspired by their new children’s book, A Child of Books, published by Walker Books, who have funded the Award for 2017.

OUR WINNING ENTRY!

Initially, our composite class of ten evaluated the spread from A Child of Books.  Then, we had a ‘thought shower’ re. our favourite childhood books and described our reading experience with adjectives.  One child wondered what the world would be like without stories, so we also brainstormed negative adjectives on a ‘world without stories’ – like ‘poisoned’, ‘sadly silent’, etc.  This became the foundation for our display – the contrast between a world without books and a world with books.  To incorporate the school’s ideas, we did an initial display in the corridor, asking everyone to write or draw inspiration for our display.  We decided to display our final product in the corridor as “it’s about everybody reading”.

For the background, we constructed a giant book with contrasting sides – a flat, painted black side full of negative adjectives and a quirky, colourful, multimedia side describing ‘reading’.  We used different fonts online to format the words in a visually striking way.  The ‘finishing touch’ was a giant, velvet bookmarker.

Some thought a ‘world without stories’ would be “blank, so people would be blank – no ideas or words”.  Therefore, they moulded a boy and girl out of wire and papier machéd them in white.  Additionally, they felt it would be ‘muddy’ like a battlefield, so some followed online instructions to make mud playdough from flour, cocoa, oil, water and salt.  It was a favourite activity as it was “so mucky and gooey”!

Contrastingly, after the boy and girl had a ‘reading experience’ they were colourful and full of words.  Therefore, we printed words on to colourful card and used strips to papier maché them.  One little girl felt the models should even have colourful hair, using blue wire and twirling it to make zany hair.

The children felt reading is a journey through different worlds, meeting characters, so they made steps of books.  They imagined the blank girl and boy journeyed into the big book and then came down transformed!  The small books were made from cereal boxes covered in different papers; the main characters cut from recycled book pages.  To emphasise the diversity of story-worlds, pupils constructed a signpost from a tube from wrapping paper and cardboard.  They googled different fonts to represent the worlds on their signpost and copied them onto their signs.  ‘Space’ points upwards, symbolising “space is all up there, beyond”. At the bottom, pupils made flowers from fantasy film to show something has grown – ‘it’s not just muddy anymore’; even the little boy holds some flowers.

Finally, we made a unique book with gold-painted ‘Open me’ message on top; hidden inside, with a ‘dream bottle of ideas’, is an iPad with our interactive quiz about your ‘reading experience’, i.e. the number of books read per month, favourite characters, etc.  It enables everyone to reflect about being a ‘child of books’ and collects data for a ‘big reveal’ on World Book Day about our school’s reading habits.

The Interactive Quiz

Ultimately, it is our special display – one boy asked, “Can it stay forever?”

THANK YOU TO WBD & WALKER BOOKS!

We would like to thank the World Book Day organisers and Walker Books for the opportunity and the fantastic prize!  Also, a BIG THANK YOU to everyone – pupils and staff – at MICS who contributed to our entry with their creative ideas and expertise!  It was much appreciated!

HAPPY WORLD BOOK DAY!

On Tuesday 14th February 2017, the two winning Houseteams – Knox and Wycliffe – had a treat day.  The teams’ FS and KS1 pupils went to Rascals, a colourful, engaging soft play area; KS2-KS4 pupils were split into two teams and had competitive laser battles at Laser Quest.

Ready for the battle!

Whizzing down the slide together!

The soft play area

Thank you to the McDonald’s staff who spoiled us with balloons and extra masks!

KS2 pupils constructed volcanoes as part of their ‘Physical Geography: Dynamic Earth’ theme.

Survival on a Desert Island

Y5-7 had to imagine they were stranded on a desert island. In groups, they conducted thought showers to determine 6 essential items for their groups’ survival; then, they ranked these items in importance.  Lastly, before an audience of peers, each group had to describe their chosen 6 items for survival and explain how they were essential.

Young Apprentice

In designated groups, as young apprentices, pupils had to collaborate on product design and brand name.  They conducted product research, conducting questionnaires regarding the most popular aspects of their chosen products, i.e. preferred flavourings, toppings, etc. Then, they created PowerPoint presentations to promote their products and pitched them to their peers.  Finally, they made the yummy products and conducted a taster event, using persuasive language to advertise their products to pupils and teachers.

One pupil dressed as an energy-saving house, while another is a person dressed to prevent heat loss in winter.

We would like to thank Bryson Energy for their engaging Power Point presentation on how to save energy.  After, we demonstrated how humans prevent heat loss in winter and how houses can be more energy-efficient by dressing up!