Libraries NI have put together some family friendly activities on their website as part of NI Science Festival to help keep young minds entertained over half term...http://bit.ly/NISF2021  🔬🧪🥼👨‍🔬👩‍🔬

Let us know if you give them a try 📷🎥 Send your photos to stcolumsoffice186@c2kni.net or send a message to our Facebook page @stcolums

Have fun! 😀

#NISF21 #nisciencefestival #experiments #halftermfun #youngminds

LOOK the Children's Liturgy sheet for Sunday 14th February 2021.

#ChildrensLiturgy

If your are out and about tomorrow morning keep your eyes peeled for the polar research ship RSS Sir David Attenborough.

The RRS Sir David Attenborough is spending next two weeks testing anchoring, manoeuvring and dynamic positioning, as well as other engineering systems, such as fresh water making, that cannot be tested while in port. Having left Holyhead on the 7th February and travelling to the west coast of Scotland, trials are taking place of the North Coast tomorrow. One of the tests for the ship will be making sure the ship can handle some stormy weather!

The new polar ship will transform research in the polar regions. Its missions are critical for understanding and making sense of our changing climate.

After the sea trials, the ship will then return to Holyhead, before heading to the Arctic for extensive ice trials. In November will make its maiden voyage to Antarctica.

Let us know if you spot it. (Message our Facebook page or email stcolumsoffice186@c2kni.net)

Eco-Schools Northern Ireland Official

#RSSSirDavidAttenborough #polarresearch #climatechange

IT'S HALF TERM! Relax and enjoy the week off. Remote Learning resumes on Monday 22nd February.   

#HalfTerm #schoolholidays

Today is Safer Internet Day!

 The global theme is ‘together for a better internet’ and this year the focus is on how young people can tell fact from fiction, and work together to create an internet we trust. 

Our pupils will be engaging in activities today to help us all stay safe online

Everyone has their part to play in making the internet a better place, including you! 

LOOK the Children's Liturgy sheet for Sunday 7th February 2021.

#ChildrensLiturgy

Interschool parent wellbeing sessions run by ParentingNI for St Colum's Primary School and Portstewart Primary School.

As part of our whole school focus on mental health and wellbeing we are excited to work alongside Portstewart Primary School and ParentingNI to bring our parents a series of online webinars. This is an exciting new venture for both schools and we are being funded through the Causeway Coast and Glens Good Relations Project.

Do you want to find out more information on how to best support your child's mental health and wellbeing, especially during the current climate? Come along to one of our parent wellbeing sessions in the comfort of your own home via Zoom.

On Tuesday 23rd February from 7.00pm-8.30pm there will be a parents online webinar on 'Promoting children's resilience'.

On Tuesday 2nd March from 7.00pm-8.30pm there will be a parents online webinar on 'Resolving conflict in the home'.

On Tuesday 9th March from 7.00pm-8.30pm there will be a parents online webinar on 'Children's Emotional Health'.

Further information and booking details coming soon to register for these online webinars.

Please note that numbers are limited to 10 parents per school for each online session, therefore we ask parents to choose one online session to attend and if spaces become available, we will allow parents to book more than one session. We hope that these sessions will be both helpful and informative for parents.

#MentalHealth #Wellbeing #SaveTheDate #resilience #resolvingconflict #emotionalhealth

Next week is Children’s Mental Health Week. This year’s theme is Express Yourself.

Expressing yourself is about finding ways to share feelings, thoughts, or ideas, through creativity. This could be through art, music, writing and poetry, dance and drama, photography and film, and doing activities that make you feel good.

It’s important to remember that being able to express yourself is not about being the best at something or putting on a performance for others. It is about finding a way to show who you are, and how you see the world, that can help you feel good about yourself.

For Children's Mental Health Week 2021 we will be encouraging children (and adults) to explore the different ways we can express ourselves, and the creative ways that we can share our feelings, our thoughts and our ideas.

As Catholic Schools Week comes to a close, we think about our school as a Community of Hope.

We are all children of God, called to live like Jesus asked us. This year we will continue to make this school a loving place where everyone feels safe, welcome and cared for. We live in the hope that Jesus has shown us the way to live and we can hope to create a future where all people can know God’s love. We can do this through our
kind thoughts, kind words and kind actions.

Lord, help us to live like you taught us to.

Dear Parents,

I hope you are all well and are keeping safe.

I want to congratulate you on the wonderful home schooling you have been doing.

We have over 85% of our children engaging in remote learning during this lockdown which is fantastic. However, as you all know this brings stresses and strains to families as we all wrestle with technology glitches, social isolation for children and juggling working from home and home schooling.  So for those of you who are finding some or all of this difficult I just wanted to add some reassurance, particularly today when we are facing the possibility of a further extension of home-schooling beyond the mid-term break.

If you are finding the demands of home-schooling is too great at any time, please remember that the work is not an exact prescription of what your child has to do at home on a given day. Use your own sound intuition. You are with your children each day. You are the best judge of their mood, their energy levels, their anxiety levels…not to mention your own. 

The definition of a Seesaw is:

a long plank balanced in the middle on a fixed support, on each end of which children sit and swing up and down by pushing the ground alternately with their feet.

I think balance and support are key words here. We are using “Seesaw” as an online platform to support your children’s learning.

If the balance is off .... and you feel the support can’t hold the weight, or the child’s side of the seesaw is hitting the ground with a hard bump...it’s time to get off the seesaw and take a break. 

We are working together as a school community. No-one is “judging” anyone’s efforts. This is not a court of law. This is a community of St Colum’s families living through a global pandemic and doing what they believe is best for their own family.

At a time when many things are beyond our control let’s keep our eye on our “circle of influence” and focus on what we can control.

Serenity Prayer.

“God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.”

In managing the well-being of all staff I too may have to make changes. Teaching staff may be added to the supervision of key workers and vulnerable children in school. 

If your child’s class teacher has to attend school for supervision duties no new work will be uploaded for your child that day. We will let you know in advance if your child’s class teacher will not be available on a particular day.

I wish to emphasise once again the importance of booking your child’s place online for supervised learning at school. You can do this through School Money and you will find the free registration under the heading “clubs”. This is critical to the health and safety of all and ensures appropriate decisions are made around supervision.

Once again I thank those of you who continue to support the work of the staff in the school at this most challenging time.

Take care everyone,

Mrs Mc Cullagh.