Beach Litter Clean up in Portballintrae

Hi everyone,

we had a great day today out at Portballintrae.  We went on a beach litter clean-up outing with Jim Allen, the environmental officer from Coleraine Borough Council.  We picked up 14 full bags of litter.  We found loads of things that would be so dangerous to birds and sea animals.  We could not believe how much fishing tackle we found.  Other things that we found were:

• lobster pot tags from Canada
• a dead lamb
• loads of shoes!  (we were wondering how you could leave your shoes on a beach!)
• loads of ropes of all different sizes
• drink tins
• loads of plastic bottles/plastic buckets, etc

This is a picture of most of us who were there with our bags of rubbish.

I think we did a great job today.  Well done everyone!! 
Thanks also to the PIAS TEAM who very kindly had organised a BBQ for all the beach combers on their return.  That burger tasted really good.  It was a great way to end the day and year.  Thanks again!
I have just put some photos from the launch in below.  We really had a great day that day.

I think it is obvious that we had a great day of celebration of our new garden!!!!
That is all for this term.  We will be back in September.  Thanks to Rebecca for agreeing to feed the fish over the summer. 
We have lots of plans for next year so see you all then. 

Garden Launch a great success!!!

Hi all,
what a great day for all involved with the garden.  Our garden launch was today and we were blessed with fabulous weather!
I am so pleased for all the pupils involved with today - you were an absolute credit to the school, yourselves and you parents.  Well done!!!
Also we were so pleased to celebrate the opening of the garden with so many important people -
Mayor Hillis - The Mayor of Coleraine - officially opened the garden
David Mc Clarty MLA
John Dallat MLA
Awards for All Programme Manager
Jim Allen - Coleraine Borough Council Environment Officer
Parents (who were one of the most important guests)
Board of Governors
etc

I know all the pupils loved that your garden was so well received.  I really is something to be proud of .  I want to thank everyone for all the hard work that has been put in in the last few weeks in particular.  The power of teamwork is amazing!!!  Well done!
I just want to thank RACHEL, NAOMI, ROISIN AND MEGAN in particular for the gift of the scrapbook that you made for me.  You must have put in so much time and effort into this.  I will treasure this.  I wanted to share your poem with everyone as it is so funny (I hope you don't mind!)


Mrs Toman's Garden

Mrs Toman would dig and sow
till she made a little garden

And Roisin kept splashing
in Mrs Toman's garden

Of Rachel's there were two
and they had plenty to do
in Mrs Toman's garden

And Becky kept everything watery
in Mrs Toman's garden

Then there's Louise whose smile kept everyone pleased
In Mrs Toman's garden

And Shea made it most days
In Mrs Toman's garden

And for Courtney there were the bees
In Mrs Toman's garden

And Chloe tended leaves
In Mrs Toman's garden

And Aaron weeded onions
In Mrs Toman's garden

And Ellen always had a hand to lend
In Mrs Toman's garden

And Lucie was always busy
In Mrs Toman's Garden

And from Carl there was never a snarl
In Mrs Toman's garden

And that Katy one loved a good scallion
In Mrs Toman's garden


And Ben his advice has no end
In Mrs Toman's garden


And Megan put cuttings in
In Mrs Toman's garden


And Naomi did everything happily
In Mrs Toman's garden

But Mrs Toman let them go
And they all sat down to their toast in a row
In Mrs Toman's garden




I loved this poem!!  You are all so creative!!!

I will put some other photos on of the launch when I get them  - I didn't get time to take any photos today but I will get some and publish when I do.

These are some photos of Conor Mc Clelland in front of the ECO GREENHOUSE he designed.  He is a star!

This is all for now.

Carrots find a home in wellies!

Hi all,

we planted some of our carrots in interesting homes today!  Wellies!  They look really cool and we hope to get more wellies brought in to plant more of them in more colourful homes!
We also planted an old boot with flowers which look really cute.

We thinned out the cabbages and broccoli again  - we have planted some of the thinned out planted up the middle of the potato patch.

Our pumpkins have started to grow as well  - all 6 seeds are growing well.  We are very excited about this!

Our greenhouse is also almost up - just the glass to put in.  Thanks Stephen!

We now have 3 fish in the pond - they look a bit lonely in such a big pond so we will have to get some more.  Each class is trying to raise the money to get one.

We had 17 pupils at the club today which is great for a wet day!  Well done everyone for turning up!

Tidy up day!

Not very exciting today - but we still had lots of jobs to do.  Watering, weeding and thining out the young cabbage and broccoli seedlings.  Becky discovered that you could tell the difference between the broccoli and the cabbage seedlings by tasting them!  The tiny broccoli plants already tasted exactly of broccoli but the cabbage did not taste of much.  Well done Becky!
All pupils planted the thinned out plants into a yoghurt pot and they can plant these into a pot at home to grow on.
Not much else to report.  Will update next week.