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Music News June 2018

What a busy year this has been! The culmination of a lot of hard work and effort took place in the form of our ‘Trip down memory lane’ concert, which took place on the morning and evening of Wednesday 23^rd May. Family and Friends were encouraged to join with the children to head back to the sixties and enjoy some hits such as You’ll never walk alone, Hey Jude, Goin’ to the Zoo, Ain’t no mountain High Enough and Brown Eyed Girl. Performances by all four choirs – Infant Junior, Senior & ANCIENT were enjoyed by one and all, along with the orchestra and trad groups. Mrs Cuddy would like to thank the children and the staff for all their hard work in preparing for this concert. Perhaps the ‘Ancient’ choir will appear again for the 60^th Anniversary!!!

International Week

We celebrated International week. Look at some of the amazing costumes.

The children had fun trying different foods from around the world. Mrs Ciaicovschi talked to us about Romania. What a beautiful looking country. She told us that Top Gear used it for driving because of the breath taking views and twisting roads!! We also learnt how to say hello in Romanian.

The pupils have been learning capitals and well done to James Barbour who was very knowledgeable on capitals.

Roots of Empathy Presentation

Mrs Lamont, Mrs Miller, Baby Hallie (and her mummy, Michaela) and Baby Sienna (and her mummy Victoria) were delighted to be invited to the Roots of Empathy Presentation in Ballymena. It was a wonderful opportunity getting to meet all the other mums and babies with their instructors too!

Pupils, Leah Parks and Rhea O’Donnell, confidently delivered an excellent speech on the day sharing their favourite moments of the programme. Well done girls!

Belfast Marathon

Well done to Trevor Allen and his team for running the Belfast Marathon. Trevor's aim was to raise £1,000 for our Autism Centre. Trevor surpassed his target by raising over £2,000! Thank you so much to everyone who took part and supported this worthy cause!

The Great Stand Up To Cancer Bake Off

Ella, Amelie and Bianca were very busy girls and baked yummy treats for all the staff. Donations were given to support this very worthwhile cause. The bakes were delicious...definitely no soggy bottoms in sight!!!

Bible Time R.E Prize Giving

On Tuesday 17th April Sam and Louise returned to Cookstown Primary School for the annual Bible Time prize giving. Pupils in year 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 as well as some of the LSC and ASC pupils were in attendance. Amazing prizes were given to all pupils who completed the Bible Time booklets in their R.E lessons in class. Many thanks to Sam and Louise for all the hard work they put in and for our very generous prizes.

50th Anniversay Gala Dinner

This year Cookstown Primary School is celebrating fifty successful years of educating the young people of our town. As part of these celebrations, past and present staff and governors of Cookstown Primary School came together, on Friday 23^rd March, for a Gala Dinner in the Glenavon Hotel Cookstown, to celebrate the 50^th Anniversary of the opening of the school on the Coolnafranky Estate.

The current staff and governors had been looking forward to catching up on the news from their retired colleagues and were delighted when so many were able to attend. Prior to sitting down for their meal, the eighty guests were royally entertained by the talented musicians from ‘Higher Ground’. Then, following the cake cutting ceremony the guests enjoyed a well prepared four course meal served by the ever-attentive hotel staff.

After the dinner, Mr Neil Downing, the current Principal, spoke about the schools many successes. He talked about the great memories that he personally had and encouraged the guests to look at the old photographs, that were on display, to remind themselves of how many of the towns young people had passed through the school’s doors over the past fifty years. In summary, Mr Downing said, ‘while the staff, governors and pupils of Cookstown Primary School enjoy celebrating the school’s past and the contribution it has made to the lives of so many young people, we continue to work together to ensure that our young people are fully prepared for life in the modern world.’

SOFT

*** Attention all parents*** Kim from SOFT will be in school each Wednesday 8.30-9.30 for parents drop in if anyone would like to meet with her or just hear a little more about how SOFT can help.

World Book Day

On Thursday 1st March we celebrated World Book Day. We had great fun dressing up as our favourite book characters or simply in our favourite clothes whilst raising money to purchase new books for our school. Look at our amazing costumes below!

Christmas Jumper Day

A big thank you goes out to all the children that dressed up for Christmas Jumper Day. We raised £470 and have decided to donate £400 to Save the Children Fund and £70 to a local charity called Superstars. Mrs McErlane is presenting Mark from Superstars. Mark very kindly helps out in the school on Wednesdays.

World Book Day

The School Council have organised a special event to help celebrate World Book Day on Thursday 1^st March. This year, we would like to encourage all of the children to dress up as their favourite book character or simply in their favourite clothes.

We would like you to donate £1 per child or £2 per family. This money will be used to buy books for the school.

We will be spending the day enjoying books and we would encourage you to spend time reading with your child also. You might want to come in and enjoy reading a book over breakfast in our breakfast club.

Please note that Liz Weir will be bringing stories to life through her amazing storytelling at the Burnavon on World Book Day. Sessions run from 2.30pm for ages 3-6 and at 4.00pm for ages 7-10. These story telling sessions are free.

Celebrating 50 Years - Ulster Tatler

To view the recent article published in the Ulster Tatler click here.

Senior Choir

Senior Choir rehearsals have recommenced after a highly successful Carol Service on 14 December. The children performed beautifully and made their teachers and parents very proud, alongside the Traditional Group, Orchestra, Infant & Junior Choirs; not to forget our Staff choir. We had two wonderful performances and everyone enjoyed making memories.

Plans are underway to complete our 50^th Anniversary Celebrations and children have started to learn ‘Ain’t no mountain high enough,’ first performed in 1967, the year our school opened, to give the children a taste of what their parents or grandparents enjoyed back then!

Further information regarding performances will be released in due course but you won’t want to miss it!

Poppy Fenton has arrived!

Miss Poppy Grace Fenton arrived on the 4/1/18, 5 weeks early weighing 4lbs 12oz. Congratulations to Sharon and James Matthew! We can’t wait to meet little Poppy.

Katie Whyte

We were all delighted to read the article on our Katie and her parents in the Local Women magazine. She really is a wee star and we are proud to have her as a pupil at Cookstown Primary School. As a school community we cherish each pupil for their unique gifts and talents, and strive to help them face and overcome the many challenges that life presents. Within our Learning Support and Autism Specific Classes we recognise that these children face more obstacles than most and so they receive a lot of individual attention and support to allow them to achieve their full potential. The staff work very much as a team, together with the child’s family and support services such as Speech Therapy, Autism Advisory and Intervention Service and the Middletown Centre for Autism. We also make the most of every single opportunity to celebrate achievements like Katie’s. With this in mind, we can’t wait to see what Katie does next!!

Carols by Candlelight

Christmas Craft Fair

Tis the season to celebrate!

The children in our school are busy preparing for a very special Christmas Carol Service, being held on the morning and evening of Tuesday 12 December 2017 at First Cookstown Presbyterian Church, Loy Hill, Cookstown at 10am and 6:30pm.

This is a special service as it is to celebrate the school’s Fiftieth anniversary. We will enjoy music from our drum corps, Traditional Group, Infant, Junior & Senior Choirs and the school Orchestra……along with a couple of other surprises!

Further information will follow in due course but save the date!!! You won’t want to miss it!

Christmas Craft Fair

There will be lots of exciting and original stalls selling handmade arts and crafts from local artists and makers. This is a brilliant opportunity to buy a special gift for your family & friends, so we hope that you will be able to get into the Christmas Spirit at Cookstown Primary School's Christmas Craft Fair.

We can promise that there will be a little something for everyone as: Health and Beauty, Jewellery, Books, Baked Goods, Chocolate Fountain and the girl’s firm favourite Once Upon a Bow Stall are all coming along..

A little Elf has also informed us that Santa and his reindeer will be joining us to make this special evening even more memorable for all of the family.....

If you would like further information or would like to book a stall, please contact Yvonne on 07850570486.

Harvest Tea

On Wednesday 8th November Cookstown Primary School hosted its annual Harvest Tea service. Children throughout the school participated in the celebrations. Musical items featured the school orchestra, Junior Choir, Senior Choir and also the Traditional Music Group. Rebecca and Maddie in Year 6 performed a mime to "At Your Name". Many parents, family members and friends visited the school to listen to the exciting programme which the pupils had keenly rehearsed. An enjoyable morning was had by all!

Check out videos of the Junior Choir, Senior Choir and mime below!

Lego Club

Year 5 have thoroughly been enjoying the Lego after school club.

Autumn Disco

Check out our spooktacular costumes below!!!

Special Awards

Congratulations to the Hughes family who all received a special award certificate for the month of October. Well done!!!

Looking forward to the Harvest Tea

The Orchestra, Trad Groups, Drum Corps, Junior and Senior choirs have been super busy preparing for the Harvest Tea. Unfortunately Hurricane Ophelia, along with an unexpected Year 7 trip to Windsor Park and various other events in our school diary, put a spanner in the works and we have had to postpone our performance to Wednesday 8 November 2017 at 10am.

Tickets are priced at £2 per person and you can sit back, relax and enjoy some music that the children have prepared over the last number of weeks. And then the Christmas rehearsals commence...!

New Arrivals

We would like to congratulate Laura and Ivan Keys on the safe arrival of little Evie Grace on 6/10/17. Weighing 6lb 11oz. We can’t wait to meet this wee dote!

We would also like to congratulate Hannah Junk and her partner Dominic on the birth of their little girl. Megan Daisy was born on 19th October weighing in at 7 Ib 1 oz.