Halloween Time!
We cannot believe it is half term. The months of September and October have blitzed by. Senior 3 students continue to be in good form and enjoyed all the preparations for the Halloween holiday. We put in extra effort this year, decorating our windows, preparing Halloween treats and learning Halloween songs. Staff and pupils all arrived in costume on that final day of mid-term. There was a great sense of excitement watching the morning buses arrive. We even managed to hold a full school parade in the playground while keeping Junior and Senior schools apart.

Senior 3 put the finishing touches to their Halloween goodies in the morning. They mixed food colours to make pumpkin orange and learned how to judge when water icing was ready. They watched as we peeled back the blue glove to reveal our scary iced hand. They thoroughly enjoyed sharing all these during the class party. You can view our Halloween costumes below. Guess who’s who? You’ll never recognise our nurse, Margaret! 

                                       Art and Cooking for Halloween
​You can see us planning and painting our Window design, cleaning out and carving pumpkins – thanks for drawing the faces Gagik – and making our very sticky marshmallow and rice krispie pumpkins. We must admit we did burn the first batch of melting marshmallows. That was a learning experience. Who knew the bottom ones would be burnt black before the top ones had even started melting? We had to clean it out fast in case the burning smell set off the fire alarm!! You can also see some of our Halloween art: blob painting monsters, crepe bats, spiders, and themed mosaics. 

                              DRAMA  with  BABORÓ 

We were very lucky to spend time with the Baboró team who came to school and build a set onsite. 
They took us on a wonderful imaginary camp trip. We unpacked all our coats and shoes in the big tent and then went fishing for our tea. We had to build a fire with logs and set it alight. The flames were hot! They really were because we had flame shaped handwarmers that got hot when we clicked the seals inside. It was magical to watch and feel the heat spreading across these then we threw them on the fire to get the flames glowing. After that we were feeling quite hungry so we cooked our fish. We had no chips but Philida and the team poured a pile of Oreo cookies onto the fish. Ooh, our faces lit up at that!  After tea we lay down to rest under the twinkling stars. This was very relaxing. When the morning sun came up we all yawned and stretched. Pesky birds made an awful racket outside the tent so we chased them away. After that it was time to finish the camp trip and return to school. We had a great time. Thanks Baboró!

                                                                  Cooking
A favoured activity, one which encompasses all aspects of the curriculum and builds fine motor and organisational skills. In these pictures you will see us measuring ingredients for buns, peeling and chopping vegetables for soup and enjoying the final result. "Best soup I ever tasted", said Gagik. "Hmm, it's really good", said Sophie.

                                                   
                                       BACK  TO  SCHOOL !!
                                                            Welcome back Aaron, Dylan, Gagik, Mark, Sophie, and Tiana!! 

​We were SOOOOO pleased to see smiling – if tired – faces returning to school. It was very hard not to hug everyone as they walked in the door. Particularly those pupils that we, the Senior 3 staff, have worked with in previous years. 

Staff in Senior 3 this year are Siobhán, Clodagh and Lisa. We are looking forward to a great year with such a terrific bunch of pupils.
We hope to spend a significant period of learning outdoors so would welcome full rain gear for those who do not mind mist and light rain. These would stay in school for the year. We had one pair of wellies straight in on the first day! Here’s hoping for a mild Autumn/Winter with lots of fresh air.  

The photos below show how quickly we settled back into new routines and new friendships. .