Bright new era for St John’s Primary

During the visit on Wednesday, the Minister met staff, pupils and representatives from the Board of Governors and was was taken on a tour of the school with principal Kieran O’Neill and chair of the Governors, Liam McQullian

He said: “It is a great pleasure to be here today to visit this school which has been part of the Coleraine community for decades. I have enjoyed dropping into lessons on healthy eating and art and seeing rehearsals for the Christmas play as well as viewing a hurling and camogie session.”

The Minister also had the opportunity to see the new outdoor equipment sponsored by the Parent-Teacher Association. “There is a real sense of community here at St John’s supported by the Parent-Teacher Association,” he remarked.

“I have thoroughly enjoyed my visit to St John’s and I thank you all for the invitation to get a glimpse at life in your school. I wish you well for the future.”

Principal Kieran O’Neill said he was delighted to invite the Minister along to see the many projects happening at the school, including:

Refurbishments

Thanks to the Minister’s Department, St John’s has recently had almost £200k refurbishment of toilets and related works developing a new storage area and Infant Entrance. This work was completed in mid-October. We hope to continue this work by refurbishing the front entrance in the near future.

Outdoor learning

Thanks to the National Lottery Awards for All Programme the school received £10,000 of funding to develop an Outdoor play area, an extensive play trail and with £5000 of funding from the wonderful St John’s PTA the school was able to add a creative and eco area to rear of school alongside the new outdoor trail area. This work complements the foundation play area opened in 2009 and it is planned that the next phase will develop the play area for the infants at the front of the school.

Supporting families through learning

St John’s, in conjunction with Killowen PS and Kylemore Nursery, successfully bid for funding to DSD for “Supporting families through learning” project, supported by the West Bann Development Centre. The project creates a small nurturing-style unit in the two primary schools and strengthen links with Kylemore through a Shared Transition worker. The project attracted £140k of funding and we hope that the project will be extended.

Shared learning

St John’s has a long tradition of genuine and purposeful shared education projects with Killowen PS (Y1-7). We benefit from successful bids for funding through the CRED and Integrated Education Fund PACT programmes to support annual community –based learning projects. This allows the two schools to come together through a variety of different learning experiences to promote our shared local history and to explore different cultures, identities and build lasting relationships within the community.

Launch of our website

The new website www.stjohnspscoleraine.com will significantly enhance communication with home, community and beyond. We already have a very active and informative Twitter feed established last year.