Blue Peter Shoebiz Appeal

JW collected shoes to raise money for Malawi through the Blue Peter Shoe Biz appeal. There are many people in Malawi with AIDS. Another huge problem is the fact that Malawi is one of the poorest countries in the world. Many children have no parents and are left to look after themselves. The money raised through Blue Peter selling the collected shoes will be used to help many people in Malawi. JW pupils helped to promote and collect the shoes. JW must be commended for their dedication to this project with the end result being well over 200 shoes collected. When the Mayor heard of the great work by JW, he felt he had to come to Clounagh JHS to congratulate the class. Well Done, JW!

Mr. Eakin (JW Form Teacher)

School website now available in Portuguese

In recent years, we have enrolled a number of foreign pupils at Clounagh, some of whom arrived in the country with little understanding of English. In order to give such pupils, now and in the future, a better experience of the school website, we've added a Portuguese language translation button (see top right). The service is provided by Google. Unfortunately, other relevant languages such as Polish and Lithuanian are not available at this time. The translation is likely to far from perfect, as it is an automated process with no human interaction, but should still prove useful.

Christmas Carol Service

Here's a selection of photographs taken at the recent Christmas Carol Service held in the school assembly hall.

[ View Photo Gallery ]

Visit to the Tayto Castle

Classes IB and M found out first-hand how our favourite snacks - crisps - are made. Both classes went along to the Tayto Castle in Tandragee for a detailed tour, as part of a Geography trip. We were taken around all the different rooms and discovered that making crisps is far from simple. There are many different processes the crisps have to go through to ensure that we can safely eat them. As there are many different flavours of crisp, each flavour has to be carefully constructed and inspected. The potatoes are grown by the finest farmers, so we can have the best crisps. They are kept in dark and cold conditions to achieve the best possible outcome. They have to go through numerous processes: washing, packaging, peeling, slicing, and further stages done by machines alongside computers. But even though most processes are carried out by machines, people are employed to make everything go that little bit faster. We tasted warm crisps stright out of the oven, without flavour, and then compared them to flavoured ones - what a difference!

We all enjoyed our visit to the Tayto Factory, and it became very useful to our Geography studies. And I think we all enjoyed our free packs of crisps, too!

Report by Leah Martin and Lauren Buckley, IB

Girls' bleep test scores

Here are the latest scores for the girls' bleep test, supplied by Miss Fraser.

[ Girls' Bleep Test Scores ]

New choir supersize photo

Here's a supersize photo of this year's choir, performing earlier this evening at the school's Christmas Carol Service.

[ View Supersize Photo ]

Van de Graaff Generator gallery

During Science class, on the topic of electricity, Year 8 pupils got to experience the hair-raising (and sometimes slightly painful) effects of static electricity, courtesy of the Van de Graaff Generator.

[ View Photo Gallery ]

The new Year 8

As is our custom at the beginning of each school year, we take a group photo of all the new kids transferring in from primary schools.

[ View Supersize Photo ] (girls)
[ View Supersize Photo ] (boys)

Assembly: Similarities and Differences

Hola! Bonjour! Buenos dias! Wotabootya! Ciao! Ni Hao! Labas! Kiala! Guten tag!

On Tuesday 7 November, 8C made a short presentation to Year 8 assembly on the topic Similarities and Differences. Each pupil in the class represented a child from another country or region. The aim was to point out that, even though we speak a different language or dialect, we all have "the same hopes, fears and feelings." 8C would like to thank their mentors (Friendly Faces: Sam Cheung and Chloe Bell) who helped them research and prepare the presentation.

"Have a nice day." From 8C.

Blytheswood Care Shoebox Appeal

Thank-you to all the pupils who supported this year's Blytheswood Care Shoebox Appeal by donating boxes with gifts for children in Romanian orphanages. Over 100 boxes were collected.

Macmillan coffee morning success

Clounagh Junior High School's coffee morning has raised £210 for Macmillan Cancer Support. Mrs. Mawhinney would like to thank everyone who supported this really worthwhile cause.

School calendar update

The online school calendar has now been updated to include the dates of all known events and holidays from September 2006 to June 2007.

Happy birthday, Mrs Hanson!

Mrs Hanson had this surprise waiting for her upon walking into the staff room today at break-time.

New prefects for 2006/07

Congratulations to the Year 10 pupils selected to be prefects for the forthcoming school year.

[ View Supersize Photo ]

Ulster Scots musicians visit Clounagh

As part of the Ulster Scots cultural initiative, a party of Ulster Scots traditional musicians visited the school on Thursday. The musicians played Lambeg drums, flutes, fiddles, and billy goat drums, to the rapturous applause of the pupils. A highly enjoyable and entertaining concert.

Kathryn, Chloe & Louise win the UTU writing competition

This year the Ulster Teachers Union organised a competition in association with the Campaign for Global Education. Around the world, ten million children are unable to read and write. This campaign promotes the Millennium Goal that every child should have access to education by the year 2015. About 80 pupils from Year 8 classes AR & AW and Year 9 classes EB & GB accepted the challenge to describe their ideal teacher. Three pupils from EB received the top three places, equalling last year's achievement. Right to left: Kathryn (1st place), Chloe (2nd place), and Louise (3rd place). The girls received their prizes at a reception in UTU Headquarters on Wednesday, 28 June. Congratulations!

[ Kathryn's Entry ] [ Chloe's Entry ] [ Louise's Entry ]

Trip to Greenhill YMCA

The Under 14 Rugby Squad boys who were awarded the School Colours went on a three-day trip to Greenhill YMCA in Newcastle. Activities included rock climbing, absailing, and a trek to the top of Slieve Donard and Slieve Commedagh.

Retirement party for Mae

Mae Irwin was given a surprise party by her colleagues on Wednesday. She has worked at the school for twenty-two years, in the canteen and the tuck shop. On behalf of all at Clounagh, we wish you a very happy retirement, Mae!

"There's a panther in the school!"

Once in a blue moon, on the news, you'll hear a story about a "big cat" (such as a tiger or panther) being spotted on the loose in the countryside somewhere. So how does an animal like that make its way into our country? Often it was illegally imported as a young cub by a foolish family who wanted an exotic pet. Unfortunately such people don't have the foresight to consider how they'll cope when the cute little furball grows up into a fierce predator. So, to avoid the authorities, they let it loose into the wild. But what if the beast wanders out of the countryside and into your town? What if it wanders into your school?

Over the course of 2005/06, the school's Year 9 Filmmaking Club met each Wednesday afternoon to produce a movie about the scenario described above. The film's running time ended up being 18-minutes - twice as long as any previous film.

This morning, the film received a hearty round of applause from all of Year 8, who watched it during assembly. Congratulations to the members of the Filmmaking Club 2005/06: Adam Gordon, Andrew White, Sam Cheung, Andrew Taylor, Eddie Quin, and Arran Stanley, James Knight and Adam Chambers.

We now present Cat Trap online for your enjoyment ...

[ Play Movie ]

The Handwritten Bible project

The Bible Society in Northern Ireland is encouraging people from all walks of life to participate in producing a Handwritten Bible for Ireland. Many church and school groups have already written their parts. Recently, seventeen members of Clounagh Junior High School's Scripture Union took part in the project under the guidance of Mrs Rosemary Clarke (head of RE and SU leader). The pupils had to copy several Psalms and part of the Gospel of St. John.

Year 8 pupil Luke Flannigan wrote the following about his involvement in the Handwritten Bible project: "When I was writing out the Scriptures, I felt under pressure, in case I made a mistake. Now I know how the scribes felt in Bible times. They must have been very frustrated when they made a mistake, because they had to start a new skin. Fortunately for me, all I had to do was to rule a line through any mistake."

Participating pupils are shown in the bottom photo with their certificates (back row, from left): Sarah Boyd, David Bell, Chloe Wilson, Christopher Anderson, Rachel Crozier, Andrew Taylor. (Front row) Stephen Wilson, Luke Flannigan, Ryan Gordon, Rachel Saunderson, Jamie Caughey, Samuel Harper. Also participating were Megan Emerson and Courtney McCann (top photo, 2nd & 3rd from left).

New art galleries

As is our custom each summer, we showcase artwork by the Clounagh pupils. Spread across three galleries, we present 160 pieces of art and craft created over the course of the school year. The photo on the right shows Year 8 pupils Lynne Brownlee and Rebekah Wilkinson with their city.

[ View Photo Gallery ] of Year 8 artwork.
[ View Photo Gallery ] of Year 9 artwork.
[ View Photo Gallery ] of Year 10 artwork.

Prize Night

Yesterday evening's prize-giving ceremony was accompanied by performances from many talented Clounagh pupils: Nathan Heyburn, Andrew Slaine, Andrew Proctor and Ryan Bailie performed some blues music; Cherith Rodgers and Hanna Moffett each sang a solo; Hannah Kernaghan, Hannah Forbes, Kerry Morrison and Elaine Abraham performed a hard shoe dance; the drama club performed a short sketch; Sophie McClelland and Emma Burney performed a dance duet. And throughout the evening we enjoyed performances from the excellent school choir and orchestra. Enjoy highlights from the event with our online movie and photo gallery. Special thanks to our guest of honour Miss Shelley Brownlee. And congratulations to all prize-winners!

[ Play Movie ] [ View Photo Gallery ]
[ View Supersize Photo ] of the main prize-winners.
[ View Supersize Photo ] of the class prize-winners.
[ View Supersize Photo ] of the Young Enterprise award-winners.
[ View Supersize Photo ] of the school choir.
[ View Supersize Photo ] of the school orchestra.

Young Enterprise Day

Year 8 pupils at Clounagh attended a specially organised day to assist with their transition to Year 9 in September. The day was organised by Young Enterprise Northern Ireland and was part of The Big School: Moving On initiative. The pupils took part in team-building and target-setting exercises to promote confidence and careers awareness.

Clounagh wins Young Enterprise Junior Team of the Year

Not content with claiming several awards already this year, the senior class of Clounagh's Learning Support Centre has gone on to win the Young Enterprise Programme award for Junior Team of the Year. The contest was held on Friday 9 June at Belfast City Hall, with schools from all over the province competing. Congratulations to the Clounagh pupils!

Sports Day

This year's Champion Girl Athlete is Zara Lyttle, who scored 38.5 points. The Champion Boy Athlete is Jordan Leckey with 39 points. Congratulations!

The highest scoring athletes in each year are as follows:
Year 8: Elaine Abraham (16 pts) & Andrew Richardson (28 pts).
Year 9: Zara Lyttle (38.5 pts) & Jordan Leckey (39 pts).
Year 10: Rachel Calvin (34 pts) & Christopher Colvin (27 pts).

The 2006 House Cup for sport all year (Hockey, Rugby, Netball, Football & Athletics) goes to Scott house (captains Jenni Mason & John Graham).

[ View Photo Gallery ] [ Girls' Results ] [ Boys' Results ]