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St Mary’s student teachers share their experiences of activities organised to celebrate
Catholic Schools Week (29 January – 3 February 2017)
Primary 7 pupils with Patrick Gallagher
“During Catholic Schools Week, the children have been responding to the call of Pope Francis to protect “Our Common Home” by adopting simple everyday eco‑actions.
The children conducted an audit of the school’s environmental impacts to identify targets for action and improvement. From this evaluation, the children have highlighted the importance of saving and conserving energy and recycling paper to help protect our environment for future generations.
The Primary 7 pupils are keen to lead a range of Eco-Schools initiatives in the coming weeks to ensure that everyone is committed to their role as stewards (minders and protectors) of God’s earth.”
Patrick Gallagher (student teacher)
Blessed Patrick O’Loughran Primary School, Castlecaulfield
Primary 1A and 1B pupils with Eimear McEleney (student teacher) and Pauline Jordan (school caretaker) from Good Shepherd Primary School, Derry
“We each explained why our grandparents are so special to us, and discussed that God has given grandparents the important job of teaching us how to care for others.
We invited Pauline (Cara’s granny and our school caretaker) into the classroom on Wednesday. The children, with help from their parents at home, each prepared one question that they would like to ask Pauline. The children found out lots of information about being a grandmother and some of the things that Pauline liked to do when she was a little girl.”
Eimear McEleney (student teacher)
Good Shepherd Primary School, Derry
Class 4B pupils with Kathleen McGarry
“This week we have been learning about the beauty of our common home and Pope Francis' call to tackle climate change and protect our world. Today we focused on what climate change is and the importance of sharing our common home. In groups, we explored various images that depict the damaging consequences of global warming and discussed how we can help tackle the issue. We also created fantastic posters to spread the message with everyone about the little things that we can do to protect our world! “
Kathleen McGarry (student teacher)
Our Lady Queen of Peace Primary School, Belfast
Class 11C pupils with Aoife Scott
“As part of Catholic Schools Week, I facilitated a lesson with my Year 11 GCSE Religious Education class. The focus of my lesson on Friday was “Sharing Our Common Home”. For the purpose of this lesson, we used the School Oratory, as this quiet space enabled us to reflect on how we can care for our school, home, the wider world and ourselves. The lesson culminated with a guided meditation supported by Taizé music and the poem “Sharing is Caring” as it echoed the duty which each of us have to our common home.”
Aoife Scott (student teacher)
Christian Brothers’ School, Belfast
Primary 2 pupils with Maria Kelly
“For Catholic Schools Week, our focus was celebrating our grandparents. Today we had Grandparents Day in the school. Over the course of the week the pupils talked about how special their grandparents were to them. The pupils made lovely artwork and writings about their grandparents, which was on display in the classroom.“
Maria Kelly (student teacher)
Sacred Heart Primary School, Derry
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