PROMOTING POSITIVE THINKING SKILLS (PATHS)
We recognise that particularly at this challenging time the emotional and mental health of children is paramount. With that in mind we have introduced in 2020/21 the innovate emotional health programme called PATHS. PATHS is a programme created by Barnardo’s NI is designed to facilitate the development of self-control, emotional awareness and interpersonal problem-solving skills. The programme consists of a variety of lessons, and additional materials and charts. The purposes of the PATHS programme are to enhance the social competence and social understanding of children, as well as to facilitate educational processes in the classroom.
MATHS MASTERY
After consultation with staff and governors we have decided to adopt a new and innovative approach to the teaching of mathematics. This new approach is called ‘Maths Mastery’. This approach is based on the Chinese ‘Singapore’ method. It is based on the teaching of skills that deepen understanding of maths concepts, maths thinking, and maths language and communication. The programme is only introduced to P1 and 2 in year 1 and then each year a new year group adopts the method. At the same time other year groups will also try to develop some of the methods. During this year we will invite parents of P1 & P2 to learn more about this unique approach. We are delighted to be one of only 6 schools in Northern Ireland to be accepted by Maths Mastery to introduce this programme.
Freckle Maths
Freckle Maths is an online program that provides personalised math practice for students from P4-P7. It adapts to each student’s individual skill level, ensuring they receive the right amount of challenge and support.
How It Works
- Adaptive Practice: Freckle continuously adjusts the difficulty of math problems based on the student’s performance, helping them work on skills that are just right for their level.
- Variety of Activities: The program includes a range of activities such as basic math facts, number recognition, and more complex topics like algebra and geometry.
- Real-World Applications: Students engage in practical, real-world math problems that make learning relevant and interesting.
Benefits
- Personalised Learning: Each student gets a customised learning experience that matches their current abilities and helps them grow at their own pace.
- Engagement: The program uses gamified elements and rewards to keep students motivated and engaged in their learning.
- Progress Tracking: Parents and carers can monitor their child’s progress through detailed reports and insights provided by the program.
How Parents and Carers Can Help
- Encourage Regular Practice: Support your child by setting aside regular time for them to practice math on Freckle.
- Monitor Progress: Use the parent dashboard to keep track of your child’s achievements and areas where they might need extra help1.
- Communicate with Teachers: Stay in touch with your child’s teacher to understand how Freckle is being used in the classroom and how you can support your child’s learning at home.
You can view further detail about Freckle Maths on our website home page which has an interactive presentation for parents and carers.
Accelerated Reading
Accelerated Reader is a digital program that helps students from Primary 4 to Primary 7 improve their reading skills. It works by allowing students to choose books that match their reading level and interests, read them at their own pace, and then take quizzes to assess their comprehension.
How It Works
- Choosing Books: Students select books that are appropriate for their reading level and interests. The program offers a wide range of books, ensuring there’s something for everyone.
- Reading: Students read the books at their own pace, either at school or at home.
- Quizzing: After finishing a book, students take a short quiz on the computer to check their understanding of the material.
- Tracking Progress: As students read and take quizzes, they earn points and track their progress towards their individualized reading goals.
Benefits
- Motivation: The program motivates students to read more by rewarding them with points and tracking their progress.
- Personalised Learning: It provides personalised reading recommendations based on each student’s reading level and interests.
- Skill Development: Regular reading and quizzing help improve reading stamina, comprehension, and vocabulary.
How Parents and Carers Can Help
- Encourage Reading: Support your child by encouraging regular reading at home.
- Monitor Progress: Use the Renaissance Home Connect feature to keep track of your child’s reading progress and quiz results.
- Communicate with Teachers: Stay in touch with your child’s teachers to understand how the program is being used in the classroom and how you can support your child’s reading journey. You can view further detail on our website home page which has an interactive presentation for parents and carers.
By engaging with the Accelerated Reader program, you can help foster a love of reading in your child and support their academic growth.
SUSTRANS
We are delighted that SUSTRANS, (the charity that enables people to travel by foot, bike or public transport), have been supporting St Teresa’s as we aim to increase the number of children who travel to school by walking, cycling or on public transport. The school has hosted a number of special events such as ‘Ditch the Dark Day’ and national ‘Walk to School Week’ to help promote this in our school. We are delighted to have been awarded the SUSTRANS Gold Award, a prestigious award coveted by many schools.
RIGHTS RESPECTING SCHOOL
All the children in our school from P1 to P7 are continuing to learn about the United Nations Charter for the “Rights of the Child”. Each week we learn about a new “Right” from the Charter and talk about what it means.
We have also set up a “Steering Group” of pupils, teachers, assistants and members of our school community who will lead the school in this “Rights Respecting “journey. Some classes have also used “Children’s Rights” as a focus for their assemblies.
ECO SCHOOLS
St Teresa’s has achieved the ECO SCHOOL’S FLAG. Watch out the eco team are about! The eco team are encouraging everyone to be more energy efficient by checking three things – only paper is in the recycling bin and lights and taps are off. At our green day assembly the two most energy efficient classes won a special award for their efforts. This year the ECO committee will be aiming to reduce plastic in our school.
FOREST SCHOOLS AND OUTDOOR LEARNING
Miss Sweeney is a trained Forest School’s Teacher and will be delivering the Forest School’s programme in our newly established Fairy Garden. All classes will also regulary visit the Fall’s Park to enjoy outdoor learning classes including minibeast hunt, pond dipping, hut building and much much more.
ZONES OF REGULATION
This year we have also introduced ‘Zones of Regulation’. The goal of this is to teach children about self-regulation and how to strengthen their self-regulation skills.
Self-regulation is an essential skill in life, and in all learning environments. Children who can regulate their own emotions and attention are better ready to learn and thrive. Zones of Regulation categorizes emotions that children may feel during the day into four “Zones”.
Blue Zone — when your body is running slowly, such as when you are tired, sick, sad or bored.
Green Zone — when you are ready “good to go.” You feel happy, calm, and focused.
Yellow Zone — when you feel your engine running high, such as when you are frustrated, overwhelmed, silly, wiggly, excited, worried, anxious, or surprised.
Red Zone — is when you’re in crisis or heading towards a meltdown. You have extreme feelings such as terror, uncontrolled anger, aggression, or elation.
Zones of Regulation focuses on two areas. In the first, our students will learn about how their emotions and attention are connected, and then how to recognise emotions and attention in themselves and their classmates. They learn that they move through their Zones throughout the day, and that they can improve their control over their Zones through practice. The second area of Zones of Regulation teaches about tools for changing from one Zone to another and encourages each child to build a repertoire of tools. The goal of this is for children to gradually become more able to call upon their toolkit, rather than needing adults to regulate them. All emotions are okay to have, and it is expected that children will enter each zone at one time or another.
Please click the link below to view resources that would help you support this programme at home including:
- Poster outlining strategies that you could use to support your child getting back to green e.g., if feeling blue- hug a soft toy etc
- Banner to display at home which will help your child identify to you how they are feeling.
It would be very helpful to us as a school if parents/carers could also use this language at home when discussing how your child is feeling. For example, if you sense that your child is feeling sad, ask them what colour they are feeling. If a child responds by saying they feel blue then choose a strategy from the poster that will help them transition back to the green zone.
We hope this will help you support your child in becoming even more emotionally literate, be able to regulate their emotions and ultimately encourage positive mental health for everyone in our school.
ROOTS OF EMPATHY
Various classes across the school are taking part in a very interesting project named ‘Roots of Empathy’. It focuses on raising levels of empathy, resulting in more respectful and caring relationships and reduced levels of bullying and aggression. The program takes place over 27 sessions and 9 of the sessions are led by our tiny teacher ‘Finn McCabe’. The program focuses on promoting pro-social behaviours, increase knowledge of human development and help our students become responsible citizens. The children loved having Finn in their classroom today and cannot wait to have him back.
MEDIA INITIATIVE FOR SCHOOLS
The primary 1 and 2 children have been taking part in the Media Initiative for Schools project which aims to encourage the children to be welcoming and inclusive of everyone. The initiative discusses inclusion through the use of puppets in fun games. The parents in both year groups were invited to a recent parent’ workshop in November 2014.
THE UGANDA NORTHERN IRELAND SCHOOLS PROJECT (TUNISP)
St Teresa’s is delighted to have a ‘Global Citizenship’ link with a Ugandan school called St John Boscos’. This year following the visit of Mrs Connolly and Mrs Keane to Uganda in March we were very glad once again to host teachers from our partnership school St John Bosco in Uganda. Mrs Teddy Mbabazi and Mrs Harriet arrived on Sunday 11th May for a week’s stay in Belfast. We look forward to future projects and links with our friends in Uganda.
THE CHINA BRIDGE PROGRAMME
St Teresa’s Primary School has been twinned with Zuzhou Foreign Languages School in Zuzhou Province China. Mr Rodgers visited the school in October and plans are already underway to have Mandarin classes throughout the school and further exchange visits and projects between the two schools.
THE NEPAL CONNECTING CLASSROOMS PROJECT
St Teresa’s is one of 10 schools who are linked with schools in Nepal. Joseph High School is our partner school in Katmandu. Please click the link to view our project:https://youtu.be/8B9yH4sOJ_Y
TITANIC BELFAST & ST TERESA’S PARTNERSHIP
An exciting and newly formed partnership between St Teresa’s and Titanic Belfast was established this year. St Teresa’s has been selected to work in partnership with Titanic Belfast to help them evaluate their new and existing exhibits. P6 children are involved in piloting new trips and exhibitions for children. In term 1 P6A visited Titanic Belfast on the 6th October for the Brave New World guided tour while P6B visited on the 7th October for the New Beginnings workshop. The P6 pupils were asked to evaluate everything they saw and participated in to inform future visits for other children. These trips to Titanic Belfast have and will help P6 pupils by stimulating enquiry, encouraging independent and collaborative learning and awakening a genuine thirst for knowledge.
BELFAST HEALTHY CITIES
During this year the P7 classes in St. Teresa’s Primary School will be involved in piloting a new teaching resource entitled “Healthy Places, Healthy Children” which has linkages with the World Around Us curriculum. The resource was developed by Belfast Healthy Cities in conjunction with the Education Authority, Belfast Region.
Mr McGreevy and the boys and girls from P7A have been awarded £727.27 for the development of a 3G pitch at the rear of the school following their proposal for the Glen Road area to become a healthier, more child friendly place. The children presented their proposal to hundreds of people at the Belfast City Hall on Monday 20th June 2016. The children represented the school with great distinction and since have been sent two letters commending them on their proposal and the way in which they articulated themselves and represented the school. Well done to the boys and girls who took part in the pilot project this year.
SPORTABILITY
The children in Primary 7 have teamed up with Physical Education Students from the University of Ulster to promote sport and fundamental skills. The children trained with the students from the UUJ weekly and this culminated in an Sports Day ‘Mini Olympics’ event in Jordanstown.
SHARED EDUCATION/PEACE PLAYERS INTERNATIONAL
Peace Players International – Northern Ireland (PPI – NI) is an independently registered cross-community peace building charity in Northern Ireland that uses sport – in particular, basketball – to unite and educate young people from Protestant and Catholic communities. PPI is part of our PD&MU programme, and is an excellent project for your child to participate in, helping to develop their cultural awareness and fitness through basketball. S Teresa’s Primary School is currently linked with our friends from Euston Street Primary School in East Belfast. This has been a very successful project in our two schools and we hope to build and develop this further.
CHEMIST IN SCHOOLS
St Teresa’s have been involved in the ‘Chemists in Primary School science project’ throughout the year. As part of this project the children work with an industrial chemist in developing their understanding of chemistry in a theme. Children in Mr Hughes’ Primary 5 class have been working with Dr Hanna from the Royal Society of Chemistry this year.This year the project was based on the chemistry of ‘bubbles’. This culminated with classes attending a presentation day in Queens University Belfast. The class showcased their ‘Big Bubble Experiment’ findings to a number of other schools and scientists, they also watched presentations from various schools and enjoyed watching scientists from QUB putting on a chemistry show. The event was a huge success, with the children thoroughly enjoying the scientific and practical elements of the investigations throughout the year.
STRANMILLIS COLLEGE’S SCIENCE THROUGH PLAY PROJECT
The Primary 1 children are currently taking part in the Science Through Play project supported by Stranmillis College in Belfast. Mrs Braniff will be working with students from the college to consider strategies to introduce the children to science through the medium of play. The children have been investigating colour and light this half term!
THE VOLUNTEER READING PROGRAMME
The children in Primary 3 have been having extra support in reading with students from St Mary’s University College Belfast.
SOLAS: Back on Track PROGRAMME
The Primary 2 children have also been receiving extra support in reading provided by three retired teachers who are fostering a love of reading with our Year 2 children.
TIME TO READ PROGRAMME
Three members of the business community including engineers and IT support have been developing reading strategies with children in P5.
FUN WITH MUSIC BELB
The children in P5 have begun weekly music classes with the Belfast School of Music in preparation for a concert in Clonard Monastery in February. We look forward to the show!
READING PARTNERNS PROGRAMME
Three members of the school’s learning support team will be supporting 9 children in Year 3 for a very intensive reading support programme throughout the year.
PRIMARY LANGUAGES PROGRAMME
Primary 3 and 4 children are learning the Irish Language throughout the year as part of the school’s primary languages programme.
A HEALTH PROMOTING SCHOOL
As a Health Promoting school we aim to increase awareness about healthy eating and making the right food choices, within our PDMU programme. It is important to eat a wide variety of foods but we will especially encourage the children to eat five portions of fruit and vegetables per day in protecting themselves and promoting good health.
MEDICS IN SCHOOLS
In collaboration with Queens University Belfast, Primary 7 children have the opportunity to find out more about Health and the Human Body through practical and fun activities with medical students studying at Queens University Belfast.
MUSIC
St Teresa’s PS pride’s itself on a long music tradition. We have an excellent choir consisting of year 5 -7 pupils. In collaboration with the BELB School of Music we provide violin, cello and woodwind lessons. Mrs Conlon develops traditional music through tin whistle. This year a chamber choir was formed. The chamber choir won the Belfast Festival of Music in 2016 and were semi-finalists in the Radio Ulster ‘School Choir of the Year’ competition. Our chamber choir also performed at the opening of the new extension of the Belfast Waterfront Hall.
SPORTS
We have worked for many years with St Teresa’s GAC and have developed our own school Gaelic team which meets every Monday. We are delighted to host St Teresa’s GAA Club training sessions, twice weekly throughout the year. We also have GAA coaches developing early foundation skills with our year one to four children. This year, children in years 5 and 6 have had an opportunity to improve their athletic and soccer skills with the support of guest coaches. Each year our primary 6 and 7 children participate in the annual Cross Country Competition. Children in years 5 -7 receive swimming lessons at the Whiterock Leisure centre. Swimming lessons operate over one term, beginning with year 6 in term one, year 7 in term 2 and ending with year 5 in term 3.