The children in Primary Seven considering Strabane Grammar school as an option for next year were vsited today by Mr Lacey the Principal, Mrs Stewart, the Vice Principal, and one of our esteemed alumni-the mighty Debs!

The children received a prospectus each and were invited to the Open Evening next Thursday (31st January).

We were thrilled to welcome back some former pupils today......as well as some of their friends from Artigarvan!

Rachel and Ryan-completing their first year-visited today, along with Mrs Murdoch, to extol the virtues of Strabane High School.

The children gave our P7's a talk, and then answered any questions that Mr Guy or the children had.

Parents and children will have the chance to visit Strabane High on Tuesday 22nd January at 7.30 pm, and on the afternoon of 23 January at 2.15 pm.

As always, we encourage all parents to visit as many school as possible!

The children throughout the school were paid a visit today from the local PSNI-in the form of Chris Thompson.

Sadly there have been a couple if recent incidents in the surrounding areas lately, so the timing was prudent to reinforce the message of Safety-not only in public areas, but also on the internet!

The chidren were reminded to be safe, be vigilant, and perhaps importantly, that there are many more good people in the world than bad!

Mr Rowan and Mrs Smyth from Lisneal College visited the Primary Seven children in school today, to discuss the opportunities available to the children should they decide to go there next year........!

There were certainly a host of opportunities available-the children have been invited to the open evenings next week to find out more!

The children in school today had two very special visitors who had come to school in order to say a big THANK YOU!

Liz Ward and, most importantly, Noah, had made the visit to school on behalf of the local Brach of Hearing Dogs for the Deaf to collect a cheque for £400 raised by the children during the last year.

The children got to meet Noah and had lots of questions for Liz about her time with Noah. The children were really impressed with Noah-and not just his dashing good looks!

Noah is able to inform Liz when someone is at the door, when the timer goes off on the cooker, and when the phone rings. However, perhaps most importantly, she is able to alert Liz when the smoke alarm goes off!

The cost of training a hearing dog is in the region of £5000, and the children hope their contribution will go a towards helping another star like Noah!

We had a fantastic response to our shoebox appeal at our assembly this morning! Local co-ordinator Sharon Jack was delighted with the community's response-a total of 98 shoeboxes were collected-that's almost one and a half per family, which, if it was replicated across the country, would leave the organisers swamped!

It is a great reflection on the children that they have secured such generous donations-everyone should feel very happy inside!

Donemana C.C. are now offering youth coaching sessions in NEWBUILDINGS COMMUNITY CENTRE on MONDAY 19th NOVEMBER at 7.00-8.00 p.m. at a lowly cost of a pound per session.

There will be a bus leaving at 6.30 p.m. from Donemana.

Contact Noel for any further details!

The children held their annual Harvest Assembly this morning-performing in front of each other and their parents and family members. Upon the collection of their various Harvest prodcue, the children from Mrs Crosbie's class visited the Senior Citizens Club next door in the afternoon, performing their assembly pieces and distributing their bounty from this morning.

Special praise go to Ruth, Newmanda and Rebecca who sat through the second half of the performance......just inches away from a little harvest mouse!!! Even more special praise goes to Jennifer Robinson who used all her guinea pig experience to scoop up the little visitor to allow Mrs McCusker to transport Michael back to his very own Disneyworld (aka our pond area!)

The children got to reap the rewards of their kindness-the Senior Citizens donated a large tin of chocolaes as a thank you!

The Senior Citizens were as always delighted to see the children and thoroughly enjoyed the children-the children enjoyed seeing them as well!!!

In an effort to support the children in Knockavoe's charity appeal this term we are asking families to donate any old pairs of glasses-still in working order- so that they can be collected and given to the school in Strabane as part of their appeal for the Visionaid campaign in Africa.

Knockavoe is a school which many of our former pupils attend and we hope everyone will dust off their old glasses filling up old drawers and cupboards!

There will be a Badminton class starting at Riversdale Leisure Centre starting on :

23rd October 2007,

EVERY Tuesday evening from 7-8 pm, for

ALL BOYS and GIRLS aged between 7 and 11.

For all enquiries contact John McCarter 07851683134

Last week we had a visit in school from Sharon Jack-a volunteer who spoke to children about the opportunity to make someone else's Christmas very special indeed.

This year we are supporting Operation Christmas Child, orgainsed by the Samaritans, this is where families fill a shoe box with gifts appropriate for children of a chosen age and gender.

Following the display brought by Sharon Jack, and the video some of the children have been shown-we are all really keen to make a great success of this! This is our chance to bring a little ray of hope and sunshine to children growing up in circumstances so different to our own.

Further details of what is required for a box can be found by clicking on the link below:

http://www.samaritanspurse.uk.com/occ/filling-a-box.asp

The closing date for boxes is Thursday 8th November 2007.

We are hoping that every family will be able to donate at least one box-in comparison to what our children receive at a special time of year this really is very little. The children in our assembly were very moved by what they saw and heard and this is a wonderful opportunity for them to experience the pleasure of giving.

Further information on the scheme in general can be found at:

http://www.samaritanspurse.uk.com/occ/index.asp

Donemana Presbyterian Church are running a summer club for all children aged 4-14 years old. They encourage  you to have fun throughout the week-there will be games, stories, sports, drama, fun activities. crafts and lots more.

The Holiday Bible Club will run from

Monday 30th July-Friday 3rd August, each day from 11 am until 12.45 pm

in The Presbyterian Church Hall.

For further information, please contact Miss Jill Angus(Team Leader) 02890205918 or Rev Stewart Jones 02871398663

The children in school will be receiving a promotional leaflet this week.