R.E. Events
Bible Exhibition:
On 19th January, a group of Year 8 pupils were invited to a Bible exhibition in The Gospel Hall on the Shore Road. This exhibition was designed to make people aware of how the Bible was created and what it is about.
When the pupils from 8X arrived, they were met by a number of friendly people who divided them into two groups. Each pupil was given a clip board and a worksheet full of questions to try to answer as they went round the display. They were also assigned a leader who explained all aspects of the display and answered any questions which might have arisen. The two guides were extremely knowledgeable – there wasn’t a question they didn’t know the answer to!!
After the exhibition, every pupil was given a refreshment and a biscuit and then they took part in a quiz about the exhibition. The competition was fierce as it was boys against girls. After a little bit of “cheating” on the part of the quiz master (who was male!!), the boys came out as the overall winners. The girls took defeat well. Prizes were then given to each pupil for coming to the exhibition. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed their day.
View event photographs in the Gallery
Community Relations Conference:
On Thursday 30th June, year 10 pupils were invited to a Community Relations Conference in The Barron Hall in Glengormly in association with Newtownabbey Borough Council.
We arrived at 9.30am and mingled with some year 10 pupils from Monkstown Community High before the conference got under way.
There was a special panel of invited guest speakers who were from various countries around the world. These speakers had been living in Northern Ireland for five or more years and they were going to answer questions about their experiences of living in this country. The speakers were from Poland, Switzerland, South Africa and India.
Pupils were invited to ask open and honest questions to any of the speakers regarding racial harassment experienced in Northern Ireland and how they have dealt with it. Each member of the panel was given an opportunity to express if they felt that they had been harassed on the grounds of their race since moving to Northern Ireland. Surprisingly, each member had very positive things to say about how they have been treated by people here. Each person said they had experienced some degree of racial harassment. However, they immediately went on to refer to a number of positive experiences and these outweighed the negative ones.
Our pupils left this conference with an altered view of people who come to live in Northern Ireland from different cultural backgrounds. They thoroughly enjoyed meeting all the members of the panel and took great delight in getting the opportunity to speak with them.