School Christmas Party
held on 17th December
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Fun and games
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Entente cordiale as Marc Escudier entertains with his magic tricks |
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Teacher Yvonne Glass (far right) serving food with other helpers as she retires after nearly fifty years service |
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Christmas Concert The school Christmas Concert was held on Monday 15th December and featured several spectacular acts performed in the school hall. Afterwards teachers Yvonne Glass and Marlene Swain were presented with gifts to mark their retirement in the New Year - for more photos and a full report see the 2014 Christmas Concert page. |
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Pupils Visit Factory to View Huge Crayfish (Crawfish or Tristan Rock Lobster) |
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Marie Repetto's Photo shows the fish in one of the factory tanks |
Chloe Glass, Nathan Swain, Leo Glass, Randal Repetto, Callum Green and Chantelle Repetto with the giant fish |
Factory Manager Erik Mackenzie David Clarke's photos show pupils |
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Callum and Chantelle |
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Randall Repetto |
Leo Glass |
School says farewell to Jim Kerr and welcomes David Clarke who replaces Jim as Education Adviser |
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Photograph from Shirley Squibb of St Mary's School Staff on 2nd October 2014 Left to Right: Outgoing Education Adviser Jim Kerr, Yvonne Glass, Marlene Swain Julia Hagan, Poppy Lavarello, Sheila Glass, Head Teacher Anne Green, Kelly Burns and new Education Adviser David Clarke. Anne-Marie Collins and Renee Green were absent. |
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Introducing David Clarke |
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David brings a wealth of international teaching experience to his latest job as Education Adviser on Tristan. He has written an introduction to himself which we will publish in full in the Tristan Newsletter. Here are the highlights: His first teaching post after graduation and teacher training was in Nigeria West Africa which was a baptism of fire but very worthwhile. After returning from Africa and while working in Scotland he met his wife Ferne who has accompanied him in all his travels and they have two children Sam and Sarah who have been with them on some postings while they were younger, including spending a number of years at school on St Helena. David’s first island was the Scilly Isles off the coast of Cornwall followed by an ODA post setting up the Prince Andrew School on St Helena where David first met Jim Kerr who was also heading back to the UK on the RMS St Helena. After some time in the UK and further professional training David and Ferne spent seven years from 1999 in the Falkland Islands where David was Senior Teacher at the Falkland Islands Community School where Ferne also worked as a teaching assistant helping students with special needs. |
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Jim Kerr with David Clarke outside St Mary's School |
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After some time in Norway and the far north of Scotland David and Ferne moved to Ascension Island where David was head of the Secondary Department in Two Boats School. Upon leaving Ascension David and Ferne have been back home in the Scottish Borders. David concluded his introduction: Where next? Is there a school on South Georgia? For now we are happy to be living and working on that special place, Tristan da Cunha. |
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Jim Kerr with Anne Green outside St Mary's School |
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Editor’s Note: I added this footnote to Jim's article in the February 2013 Newsletter: Jim’s Tristan Employment a Record Jim worked on the island as Education Officer 1985-1991 and as Education Adviser 2009-2012. So he exceeds the sojourns of Rev. Edwin Dodgson (1881-1884 and 1886-1889), Administrator Roger Perry (1984-1989) and Agriculture Officer Gerry Stableford (1953-1957 and 1962) to become the longest serving expatriate to work on Tristan da Cunha. Now Jim adds a third Tristan sojourn between April - October. Jim has now resumed his post as Secretary of the tristan da Cunha Association and will work alongside Chris Carnegy representing the Tristan da Cunha Government in January 2015. |
Performing Arts Show A St Mary's School Performing Arts Show Shirley Squibb's photo shows the school pupils |
Diving Demonstration by Darwin Plus Team Report from Holly Latham and Photos from Jim Kerr |
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On 15th April Holly Latham and Rohan Holt, two divers working on the current Darwin Plus project “Sustainable Management of the Marine Environment and Resources of Tristan da Cunha” visited St Mary’s School to (hopefully!) inspire some budding young SCUBA divers and conservationists. Holly donned her full dive kit – dry suit and all! – to visit the classroom, while Rohan helped explain what all the various bits of diving equipment did. Items of diving equipment were tried on by all, with several pupils donning a dry suit and almost all having a go at breathing off a SCUBA regulator. Many of the pupils have had a chance to swim in the rock pools and it is hoped that this introduction to SCUBA will help inspire some to take up diving and further investigate the unique marine environment around Tristan da Cunha as they get older. |
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Photos show the younger St Mary's School pupils enjoying dressing up in diving gear shown by Holly and Rohan during their visit on 15th April. |
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School Playground Improvements |
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Children playing Basketball on the new
court, during Games lessons. |
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The delegated FCO budget was used by the Administrator to fund the purchase of equipment to enable an extension
of the sporting facilities that could be used by the school and
community. The funding allowed the purchase of line marking equipment, paint, fencing and a range of
sports equipment. The project was initiated by Carl Lander. The whole initiative started when, on behalf of the education advisor, the Agriculture Department sourced and procured fencing that was then erected by PWD who also revised the drainage. Mr Paul, the school site manager and Mr Carl, Project Co-ordinator, then cleaned up the old tennis court, removing growth and re-concreting poorly worn areas. Court/pitch lines were painted that would allow football, handball, hockey, basketball and netball to be played. The PWD then erected the equipment and the Agriculture Department sprayed the area to deter weeds and plant life. Over this period Mr Carl took P.E./Games classes, outlining rules and demonstrating the principles and practice. It is hoped that as the remaining equipment arrives staff at the school will continue to encourage and play a variety of sports with the children and that the children will use the facilities at break and lunchtime. Furthermore the community will be encouraged to use the courts and playing areas outside of school hours. Head Teacher Anne Green is delighted with the playground improvements and commends Mr Carl who spent many hours working himself on this project. Paul Repetto has taken a job with the PWD so this has left us without a caretaker, and Carl did the playground area himself, which has made the place look a lot smarter. We even have little footprints leading down the path to the school and some outside the front door. |
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Photos above and below show Class 1 playing snakes and ladders & hop-scotch on the playground with their teacher Miss Ann-Marie |
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ICT Education News
from Carl Lander |
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In their annual audit in November, St Mary's School were graded 'A' by BCS, the Chartered Institute for IT. The highest grade for quality of administration and delivery of ICT courses. ICT exam success |
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Class 1 with their Computer |
Class 2 and Ms Julia use theirs |
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Class 4 Randal Tries it out |
Returning students Dean and Riaan get to grips with ICT studies again. |
Classrooms get interactive
As part of the ongoing programme of developing resources, each teaching classroom now has a 27" interactive touch screen computer loaded with age specific English, Maths and Science software to be used by the teachers and pupils in the delivery of teaching and learning. Additionally two notebook computers, recently donated to the school, have been loaded with SEN software and are now being used by pupils for differentiated learning in classrooms. St Mary's School is now well and truly in the digital age. |