Year 7 travel to Gortin Glen to meet Holy Family PS 🚍🌲

This week, Room 12 travelled to Gortin Glen Forest Park to take part in a range of activities with our Shared Education partner, Holy Family Primary School. This trip formed part of our continuous journey with the Strule Creative Initiative Project 2022. 

The project is titled 'A Trip to Somewhere Exciting' and is based around the book 'The Magic Harp' by local author Declan Carville. The children had previously met Declan virtually at the start along with the other local schools taking part in the project. Declan was able to discuss and read the book with Room 12 and asked them to do a Literacy and Art activity along with him which involved drawing all of the things that Fergal missed in the story.

Before our trip, we completed an art lesson as part of the project, which involved the children painting rocks which they all brought in. They had to think of things that they would miss if they went to the Moon alone, just like the main character in 'The Magic Harp'!

The children were all very excited as we set off to Gortin Glen just before 10am. We met up with Holy Family PS and Mary and Emma who were leading the activities. After a read through of Declan's book and a virtual word from Declan himself, the children all put their rocks in a collaborative swirling circle, as seen in the video below.

Then everyone got into pairs, one from each school, and went outside to create a 'Sound Map' in the forest. This was also inspired by the book, as the main character finds himself in a forest hearing all sorts of fascinating sounds. They had to stand in the one spot and with their eyes closed, draw whatever they could hear in each direction.

After a much needed lunch break, it was on to creating our portals, just like the book. The children again got into groups and gathered materials from the forest floor to make their mosiac, which can also be seen in the video.

Before we knew it, it was 2pm and time to head back to Omagh County!

Thank you again to Mary and Emma for leading the activities and for all of your help so far with this excellent project.

Thanks also to Declan Carville for providing everyone in the class with a signed copy of his book, it was very much appreciated.

Finally, thank you to the AmmA Creative Learning Centre for all of your organisation and kindness thus far.

We hope you enjoy our video below!