Ballinderry PS vice principal Mrs. Lorraine Magowan at the Waterfront Hall with her award.

BALLINDERRY Primary School has picked up two prestigious prizes at the National Teaching Awards Ceremony in the Waterfront Hall.

Vice-Principal Mrs. Lorraine Magowan reached the final two in Northern Ireland for the Teaching Award for Enterprise while Ballinderry also got the DfES award for sustainable schools.

Joaquim noves, Claire McAdam, Bethan Logan, Mr. Ian Thomson, Peter Kelso and Mrs. Magowan with the DfES Award for sustainable schools.

Principal Mr Ian Thomson said everyone was delighted to celebrate Mrs Magowan's 'hard and dedicated work'. "In school the Judges watched her in action with the Year 3 class. She then gave an illustrated talk highlighting the school's achievements in Health Promotion; in gaining the ECO Green Flag Award; organising programmes for parents and other evenings to support children's learning" he said.

"She has introduced synthetic phonics to our school and has written various booklets concerning different aspects of school life."

Mrs Jill Hendron and Mrs.Valerie McKee, who worked alongside her, joined Lorraine at the Waterfront . Our DOES award was given for the work of the whole school.

"Traditionally we encourage all our children to take care of each other, the school and the environment" explained Mr Thomson.

"The school set up an Eco Council to raise awareness of environmental issues. and Mrs Magowan, Mrs Rosca, Mrs Novaes, Mr Clarke and Mr Cotton kindly gave of their time to attend the meetings.

"From healthy eating to travel surveys; from monitoring our energy and water supplies to planting willows for shade; from recycling to new playground markings, we have creatively made the school an exciting place to be.

"Mr Cotton from the PTA helped us out by constructing 30 additional bird and bat boxes which the children assembled and sited in the copse, while Janet Crymble, a local sculptor, helped the class to make a giant copper oak leaf with copper mini-beasts crafted by last year's Year 7.

"Mr and Mrs Novaes led a team of willing volunteers to create a sensory garden. They planted out raised beds, created with railway sleepers, assembled plastic organ pipes filled with herbs and 'living' furniture was designed and built for everyone's enjoyment."

The school also has links with two schools in South Africa to hopefully develop partnerships and exchange ideas for saving energy.