West Belfast partnership
Community Environment Awards
Class 10B and St. Gerard's choir, under the wonderful stewardship of Ms Powell, attended the West Belfast Partnership (Pairtíocht Feirste Thiar) Environmental Awards ceremony in Divis Bowling Pavilion, Falls Park on 24th October.
St. Gerard's was presented with a Certificate of Achievement on behalf of the pupils who participated in the John Muir Award last year. The John Muir Award is an environmental programme which is co-ordinated by Belfast Hills Partnership and Belfast City Parks and encourages the children to learn outside the classroom by developing an emotional connection with their local community and an ethic of care towards their environment. It instils in them a sense of identity and place and a relative connection to nature as well as bringing learning alive in an enjoyable and healthy manner.
Ms Powell's singers book-ended the day's proceedings with beautiful renditions of 'It's a Wonderful World', 'You've Got a Friend' and 'Every Little Thing'. Mr Ramsey, Mr Geoghegan, Mr O'Neill, Mr McCotter, Mr Niblock and Class 10B proudly accepted the certificate on St. Gerard's Behalf. Also present were Jo Boylan of Belfast Hills Partnership and Michael Culbert from Belfast City Parks.
Class 10B availed of our great city's public transport system, Translink (one of the ceremony's sponsors), to arrive there, but they walked the whole 3.5 mile back to school, via the obligatory refuelling stop at The Kennedy Centre of course!
