Pictured above are the winners of the Art and Design poster competition.

Year 10 Art and Design students have helped to launch Careers Week in St Paul’s. The pupils designed posters to promote the importance of seeking advice and guidance when making their GCSE subject choices. In addition, posters highlighted a wide range of possible future career areas.

First place: Niamh O’Hagan 10/65

Second place: Emily Ward 10/82

Third place: Jessica Ennis 10/82

Highly Commended: Patrick O’Reilly 10/47

Pictured above is Niamh O’Hagan, who came first in the Art and Design Poster Competition, being congratulated by Mrs Siobhan Kearney, Head of Careers Department at St Paul’s.

Pictured above is Emily Ward, who came second in the Art and Design Poster Competition, being congratulated by Mrs Siobhan Kearney, Head of Careers Department at St Paul’s.

Pictured above is Jessica Ennis, who came third in the Art and Design Poster Competition, being congratulated by Mrs Siobhan Kearney, Head of Careers Department at St Paul’s.

Judges Comments:

1st: This poster used a highly creative approach to the compositional arrangement.
There was a good balance of colour and was visually interesting.

2nd: A very close contender for first place. A hair splitting decision. An excellent example of the integration of text and imagery to result in an excellent poster design.

3rd: Using I.C.T as the medium for this poster design, resulted in an eye catching poster design that conveyed it’s message easily to the viewer. It was successful in targeting it’s intended audience.

Highly Commended: From the many ICT posters entered for the competition this one focused on a specialist career. This was one of only a few to focus on the more specialist crafts.

“Don’t be mean behind the screen!”

That’s our message to cyber bullies this month, as we draw attention to the problem and provide advice to any students who may suffering from bullying online.

Our senior prefect team are leading a campaign in St Paul’s in November to combat cyber bullying and to raise attention among our student population to the seriousness of this issue, and how following some simple steps online can help make life better for everyone.

Cyber bullying is when a person or a group of people uses the internet, mobile phones, online games or any other kind of digital technology to threaten, tease, upset or humiliate someone else.

What makes cyber bullying different from other types of bullying?

Cyber bullying is a form of bullying but because it happens online or on mobile phones it can happen 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

• - If you are being bullied at school you can usually get away from the bullies when you are at home but with cyber bullying it can feel like there is
  no escape.
• - Cyber bullying can be done anonymously. For example, they might set up fake accounts and hide their IP address or block their mobile number.
• - When bullying happens at school it is usually one person or a small group of people. Cyber bullying can be really scary as it could involve a lot more people  – you might feel that people ganging up on you.

Our campaign is based around four simple actions that can be immediately used to combat a cyberbully.

1.  TELL!  If you experience cyber bulling online, then tell someone you trust immediately.  Don’t suffer in silence.
2.  UNFRIEND!  Don’t allow bullies to see your presence online.
3.  BLOCK!   Prevent cyber bullies from ‘re-friending’ you, or being able to contact you via another person.
4.  REPORT!  Contact CEOP and report the online bully.

I’m being cyber bullied, how can I make it stop?

Cyber bullying is very serious. It can make you feel scared, upset, and embarrassed. You might feel like it will never end.

No one has the right to make you feel this way. We want you to know there are things you can do to make it stop.

You shouldn’t have to deal with bullying alone – think about talking to someone you trust like a parent, carer or teacher. They can help you report the bullying and be there to listen to you. Having someone to talk things through with is really important - it can make you feel less alone and more confident to deal with the situation.

Remember to keep a copy of any abusive texts, emails, comments or messages that you receive and record the date and time they were sent. With cyber bullying there is always a trail and keeping records can be very useful when it comes to reporting the bullying.

Try not to reply to any messages you receive. It can encourage the bullies and end up upsetting you more.

If you’re being cyber bullied you can always talk to Childline on 1-2-1 chat , by email, or by calling 0800 1111.

Are there any other steps I can take to stop the bullying?

• Never give out any personal details on the internet – your real name, address, age or phone number. Even telling someone which school you go to can help them find out more about you.
• If you are being bullied on a social network you could think about whether you want to delete your profile or make it temporarily inactive.
• You can block email address or chat users if you are being bullied by email or instant messenger.
• You can bar a particular number from contacting another phone on some handsets. Check your phone user guide to see if yours can.
• You can report any online abuse through the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP) website.

Catch the cyber bully online.  

Watch this video for some useful tips to help catch an online cyber bully.

 

 

STAY SAFE ONLINE!

Donwnload our special Safebook poster

USEFUL INFORMATION FOR PARENTS

A Guide to Cyber bullying, from the Office for Internet Safety

On the 22nd March 2012, the Regional Training Unit (RTU) for N Ireland, celebrated its final graduation for the Online Learning and Teaching for Educators (OLTE) Programme in the Craigantlet Room, Stranmillis University College Belfast.  This year seventy six post-primary teachers from across Northern Ireland schools, including Head of Irish at St Paul’s, Miss Ciara McCoy successfully completed the RTU’s Online Learning and Teaching for Educators (OLTE) Programme.  The keynote speaker at this year’s ceremony was Mr John Anderson, Managing Inspector ETI.  Mr Anderson paid tribute to the success and quality OLTE has achieved over the years, in particular he said, “One of OLTE’s strategic gains has been to disseminate OLTE graduates’  e-learning knowledge and skills and consequently widen curriculum choice and foster collaboration across schools.   And in that it has been most successful Because of OLTE, We are set up for online and digital success “.

The Regional Training Unit (RTU) developed the OLTE programme in 2003 to meet the Department of Education’s (DE) requirement for a continuous professional development (CPD) programme that would help address the overarching goal of the Education Technology Strategy “That all young people should be learning, with, through and about the use of digital and online technologies”.

The OLTE programme, which focuses on the development of online tutors skills, is accredited at Level 4 by the National Open College Network.  The participants complete 3 progressively challenging units:  Unit 1- Introduction to Online Tutor Skills, Unit 2 – Design, implement and tutor an online lesson and Unit 3 – Design, implement and tutor an online programme.  To date the final number of OLTE graduates is 154 teachers from 95 post primary schools.  They have provided more than 2000 participants with first-hand experience of learning in an online environment.

From 2007/08 the Department of Education funded post-primary teachers’ places on the OLTE programme.  Teachers were able to avail of a CPD programme which requires them to reflect on their practice, develop resources, plan for delivery, teach and assess their pupils in an online environment.  This valuable CPD opportunity allows teachers to revisit many of the GTC Professional Competences and can be used towards Performance Review and Staff Development (PRSD) requirements.  The current OLTE Graduates developed and delivered a variety of online courses to pupils from across a range of post-primary schools including, for example, aspects of GCSE Music, GCSE Geography, GCSE Irish, and AS Psychology.

The Online Learning and Teaching for Educators (OLTE) Programme has now come to an end but there is a significant pool of qualified teachers within the education sector who are in a position to continue developing online courses for schools.  This is evidenced by the OLTE Graduates who have gone on to develop online courses in AS Product Design, AS French, GCSE Irish, AS History and BTec Engineering for blended-course delivery.

We’re very excited about our new iPhone app which was officially launched on 1st March.

The app, which is a free download from the iPhone App Store, will provide users with up-to-date news, photos, videos and events from St Paul’s, presented in a user-friendly, accessible and elegant way.

You can download the app from the iPhone App Store by clicking on the link below.

We’d love to hear your feedback.  Leave a comment on the App Store, or in the comment box below if you like it, or if you have any other feedback to make.