County Derry schools and staff to shine at Family First NI awards

Next Saturday, the Family First NI award ceremony will take place at the Titanic Museum in Belfast to honour teachers, principals and support staff from schools throughout the North.

A total of 22 schools and professionals from County Derry primary schools have been nominated including nine schools, five principals, four teachers, and four support staff.

The teachers, schools, principals and support staff finalists were nominated in various categories by parents and members of the community.

The County Derry Post spoke to two of the finalists ahead of the awards ceremony.

St Mary’s Gortnaghey Primary School

Mrs Ciara Walsh, from Feeny, has been teaching at St Mary's Gortnaghey Primary School for nine years and this year she has been nominated for the Teacher of the Year award.

She first started as a volunteer in the school nine years ago and is now teaching P1 and P2 while she is also acting principal most of the year.

When she heard about her nomination she said she was “very pleased.”

“I am nominated for Teacher of the Year and we just found out that the school is also nominated for Primary School of the Year,” said Mrs Walsh.

Mrs Walsh admits she didn't always want to be a teacher.

After living on the Isle of Man, Liverpool and studying Hospitality Management at Ulster University, she became a hotel manager.

“I came to teaching late,” said Mrs Walsh. “I first wanted to be a hotel manager. I moved to the Isle of Man, then I went back to the University and I moved to Liverpool.

“Whenever my daughter was born, my work-life balance did not work, the hotel side of it did not suit a young child.

“I then went back and retrained as a teaching assistant,” said Mrs Walsh.

She then started a one-year PGCE in Liverpool.

When moving back to Northern Ireland, she first worked as a volunteer in St Mary’s Gortnaghey Primary School before 'getting the full-time job, then getting the permanent job and now acting principal', she said.

There is often a misconception of the work-life balance of teachers. Indeed the school day does not stop at three in the afternoon as they need to plan lessons and get activities together before the next morning.

“I read something before, like a quote, that said ‘it’s the only job in the world that you need to plan what you are going to do before you actually go to your work’,” said Mrs Walsh.

“You have to plan, you have to plan to do your work and then you have to plan what you are going to do and then you have to plan what you are going to do next.

“To be honest I was one of these people before I started teaching that thought you are finished at three and then you have the holidays.

“Then you understand, even my husband realises that I probably do more hours than he does. I definitely do,” she laughed.

St Mary's Gortnaghey Primary School is a small school with 77 pupils and four teachers.

“It’s a great atmosphere but you still have all the roles and the jobs to do at a large school with less staff. We are a wonderful wee school.”

“Our staff are absolutely amazing and I couldn’t do the job I do without the support of everybody in the school and also my husband Christy and daughter Saoirse.”

Magherafelt Primary School

Ian Somerville, Principal of Magherafelt Primary School, has been nominated for the Principal of the Year award.

Teaching for 19 years, he comes from a family of teachers and has been principal for about four years.

“I wanted to be a teacher ever since I was a young child, my father and my dad were both teachers. My grandparents on my dad's side were both teachers as well. So to a large extent that was all we really knew as a family. And consequently, both my sister and myself are both teachers.

“It’s a family business really,” laughed the Principal.

“It's a wonderful job and I can't imagine ever doing anything else. I absolutely love my job.

“I got the privilege to work with a very keen, enthusiastic team, they are exceptional. They do deserve some praise and accolades.

“But it can be a challenging job. There's no doubt about it.”

In the school, five staff members in total have been nominated, including two teachers, two support staff, the school and the principal.

Magherafelt Primary School has a total of 245 pupils with 11 teaching staff and 20 support staff.

To nominate staff or a school, people needed to leave a comment about the person or institution they chose online.

Then these comments were given to the respective schools.

“We're just very humbled by the whole thing because it's all through the nominations of our parents.

“That's the second year that we've been nominated for a few awards and were just blown away by the support of our community,” said Principal Sommerville.

He explained that the comments left about the staff and school have been really useful in understanding the positives of their work.

“Honestly, they are very emotional. You don't realise the impact that you have as a teacher and as a school. You read all these lovely comments about things that you didn't realise or notice. I think all of the nominees in school are just blown away by the comments.”

“It's a real morale boost, because quite often, just with the nature of the job, you hear the difficult things, you hear the things that haven't gone exactly the plan or the problems, you don't always hear the good things or about the things that have made a difference.”

Principal Sommerville wants to say thank you to everybody who took the time to write comments about the staff and school as “they made a genuine difference to the morale of staff.”

Principal Sommerville shared some comments that were written from their parents about about Magherafelt Primary School:

“This is such a well-run family friendly school. We have 2 children here and the love school every day. It has a great Christian ethos which encouraged the children to treat others with respect and to strive to do their best. The facilities are great too.”

“A genuinely caring school that caters for the needs of every pupil who attends, provides excellent opportunities and fantastic communication with parents and carers and spends time and energy seeking opportunities to allow all pupils to fulfil their potential. A thoroughly deserving school!”

“Magherafelt Primary School should win as it really is the best primary school there is. It is not just a school but it is like a great big family, where everyone looks out and cares for one another. Nothing is ever too much trouble or any bother. It has a brilliant atmosphere where everyone is made to feel very welcomed and valued. They go above and beyond for their staff, pupils and parents. Having had three children go through the school I would have absolutely no hesitation in highly recommending it to others. My experiences with the school has always been greatly positive. They deserve this for all their great work and dedication to each and every single pupil that comes through the school.”