Christmas Activities this week

This week was choc-a-bloc with activities. Staff and I took the year 9s to watch a film, for example. We went to watch 'The Nutcracker', which was very well received by all the students.

We also had a whole school mass, which was held in the parish church of the village where our school is situated. The school also has a choir, which animated the mass. Some photos can be seen below.

Yesterday was the last day of school and the students had a pizza party and a disco, which was enjoyed by most. For those who do not like to dance,board games were organised. Others started recounting stories, and cracking jokes.

School ended at 12 noon. I could hardly believe that a term had already passed!

Whole School Mass

Christmas Disco Party

Christmas Tree at our school

A photo of the Christmas tree, made up from 1598 plastic bottles, at our school. This tree has won the Maltese National Record of the biggest Christmas Tree made from plastic bottles. We are very proud of our students, and staff who have managed to reach their aim, that of clinching the title of having the biggest Christmas tree on the island.

The Maltese traditonal Christmas at our school

Next Monday 17^th December, our will be open to the public. During this day, the students will be organising a day full of activities related to the Maltese Christmas. These activities begin at 9am.

Among the activities that the students, together with their educators, will be organising, there is a bazaar where ponsiettas will be sold. One stall will be selling books and other paraphernalia which can be given as presents. One might wonder what have these got to do with the Maltese Christmas? There will be Maltese authors who have written about Maltese traditions, and who have enriched the Maltese Christmas. One of these authors is Trevor Zahra, who will visit the school on the day to talk about this subject.

Apart from this, one cannot talk about the Maltese Christmas without talking about food. During this activity, there will be Maltese sweets for sale. These have been  prepared by the students together with the help of their teachers. Among these Maltese sweets, there will be honey rings and the traditional chestnut and chocolate drink, imbuljuta.

There will also be information how the Maltese crib and pasturi are done. There will also be information about the history of the terramaxka. There will also be a terramaxka at school which will be played in front of the student and the public who will be present on the day.

These activities will end at around 1pm, when the public and the students will gather in the main school  yard for the closing ceremony where there will also be a surprise for the students. We are all looking forward to this whole day event.

The Christmas Crib Competition

Now, that mid-term has passed, all educators look forward to the next six week block. This is an exciting time for us at school, as it leads to the two-week break connected with Christmas. A myriad of events are organised in our school. One staple feature of the run-up to Christmas is the Christmas crib competition. The poster is shown below.

The main point of this competition is that besides making the students think about the significance of Christmas, they also use a variety of recycled materials.  In addition, the school is decorated with the cribs that the students themselves would have done. This enhances in the students their sense of pride and ownership of the school.

The competition opened this week. My year 9s showed a lot of interest and asked a lot of intelligent questions about what they could use or could not, to build a crib. The staff and I are looking forward to the end of this month to be see what the students would have created.