The Ballygrainey Fund 

11th December:
We are very proud to announce that we have been successful in securing additional funding for a special history project with an award from the Ballygrainey Fund which promotes educational activities supporting young people (priority will be given to projects supporting young people aged 18 and younger) from disadvantaged areas. It has a special focus on:

  1. "Projects that will directly benefit those disaffected from mainstream education.
  2. A partnership approach involving multiple agencies, working with parents and teachers and community based organisations".

There are three strands to our special project. Details and its partnerships are set out below. Please return to this page during terms 2 and 3 for updates. If you would like to read up on the Ballygrainey Fund , please click on the Community Funding logo at the top of this page.

Strand One: Learning about Linen
Partners: Flax Centre, Upperlands
Classes: P6/P7
Timing: Terms 2 and 3
All work to be related to the NI Curriculum and carried out inside normal school timetables.

The following aims have been agreed:

  1. To create a topic plan on the subject of Linen which can be made available to schools in the surrounding area.
  2. To involve P6/P7 children and children from a partner school in a NI Curriculum based Linen topic.
  3. To produce a small number of videos based on people / processes involved in the production of linen.

Strand Two: Involving Former Pupils

Partners: Resident Artist and Flax Centre, Upperlands
Timings:
Preparation...end of Term 2
Mural making...Term 3

A concerted effort will be made to involve at least 12 former pupils of school age in exploration of the history of linen making in Upperlands.
They will, under the guidance of a resident artist, produce a number of murals depicting elements of the people / processes involved in the production of linen.
It is a specific aim that the murals will NOT be of a picture-postcard genre! 

Strand Three: "Kissing the Shuttle"

Partners: To be arranged
Timing: End of term 2 / Term 3

Dan Gordon's Ulster-Scott play will be presented in full at the end of June with "elements" presented again in August for invited guests.

There are several casting options, any of which will satisfy our anonymous funder.

We would dearly love to include children from more than one primary school, senior citizens, parents, staff from Clarke's.

It would be a sincere wish that the production, or parts of it, are performed in/around the buildings which are the legacy of the product that shaped our locality socially and economically