FIRST Minister Paul Givan and Junior Minister Declan Kearney have visited St Colm’s High School in Twinbrook to celebrate the launch of a poetry anthology collated by the students.
 
The anthology titled ‘The Times That Shape Us’ allowed pupils to reflect on their experiences during the pandemic in poetry form and has been published as part of the Creative Schools Programme which is supported by the Arts Council, Urban Villages and the Education Authority.
 
Congratulating the pupils on their work, St Colm’s principal, Adrian Walsh said: “So often young people don’t get the credit they deserve but I think I speak for all of us when I say this particular group of young people are a credit to themselves, their families and I am very proud of them.
 
“They are fantastic ambassadors for our school and I hope that their experiences through this programme and indeed the other experiences that they have had during their time with us at St Colm’s instils in them a passion for learning which will allow their aspirations to be high and of course enable them to become fantastic contributors to society.”

Addressing the crowd, First Minster Paul Givan reflected on a poem read by one of the pupils in which he talked about how he missed football during lockdown.
 
“I know Corey, when he spoke in his poem, talked about football and how it was very much his life,” he said.
 
“I can identify with that. At school I was at Laurelhill High School, not far from here. Football was what drove me to get into school and I think that it drove the teachers to get me into the team so that I got out early to play in the football matches, so football was hugely important to me and helped me to make sure I kept attending.
 
“There is no doubt that this programme and what was behind it has helped to encourage people in terms of their own attendance in schools. We know that arts can actually help stimulate so many other aspects of learning.”
 
The First Minster said that he sits on three boards of governors and when recruiting teachers, part of the discussion is on the arts and what more schools can be doing to incorporate the arts into the curriculum.

Praising the work of the students, Junior Minister Declan Kearney paid tribute to the school and the wider Twinbrook community.
 
“I had the pleasure of getting a few minutes to scan through the book and you really have captured what I think has been a really formative period in all our lives” he said.
 
“We have been living through what I suppose can only be described as an epoch making period of our history. We have come through many formative experiences over the last 100 years but Covid and the last year or two years have been something remarkable.”

The Junior Minister added that he hoped in many ways that we don’t have to live through it again.
 
“But when you live through challenging periods like that it is really important to record it and catalogue it to remember it,” he continued.
 
“I get a real sense from the pictorial images and the writings, then listening to the drums at the beginning that it is all about going forward.
 
“It is all about looking forward to what can still be shaped. I think it takes a really special area, a special community, a special school and special teachers to reflect on the importance of doing that.
 
“It also takes special young people to contribute to this kind of a project so you should all be very proud of yourselves and what you have achieved.”