The PTA who held the coffee morning in the school's new garden playhouse to celebrate the opening of the new Outdoor Activity Based Learning Area.

THE Parent, Teacher Association of Brownlee Primary School held a coffee morning to celebrate the opening of the school's new Outdoor Activity Based Learning Area.

The PTA raised over �2,000 to buy the playhouse, storage area and sandboxes. Additional resources were purchased by the school and preparation work to the school garden was carried out by the South Eastern Education and Library Board.

Mr Colin Elliott, the Principal of Brownlee Primary School praised the PTA for all their hard work.

"We are very fortunate at Brownlee Primary to have a very supportive and hard working PTA," he said. "They are a huge asset to our school and are able to fundraise and purchase resources that our school budget wouldn't be able to afford. The coffee morning was the idea of some of our Foundation Stage teachers to say thank you to the PTA and especially Mrs Kirstin Eastwood and Mrs Claire Oliver who head up the PTA committee."

Mr Elliott continued, "Our garden area is still a work in progress and this year we will be creating a vegetable garden and various habitats for minibeasts and plants."

Brownlee Primary School is one of the fastest growing schools in the South Eastern Education and Library Board area. And Mr Elliott believes that a huge proportion of the school's success is down to the parents hard work.

"Our parents play a key role, not only in the education of their children, but also in the promotion of our school," he said.

"If parents see that their children are happy, reaching their full potential and individual needs are being met, then they will tell others. I firmly believe that this is one of the main reasons why our school has been going from strength to strength in recent years."

Ulster Star
12/12/2008