Sport

Castledawson Primary School offers a wide variety of sporting activities both during and after school. The children have experience of the following sports  - Gymnastics, Hockey, Netball, Rugby, Basketball, Football, Table Tennis and Swimming. Swimming is available for the whole year in Greenvale Leisure Centre, Magherafelt for P5 - 7.

As a school encouraging healthy lifestyles we have regular links without local clubs as coaches such as Moyola Golf Club and Moyola Football Club, Ulster Rugby as well as Meadowbank. We take part in various sporting programmes and have coaches visiting school to share their expertise. The children participate in many tournaments and competitions throughout the year. We have enjoyed Rugby with Dean Talbot from ROBRFC and football with Dwayne Nelson from Moyola Park FC. We also enjoyed coaching from Ulster Table-Tennis Association and experienced success in a primary schools event which we won. We are also fortunate to experience regular coaching in boys and girls hockey with Mrs Crooks and netball with Miss Glendinning. We have also enjoyed PE sessions (gymnastics) with Healthy Kidz and also PE sessions developing all skills in relation to our Take 5 goals with the Community Sports Network. 

We are fortunate to have the Boyne Row Pitch and Basketball Court adjoining our school which is used for many sporting events as well as our after school sports and PE. We also have a PE Hall and each class has two PE lessons per week. P6/ 7 children also have the opportunity to take part in the National Cycling Proficiency scheme.

 

Music & Drama

While every child has the opportunity to participate in music lessons in class, there are a number of activities above and beyond that. 

Year 4 - 7 children have the opportunity to learn a String or Wind Instrument through the Music Peripatetic Service that comes into school weekly. Many of our children perform at school events and also are entered for Associate Board examinations. 

We also have an outside tutor from The School of Music, Magherafelt, coming into school weekly to offer guitar and piano/ singing lessons for individuals as well as musical theatre sessions. 

We also have a variety of musical after school clubs e.g. Choir which you can access in the After School Club area of this website. 

We encourage our children to perform in assemblies and Open Assemblies where we can share with our parents. Children also participate in school events e.g. Annual Carol Service, Christmas Concerts as well as Carol Singing.

We have two very enthusiastic choirs (our junior and senior choirs) which participate at different events throughout the year e.g. Ballymena Festival, local care homes and our local churches. The choir participated in Ballymena Music Festival and secured a second place. Our choir also experienced success in reaching the next stage of heats for the BBC Radio Ulster School Choir of the Year competition and their performance was aired on Radio. In the past the choir have also participated in a cultural festival in Londonderry as well as performing with the African Children's Choir and Peace Proms.

Many of our pupils took to the stage for the verse speaking category at Ballymena festival aswell as the Road Safety Public Speaking Competition. They also enjoy participation in Credit Union quizzes and Road Safety Quizzes. 

Our children also enjoy class performances at Christmas in our Christmas Nativities/ Show, our senior children enjoyed the opportunity to perform in 'The Wizard of Oz' in June 2023. This was a wonderful production featuring our children in a range of roles over two evenings and was a very memorable and enjoyable experience for everyone.