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THE STAR, Friday 13 September 2002
£1.2MILLION STATE-OF-THE-ART BUILDING PROVES A BIG HIT ALL ROUND
		Old mobiles make way for new school at Ballymacward
Ballymacward Primary School Principal Mrs. Breda McCrory receives cards and best wishes on the first working day of the brand new school near Stoneyford.		"Our computers are all Classroom 2000 and are networked. We also have a large playground which again is something we've never had before and on either side of it there are two seated grassy areas, like mini amphitheatres, where children can sit and where they could go out for say a storytelling class if it was a good day. "There is also an outdoor children's garden where pupils can grow things. "The school is bright, airy and spacious, with lovely exposed beams in the pitched ceilings of the resource areas and the hall." Mrs McCrory said everyone associated with Ballymacward Primary from pupils and teachers to the auxiliary and ancillary staff, the school caretaker and the parents, were all absolutely delighted with it. "On their first day back after the holidays, which was also the first time the children had been in their new school, they filed into the main hall for assembly and initially there was this total silence - they just sat there completely overwhelmed by what they were seeing around them, it really was quite funny," said Mrs McCrory.	"In saying that, they've more than made up for that bit of silence since! They have told me they think it's super, that they didn't realise it was going to be so big and they were worried they would get lost in it!" Mrs McCrory said the school was fortunate to be sited in an idyllic rural location overlooking green fields, Stoneyford reservoir and with distant views of Lough Neagh. "There is awonderful feeling of space now which we just didn't have when the school was housed in mobiles and it is great for the older children especially now they have the room to run about instead of being limited to tiny spaces both indoors and out," said Mrs McCrory. "We feel we are a 'real school' now, our educational standard was always good, but the new school has provided us with an environment in which everyone can develop to their full potential and have the opportunity to really take pride in their school." The official opening of Ballymacward Primary takes place next month and preparations are already well underway for that special occasion.
It is a case of old schools for new at Ballymacward with the cluster of mobile classrooms which were once the primary having been replaced with a building that apears to have emerged straight out of a fairytale. The £1.2 million brand new primary has been built on the original school site on the Rock Road just behind where its five mobiles were stationed for the past 29 years. Principal Mrs Breda McCrory described the state of the art building as 'absolutely gorgeous' saying it had also been a huge hit with the 110 pupils and four other teaching staff who began the new school year in the premises this month. "It is five classroom-based with two resource areas and a large multi-purpose hall, which is something we have never had before. If we needed to gather as a school in the past we went down the road to the parish hall," said Mrs McCrory. "The school is completely self-contained now and the hall is kitted out with all the up-to-date equipment, ropes,climbing frames and trestles.