St Malachy's Success at Formula 1 Primary Challenge

Well done to the boys and girls from Primary 6 who yesterday collected three awards at the 2016 Formula 1 Primary Challenge in Ballymena.  After 4 months of planning and engineering from the whole class, 3 cars went forward to yesterdays event to showcase the skills developed since November.

After setting up their pit displays and putting their portfolios on display to the many visitors and participants all teams headed to the judging area to get their cars inspected. Once given the green light, next stop was the race track where cars were put to the test over a 30m track which involved one member of each team competing in a reactions test with another school.

Soon after a short break the judges visited the displays, asking many questions to each team member and assessing the planning stage of the project. The final part of a very busy morning seen each group present a short presentation to outline how they completed the challenge and how they could improve in the future.

The judges then went off to make their verdicts while the pupils tucked into their lunches and also took part in a k'nex challenge which involved creating a fairground ride. Soon after 2pm the judges returned and to the delight of all the children St Malachy's were awarded with three awards, Best Clay Model, Best Portfolio and Overall 3rd Place.

This was a whole team effort and credit goes to all pupils in Primary 6 for their hard work over the past few months. Also a special word of thanks to our car sponsors, Annvale PVC, Simply Fruit and MGM Motors.