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Castle Gardens Primary School, Newtownards
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Ophelia

20th Oct 2017

So this week was a bit different!
We all heard on Sunday night via social media that schools should close on Monday in preparation for the landfall if former hurricane Ophelia.
Eventually the should became will and I like Principals of all schools in Northern Ireland had to somehow workout how I was going to inform parents who had already gone to bed that school was shut on Monday!
As we all bunkered in and awaited the hurricane to do its worst on Monday afternoon we heard all schools were to shut on Tuesday as well.
To be honest we were all, rather happily, underwhelmed by the remnants hurricane Ophelia. Tuesday was a very strange day with barely a breath of wind by mid morning.
All that said, had the direction of the winds been slightly different it could have been a very different story. We did have a couple of trees broken but fortunately there was no structural damage to the school building.
You may have seen the Facebook post earlier this week in which I had the opportunity to take a quiet walk around the grounds and survey the damage. It gave me a chance to actually appreciate the setting we are so privileged to have and enjoy the fantastic views over Strangford Lough, Newtownards and Scrabo Tower.
Sometimes we forget how fortunate we are.