WATCH: School's Christmas video is a real cracker

A Christmas video released by staff and pupils at a Lisburn primary school is proving a festive favourite online, having been viewed 10,000 times in just two days.
By The Newsroom
Published 18th Dec 2017, 16:53 BST
Updated 19th Dec 2017, 15:06 BST
Teacher Mrs McKnight with two of the pupils who star in Pond Park Primary School's Christmas video.Teacher Mrs McKnight with two of the pupils who star in Pond Park Primary School's Christmas video.
Teacher Mrs McKnight with two of the pupils who star in Pond Park Primary School's Christmas video.

The video - based on the hit movie Elf - is Pond Park Primary’s ‘Christmas card’ to the school community past and present and has become a greatly anticipated annual feature at the various school Christmas productions.

One of the teachers responsible for the festive film, Eric McCleery said: “It has been my plan to make a video based on Elf for a number of years now, but I could never find the costume. I managed to get my hands on one recently and knew that we had our video sorted for this year! The videos just take a couple of days to film, taking short clips of the children and staff lip syncing to a Christmas song. The children are always very good at learning their lines and moves. The real work is in the editing and putting all the footage together to the song.”

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Eric’s wife Nicola McCleery, who also teaches at Pond Park, made the school’s first Christmas video back in 2009. It featured children from her class performing to the old favourite ‘I Want a Hippopotamus For Christmas’. She subsequently made two further class Christmas videos and then went on to make ‘We Need A Little Christmas’ featuring the entire school, with her sister Nadine, for the retirement of principal Victor Spindler in 2011. Since then, Eric and Nicola have made a Christmas video featuring all of the 626 pupils and 60 staff members - from canteen staff, cleaning staff and parent volunteers to the principal Geoffrey Cherry.

Buddy the elf, better known as Principal Geoffrey Cherry, was delighted to meet Santa at Pond Park PS.Buddy the elf, better known as Principal Geoffrey Cherry, was delighted to meet Santa at Pond Park PS.
Buddy the elf, better known as Principal Geoffrey Cherry, was delighted to meet Santa at Pond Park PS.

Mr Cherry said: “The Christmas video has become a highlight of the school year which the staff, children and parents really look forward to. As everyone knows, teachers are extremely busy at this time of the year and so it is a credit to everyone involved to be committed to producing the video on top of Christmas productions and the day to day teaching.”

‘Elf Story’ can be viewed on the school’s YouTube channel or the school website at pondparkps.co.uk/news/Christmas-video-2017

The school’s previous Christmas videos are also available on the YouTube channel.

Related topics:LisburnYouTube