Leader in Charge: Mrs Evelyn McKimm
Meets on Thursday evenings from 6.15pm to 7.30pm
Ages: 4 to 8

The Anchors is a section of the Boys Brigade and is open to all boys of 4 to 8 years of age [P1 to P4]. The Anchors meet every Thursday evening from 6.15pm to 7.30pm in the Church Minor hall.

At the start of each year the boys are put into squads of 5 or 6 with one of the 8 year old boys as the squad leader. This gives the older boys a sense of responsibility and the squad format promotes healthy competition in the section. The boys also get a sense of caring in their small group and learn to share, cooperate and become aware of the needs of others.
Our Thursday evening sessions start with circle time when everyone tells the leaders and other boys their news from the past week. In their squads boys are inspected and given marks for uniform and appearance. This is followed by a brief time of worship which may include bible stories and prayer. Games and other activities then make up the rest of the evening’s programme.
At this age boys show big changes in their mental, emotional, social and physical development.

In the Anchors at Ballywillan we try to give every boy individual attention within the group as they each have differing needs.  We work hard to provide a lively, fun-filled and interesting programme each week with the boys learning new skills through arts and crafts, games and activities.  Boys are encouraged to develop their confidence by letting them do things for themselves, by giving praise for good behaviour and through drama and mime activities.   Not all boys develop their physical skills at the same rate but by introducing them to a variety of games and physical activities they extend their own physical development at a pace which suits them.

An Anchor Activity Scheme has been introduced to the weekly programme which gives boys recognition for their participation in 5 areas:
·        Body – fit for fun
·        Mind – think and do
·        Spirit – God and me
·        Community – me and my world
·        Creativity – make and do

The boys work through each or these 5 areas during the three Anchor years and every boy is awarded an Anchor Triangle badge at the end of each year.
An important part of our annual programme is the special outing. In past years, visits have been made to the local Fire station and Police station, to an open farm, to the W5 Experience in the Odyssey Belfast and to the Jet Centre in Coleraine.
At the end of previous years the boys have played their part in the Company Display and Prize Presentation evening. To conclude the 2004/05 session an Open evening for parents, which showed a sample of the activities undertaken on the weekly sessions, was very successful so we have continued with these more casual evenings. This year we will be joined by the boys from the Junior Section on Thursday 25th March.