The Owl 2012
At the school Open Evenings in January, the Estates Manager, Mr. W. Thompson displayed an impressive array of First World War memorabilia in the History Department. Mr. Thompson facilitated a competition for the Primary 7 pupils who visited the Department. This competition was won by Dylan McGrotty of Mossgrove Primary School. Dylan’s prize was a copy of ‘The Salient’, a book about the fighting on the Western Front, 1914-1918.
68 pupils completed A2 Mathematics. 65% of the MVI cohort achieved an A*/A at A2 level. 90% achieved A*-B. 99% achieved A*-C. Fifteen students (out of 129 in Northern Ireland) studied Further Mathematics achieving 9 A*, 4A, 1B and 1C grades. This was the largest cohort of pupils in Northern Ireland. Ridwan Farouki was accepted to read Mathematics at Corpus Christi, Cambridge University starting in September 2012 after being prepared for the STEP Examinations by the Department. We entered three team competitions against other schools in Northern Ireland.
ICT In September, all pupils in Form I took part in the Interactive presentation on Keeping Safe Online entitled “ThinkUKnow” The Computer Programming Club, open to pupils in Forms 1 and 2, had its first full year and was extremely well attended. The main focus was on Learning to program with “Scratch”. In the Spring term we had a talk from two professional programmers working in the computer industry in Northern Ireland. They gave a fascinating talk about their work writing games software for mobile phones. The pupils were encouraged to continue to develop their programming skills as the software industry was one of the few areas of the economy to continue to grow despite the recession. In February, a group of pupils from Form 3 attended the “Bring IT On” STEM event at the Waterfront Hall. There was a keynote presentation from Jonny Ball, the TV personality, interactive workshops and a careers display involving many of the leading ICT companies working in Belfast. Members of the ICT Department were able to attend INSET courses in “Intermediate Photoshop”, “Games Design with Gamemaker” (which will be used as part of the controlled assessment in GCSE) , “Programming with Greenfoot” and “Making Movies with Mobile Technology” during the course of the year. Mathematics 67% of Form V achieved an A*/A in AQA GCSE Mathematics. 92% achieved A*-B.
We were placed 4th in the UKMT Junior Team Challenge-the team was: Richard Ware (FII), Andrew Milligan (FII), Mimi Joffroy (FIII) and Hollie McCalmont (FIII). We finished a close 2nd in the UKMT Senior Team Challenge. The team comprised: Tom Hanna (LVI), Chris Turnbull (FV), Ridwan Farouki (MVI) and John McBride (MVI). We won the QUB Annual Maths Competition (first of 28 teams from across Northern Ireland). The team comprised: Tom Hanna (LVI), Jordan Shaw (LVI), Chris Turnbull (FV) and Ben Campbell (FV). We had continued success in Maths Challenges including qualifications for the next rounds at Junior, Intermediate and Senior levels for Daniel Quigley (F1), Ruari Hurson (FIV) and Tom Hanna (LVI) respectively. Pupils achieved the following awards: Junior: 11 Gold, 6 Silver and 20 Bronze; Intermediate: 3 Gold, 14 Silver and 19 Bronze; Senior: 2 Gold, 7 Silver and 15 Bronze. Modern Languages Jazmin Campbell gained grade A* in both French and Spanish at Advanced Level. Judith Bingham and Neil Fulton gained grade A* at Advanced Level in French. Patricia Martin gained full marks in GCSE French. In GCSE German the pass rate was 100%. Neil Fulton and Anna McShane secured places at the University of London in Paris.
66 students were entered for CCEA Additional Mathematics with 97% achieving A*-C.
In the Santander Essay Competitions in association with QUB, Kathyrn Fusco was awarded first prize in Spanish and third prize in French. Jazmin Campbell was awarded third prize in Spanish.
At AS level 85 pupils were entered for Mathematics with 72% achieving A-B.
Ben McConnell and Kelly-Anne Rainey from the Spanish AS class went to Salamanca University in
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