The Owl 2012 Part 2

The Owl 2012

Music in School BIG BAND Big Band enjoyed yet another successful year under the new leadership of Mrs Burch. We met weekly to expand our repertoire, practising band classics such as “Ghostbusters” and “The Chicken”. However, we also took our own approach on chart hits “Dynamite” and “Hips Don’t Lie”. We seized the opportunity of showcasing these pieces at the School’s Open Night, and it was the perfect way to build up an atmosphere before the Headmaster’s speech!

In the New Year we found ourselves focusing on the stage of the Spires Centre for the annual Spring Concert.

Much to Mrs Burch’s delight we concentrated on our musical performance rather than our camaraderie and we thoroughly enjoyed it as a result. It is safe to say we will not forget the pieces “Mambo Swing” and “Dynamite” in a hurry. The soloists made it very

memorable, in particular, Ben McConnell’s trumpet trance-solo-face will set the benchmark for any Big Band performance to follow.

A key to survival in Big Band is the ability to maintain a light-hearted attitude. This year’s banter consisted of the trials and tribulations of a modern “bromance” between Jamie Dwyer and Kyle Auterson and the guitarists rebelling by playing nothing other than a single note. It is safe to say that driving Mrs Burch to insanity helped us to to maintain our own sanity – and the music wasn’t bad in the end! We thank her very much for her patience, good humour and enthusiasm. We sadly bid farewell to a number of Big Band veterans too numerous to mention, but this will only pave the way for some young jazz apprentices to take MU1 by storm.

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Through joining Boys’ Choir, I was introduced to two other choirs: Junior Chamber Choir and Senior Choir - both of which have given me the opportunity to do more concert performances. I would like to thank Miss Carson for all the hard work she puts into Boys’ Choir and would recommend school choirs to anyone who has an interest in singing and meeting people from other forms.

Ruairi Linden (V)

JUNIOR CHAMBER CHOIR BOYS’ CHOIR I first joined Boys’ Choir when I was in Form III. I was a bit nervous at first because I hadn’t done any singing in a group before and also because I didn’t know anyone else there. As soon as I started, I made new friends and then felt more comfortable with singing.

The Boys’ Choir is still going strong. The first performance of the year was at the Community Service Christmas party, when we entertained some visitors from Drumross Special School. We also sang at Junior Assembly and at the Spring Concert in the Spires Centre.

Our songs this year were “Happy Together” (The Turtles) and “Mandy” (Westlife), with fantastic solos by Ben Devlin, Matthew Donnelly and Samuel Uche.

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In Boys’ Choir we have a lot of fun, but at the same time we put in a great deal of work. One of the aspects I like about Boys’ Choir is that we help to choose how we should perform the songs. We also try to make them as different from each other as possible, so that there is an element of variety in our performance.

Junior Chamber Choir is made up of boys and girls from Forms III and IV, practising every Tuesday and Wednesday lunchtimes in the choir room during April and May. The 60 happy pupils munching and chatting are silenced when the piano is thumped promptly at 1:10pm by the wonderful Mrs Burch who has excelled herself in her second year of teaching in BRA. Practising twice a week, choir challenges everyone from the talented singers to the ones singing in harmony for the first time and, of course, Mrs Burch’s patience!

We learnt Mrs Burch’s arrangement of the U2 classic “With or Without You” with most people singing in parts for the first time and performed it at the Summer Serenade at the end of May. Megan Gordon (IV) sang a beautiful solo at the end which finished the evening off beautifully.

Last year was definitely one of the best years for Junior Chamber Choir and I hope we will continue to build on our singing talents during the forth-coming year.

We loved every minute of it!

Jessica Burns (IV)

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CHAMBER CHOIR

JUNIOR CHOIR

Chamber Choir is the only auditioned choir in the School and as such it is difficult to obtain a place.

Thankfully, I was lucky enough to obtain one of these sought-after places and I have thoroughly enjoyed this past year. Our first performance was at the School’s Prize Day in October where we sang Rachmaninov’s “Bogoroditsye Dyevo”, a piece that we sang two months later in January as Ms Andrews walked down the aisle to become Mrs Burch!

I really like Junior Choir because it helped me meet new people when I started BRA. We sang at a number of School occasions including the Junior Carol Service, Spring Concert and Summer Serenade. Some of us even got to sing solos at the Junior Carol Service.

For the Spring Concert we rehearsed really hard under Mrs Burch’s leadership. We sang “Banaha”, a traditional Congolese round, with solos by Morgan Patton, Charlotte Nicholl and Jordan Walker. Then we performed ‘True Colours’, in which I performed a solo; at some points we were singing in three parts!

Chamber Choir did not fail to impress at the annual Senior Carol Service in December. We gave a hauntingly beautiful performance of “O Do Not Move” and “God is With Us” by John Tavener, and “A Child’s Prayer” by James Macmillan. For the performance of “A Child’s Prayer” we stood in groups of four at various points around the Church. This certainly tested our ability to stay in tune but it definitely added to the whole performance. Michael Bell (LVI) performed the tenor solo in the Tavener with Stephen Doyle (LVI) and Jessica Massey (MVI) singing the duet in the Macmillan.

This year’s Spring Concert in March was anticipated highly by the Chamber Choir. Listening to the contrasting pieces - “Daemon Irrepit Callidus” by Orban and “Price Tag” by Jessie J. - was an exhilarating experience for the audience. The group had choreographed the Jessie J. number with precision and finesse, presenting, for the first time, the exceptional dancing “free-styling flair” of one Ben McConnell.

The year was a huge success for Chamber Choir and as enjoyable as ever. Mrs Burch managed to turn a group of vocally competent teens into performing sensations.

Rachael Elmore (LVI)

For the Summer Serenade Ms McMullan took the rehearsals, and we performed “Don’t Stop Believin’”.

We were so pleased to get to do such a well-known pop song and again were singing in parts.

Thanks to Mrs Burch and Ms McMullan, Junior Choir has really helped me get better at singing. They motivated me to join the Choir at the start of BRA, and kindled my singing career!

Adam Jarman (I)

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SENIOR CHOIR It has been another extremely successful year for Ms McMullan’s largest musical group Senior Choir! Plenty of choral antics were had from tenors getting their arms stuck in radiators to basses thinking that they were sopranos, but that’s just your average rehearsal!

From the beginning of the year it was back to training three times a week with both sectional and full choir rehearsals. We commenced rehearsals in September in order to learn the majority of the Spring Concert music before half-term. The Senior Carol Service in St. Peter’s, Antrim Road was our first performance of the academic year. The Choir enjoyed singing the old favourites like “Torches” and “Away in a Manger” by Selwood Lindsay as well as more challenging repertoire such as the chorus “Glory to God” from Handel’s Messiah with the recitative “There were Shepherds” beautifully sung by Laurie-Ann Bartsch (LVI).

We returned straight back to rehearsals in January as the infamous Spring Concert was looming. With having learnt the notes in the autumn we were able to concentrate on the finer performance details of Rutter’s “Requiem”. The lighter piece for this year’s concert was Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody”. “Bohemian Rhapsody” proved difficult, particularly for the men of the Choir as it was very high but eventually, once many a laugh had been had, we sounded like a Choir that knew what it was doing.

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Before we knew it, the Spring Concert sprung! We had our dress rehearsals which went as well as dress rehearsals ever go and as always we stuck to the Belfast Royal Academy Music Department motto “It’ll be alright on the night!”…and it was! The members of the audience enjoyed themselves so much during the

“Requiem” that they clapped between each individual movement and for everyone reading this, so that you know for next time, you are not supposed to do that!

However, we didn’t mind - if anything it boosted our confidence. Faye Kidd, Rebecca Rowan, Sarah Minford and Jessica Massey brought a tenderness to the evening with their touching solos. Our final piece, “Bohemian Rhapsody” went magnificently, minus the occasional dodgy falsetto from the tenors. Everyone seemed to really enjoy themselves and by the tumultuous applause it would be safe to say the audience enjoyed it also.

We would just like to thanks Ms McMullan for all her dedication and witty banter throughout the year and we hope next year will be even more successful as the Choir keeps growing and, little by little, improving.

Ruari McGowan (IV)

ORCHESTRA Last year was yet another successful and thoroughly enjoyable year for the Orchestra. Back under the baton of Ms McMullan, after her year of travels, Friday afternoon rehearsals were not to be missed! Our first engagement was Prize Day held in the University of Ulster, Jordanstown. After the Headmaster’s Address, we performed “Rondeau” from “Abdelazer” by Purcell with much enthusiasm from both Ms McMullan and the musicians.

Our next challenge was to prepare for the Christmas Carol Service in St. Peter’s Church, an Orchestra favourite, so we dusted down the trusty Christmas folders and rehearsed well known Christmas carols such as “O Little Town of Bethlehem”, “Once in Royal David’s City” and “Hark the Herald Angels Sing”. At the rehearsal St. Peter’s organ managed to

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be out of tune with the rest of the orchestra, but after a few adjustments to our instruments the church organ, Orchestra and Senior Choir provided an impressive sound and a true Christmassy feel on the night!

The year came to a climax with a spectacular Spring Concert in the Spires Centre where the Orchestra opened the evening with a dynamic performance of “Gladiator” and finished the first half with the famous and very demanding “Lord of the Dance”. The violinists were relieved to rest their bows after this demanding, but fun piece!

grateful to everyone else who comes to the club, or the club would not exist.

Overall, I pay most thanks to Miss McGinley, our conductor. Miss McGinley is my favourite teacher at the Academy and the impact she has had on myself and everyone else in the ensemble is staggering, and I do hope that I will be able to go back to Junior Strings this year as a helper. I hope that every year new Form I pupils will be inspired to start the long twisting journey of Junior Strings.

Cameron McCartney (II)

Sadly we had to say goodbye to several key members of the Orchestra this year. Their dedication and enthusiasm will be sorely missed, but we wish them well in their future careers. As for the rest of us, we wait in anticipation for the musical wonders that await us in the upcoming year!

Hannah McKinstry (LVI)

SENIOR STRINGS

JUNIOR STRINGS I must confess that Junior Strings is one of my favourite experiences of Belfast Royal Academy, since Form I. The Music Department at the Academy is an excellent experience for everyone, but there has always been something about Junior Strings that I have loved.

The year 2011/2012 has been great for Junior Strings.

The Spring Concert was a memorable experience and I don’t think I will ever forget the joy of playing “Gimme, Gimme, Gimme, a Man After Midnight”, in front of a hall full of people again. Although I think something that will always stick with me is being able to play one of my favourite pieces “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” at the Summer Serenade. Everyone within the Music Department has their own individual musical talent - that’s what I love about it.

This year has probably been one of our jolliest years and I have enjoyed every Monday lunchtime rehearsal.

I would like to thank Hannah Edgar for leading the ensemble, and her partner, Victoria Stewart for being a superb number two. I thank James McMahon-Beattie for being the piece of glue that keeps us all together, Mary Cousins for giving me someone to talk to, and my fellow cellists to make sure I am never alone. I am very

This year Senior Strings was back under the baton of our very own Ms McMullan - or rather, in the absence of an actual baton, a broken pen. Our weekly rehearsal started off on Tuesdays after school, but as the year went on, we moved to Friday lunchtimes. This suited us well enough since Orchestra was already on a Friday, meaning we had the privilege of only needing to bring our instruments in once a week!

The year was spent in preparation for the Spring Concert, and in September it seemed to be far in the future. But of course, the year flew in, and before we knew it, we only had a couple of rehearsals left! This year we played “Basse Danse” and “Pavane” from Peter Warlock’s “Capriol Suite” for string orchestra. We also played the first movement of Corelli’s “Concerto Grosso in G Minor” with solos from Katie O’Neill (MVI) and Stephen Doyle (LVI) on the violin and Dan McKenna (V) on the cello. Initially it took a while to get used to counting in the slow tempo, as it was rather different from other pieces we had played, but once we had got settled, it worked wonderfully for us.

Although we only had the one performance this year, it was a good one; the atmosphere at the Spring Concert is always amazing. We wish the best to all those in Middle Sixth who are leaving this year and we would like to thank Ms McMullan for all her hard work with us this year. I can’t wait to see what the coming year holds!

Victoria Campbell (IV)

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JUNIOR TRADITIONAL GROUP The Junior Traditional Music Group has had a very good year. We played in both the Spring Concert and the Summer Serenade. Our pieces at the Spring Concert consisted of the lively jigs of “Tobin’s Favourite” and “The Mug of Brown Ale”, followed by the more serene “Erin’s Shore”. For the Summer Serenade we learned two new pieces: “Lannigan’s Ball/The Kesh Jig” and “Sheebeg and Sheemore”. Our Traditional Group contains fiddles, tin whistles, guitars, a flute and a bodhràn. We would all very much like to thank Dr Scully, or as we know her “Dr Trad.”, for her endless support and encouragement, as well as her great sense of humour. September of this year saw a huge increase in the members of Junior Trad. and we hope to continue making our foot-tapping music for a long time to come.

Naomi Newton (II)

On the night of the Spring Concert tensions were running high, but it turned out to be a great success. Our set included the fast-paced “Ahoghill Highlanders”, the slow air “Cailin na Gruige Doinne” and one of Trad.’s all time favourites “The Pink Frog” and “Damian’s Reel”. This provided fantastic entertainment and the audience really seemed to enjoy it.

In conclusion, it was a great year for BRA’s traditional group. Many thanks go to Dr Scully for all her hard work. Hopefully this year will be just as successful (or better!) than last year. Grà Againn Tred!

Erin McCullough (LVI)

WIND BAND TRADITIONAL MUSIC GROUP

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Belfast Royal Academy’s Traditional Group has gone from strength to strength each year, and this year was no different. With an overwhelming number of pupils wishing to be in the Traditional Group, junior and senior groups had to be formed.

Under the watchful eye of Dr Scully, Senior Traditional Group would practise every Tuesday lunchtime. Our first event were the School’s Open Evenings. Both Senior and Junior groups performed a variety of tunes with great success and provided some toe-tapping fun.

In March we were kindly invited to a concert in St. Patrick’s College to celebrate St Patrick’s Day. We got to see a variety of different forms of traditional entertainment from schools in North Belfast including Irish dancing, singing, and of course St. Patrick’s College’s large traditional group. We performed for them some of our favourite sets. It was a great day and a fantastic way to celebrate Irish culture. Finally we had the Spring Concert to prepare for. We practised hard, having occasional Sunday night rehearsals in different members’ houses. This provided us with a chance to have a bit of craic and allowed Trad. Group to bond.

In the two years I have been a member of Senior Wind Band I have to admit it has made my life in Belfast Royal Academy delightful and much easier.

I have made friends with people who share the same interests in trumpet and music and I have had opportunities within the School that I would never have had if I hadn’t been in Band, for example, getting the chance to perform in the Spring Concert.

Although Wind Band is hard-work Ms McMullan always has enough time to fit in fun and laughs. It is so much fun from the minute you enter the room to the second you leave it. On behalf of the members of Wind Band I would really like to thank her for all of her hardwork, enthusiasm and unending patience.

The Spring Concert was loads of fun and the crowd enjoyed the pieces we played: “Final Countdown” and “The A-Team”. All our hard-work paid off in the end and everyone played the right notes at the right time.

We even managed some dynamics!

Here’s to another successful year of Wind Band!

Daniel Wonnacott (II)

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ARTS HONOURS AWARDS MUSIC 2012

BELFAST ROYAL ACADEMY SUMMER SERENADE

MAJOR RE-AWARDS

An evening of music presented by pupils from Forms I – IV

Maeve Armstrong Joel Auterson Michael Bell Judith Bingham Scott Boyd Bethany Brown Stephen Doyle Jamie Dwyer Deborah Forbes Anna Johnston Matthew Magill Sarah Martin Jessica Massey

Ben McConnell Niall McIlroy Hannah McKinstry Rory Millar Lauren O’Donnell-Anderson Ben O’Donnell Katie O’Neill Leah Rea Eva Rooney Tessa Shiels Stefan Tucker Olivia Wilson

MAJOR NEW AWARDS Kyle Auterson Hannah Caldwell Shannon Clements James Donnelly James Duffy Nesta Griffiths Faye Kidd Anna Leyden

Aoife McAtamney Hannah McBride Erin McCullough Dan McKenna Sarah Minford Hannah Robinson Philip Simon

MINOR RE-AWARDS Niamh Benson Jessica Burns Rebecca Burns Kathleen Cassidy Rose Crossan Suzanne Currie Rachel Elmore Elaine Ford Victoria Haddock

Rachel Ireland Jack Johnston Maebh King Molly Martin Ruth McConnell Rebecca McKinstry Emily Reid Holly Reid Christopher Turnbul

MINOR NEW AWARDS Luke Auterson Erin Blair Sarah Bingham Peter Boyd Connor Brogan Sorcha Burke Victoria Campbell Aine Cooper Ben Devlin Jason Fleming Martha Gordon Lorna Joyce Beth MacDougall Lauren Magee Florence Maguire Meabh Mallaghan Mannix McAlister

Anna-Rose McCambridge Patricia Martin David McClements Caoimhe McCusker Oliver McGowan Ruari McGowan Sarah McGuickan Kieran McKenna Rachael O’Donnell Timmy Robinson Rebecca Rowan Parisa Shirazi Lawren Wallace Rosalind Ware Ellie White Daniel Wonnacott (II)

in THE SCHOOL ASSEMBLY HALL DARBYSHIRE BUILDING on TUESDAY 22ND MAY 2012 at 7:30pm

PROGRAMME JUNIOR WIND BAND ‘Mambo no.5’ D. P. Prado & L. Bega arr. J. Bocook ‘I Gotta Feeling’ Black Eyed Peas arr. M. Brown JORDAN WALKER (Voice) ‘Fix You’

C. Martin

JUNIOR CLARINET QUARTET ‘A Pirate’s Life’ R. Kernan DISPOSE AFTER USE (Form III Rock Band) ‘Broken’ H. Cavan, H. Mitchell, R. Moore JUNIOR STRINGS ‘Over the Rainbow’ B. Graham &

R. Lovland arr. L. Moore ‘You Raise Me Up’ H. Arlen arr. B. Carucci RYAN DAVISON (Drums) ‘Tarzan of the Soap Apes’ Rock School JUNIOR CHOIR ‘Don’t Stop Believin’’ (soloists: S. Perry, N. Schon,

J. Cain Molly Bond & Morgan Patton) SAXOPHONE QUARTET ‘Ain’t You Sweet’’ M. Ager arr. A. Lane EMER GRIBBON (Violin) ‘Meditation’ J. Massenet JUNIOR TRADITIONAL GROUP ‘Lanigan’s Ball’, ‘The Kesh Jig’, ‘Sheebeg and Sheemore’

Trad.

HEDGE LIZARDS (LVI Rock Band) ‘White Socks, No Socks’ B. McConnell RUARI MCGOWAN (Organ) ‘Toccata in D Minor’ J.S. Bach JUNIOR CHAMBER CHOIR ‘With or Without you’ Arr. E. Burch

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Music in School

Spring Concert

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Drama in School The Tempest Prospero, the usurped Duke of Milan who was marooned on a deserted island by his enemies now finds them within his grasp. With the aid of his trusty spirit Ariel he plans his revenge by using the magic of the island; a magic shown to him by Caliban, the deformed slave who now serves him.

With the royal party helpless before him, will he choose to exact his revenge, or show mercy and forgive those who have wronged him so severely?

This year’s Senior Dramatic Society production was William Shakespeare’s ‘The Tempest’. Having directed ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ in 2009, Miss Tinman and I were keen to bring Shakespeare into the twentieth century and so we developed a post-Vietnam vision of the play, transforming Prospero into a usurped President of the United States, and Caliban into a Vietnamese woman left behind after the decimation of her village.

The Art Department and Grace Prenter (MVI) worked tirelessly to create the stunning set for the Assembly Hall stage. A platform was built for the back of the stage to give Prospero a vantage point from which to survey his revenge in action. Boards were painted and a huge backdrop was fixed to the wall to create the forest environment that the characters inhabited.

Dr Lomas created beautiful costumes: the three Ariels (Rachel Elmore, Katy McLarnon and Erin McCullough) were

resplendent in Mary Quant dresses, Prospero (Stephen Doyle) mirrored the fashion of the 1970s and Ferdinand (Joel Auterson) was dressed in military garb.

Mr Jamison and the crew created the levels on stage which gave the production more depth and with the purple, red and blue gels lighting the steps from the platform to the stage, created the perfect atmosphere.

There were some special moments; Ben Frederick’s hilarious entrance as Stephano and Courtney Meneely’s performance of Trinculo seemed to steal the show, but all the actors were outstanding. The difficulty of the language and the need to keep the pace of the play could have been challenging, but the production was a great success.

Cast Prospero Stephen Doyle Miranda Grace Prenter Ariel 1, 2 & 3 Katy McLarnon,

Erin McCullough, Rachael Elmore Caliban Paula Keenan Alonso Adam Barnes Ferdinand Joel Auterson Sebastian Vicky Sefton Antonio Alex Long Gonzalo Georgia Orchin Adrian Harry Robinson Francisco Sarah McGrath Stephano Ben Frederick Trinculo Courtney Meneely Iris Faye Kidd Ceres Christabel Murray Juno Beth MacDougall Boatswain Lauren Magee Nymph Orla Keenan Spirits Bethany McBride, Jenny Coates,

Kyla Heaney, Rosalind Ware, Sara Thabeth Master Maeve Stewart Mariners Pierce Clements, James Duffy, Bill Hunter R.D.E. / S.L.T.

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Drama in School

The Tempest

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Miscellany

Miscellany ACADEMY SPORTS CAMP

ART AND DESIGN

The P.E. department successfully ran the BRA Sports Camp for primary aged children in August. This was the seventh year the camp has been running and indeed some of the children and BRA pupils who assist were participating for their seventh year.

Jenna Todd, Form V, gained full marks in the CCEA GCSE level examination 2012. Ben O’Donnell Form LVI gained full marks in the CCEA AS level examination 2012.

This year the weather was kind to us all week and allowed most of the activities to take place outdoors.

We had the usual range of sports as well as our midweek trip to Dundonald Ice Bowl and picnic at Stormont park.

New activities this year included Orienteering at our new course set up around Roughfort playing fields. We also had an Olympic-themed last day event involving all the age groups.

We hope that the girls who have helped for the last seven years will come back and help again next year as the BRA summer camp just wouldn’t be the same without them!

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Mr. Roy Donaldson from Donaldson and Weir Graphics Ltd. presented two Art and Design MVI pupils with a Student Art Pack Award. Pete Holland achieved a grade ‘A’ and has gained a place at the Ulster University at Belfast to study Art and Design. Naomi Cahill, who also achieved a grade ‘A’, has gained a place at Northumbria University to study Fashion Marketing.

All Art & Design GCSE, AS and A2 level pupils attended the 2012 True Colours exhibition at the Ulster Museum to view the best examples of Northern Ireland’s CCEA Art and Design coursework and externally set assignments. They also toured the Ulster Museum exhibitions and collections. Ben O’Donnell’s work was on display at the 2012 True Colours Exhibition. He received a CCEA certificate of Excellence for gaining full marks at GCSE level.

The MVI and LVI Art and Design pupils visited the 2012 Royal Ulster Academy Annual Art Exhibition at the Ulster Museum.

A dedicated team of pupils enjoyed constructing, painting and decorating the set for the Senior School Production, ‘The Tempest’.

The June 2012 Annual Art Exhibition included an excellent variety of work from all Forms. The Art Exhibition’s coffee morning raised £135 for Save the Children Fund.

The department continues to provide pupils with an insight into Art and Design career routes. This was supported by guest speakers including: Dr. McPhillips

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from the Ulster University Building Environment; Director of McCadden Designs Mr. Stewart, and Graphic Designer Lesley Millar (both are former BRA pupils); and a Foundation Year Art and Design representative from Belfast Institute for Further and Higher Education.

All Form II pupils took part in a case study funded by the RIBA Research Trust Award of the disused Carlisle Memorial Methodist Church Belfast. Research by Graham et al (2009) identified that virtually no earlier research has be conducted on the views of young people and their environment highlighting the need for further engagement with the perspective age group 1114. Form II work was displayed in a public exhibition in the gallery called ‘The Place’ in Belfast city centre and then transferred to St Patrick’s Church Donegall Road for the 2012 Heritage weekend.

P.K.

accompanied us back to school and gave us a talk and allowed us to ask questions.

The following day it was BRA’s turn to visit Belvedere.

We got the train down to Dublin and were met at the station by the pupils. We went back to their college where we took part in team-building activities. We took part in a Soup-Run in which the Dublin school had prepared the food for the homeless. We were divided into groups and were sent into Dublin centre to distribute the soup, sandwiches and cigarettes to the homeless. We then went on a walking tour of Dublin and learnt about the city and their culture.

It was a thoroughly enjoyable experience and some of the pupils still keep in touch with the pupils from Belvedere. We would recommend any pupil to take part, if given the opportunity.

Niamh Duffy, Stacey McCullough, Aíne Flynn (MVI)

BUSINESS STUDIES REPORT Presenting Yourself - School Assembly Hall In November pupils were involved in this workshop session co-ordinated by YENI. Pupils learned how selfimage plays an important role in appearing confident.

Mini Company Each year LVI pupils are given the opportunity to run a mini business. The business this year provided the pupils with the opportunity to sell school hoodies, and provide refreshments at a series of school events. Profit made: £600.

Tayto - Industry Visit Form III pupils enjoyed an industrial visit to Tayto, Tandragee. The tour around the factory’s production facilities proved very enjoyable and provided the pupils with the opportunity to see batch and flow production in operation.

BELVEDERE EXCHANGE Last November, the annual exchange took place between BRA and Belvedere College, Dublin. It was a two-day exchange with Belvedere pupils visiting Belfast for the first part of the exchange. When Belvedere arrived we left school on a bus tour around North and West Belfast, showing murals and teaching the Dublin pupils about our culture. We then visited Stormont where we had the opportunity to speak with local politicians. A representative from the DUP

FIV Project This proved a very enjoyable topic area with pupils working in groups to launch a new app. for the Iphone.

Pupils worked extremely well as groups and became very competitive with not just their class mates, but all the pupils taking Business Studies at Form IV level.

Coca Cola - Industry Visit Form IV and Form V pupils had the opportunity to visit the Coca Cola factory in Lisburn. They enjoyed watching the business operating from bottle design right through to the production and packaging of a variety of soft drinks. We used the experience to deliver the production element of the course.

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DANCE TEAM

Form III - Chocolate Bar Another successful project in the form of pupils researching, designing and launching a new chocolate bar - a range of departments helped with the delivery: Technology allowed the pupils to design the moulds; Home Economics provided the pupils with the facilities to make a proto-type; and the Music department provided us with musical instruments to produce an advertising jingle.

The ‘Teenage Kicks’ dance programme ran again this year with some of our girls now participating for the fourth year. Co-ordinated by Freddie Kinnersley, 30 girls were involved in putting together dances which were performed with four other Belfast schools.

The Jungle NI - MVI In March a group of MVI pupils together with Mr Irwin and Mrs McQuiston completed a residential at the Jungle. This is an outdoor activity centre specialising in a range of adventures. Pupils engaged in tree-hiking, archery, paint-balling, zorbing and a range of teambuilding activities. All-in-all this was a very enjoyable and fun experience.

Hours of practice culminated in a ‘Teenage Kicks’ show at the Ulster Hall in June. The performance at the Ulster Hall was a credit to the girls involved.

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This initiative is run by Belfast City Council in an attempt to encourage young people of all abilities and backgrounds to take part in physical recreation.

THE DUKE OF EDINBURGH’S AWARD Project Business Seminar - School Assembly Hall In June YENI delivered a seminar for the pupils who had opted to study GCSE Business Studies.

S.B.M. / N.I. / J.A. / I.L. / G.M.Q.

THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CHEMISTRY SCHOOLS’ ANALYST COMPETITION On the 24th March, a team of three Middle Sixth pupils competed in the Northern Ireland Regional Heat of the Royal Society of Chemistry Schools’ Analyst Competition at Stranmillis University College Belfast.

The team consisted of Deborah Forbes, Julia Diamond and Emily Reid who were up against twelve other schools from across the province.

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The aim of the competition is to raise standards of practical analytical chemistry among sixth-form students and is based on problems relevant to industrial and social needs. The students are assessed in their practical skills, their understanding and ability to work safely as a team and on their time management. The format of the competition is the same each year. Each team carried out three experiments which all carry twenty marks. This year, the procedures involved the determination of the acid content of both white and red wine and the determination of the sulphur dioxide content of white wine by a redox titration.

After three hours of practical work the BRA team were announced second and received a cheque for £300 for the Chemistry Department. The experience gained was invaluable to the members of the team and I congratulate them on their performance.

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During 2011-12 our large membership remained steady at 414 pupils from Forms III to Middle VI: this means that the Academy has the largest school-based Award Centre in Northern Ireland, and possibly the United Kingdom.

Continued effort on the part of our members produced a very creditable number of Awards gained during the course of the year: 40 Bronze Awards, 15 Silver Awards and 14 Gold Awards. The total number of awards gained from 1984 to date are, Bronze - 1,127; Silver - 611; Gold - 413.

Congratulations must go to the fourteen pupils and past pupils who gained the Gold Award: Joel Auterson (MVI), Judith Bingham (MVI), James Boyd, Reece Colhoun (MVI), Lucy Dugan (MVI), Catherine Hegan, Christopher Hegan, Billy Hunter (MVI), Hyejin Kwon, Nathan Lyons (MVI), Rosie Murphy, Adam Purvis (MVI), Martin Scott and Robyn Scott.

A very full and successful programme of expedition work in the Mourne Mountains, North Antrim Hills and Upper and Lower Lough Erne was carried out during the year, directly involving 268 pupils in expedition theory classes, training weekends as well as practice and qualifying expeditions.

We are indebted to the many people who were willing to give of their free time to make possible the huge undertaking of the Expedition section. Thanks must go to Mr. Carolan, Mr. Buchan and Mr. Maurice Miller for assisting with training. We sincerely thank the following teachers, past pupils and adult helpers who generously gave their time and assistance: Mrs. C. Barr Mr. A. Blair

Mr. D. McArthur Mr. P. McArthur

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The Duke of Edinburgh’s Awards Scheme

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Mr. J. Buchan Mr. K. Cheung Mr. G. Chivers Mr. J. Cummings Mr. J. Davison Dr. M. Donnelly Mr. C. Gates Miss. A. Gergett Mr. C. Hall Mr. J. Holmes Mr. R. Irvine Mr. K. Laverty Mr. J. Letson Mr. K. Loder Mr. D. Lyons Ewing

Mr. D. Maxwell Mr. M. Miller Mrs. A Monroe Mr. B. Monroe Miss. C. Murphy Mr. M. Neil Miss R. Petticrew Mr. M. Scott Mr. D. Sharp Miss. J. Spence Miss. S. Turkington Mrs. M. Wilson Mr. A. Workman Mr. F. Workman

Very special thanks must also go to the following people: Mr. Maurice Miller for his outstanding contribution in overseeing all aspects of the Expedition section; Mr. Billy Dunn for driving the school bus on many weekends and for his valued assistance; Mr. Alan Hermon for assisting with transport; Mrs. Michelle Wilson for outstanding assistance with Award administration; Mr. Frank Workman, Mrs. Catherine Barr, Mr. Alan Workman, Mr. Jonathan Cummings, Miss. Lorraine Cummings, Miss Judith Spence, Ms. Helen Douglas and Mr. Adam Blair for very valuable assistance with administration work; and the Gold Award Leaders of 2011-2012 for excellent assistance with the running of the D. of E. in the school.

The Academy’s Award Centre is indebted to the various Bed and Breakfast houses, which are the supervision bases for our many expedition weeks. Grateful thanks indeed to: Mrs. M. Trainor of Silent Valley, Kilkeel; Mr. and Mrs. J. McHenry of Glenariff, Ballymena; and Miss M. Scally of Torr Road, Cushendun.

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Not a single Duke of Edinburgh Expedition could have set out from the Academy during the year if it had not been for the tireless efforts of those ten or so pupils who form the “Tent Team” and who gave much of their time in maintaining our large stock of camping equipment.

Many thanks, T-Team, for all your work!

Expedition first-aid training was kindly provided by Dr. Norman Walker and by Mr. Keith Thompson and his team of volunteer First-Aiders.

The work of the Volunteering section continued successfully through the year. We are very grateful to Miss S. Ardis for administering the work of those pupils involved in individual Volunteering section activities.

Thanks are owed to Mrs. G. Morris and Ms. T. McBeth for assisting those pupils working in the Community Service option.

The detailed administration of the Skills section is very ably undertaken by Dr. Lomas to whom we are very much indebted. Bible reading, car maintenance, photography and chess are just a few of the many interests pursued by our pupils within this section.

Many thanks are due to the numerous members of staff who gave up their time to act as Skills section assessors including: Mr. Carroll Mrs. Kerr Mrs. T. Corcoran Dr. Lomas Mr. Cupples Ms. McMullan Mrs. Currie Mrs. Morrison Mr. Evans Mrs. O’Donnell Ms. Graham Mr. Spence Mr. Jamison

Within the Skills section, 35 pupils took part in the Bronze Award Fire Service Courses held at Whitla Street Fire Station. We warmly thank the Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service for the provision of the courses and Mr. Frank Workman for supervising the classes. 30 pupils took part in two Bronze Award First-Aid Courses based in the Sixth Form Centre on Tuesday evenings in the autumn of 2011 and the spring of 2012. We are very grateful to Mr. Keith Thompson and his team of volunteer First Aiders for providing the course. 20 pupils were involved in the Silver Award Police Service Course organised during the year by the P.S.N.I. to whom we are most grateful. Thanks to Mr. F. Workman for supervising the classes.

We thank Mr. Carolan for organising the administration of the Physical section. Many sports are pursued by our pupils within this section and we are grateful to the staff of the P.E. Department: Mrs Nicholl, Mrs. Shaw, Mr. McGonigle, Mr. McCarey and all of the Games staff for all their much appreciated help throughout the past year. We thank Mr. Brian McLaughlin, Mr. Robert Armstrong and Mr. Keith Laverty for all their work in training the kayak canoeists on Friday afternoons.

Much helpful advice in connection with the Gold Residential section is given to our Sixth Form pupils by Mr. Buchan to whom we are very grateful.

Thanks must go to the following people for their help in looking after our finances: Mr. Brian Monroe and Mr. Maurice Miller.

The 22nd Annual Sponsored “Mournes’ Clean-up and Environment Day” was held on Saturday, 10th December, 2011. Taking part were 109 pupils, all Duke of Edinburgh’s Award members from Forms III to Middle VI as well as 34 adult helpers, including former pupils who are Gold Award holders, parents and teachers.

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What The Papers Say...

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Rubbish was collected from 11 sites in the Mournes area and in excess of six tonnes of rubbish were cleared.

The pleasing sum of £2,567.27 was raised for our funds. We had much appreciated assistance from Down District Council, Newry and Mourne District Council, The Mourne Heritage Trust, The National Trust and Mark’s Skip Hire (Kilkeel). Councillor Dermot Curran, Chairman, Down District Council, Councillor Charlie Casey, Mayor of Newry and Mourne District Council, Mr. Matthew Bushby, Countryside Services Manager, Mourne Heritage Trust, Mr. John McEvoy, Ranger, Mourne Heritage Trust, Mr. David Thompson, Area Warden for South Down, National Trust, Mr. James Griffin, Operations and Development Officer, D.of E. (N.I.), Mr. Paddy Watters, Cleansing Manager, Down District Council and Mr. Liam Dinsmore, Management Services Officer, Newry and Mourne District Council, were present in Donard Park, Newcastle, early on the Saturday morning to lend their support to the event and to wish the BRA Team every success.

The Academy’s Open Nights in January, 2012 and the Open Morning in May, 2012 were a great success and all aspects of school life were on show to prospective pupils and their parents. Many thanks must go to all of those who helped to make the impressive D. of E. display in the Sixth Form Study Area so effective.

The fifteenth highly successful Canadian Canoe Week was held from 28th July to 4th August, 2012 in Lough Erne. This was a packed programme of Silver and Gold Canoe Qualifying Expeditions. 20 pupil members and 4 adult leaders took part.

Staff training for our former pupils progressed well during the year. David Lyons Ewing, Kevin Cheung and Martin Scott are currently working for the Mountain Leadership Certificate (Summer). Another past pupil, Keith Laverty, is currently working for the U.K.C.C. / B.C.U. Levels 1 and 2 Paddlesport Coach qualification.

On Thursday, 6th October, 2011, the school was honoured by a visit from Mr. Peter Schooling, the newly appointed Commercial Director of The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award in the Windsor HQ, accompanied by Ms. Kate Thompson, Northern Ireland Director. After morning coffee with Dr. Scully in the Headmaster’s Study, Mr. Schooling and Ms. Thompson met a representative group of Academy D.of E. participants from Forms 4 to Middle 6. These eight pupils acted as a focus group for the Commercial Director who engaged with them in a detailed discussion relating to money raising ideas for the D.of E. At the end of the meeting, Mr. Schooling and Ms. Thompson expressed their sincere gratitude for the opportunity to visit the school and to talk to participants.

On Tuesday, 31st January, 2012 Prince Edward, the Earl of Wessex, opened the new Northern Ireland Regional Office of The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award in Newtownbreda. Six participants and a Leader from the Academy’s DofE Award Centre were honoured to be invited to take part in the event. After the Opening Ceremony, Mr. Jonathan Cummings, Maebh King (LVI), Adam Purvis (MVI), Melissa Antonio (V), Steven Bailie (LVI), Ling Cheung (IV) and Oliver Vick (IV) talked with Prince Edward about the Academy DofE Centre’s work helping to clean up the Mountains of Mourne over the last twenty-two years.

I should like to take this opportunity of expressing my deep gratitude to my mother and father for all their support and assistance during the last thirty years: they are the ultimate back-up team!

In conclusion, 2011-2012 was a year of solid work and achievement on the part of all involved in The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award in the Academy. Teamwork, selfreliance, a sense of responsibility to others, leadership, commitment, ‘stickability’, enterprise, self-discipline and initiative are all qualities which, to a greater or lesser extent, have been developed by our pupils as they have participated in the various sections of the D. of E. and which will stand them in good stead not only now but in later years.

Finally, pride of place and congratulations must go to the following pupils and past pupils who gained awards during the past year:Bronze Award Kyle Auterson (V) Calvin Browne (V) Lucy Browne (IV) Michael Browne (IV) James Bingham (IV) Victoria Campbell (IV) Sarah Chapa Pierce Clements (IV) Sophie Daniels (V) Gavin Gilfillan (V) Holly Grant (LVI) Aaron Henderson (IV) Peter Hughes (LVI) Alan Jones (V) Christopher Jones (V) Florence Maguire (IV) Emma McAllister (IV) Tori McConnell (V) Sarah McGuckin (IV) Rebecca McKinstry (IV)

Bronagh McLaughlin (IV) Sarah Minford (V) Sarah Moore (IV) Catherine Nelson (IV) Gary Nelson (IV) Samuel Nelson (IV) Charlotte Noble (V) Jessica O’Donnell (IV) Eilis O’Loan (IV) Rachel O’Neill (IV) Sophie Orr (IV) Sophie Porter (IV) Abby Reid (IV) Hannah Robinson (V) Robbie Shaw (V) Rebekah Spratt (IV) Pooja Sridhar (V) Emma Stewart (IV) Lauren Turner (IV) Ryan Wallace (V)

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Silver Award Melissa Antonio (V) Leah Baillie (V)

Sarah Bingham (V) Ashleigh Black (MVI) Victoria Frame (V) Emma Gibney Leif Jacobson (V) Alice Kavanagh (V) Gold Award Joel Auterson (MVI) Judith Bingham (MVI) James Boyd Reece Colhoun (MVI) Lucy Dugan (MVI) Catherine Hegan Christopher Hegan

Judith Keyes (V) Anna-Rose McCambridge (LVI) Alex McGovern (V) Dan McKenna (V) Rebecca Rowan (V) Elizabeth Sinclair (V) Amy Wilson (V)

A few of the group members erected the tent while others lit the Trangia to cook our “boil in the bags”. If you are unsure of what a “boil in the bag” is, I highly recommend that you do not go out and buy one!

Billy Hunter (MVI) Hyejin Kwon Nathan Lyons (MVI) Rosie Murphy Adam Purvis (MVI) Martin Scott Robyn Scott J.R.

BRONZE AWARD BOYS’ FOOT QUALIFYING EXPEDITION 14th - 15th APRIL, 2012 MOURNE MOUNTAINS Some people say that The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Expedition section is a simple task. That anyone can do it. That it is “just a little bit of walking”. How wrong can you be? The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award expedition is not “just a bit of walking”. It is a highly stressful task that tests your patience, teamwork and your friendships with others. From eating terrible food to sleeping in an uncomfortable bed, it is a chance to prove yourself.

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Upon arrival at Fofanny Dam, we had a few minutes to stretch our legs before we set off towards our campsite for the night. Our first obstacle was Spelga Dam, infamous for being a horrible bog which “swallows up” unwary travellers. However, we managed to pass through without incident and climbed up towards Slievenamiskan. Once clear of the bog, we took a welldeserved rest. However, the break could only last for so long, and we continued to Hen Mountain, contouring round to the campsite which was on the far side.

DAY 1 On the morning of our qualifying expedition we arose, focused on one goal but unsure how to carry it out.

With bleary eyes and no energy, we somehow made a good start to achieving our goal by getting up on time.

Thank goodness for parents!

We arrived at the school bright and early, anxious to get started but unsure of what awaited us. Would everything go as planned? Would it rain? Would we survive without our mothers to kiss us goodnight?

Everything would be revealed in time!

We had to get our tents organised before we left and, perhaps questionably, we decided to put five people in a three-man tent. We chose to do this to avoid having to carry another tent. It may have been said to be a silly choice, but we were happy with it, and certain, at least, that our tent would be warm! After this, we boarded the bus and were driven to the Mournes.

We finally squeezed into the tent thanks to the “system” devised by Jack Venables and tried to sleep, at the cost of Henry Cavan’s sanity. It always seems to be Henry getting elbowed in the night.

DAY 2 Arising early after a truly awful night’s sleep, we packed the tents away, had some breakfast and got on our way once more. The route for that day was much more straightforward, as it basically required us to follow a path through the forest. After many hours, we made it. We were sore, stiff, exhausted yet grinning broadly. We knew that we had all achieved something.

We slumped down into our seats on the bus and got some well-earned rest at the end of a gruelling weekend.

The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Expedition section has been a fantastic experience. We have grown closer to our friends as a result, and have developed skills that will help us with day-to-day life, from working in a team and navigating, to helping people through tough patches. It has been a valuable experience that we will never forget. Most importantly, we thoroughly enjoyed every second.

We would encourage anyone to sign up to The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award as you will not regret a single minute of it. It is a credit to the Academy and to everyone involved.

Cameron Gergett, Jack Venables, Henry Cavan, Ben Irvine, Louis Totten and Dean McDowell (IV)

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BRONZE AWARD GIRLS’ FOOT QUALIFYING EXPEDITION 21st - 22nd APRIL, 2012 MOURNE MOUNTAINS Before setting off on our Bronze qualifying expedition, we had to meet at school at 7:30am, which was really early.

There were six members in our team; Shannon, Hollie, Sophie, Bethan, Kathleen and Rachel. We went to the tent store to collect our equipment, including tents, compasses and trangias. We left school at around 10:00am to go to the Mournes and the bus journey was fairly pleasant. We played some music and talked about the weekend ahead.

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Just as we pulled in to our destination, it started to rain. We were all dreading the start of our walk. We were team D and therefore the fourth team to leave.

We quickly put on our waterproofs and started on our way. The rain stopped shortly after we started and the rest of the journey was enjoyable until Rachael fell on a hill and hurt her ankle. We got it bandaged and began to walk again. We reached Deers Meadow quite quickly and had great fun trying to make our way across the boggy land. It wasn’t long until we reached the campsite. We ate dinner and went straight to bed.

Waking up at 6:00am to start the second day of our expedition was the most awful feeling ever. It was so cold!

We had breakfast and got our gear together as quickly as possible, then set off again. The most taxing part of Sunday was Rocky Mountain which was very steep.

Somehow, we got through it. The rest of the journey was fine, until the very end when Rachael’s foot got stuck in some sandy muck. We all giggle about it now, but at the time it was serious. She got her foot out but hurt her ankle again, which slowed our pace significantly. Then the rain fell. We were one of the last teams to finish, but we felt very good about our achievement. We had finished the expedition, and first or last, it didn’t matter. Seeing the bus in the car park was amazing. We got chips from the local chip shop as a treat.

Our team was really tired after our efforts and couldn’t wait to rest, but if we had been asked if we would do it again, our answer would definitely be YES! Shannon Venus, Hollie Tracey, Sophie Rood, Bethan Watt, Kathleen Reilly and Rachael Blaney (IV)

SILVER AWARD FOOT QUALIFYING EXPEDITION 22nd - 24th June, 2012 MOURNE MOUNTAINS On Friday, 22nd June, at around 7:00am, our team, consisting of Peter Gilleece, Ruairi Hurson, James Carey, Pierce Clements, Christian O’ Connor, Michael Browne and myself (Kyle McClelland) was getting ready to set out on our Silver Award Qualifying Expedition. We arrived at Donard car park at around 10:15am. We stepped out of the minibus to heavy rain.

There was no sign of it stopping any time soon.

The Owl 2012 We finally left Donard car park using our wet weather route, instead of leaving from Bloody Bridge car park, our planned route, at 10:30am. We stopped in a forest at around 12:00noon for lunch. It had continued raining throughout the day, so by lunchtime, most of us were soaked right through to the skin. If we jumped into a river, we wouldn’t have been much wetter. Everyone was cold and tired, but kept our morale up with bad jokes and chocolate.

A few “Milk Chocolate Bubbly Bites” and “Haribo Tangfastics” later, we set off again, hoping that the weather would clear in the next hour or two. It never did get any better. Arguably, it actually got worse.

We walked up the Trassey Track and alongside the Trassey River, where we crossed the stile at the top of Hare’s Gap. It intrigued me that one side of the wall was occupied by rocks and boulders, while the other side had very few boulders, but was covered in grass.

We took a break here, discussing which direction we should choose. The wind was so fierce that you could lean into it and it would hold you up.

We decided to go down towards the Kilkeel River, at Ben Crom Reservoir, as we thought that this was where our campsite was located. However, after we had walked for a kilometre, we realised that this was not our campsite after all, and the team’s morale plummeted. It would be getting dark soon. With the rest of the team on their way back up to the stile, Ruairi and I considered an alternative route. Ruairi yelled “Guys, stop!” and once we had caught up with the others, he proposed his new route. He thought that there was a plateau not so far away, and that the intended campsite was just down the other side. We decided that his route would be the most time efficient one to take.

We never seemed to find the plateau Ruairi mentioned.

We descended from Ben Crom towards the middle of Ben Crom River. At this point we realised where we were, so climbed close to the top of Doan, and at last saw the campsite at Slieve Loughshannagh. We arrived at the campsite at around 7:30pm as the daylight was starting to fade. As we were very cold, exhausted and wanted to go to sleep, we put some burgers onto the pan, saving the rest of the food for the following night. The burgers went down well, and we were all asleep no later than 22:00.

The next morning we got up at around 6:30am, and I went off to get the food started. Breakfast was sausages, bacon, pancakes, and soda bread. After breakfast was cooked and eaten, and the tents were taken down, we all recapped on the route for the day. About 10 minutes into our route, Christian needed to stop, as he had an itchy foot. When he took off his sock, the skin was peeling off his toes!

Eventually we continued along the track until we came to a gate at a wall. We had a break and talked to a few other hikers. Nearing the end of Bann’s Road, we then contoured around the bottom of Slieve Muck, on to the Moyad Road. We stopped to have our lunch at a car park. The weather had been excellent, making up for the horrendous weather we had endured the day before.

After lunch was over, we followed the road up to Spelga Dam, and then followed the Ulster Way to our campsite. We arrived at camp at around 5:00pm, a lot earlier than Friday. Unusually, setting up the tents wasn’t the first thing that we did upon reaching the campsite. As it was raining very lightly, we didn’t want to get the inner of the tent wet, which would affect our sleep. After about 15 minutes we decided that the rain wasn’t going to stop, so put the tent up anyway.

We then spent about half an hour throwing a frisbee, which was great for team morale. Dinner was better than anticipated, with BBQ chicken wings, Hot ‘n’ Spicy chicken wings, frankfurter sausages and gammon steaks.

We cleared up the rubbish that had been left behind from all of the food, and went to our tents to try and get some rest before the next day’s walk. But with Michael Browne and Christian O’ Connor in your team, that’s not as easy as it sounds! They were singing songs until about 10:00pm, which were so funny the rest of us joined in.

After a late night, we woke up at 6:30am, refreshed and raring to go for the last day of our expedition. I had a bit of a lie-in that morning, sleeping until 7:00am, as I knew that no cooking was needed. However, whenever I did get up, Ruairi was shouting “They’re everywhere!” I had no idea what he had meant until I stepped outside the tent. There were hundreds, maybe thousands of midges circling our tent close to where the food had been cooked the previous night. Although everyone else had brought anti-midge head nets, I brought midge repellent, which worked just as well.

For breakfast, we worked our way through two boxes of Krave cereal, which tasted amazing. Getting ready to set off on the Sunday now, the motivation for the day was realising that once we had completed the final leg of the expedition, we would make our way into Rostrevor, for a pizza and a nice cold soft drink. The weather for our last day was spectacular. It was warm with not a cloud in the sky. However, on an expedition, that isn’t always great news, as walking is hot.

We did quite well, not taking too many breaks or stops for water. There was a tense moment when we had to cross a patch of land, where there were about 15 cows and a bull. Pierce decided that he would keep his walking stick “Toby” handy just in case an animal were to charge at him.

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We had our lunch at around 11:00am, where we just finished off anything that was left over from the weekend, told some jokes and refilled our water bottles.

Eventually we came off the mountains and on to a track, where we met up with our assessor Dennis. He told us to follow the Ulster Way, and in 15 minutes we would be at our end point. We took his advice but took a wrong turn about 100 metres from the car park.

Once we realised our mistake, we decided to go back to the gate which led us there, and finish our route through the forest. I decided to run, but tripped up on a branch, and ended up lying on my back in the middle of the forest. I didn’t really mind, as it ended the weekend on a high. I got helped back on to my feet, and we walked for another five minutes until we reached the car park, where Billy the bus driver picked us up, and brought us into Warrenpoint for something to eat.

All in all, we had an excellent team. When it came to the expedition, we all pulled together and every decision we made was as a team. We worked hard for ourselves and each other, which is really what The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award is all about.

I would also like to thank, on behalf of our whole team, Mr. Reilly and Maurice Miller for helping us to prepare our expedition, and for all the hard-work that they have done throughout the year in order to make our Silver Award possible.

Kyle McClelland, Peter Gilleece, Ruairi Hurson, James Carey, Pierce Clements, Christian O’ Connor and Michael Browne (V)

SILVER AWARD FOOT QUALIFYING EXPEDITION 17th - 19th AUGUST, 2012 MOURNE MOUNTAINS

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When we first started off on our expedition on the Friday morning, the first leg of our route was all uphill. This quickly tired us out and our rucksacks weighed us down a lot. As we got further up the mountain, we walked into quite a thick mist. While contouring, we missed the turn off for the correct path so we had to go down a stony hill.

Going down the hill, Amy fell and cut her leg. When we stopped to clean the cut, we got attacked by midges.

When we neared our campsite, the mist became very heavy and we couldn’t see where we were to leave the path. We then headed towards a stile to orientate ourselves but still couldn’t see the path to our campsite.

We used our emergency phone. We followed instructor Maurice’s instructions and then saw another instructor, Dennis, who told us that another team were using our campsite as well. We shouted out to them and soon they

became visible to us through the mist. When we got to our campsite we quickly erected our tents and got some water in the trangia to start cooking our dinner.

Heavy rain fell while this was happening, so Sarah and Hannah got wet.

On Day 2 of the expedition, we woke up at around 7:15am. At this point two members of our team decided to drop out of the expedition. The rest of us decided to continue.

We were happy when we got on to the track and saw a few other walkers. It was nice to see new faces. We then had to contour a mountain low down because there were sheep around the top. This took a long time. At this point, the school minibus drove past us and then came back to check on us and to re-fill our water bottles.

When we finally saw Spelga Dam, we were very happy.

A large group of people who were doing a charity walk offered us hot soup and drinks. When we contoured around Spelga, Hannah’s whole leg got stuck in the bog and she was stuck for about five minutes. We were all too busy laughing to help her out!

The weather was quite sunny and warm, so we became tired easily. We had to contour Slievenamiskan, Cock Mountain and Hen Mountain before we reached our campsite for the night. All of the other teams got redirected there as well, so it was great to catch up with them.

On the final day of the expedition, we got up at about 7:00am, took our tents down and had our breakfast. We left five minutes early to give ourselves a little extra time in case we needed it. First, we had to contour Rocky Mountain which took a long time. Another team was also going that way. When we came to the end of the contour, we took the path leading up and over another mountain. We walked on the track for a good while and then came to the bottom of another mountain. We had to walk across a flat section but it was so misty that we had to navigate our way through it. We then saw Maurice, our assessor, who told us that we were doing well.

When we came to Maurice’s minibus, instructors Johnny and Martin filled our water up for us. We finished the expedition by following the forest track all the way to the car park. With Maurice’s agreement, we didn’t take all of our scheduled breaks in the forest because we didn’t feel we needed them. We finished 50 minutes early but it didn’t matter. All the other teams had already finished and were waiting for us there.

Sarah Moore, Melissa Moffet, Rachel Miller, Jessica Burns, Hannah McCalmont, Lori Turkington, and Amy Kingston, (V)

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SILVER AWARD CANADIAN CANOE QUALIFYING EXPEDITION th 29 - 31st JULY, 2012 LOUGH ERNE Our Silver canoe qualifying expedition ran from Sunday, 29th July and finished on Tuesday, 31st July.

Within our team of six we shared three canoes, paddling in pairs. We arrived at school at 9.00am on the Saturday and, after carrying out quick preparations, we left for Lough Erne.

We arrived at Gortatole Outdoor Education Centre on the day before our expedition, to find a wonderful campsite. Here we set up our tents, packed our equipment into barrels and prepared hot food. We had the rare luxury of toilets, shelter from the rain and even a table tennis table complete with racquets! Alarms set for 5.00am, we went to bed early to rest for the challenge ahead.

The next morning we packed up and took the minibus to the starting point, Round ‘O Jetty. After preparing the canoes we left on time and began to paddle towards Enniskillen. We passed under a few bridges before emerging right in the town centre, right beside Enniskillen Castle. We got out of the canoes and explored the local area for our project on historical sites, taking pictures and making notes. We snaked around the bends out of Enniskillen before emerging into a beautiful section where we saw lots of wildlife, which included herons and ducklings. Eventually the weather turned against us and it began to pour, but in true team spirit we broke into song and we arrived in no time. From here we had regular stops to rest and stretch our tired legs, even using a picnic bench for lunch. When we got near to our campsite, we couldn’t get to it because of the reeds! It was impossible to walk on the ground so we were moved to another, beautiful campsite. It was fairly late and getting dark when we arrived, so we put up the tents, drank some hot chocolate and went to sleep.

We awoke at 5.30am to a beautiful sight. The sunlight was streaming through the trees and the water was perfectly calm. We set off heading south on the wide open water. After a while the winds turned against us.

Believe me when I say the wind is your worst enemy in canoeing! We had to go “on curve” but we negotiated the various islands before stopping for lunch. We made use of the ‘not so luxurious’ toilets and lay on the grass banking in the blazing sunlight before setting sail

again. With the radio sounding and team singing we pushed on determined to get to the campsite before the rain. Near to the end of the day we were well ahead of time and it was still wonderful weather. We lay back in the seats of our canoes, and sunbathed while bobbing on the water, a breeze still pushing us in the right way; after fifteen minutes or so we decided to continue on, perfectly relaxed.

As if the day couldn’t get any better, we even managed to rescue someone! It was in fact one of our previous instructors whose jet ski had broken down in the middle of the water. We lent him a paddle and led him to safety.

After collecting our Brownie points we went on to the campsite, Inish Rath. We were staying with the Hare Krishnas, who were very welcoming. Nervously, we tasted their food and spent a great deal of time in their temple but it was definitely a worthwhile experience, and very useful for our project! We eventually returned to our campsite. We were lucky enough to have swings at the campsite, which we spent hours and hours on, as if we were five again.

We awoke even earlier for our last day, but we were all prepared and left just after 6.00am. The water was once again perfectly still, perfect for paddling in. By now everyone was tired so it took a little longer, but we whistled some tunes, had a hilarious, long conversation with our supervisor, Ruth ‘Dot’ Pettigrew. We continued to explore sites for our project which included a very old church, a stranded tower in the centre of the water, castle remains and an old boathouse. Afterwards there were a lot of bends in the river which was challenging due to the constantly changing wind direction but we eventually emerged to find our route had been cut short by our assessor! We finished at Bun Bridge jetty just after midday. We arrived singing and dancing to the “Friends” theme tune in celebration, to our assessor Gordon’s amusement. We were so happy to have completed the 60km!

The expedition provided us with an experience of a life-time which we will always look back on as one of the best weekends in our lives. We have grown to be much closer friends throughout the training, planning and expedition work and have memories for life from the unique experience with the Hare Krishnas, to sunbathing on the open water and singing together through the pouring rain.

Oliver Vick, Katie Watt, Eilis O’Loan, Ruth McConnell, Rebecca McKinstry and Ruari McGowan (V)

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The Duke of Edinburgh’s Awards Scheme

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The Duke of Edinburgh’s Awards Scheme

The Duke of Edinburgh’s Silver Award Presentation, 15th June, 2012.

The Duke of Edinburgh’s Bronze Award Presentation, 22nd June, 2012.

The Duke of Edinburgh’s Bronze Award Presentation, 22nd May, 2012.

The Duke of Edinburgh’s Silver Award Presentation, 28th May, 2012.

The Duke of Edinburgh’s Bronze Award Presentation, 12 Sept 2012.

The Duke of Edinburgh’s Bronze Award Presentation, 11th Sept 2012.

The Duke of Edinburgh’s Bronze Award presentation, 26th March, 2012.

The Duke of Edinburgh’s Gold Badge Presentation, 30th August, 2012, in the Headmaster’s Study.

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GOLD AWARD FOOT QUALIFYING EXPEDITION 9th - 12th AUGUST, 2012 NORTH ANTRIM HILLS On our first day of the expedition, an hour in, we were tired and really feeling the weight of our rucksacks.

Nevertheless, we continued up the first incline of the expedition. It didn’t motivate us knowing that we would have four days of this ahead! After a while our minds phased out the discomfort and we concentrated on either leading the group or following the person ahead while looking up to make sure the person at the front was navigating correctly. We had a break of around an hour for lunch, and we continued on our way to our campsite for the night. Eventually we saw our campsite in the horizon. Although it was less than a mile away, the boggy ground made it much harder to reach the camp. When we arrived, we were attacked by a swarm of midges, but luckily we had brought antimidge head nets. We made our dinner quickly and went to sleep as the midges were incredibly irritating.

We got up the next morning slightly later than expected and broke camp before setting off. We started on really boggy ground, trying to avoid getting our boots wet as we knew they would take hours to dry. We met up with our Maurice, our supervisor, later that day, who gave up his weekend to ensure our team was safe on the hills.

He, with the permission of our assessor, gave us “Ready Salted” Crisps to allow us to maintain our salt balance.

Eventually after another day of agony we made it to the next campsite. It was surrounded by bushes, so we struggled to find a single square inch of land to pitch our tents, but we managed. Due to the wind that evening there were fewer midges which meant we could sit as a team and watch the sun go down.

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The next morning, after an hour or so of walking, we saw our assessor who was happy with our progress.

We continued that day trying to take our minds off the pain until a team member, Matthew Donnelly (who is obsessed with being on time), fell knee-deep into a bog.

Of course, we helped him out immediately and tried to refrain from laughing!

At our campsite for the third night, we were camping with another team that were walking that weekend, and following our assessor’s advice, we all made a cup of tea and sat in a circle and talked about how we were finding the expedition.

On the final day, motivated by the fact that we would be stopping off in Ballymena for a McDonalds on the way back to the Academy, we raced up three mountains and along some very boggy ground to get to the

minibus waiting to pick us up. We really enjoyed this expedition, although our feet became sore and our legs hurt. We developed a sense of team work, as we pulled together to achieve a common goal.

Mannix McAlister, Matthew Donnelly, Steven Bailie, James Donnelly, Connor Brogan, Jamie Dwyer and Niall Shiels (MVI)

GOLD AWARD CANADIAN CANOE QUALIFYING EXPEDITION 1st - 4th AUGUST, 2012 LOUGH ERNE July 31st, 2012 was a date that had been lurking in the back of our minds for quite a while, and we were all determined to be ready for it. Gone were the days when we had to stop at the shop on the way up to school to buy matches or emergency rations or some other fundamentally important item which we could not hope to succeed without, and gone were the days when we had to try to find space in our rucksacks to shove in some last minute essentials on the morning of our expedition.

Or so we told ourselves anyway…

“Guys, did anyone remember to get meths? Is anyone bringing milk? Did I leave my head torch in the tent on our practice expedition...?”

Yep, this was our team’s conversation the night before we were due to set off. Thankfully, when we all turned up at school the next morning, we had pretty much everything we needed in order to set off on what was to be our final, and definitely most memorable, Duke of Edinburgh’s Award expedition at Belfast Royal Academy.

Our Gold team was something special. It consisted of Anna-Rose McCambridge, Caroline Montgomery, Ellie Hudson, Maebh King, Bethany Brown, Matthew Constantine, Deborah Forbes and myself, Lynsay Hamilton. I say it was something special as, unlike most walking teams, we didn’t necessarily know each other well before we became a team. This is one of the great things about the Award; it brings you together with people you’ve known for so many years, but never really got to know personally. I doubt that any of us will forget each other in a hurry after the expedition!

As we arrived at Gortatole Outdoor Education Centre in County Fermanagh, we braced ourselves for what we all knew was about to come in the morning: four days of hard work and perseverance, with the wonderful reward of a well earned McDonalds on the way home. (It’s a better reward than it sounds, trust me). We spent a very enjoyable night at Gortatole where we met the man who

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would determine our fate over the next few days – our assessor. His name was Gordon Thompson, and as it turned out, he was a lovely man and a brilliant assessor, who had a clear passion and thorough knowledge of the Lough and all its stories and traditions. We couldn’t have asked for a better assessor!

When it was nearly time to set off, we were told that due to the wind direction, our route had been switched around so that our finish point on Day 4 would now be our starting point on Day 1 and vice versa. As confusing as that was, it also meant that our route cards, which we spent hours and days going over with a fine tooth comb and which had to be checked and amended countless times by the wonderful Ruth Pettigrew, were now useless. It was heartbreaking! All joking aside though, it was definitely the right call by Ruth and Gordon and the other instructor David. After all, safety is paramount and regardless of how much preparation you put into your route, you can never predict the mood of Mother Nature.

We really appreciated the change of direction when we began to paddle off as the wind was behind us, pushing us along at a good pace. With regards to ‘legs’ of our route, we essentially had to “play it by ear” which meant that we could maintain this pace and not have to worry about getting ahead of time, which you must never do on any Duke of Ed. expedition.

Things were going pretty smoothly, until we came to an open stretch of water. I don’t know if it was us or whether the wind changed direction, but suddenly we were up against the breeze which had aided us so far.

Trying to paddle into the wind in a canoe is not great fun, and soon we found ourselves spread out as we all tried to get to the other side of this open stretch. Of course we were all wearing buoyancy aids, but that didn’t stop me from panicking and thinking that we were going to end up in the water! I have to thank my partner Ellie for trying to calm me down while all the time, she was feeling exactly the same panic. That takes courage!

In the end, Debbie and Matthew - nicknamed “Connie” - came back for us and it all turned out all right. We also discovered that I have a world class “cry for help” which is always good to know! When we met up with our assessor later, he said that he could see us the whole time and that he, Ruth and David were keeping an eye on us, so we were never really in any danger!

The next day passed relatively peacefully with a lot of lovely sights and not so lovely singing. We used this time to invent ‘The Craic Scale’, i.e. how much fun various everyday things are. For example, quadruple Chemistry first thing on a Monday morning scores a 1. Quadruple Chemistry first thing on a Monday morning with no caffeine is zero craic. We deemed the

expedition CosCraic, as it had its ups and its downs, much like a cos graph! It all got very mathematical in the end. If I take nothing else from this week, I can at least take the creation of the Craic Graph to help me in later life. I’m sure it’ll come in useful somewhere…

As we awoke to begin our third day on the Lough, everything was going well. We had a few aches and pains, but that’s The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award; if you’re not in at least a little pain, you’re not doing it right! We sat down and had our lunch at Muckross Jetty (which was meant to be our original starting point), and the little bottle of factor 50+ sunscreen was being passed around everybody. Yes, I said factor 50+.

In Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. I was as surprised as you are. It was roasting! I’m writing this article in September, and I can still see the milky white patch on my wrist where my watch shielded my skin!

We set off from lunch in search of Inish Davar, a beautiful island which we had passed on the way up. The layers and hoodies were off, the t-shirts and sunglasses were out and everybody was having a great time. Then the clouds started gathering. The sunglasses came off.

The clouds started to get darker. Our shirts went back on. It started to get a lot colder. The hoodies slipped over our heads once more. Pretty soon, the skies opened and rain and hail started pouring down on top of us!

Our waterproof coats were now fully zipped up, hood and all, as the thunder crashed and the lightning forked all around us. We took cover in some low hanging trees and tried to wait it out. Our assessors put themselves at risk by speed-boating over to us to try to give us some advice. There was nothing else for it but to stay inshore until it was over. It did blow over eventually.

We set off again in our attempt to get to Inish Davar, only to be caught by yet another lightning storm. We were right in the middle of this one. There’s a little rule that says ‘every three seconds between the sight of lightning and the sound of the thunder equates to it being one kilometre away from you.’ As we sheltered from the pounding rain and hail in yet more branches, we saw the lightning and heard the thunder simultaneously. Zero kilometres. It was pretty scary!

In saying that, all any of us were thinking was: ‘I wonder how we’re going to put the tents up so that the inner doesn’t get completely soaked?’ None of us even thought of quitting or reaching for the emergency mobile phone. That’s the kind of perseverance The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award teaches you!

As it turned out, the weather was so atrocious that the assessor had no option but to pull us out of the Lough. It was so bad that we couldn’t even reach the jetty about 20 metres along from the point on the grassy embankment where we actually did get out. We were taken to the

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minibus and driven to our assessor’s mother-in-law’s house, and she kindly let us stay in her garage for the night. Our last ever night on an expedition was spent in a garage! What a way to end years of expedition work!

My depiction of the events may sound pretty horrendous, but surprisingly I don’t look back on it with bad memories. It was tough, and we were wet and cold and tired, but that makes it all the better, looking back. What good is an easy expedition? What will you get out of it? Yeah, you’ll have memories of a nice little paddle down a nice little river, but we faced some pretty big tasks and when the going got tough we put our heads down, trusted our partners and we pushed through it. The word “teamwork” is thrown around a lot these days, but that’s what Duke of Ed. is all about.

Without everyone working together, the team would fall apart. This teamwork and unity is best reflected by our team song “Lean on Me”, which we belted out as we paddled to our finish line the next afternoon: “Lean on me, when you’re not strong, I’ll be your strength, I’ll help you carry on…”

The expedition brought hard work, dedication, leadership, unity, and above all, a really great time and some wonderful friends and memories that I will never, ever forget. This is what Duke of Ed. is built on. I’m sad that my time as a member of The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award has passed, but if you feel like you’re up for a great time and a challenge, I honestly couldn’t recommend it enough. If you put the work in when it counts, you’ll never forget it, and you’ll never stop reaping the rewards.

Oh, and that McDonalds on the way home is always great as well!

Lynsay Hamilton, Anna-Rose McCambridge, Caroline Montgomery, Ellie Hudson, Maebh King, Bethany Brown, Matthew Constantine (MVI) and Deborah Forbes

social skills and prepared them for later life. On the rare occasions when we had warm weather, we also took them to the park and played games, such as frisbee. The members loved this as they were able to enjoy spending time with friends and let off some steam!

We feel that the time we spent volunteering at the club was really beneficial to our lives. We really enjoyed building relationships with the members each week and believe it taught us leadership skills and how to take on responsibility. We have fond memories of our time volunteering there and hope to return in the future.

Rebecca McKinstry, Sorcha Burke and Ruth McConnell (V)

SKILLS SECTION TENT TEAM I am the leader of the Tent Team in DofE, which is held on a Friday after school for an hour. I started doing this to complete the Skills section of my Award. I really enjoyed it and, as I showed leadership skills, I was made leader. I have many roles to play in the Team but as the name suggests, I am basically in charge of maintaining the tents used for the Expedition section of The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award. My role also includes looking after and maintaining the tents, organising the team to help with that, sending tents away to get repaired, and organising the stores.

I really enjoy doing this. It has turned into a hobby of mine and has given me responsibility which I can use in later life in the workplace. The Skills section in the DofE has provided me with the opportunity to learn skills I would have never known before.

Gary Nelson (V)

PHYSICAL SECTION KAYAK CANOEING

VOLUNTEERING SECTION MENCAP

For the “Physical” section of the Bronze Award we had the option to learn to kayak canoe. I chose to do this because I have always liked canoeing and wanted to learn more about it. Other people who had already done the course had also thoroughly recommended it.

For the Volunteering section of our Duke of Edinburgh’s Silver Award, we helped at the Carrickfergus Junior Gateway Club for two hours every Saturday morning.

The club is part of the charity Mencap and is a youth club for children with learning disabilities and special needs.

While we were volunteering at the club we spent most of our time supervising and interacting with the members. This involved playing games with them, such as, football, badminton and pool, doing various arts and crafts and taking them on a trip to the nearby shop each week. This helped the club members to learn valuable

We attended the course at the swimming pool after school each Friday for an hour and a half. For the first couple of lessons we got used to getting in and out of the canoe, paddling around with our hands and capsizing safely. Many people were a bit scared but we had nothing to worry about as our great instructor guided each of us through individually. As well as those skills we learned how to paddle forward, backward, sideways and round in a circle. We also learned how to turn the canoe without using the paddle. Some of the girls could even switch canoes on the water!

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Over the 12 weeks of the Course everyone enjoyed themselves and learned a lot. We would all go kayaking again. Usually this type of course would cost hundreds of pounds but it was completely free to us and counted towards our Bronze Award. Thanks must go to Robert our instructor, Mr. Reilly and The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award.

Niall Gray (IV)

I saw first-hand the conditions of the A&E Department of the local hospital where I observed the care given to a man who had been involved in a road traffic accident.

He had been left with bones visibly protruding from his right foot. The resources were so poor that I even had to help lift him on to the couch. The staff didn’t seem to know exactly what to do as tiny pieces of gauze seemed to be the only equipment they had to apply pressure to the wound and blood was pumping out.

GOLD AWARD RESIDENTIAL SECTION 28th JUNE - 9th JULY, 2011 KENYA

One Sunday, we attended a service in Bishop Peter’s Church in Meru. I sang a song to the congregation that I had prepared and we all danced at the front with the minister. This was an eardrum-blowing experience as the pounding music playing from the church was so loud it could be heard from the end of the street. We were told that the people became addicted to its vibrations.

In July 2011, I travelled with a group of five other young people to Kenya. Parts of Kenya are very impoverished and our aim was to provide practical aid and engage in missionary work.

On our first day we went to visit the ‘School for the Deaf’ in Marimanti. This was to be one of four schools in Marimanti, Gatagani, Thanantu and Ngaramara that we visited during our ten days. In these schools, we taught Bible stories through an interpreter, taught sport and played games with the children. The children’s ages ranged from six to my own age.

This school in Marimanti had a particular impact on me as the children all appeared happy and contented given their condition and circumstances. The highlight of the day was when the children performed sign language to accompany us as we sang our songs. To finish, we had a massive football match in which the local children from other schools and villagers joined in. Needless to say the Northern Ireland team lost and this was all the more impressive because the children’s impaired hearing affects their balance. It took greater skill for them to win.

We also spent some time in the Maternity Hospital in Thanantu. This was a very moving and overwhelming experience for me as the conditions were not at all like in our own maternity hospitals. The food for the mothers left a lot to be desired - rotten fish was the only food on the menu. We were given the opportunity to hold newborn babies who had no names as it is the custom for the father to name the baby and the fathers weren’t present at birth. Of particular concern to me was the case of a young girl we met, who was being forced to give up her baby by the authorities as she was under-age. This struck me as being very different from the policies of our own Health and Social Services in Northern Ireland where she would have been given all the advice and support she would need to keep her baby.

Towards the end of our stay, we paid a visit to the Good Samaritan Orphanage in the slums of Nairobi where we witnessed the poverty in which the children lived. The most memorable experience of the whole trip for me was when I got to hold a baby by the name of “Father Charles Gift”. The reason for his name is that he was left in a bin beside the orphanage. The staff found him and named him after the patron who was Father Charles. He was seen as a gift from God, thus his name, Father Charles Gift.

The Good Samaritan charity also ran a school the size of Mr. Reilly’s classroom. It was split into four rooms inside, holding thirty children each. It amazed me that the children were taught in such cramped conditions.

The charity we journeyed with is currently raising funds to provide a pipeline that will bring fresh water supplies to this area of Kenya. We had the opportunity to inspect the site of the proposed pipeline and to hand over financial aid for the project. We had also given financial aid to all of the programs we visited throughout our stay.

One of the most humbling times was on the last day when we were made aware that all the Kenyan ‘elders’ who had accompanied us during our stay had been judging our character throughout. They gave us Kenyan names according to what they found in us and I was given the name “Kawira” which means “hard-working”.

The whole Kenya project was a life-changing and rewarding experience. We shared our culture and beliefs and gained an insight into a world that was poles apart from our own. I have plans to revisit in the summer of 2013 and hopefully again in the future.

Bethany Brown (MVI)

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FRIENDS OF THE ACADEMY Friends of the Academy (FOTA) is the school’s PTA. It aims to promote good relations between staff, parents and others associated with Belfast Royal Academy and Ben Madigan Preparatory School, and to raise funds for the school. We number approximately 20 members on the committee and meet once a month over the course of the school year.

In 2011-2012, FOTA provided refreshments at a number of school events including the School Play, the Christmas Carol Service and Open Evenings/Mornings.

In September, a Clean-Up afternoon was organised on the Cavehill, which proved very successful.

Funds were raised through the annual Supper Dance which was held in the Dunadry Hotel in January, a Quiz Night in June and a Calendar/Organiser which went on sale around Christmas. Monies raised help fund vital equipment and activities that may not be funded from within the school budget. In recent years, funds have been provided for:

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Merit Scheme Prizes Drama Performance Studio Video Camera Apple Mac Laptop Stage Lighting Ben Madigan Equipment Model United Nations Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Habitat for Humanity Young Engineers Lifesaving Club Swimming Club Hockey Club Netball Club Cricket Club Rugby Club Rowing Club PE Department Technology Department Rock Challenge

Advance notification is always given for events, and we ask you to come along, enjoy entertaining evenings with us, support your child in school activities, and feel part of the “Academy Experience”. FOTA welcomes new members or volunteers who simply wish to help out. If you are interested in joining FOTA or volunteering, please contact the School Reception for further details.

For more information about FOTA please visit our section of the School website http://www.belfastroyalacademy. com following the links ‘Supporting the Academy’ and ‘Friends of the Academy’.

C.N.S.

GEOGRAPHY FIELDWORK FORM I WEATHER PROJECT On the 5th of September, 2012 we went out of the classroom to record the temperature of the school grounds. We went over to the Swimming Pool, Sports Hall and Wingfield where we had to cross the Cliftonville Road.

We measured the temperature and wind speed with an anemometer. We went behind the Crombie and in front of the Maths block to record the data. We also recorded the data near the Technology Block.

We had loads of fun recording the wind speed and the temperature. The places that are coldest are the places in the shade and the warmest parts are in the sun. We were split into groups to go to different areas around the school and a group of four went to all the different areas to find out the wind speed.

When we got back into the classroom we wrote in our books what we had found out. We finished by producing a report which is worth 10% of the examination.

Lucy Johnston and Emma Griffin (I)

FORM II FIELD TRIPS TO HOLYWOOD Form II examined coastal defence measures along the coast at Holywood, County Down. One of the groups departed on a warm and dry Wednesday morning; the other group on a miserable Thursday morning.

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The bus dropped us off at the ‘Dirty Duck Pub’. From there, we set off for the slipway at the sea front. There we took pictures and drew sketches of all five stops; the slipway, rip-rap, seawall, curved seawall and the beach.

The teachers gave us information on each section and we noted this down.

When we reached the beach, we carried out an experiment in groups of four or five. We had to test the infiltration rates up and down the beach. We took two empty cans, one with no top or bottom and one with no top and a bottom. We dug the bottomless one about two centimetres into the sand and used the other can to pour water into it.

We had to submit our findings in a report which will be assessed as part of the June examination.

Geography Pupils (II)

FORM IV FIELD TRIP On Wednesday 20th and Thursday 21st June, Form IV geography pupils collected data for their controlled assessment task in the centre of Belfast. The subject was renewable energy resources and we asked members of the public some questions about this topic to gain an insight into the attitudes of people in the city to the use of renewable energy.

We questioned 15 - 16 people each and therefore had over 300 results per class to analyse and use to draw some conclusions when we returned to school at the end of August.

Geography Pupils (IV)

At each location we had to get out of the bus, no matter the weather, and stand with the Digital Weather Recording Instrument. We recorded temperature, humidity, average wind-speed and the highest gust.

The Digital Weather Recorder Instrument noted all of these features. This data will be used to answer the skills section of the AS examination.

Lower Sixth Pupils

MVI TRIP TO DUNDRUM BAY AND NEWCASTLE On 11th September 20 MVI ‘A’ level Geography students travelled to Newcastle Co. Down, accompanied by Mr Nash and Mrs Miller. While there, we participated in a walk along Murlough beach, observing the different coastal defence methods that have been put in place.

After a brief lunch we then took to the promenade of Newcastle questioning the general public on various subjects such as why they had come to Newcastle, how much money they would spend that day and the mode of transport they used to get there. This was all to help us in our study of tourism and coastal defence methods.

An enjoyable day was had by all.

Kelly-Anne Rainey, Pearse McAteer, Chris Ireland (MVI)

INTERNATIONAL VISITS The school hosted a number of one-day visitors in 2011/2012, beginning with three Swedish teachers in September 2011. These were teachers of English and Social Science, who visited Belfast as part of a Masters Course, undertaken through Uppsala University. They stayed with Dr Lomas for their five-day visit. They had a programme of events over the several days they were here, one of which was a day in school observing English and Social Science classes.

In late November, we hosted two student teachers from Belgium, who spent a day in school observing classes and talking to the sixth years, as part of their final year project. It is always interesting to find out about how systems work in other countries, and our pupils benefit from taking them round school and talking to them.

LOWER VI URBAN HEAT ISLAND We planned our fieldwork in the classroom a week before the trip. We set out on the morning of Monday 27th February, 2012. The weather was cold and in some locations the rain belted across our faces. Our goal was to take various readings from 12 locations all over Belfast, ranging from Carryduff (9000m from the City Hall) all the way to Roughfort (13,000m from the City Hall in the opposite direction from Carryduff).

In March we welcomed a group from the USA, who spent a morning with us, enjoying a short tour of the school, some presentations and a chance to see a class being taught. In late April we had a visit from a student in his final year at Basle University. He was principally interested in Politics and the comparative Political Systems of Europe; he enjoyed a day with the Lower VI and Middle VI Politics classes and also had the opportunity to go to Stormont.

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In June and July the school hosted 10 visits from the People to People project. This project was set up in the aftermath of World War II by the Americans, as an initiative first mooted by Roosevelt and Churchill.

Its purpose was to break down the barriers of cultural differences between the UK and USA and to foster more understanding. Young Americans have to earn a place on the project by writing essays and attending interviews.

The delegations are between 30 - 50 High School students and 4 - 6 members of staff who accompany them. They visit school for about 2 - 2.5 hours during which we have a short presentation on NI and the school in particular, enjoy refreshments with them and take them on a tour of the school. It is the one opportunity the American students have of meeting with, and talking to, young people of their own age and to see a school outside of America. The differences of uniform, timetable and even school organisation are less important than the relationships which the pupils can build in even such a short time. Many continue to communicate on Facebook and by email with those they have met on the trips.

LUNCH CLUB OUTING In June 15 pupils and 6 members of staff travelled to Lorne House in Holywood for a day of Outdoor Activities.

However, on the morning we were set to travel, Northern Ireland was suffering from monsoon rain. Everyone was going to be soaking! We were all prepared with coats and lunches; we would take the risk. Some changes had to be made to the day; instead of Bushcraft we took part in all sorts of team games, some of which still didn’t stop us getting wet INSIDE. There were some excellent bowlers and top class engineers building towers.

Once everybody had dried out from the “water” activities we travelled across the river to the High Ropes course.

Some brave souls scaled the ladders, wooden beams and ropes to reach the dizzying heights at the top. This was an even more impressive feat due to the torrential rain. The high ropes were a big challenge for some, even Mr Kelly who was adamant he wouldn’t attempt it.

Everyone conquered their fears and we were delighted to have achieved something quite terrifying.

We should like to thank Dr Lomas for coordinating the visits and for the members of staff who supervised the visits in July: Mr Buchan, Miss Craig, Mr Graham and Dr Springer.

Morgan McKeown, Kim Stewart, Emma Quinn and Bronte Reid (MVI)

We took shelter during lunch inside the lodge, where we enjoyed spoils from the shop and a delicious chocolate birthday cake. Still the rain went on and after lunch we headed back outside for some archery. We have some definite potential Archery Olympians and ParaOlympians for 2016. At the end of the day we travelled back to school exhausted after an exciting day.

WORLD KICKBOXING CHAMPIONSHIPS

Thank-you to all the pupils and staff involved, especially the instructors at Lorne who were extremely adaptable considering the weather! See you next year.

S.L.B.

Last month, I had the honour of having the chance to compete at this year’s WKA World Kickboxing Championships held in Orlando, Florida. Given it was my inaugural World Championships, it seemed a daunting and exciting prospect to be among quite literally some of the best in the world, and having the opportunity to compete against them.

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My place with the Northern Ireland team was achieved through victory at the Northern Ireland Championships held earlier this year, where I was rewarded with my sixth Gold medal in total.

Unfortunately, after a fight which I felt was in my favour throughout, the judges gave the decision to my German competitor in our quarter-final. However, having only made my return to kickboxing in October of last year, I fulfilled my personal goal of earning a place at the World Championships. Due to this, I now rank among the top seven fighters in my weight category (-60kg) in U18 at World level, something which provides me with a great sense of achievement.

Kristian Irwin (MVI)

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MALAWI In June 46 pupils, 10 staff and 2 support medical staff travelled to Mulanje Mission Station, Malawi as part of our ongoing Global Opportunities programme here at the Academy. It was another highly successful year which presented our pupils with work experience challenges mainly within medicine and teaching, but also in health care and development-related vocations.

Refurbishment service projects this year focused on the construction of new latrines at our partner primary school and surface improvements to the classrooms at the Apatsa Aids Orphanage and School.

The Malawi experience is not just about the 12 days in Africa. The team members work hard to gain a place on the team through a rigorous selection process including a scored application form, interviews as well as a presentation focusing on why they should be on the team.

Having gained a place on Malawi 2012, our young people focused their efforts on developing team spirit. Through residential weekends, food consumption and team fundraising for the various projects, a sense of identity and team spirit was born. This year, cupcake sales soared at the Academy with Mrs Morrison and Dr Currie turning our team members into mass cupcake producers!

Over £1000 was raised by simply using the talents and enthusiasm of the team.

Overall the team this year raised over £6000 for the 2012 projects in Mulanje.

‘My first day of teaching, PANIC! Literally there were tears of fear when we arrived at the primary school and I was told to scrap my lesson plan. Niall Shiels and Mr Little helped me through it and it ended up going really well - I had no reason to worry!’

Sarah McGrath ‘Tonight Nancy and David talked to us after dinner about dreams. David told us about how we can truly see our dreams and how to never let anyone else talk or put us down about them. He told us ‘No matter the matter, you matter when it matters most’, which made me realise we shouldn’t judge people, or speculate about people because everyone has their own story and everyone matters to someone.’

Hannah Allen The boys’ dormitory was abruptly woken at 6:00am by Robbie and Jamie singing an incredibly loud version of “Just the Two of Us”. This morning we woke early and travelled, as usual, on the bus, down to the primary school. Except today, we were all excited and preparing to paint four school classrooms. Everyone had been separated into five teams and assigned to a classroom each, with a colourful design plan. All except my team which, unfortunately, had drawn the short straw to whitewash the inside of the newly installed latrines. But we carried on undeterred, finished early and ended up painting height charts on the walls of each classroom.

The local teacher then came into the classroom to inspect our work, and whenever she spotted what I was doing, she was delighted to tell me about how when the doctor will come into the school, he would measure the heights of all the children, off of MY height chart. This really brightened my day, and outlined one of the reasons that I was so eager to come to Malawi in the first place.

Steven Bailie It was our last night eating at Nancy’s. We all sat out the back of her restaurant watching the sun set - it was truly an amazing scene to witness … only in Malawi.

No picture would suffice to illustrate how magical this place was. As we all watched I felt how close our team were as we all took pictures and laughed. I’m truly going to be sad when we leave in the next few days but I’ll be left with the wise words of one of the most extraordinary women I’ve ever met and one of the most hard-working, down to earth men. David and Nancy their words of Wisdom will stay with me forever “see your vision to achieve your dream”.

Meadhbh Murphy The Third day was when everything hit me I was in Africa. I stood looking out over the market, with Mt. Mulanje in the background and it was very humbling to look around at all these people getting on with their lives in a way I couldn’t dream of. I took five minutes to

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Malawi

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The Owl 2012 stand with Mr Jamison and reflect over the last couple of busy days and I realised that everything so far was what I had expected it to be and it almost felt like home.

Ellie Hudson I feel like a celebrity! Everywhere we go the children are loving it! Teaching the older pupils in the primary school today was quite daunting but so much fun!

They were really responsive and actually seemed to learn something. Oh! We also went to the woodcarvers today. Ask me do I have a drum? Yes! A hand-made Malawian drum! It’s amazing. Malawi is amazing.

Ciara Davis Today I was teaching a standard 7 maths class in Apatza with Rachael! Once finished the teacher told Mr Little that he stayed and listened to our lesson and even made notes as he wanted to use it again. Just knowing that we actually made a difference today and that we will leave that behind when we go was overwhelming.

Taylor Dougan It’s our last day in Likhubula House and everyone’s stressfully and reluctantly repacking their suitcases.

I could easily stay another month here. It’s been an amazing experience, I’m jealous of next year’s team already! They’ve so much ahead of them it’s weird to think that was me a whole year ago. I would definitely do it again if I had the chance!

Anna Rose McCambridge Katie Nixon and I were teaching at the orphanage. We prepared very well the night before. However, we were told when we got there that we would be teaching a lower level (level three) than we had prepared for, but that did not faze Katie or myself and both of us went into the classroom completely at ease and taught the class sentence structure and general verbs. It was an absolutely fantastic experience and one which I would happily do again. Katie was fantastic to teach with.

Niall Shiels I had preconceived ideas about how Africa would look.

I expected it would be dry and dusty with no greenery whatsoever, but I was quite surprised with how lush it was in some places. There were people everywhere and lots of mini-markets all selling goods and competing with one another. All the kids waved at us as we drove past. It was such different culture. It felt surreal.

Bronagh Conlon Tonight was unbelievable, inspiring is just one of the words. Went to Nancy’s restaurant and man can that woman feed you until you can’t move! I was told today that by eating in her restaurant for four days, we will pay her bills for 6 months to stay open. Anyway, after our dinner we got talking to Nancy and she told us her

story. The woman’s been through so much, running away from an abusive family, living completely alone and then meeting her husband David, going to business school, opening Likhubula House, opening her restaurant. She’s a remarkable woman, words cannot describe. It was David though (her husband) who had everyone on the edge of their seats, everyone needs this man as their alarm clock. To get up every morning and to hear him telling you to achieve your dreams would make you leap out of bed, I swear. He basically retold Nancy’s story and how they got through it together and how everyone needs to believe in themselves, because everyone has a purpose and …oh my I couldn’t cope!

One of his sayings was the cutest thing I’ve heard in my life, “No matter the matter you matter when it matters most.” They’re both saints, and I truly hope that one day I can go back and visit them.

Laura Bannon The first day of teaching, what an experience! I could feel the butterflies in my stomach as Mannix and I approached the standard 7 room, where we knew eighty pupils were awaiting us. Instantaneously all nerves fled as we walked in through the door. All the kids stood up and shouted ‘Teach us, teach us!’ It really hit me how eager they were to learn. Their enthusiasm in answering questions and volunteering was overwhelming. Once the lesson was over we were amazed to see our names carved into some of their desks. I’ll never forget the whole Malawian experience.

Hannah McKinstry Teams are doing so well. Tough journey this year, but somehow these guys can laugh it all away and get on with it. It’s such a thing to have this many young people out here from the Academy - brilliant to see both teams all together today having lunch at the mission station our school in Africa! We’ve come a long way! I hope it makes a lasting difference to them, that they “get” why we’re here, not just another school trip but more like a time to put in place life markers for their journey ahead.

After painting the Aids orphanage on Saturday, they felt compelled to collect money to sponsor a kid for a year… they might just have found the spirit in this project. The staff have been amazing - V. Heaslip, R. Jamison, L. Paterson, S. Spinger and N. (our Matron) along with R. Morrison, F. Gilmore, C. Little, E. Burch and M. Bill.

The entertainment skills of Robbie Creighton and Jamie Jamison are almost professional! Nice when pupils and staff can get to learn beyond the classroom. Then there is Albert, Mr Creighton, driving around in his jeep looking busy…he actually is! I challenge anyone to try to keep up with him! Hope we get home safe and hope this all makes a difference in our homes and in school. Suppose that’s up to the team now, time for them to remember Malawi in their own lives.

A.B.

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Malawi

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As a team we would like to take this opportunity to say thank you to all those who supported our work in Malawi and without your help, Malawi 2012 would simply not have happened. The staff would like to say thank you to the team this year for making it an incredible year - you are brilliant young people and remember you have so much potential to make a lasting difference to the communities and lives of those around you. Remember, geckos are your friend! Thank you to the staff who led the teams this year, V. Heaslip and R. Morrison, and in particular our medics for giving up their time during the year. Finally, we would like to say a massive thank you to Mrs Vera Heaslip who has moved on from the Academy to be involved with other wonderful things. Vera, your contributions to the Malawi experience have been strategic and essential in allowing the project to not only be successful, but meaningful and sustainable. You are missed and it is our hope that our paths cross often and soon...Blantyre airport maybe!

Bring on 2013!

A.B. / C.P.L. Global Opportunities, Malawi.

MATHS TEAMS Individual Competitions: There was continued success in the UKMT Maths Challenges including qualification for the next round at Junior, Intermediate and Senior level for Daniel Quigley (FI), Ruairi Hurson (FIV) and Tom Hanna (LVI). Pupils in the three categories achieved the following certificates:

Junior: 11 Gold, 6 Silver and 20 Bronze; Intermediate: 3 Gold, 14 Silver and 19 Bronze;

Senior: 2 Gold, 7 Silver and 15 Bronze.

S.C.S.

Senior Teams: Last year, Belfast Royal Academy entered a team for the UKMT Senior Team Maths Challenge for the first time. The team consisted of Ridwan Farouki (MVI), John McBride (MVI), Tom Hannah (LVI) and Chris Turnbull (V). Given this was the school’s first ever competition of this sort, they achieved a very creditable second place, merely one mark behind the winning team, putting our school in a very strong position for next year. The competition required teamwork and timed activities.

Additionally there was a similar Maths competition at Queen’s University. There was an age limit in this competition, no one older than LVI could enter, so the team of four was slightly different, with Jordan Shaw (LVI) and Ben Campbell (V) replacing the MVI pupils.

Since this was their first year of this quiz, they had no idea of the format. Despite this, Belfast Royal Academy finished a fantastic first place out of the twenty eight competing teams, winning money for the school and HD video cameras for the team.

Both competitions will be entered again later this year, and we have high expectations for further success.

Tom Hanna (MVI) and Chris Turnbull (LVI) Junior Team: The Junior team this year for the UKMT Junior Team Challenge consisted of Hollie McCalmont (FIII), Mimi Joffroy (FIII), Andrew Milligan (FII) and Richard Ware (FII). This was our second year taking part and we made a real improvement on last year’s result to finish a very creditable fourth in Northern Ireland. The competition consisted of group work and timed challenges against other schools as well as a relay race at the end between all of the schools. We had a great time and look forward to taking part in further Maths Activities.

Hollie McCalmont (IV)

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FORM II PARIS TRIP Easter 2012 All my packing is done for my first BRA school trip.

My destination is Paris, which, according to Google, should be warm and dry when our Easyjet plane touches down in Charles de Gaulle Airport. Suntan lotion!!!

I think that is packed somewhere in my well- stuffed suitcase. I have never been so excited, with butterflies in my tummy as mum drives me to Belfast International Airport for the 11.30 departure. She tried to tell me about her trip to Paris when she was at school, but it all fell on deaf ears as my mind was elsewhere.

We soon arrived at the airport terminal. I said my goodbyes and ran into the airport building to be greeted

by Mr Carolan. He had the cheesiest smile ever and cracked many hilarious jokes. We all chatted excitedly about what lay in store for us over the next few days.

Bags down the chute it was time for a quick run round the shops in the International lounge before boarding our plane, EZY6723. Before we knew it, we had taken off and landed again, safely, at our destination - wonderful Paris. We collected our bags and had our first “Groups” gathering. Our group leader, who we got to know very well, was Dr. Springer.

We exited the airport into a glorious 28 degrees centigrade with a beautiful blue sky above us, and boarded our coach for our journey into central Paris.

This was to be the first of many encounters with the “Flunch” (four nights in all!) in which many a tasty meal was devoured. The food was amazing! Here we had our first opportunity to dazzle the locals with our fluency in their language; well, at least we tried!

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After we had eaten to excess, we boarded the coach again and drove towards the Disneyland Paris Resort to find our hotel. The Hotel Kyriad was our final destination, and very soft, comfortable beds awaited us. Our room was fantastic, with a massive balcony and a great view. Tea and coffee making facilities were available on the table for all four of us. This perfectly complemented the vast amount of “nibbles” that we had all brought to share. After this feast, we settled down to relax and chat in our temporary home.

On our first morning in France, we dragged ourselves out of bed at about 7.30 and headed downstairs for breakfast.

Well, really just lots of chocolate croissants! On the coach at 9.00 am sat 44 pupils and five teachers, and we were off to our first destination of the day: Versailles Palace and Gardens. After about an hour, we arrived at the magnificent golden gates and peered through them at the fairytale palace. After a bit of a queue, we entered the palace, viewed the grand interior and exited through the rear into the beautiful gardens. This was the most

scenic view of the whole trip; the day was perfect - sun and no clouds. After the palace and gardens, we were given our first bit of free time to do a bit of shopping with our friends at the nearby massive shopping centre.

A romantic boat trip along the Seine finished off our perfect day. Oops, forgot about “Flunch”. The day really did end on a high note. Then back to our hotel for some snacks, chatting, bed and an end to day two.

Day three! After another yummy, unhealthy breakfast, our destination was the Louvre Museum and its world famous resident, Mona Lisa. Not a happy chappy; probably peeled a few onions before she posed!!!

After this we all strolled through the beautiful Tuileries Gardens and saw Concorde Square. Lunch today was on the Champs Elysees, with more free time to shop.

When everyone met up again, we were told that we were going to see the Arc de Triomphe, which is one of the most famous monuments in Paris. Most of us climbed the seemingly endless steps to the top to see the spectacular view of the whole of Paris. What a piece of history! After “Flunch” we returned to our hotel and fell exhausted into our cosy beds.

Day four! We experienced great difficulty getting up this morning, as we had done a lot of gossiping into the wee small hours; typical girls’ stuff. More chocolate croissants and we were off to the waiting coach to continue our sightseeing in Paris. First on the agenda for the day was to be the Gothic cathedral called Notre Dame, which is built on an island - Ile de la Cite. We took lots of photos on our walk along the River Seine to the cathedral. Because we visited on Sunday, many worshippers were there to sing hymns and to pray.

We looked everywhere for the Hunchback, but gave up, and our group went for French kebabs in the Latin Quarter. Most of us decided it would be a good idea to buy “I Love Paris” T-shirts while we were here. Next on the agenda was the Sacre-Coeur Basilica, which was found at the highest point in the city. From there to Artists’ Square, where some people had their portraits painted. Sore legs and back to “Flunch” for a well-

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deserved feast, drink and seat. After this, we returned to the coach for the drive back to the hotel.

Day five! What we had been waiting for all week, month and year….DISNEYLAND! We talked about this every day when at “Flunch”, and today was the day. No lying in bed for another ten minutes today: up early, showered, breakfast and out the front door. Our mission was to find shuttle bus number 76, which came along every 15 minutes. Here we go; almost 8 hours of bliss to see the sights and to go on whatever rides we want - all of them I think! Space Mountain was by far my favourite, and even some of the braver teachers checked it out. After 8 hours of non-stop fun, we all went to the famous Planet Hollywood restaurant for a fabulous meal. Then we drifted back to our nearby hotel for the last time. Our last night started with packing our cases – how did we get all this stuff in here in the first place? After a lot of squeezing and pushing, the cases were shut and our room looked almost tidy again as we settled down to our last sleep in the Hotel Kyriad.

Day six! Cases loaded, we boarded the coach and travelled to see the tomb of the Emperor Napolean.

The tomb was huge, red in colour and set on a base of green granite. The tomb has been inside the museum, Les Invalides, since 1840 when Napoleon’s body was returned to France. Before saying goodbye to Paris, we stopped at the Trocadero to take our last pictures of Paris and the Eiffel Tower.

From sunny Paris we travelled by our coach to Charles de Gaulle Airport for our flight home to the slightly cooler temperatures of Belfast International Airport.

After collecting our luggage and going through custom control, we met our families who were dressed in winter clothes. I was soon to discover why: the temperature outside was 1 degree - not a day for shorts. It was even snowing. Luckily my mum knows me better than I know myself, and came prepared with a warm coat.

Sarah Lewis (II)

look even more so. Entertainment provided outside the church came in the form of an athletic gentleman who was skilfully juggling a football.

The Champs Elysees was a massive shopping street filled with huge crowds. As we walked up and down we were bedazzled by the extremely expensive shops which included Dolce and Gabanna, Prada, Luis Vuitton and Guess - a shopper’s paradise!

Notre Dame, the very famous cathedral, was eerie as we had to be so quiet. Throughout the cathedral it was possible to light candles, perhaps in memory of someone or in prayer or to confess. It is a Gothic building, with gargoyles on the turrets surrounding it.

There were also stories from the Bible engraved on the stone, and outside there was a square in which there was a metal plaque marking the precise centre of Paris.

A particular memory was circling the Arc de Triomphe on our coach in one of the eight lanes which surrounded it. The traffic around the Arc was terrible. Mr Porter told us that French people are used to driving in bad traffic.

However, we had never seen anything like it. Scary stuff!

The Palace of Versailles was a very beautiful building.

It was huge and covered in gold. The gates surrounding it were also decorated with gold paint. Once we got into the building it was as if we had found all the gold in the world! It really was a palace fit for a king! Inside was an art collection of over 500 paintings, each telling a different story. There were also a few modern day works of art including giant silver high heels and a pink, fluffy helicopter.

One of the first places we visited was the Louvre, the famous art gallery situated on the River Seine. It had thousands of paintings, but we only wanted to see one the Mona Lisa. We assumed the Mona Lisa would be a big painting, but when we actually saw it we were a bit disappointed because it was quite small.

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FORM II PARIS TRIP Summer 2012 On Wednesday, 20th June, 44 second year students travelled from Belfast International to Charles de Gaulle International Airport, Paris. For us, we were going on a big adventure, but the French people didn’t have a clue what was coming!

Whilst in Paris, we saw all the big tourist destinations such as the Eiffel Tower, with its hundreds of steps and spectacular views of Paris, and Montmartre, or “the church on the hill”. It was a very pretty church and the sun shining on the light-coloured brick made it

All of that education was far too much for us. So on the Sunday we decided to let our hair down in Disneyland, Paris. We were let loose for at least five hours to go on as many rides as we wanted to. The best ride had to be “Space Mountain” which I went on three times! We did try the more gentle rides too, but disappointingly, none of the well known Disney characters were out and about as it was raining.

This was definitely a great trip, and I would encourage future second formers to go if possible. I would like to thank all the teachers who accompanied us for looking after us and putting up with us. We’re very grateful.

Merci beaucoup!

Naomi Martin (II)

Miscellany

PRIMARY SCHOOL EXPERIENCE PROGRAMME The popularity of the Primary School Experience Programme continued this year, with around forty Sixth Form pupils, mainly from LVI, attending a primary school once per week for classroom experience.

Fourteen different primary schools were involved, from the local area as well as the Shankill and Shore Road areas. The pupils derived much benefit from their participation, developing many valuable transferable skills, and they were excellent ambassadors for the school.

C.N.S.

After Christmas I moved to P4 as the P6 class went swimming that term. There I saw that the teacher used the interactive whiteboards more often and taught using the online activities on education websites. I was given the opportunity to use the interactive whiteboard to work with the children and they found it fun.

These visits motivated me to spend my work experience at Hill Croft in Newtownabbey, a special educational needs school, where I could put everything I had learned at Edenbrooke to good use. I really enjoyed my time at Edenbrooke and would recommend the programme to everyone. I intend to participate again next year as it is a great learning experience for anyone intending to work in education.

Rachel Ireland (LVI)

PRIMARY SCHOOL EXPERIENCE 142

Starting from October 2011 a number of LVI and MVI students, including myself, were given the opportunity to volunteer for career experience in a local Primary school. Many schools were visited, such as Edenbrooke Primary, Ben Madigan and Cliftonville Primary.

Pupils either made their own way to the school or were transported by school minibus. During these visits pupils were able to view daily classroom life in a Primary school and acted as assistants when needed.

I went to Edenbrooke Primary School and helped out in two classes. For the first term I helped the P6 class with their work on the Vikings, Remembrance Day and Maths. I helped the children with their Maths classwork and had to take a small group when they were doing their Art project for Remembrance Day.

READING GROUP Throughout my last year at school, Reading Group offered a relaxed and open environment in which I enjoyed discussing a wide range of literature with both my peers and my teachers. Despite A-level Literature (occasionally) making me want to tug my hair out through stress, the club reminded me that books were something to be enjoyed. It exposed me to many texts I would not otherwise have read, from the more highbrow poetry of Edgar Allen Poe to guilty pleasures, such as the contemporary teen fiction trilogy The Hunger Games. The former now ranks among my favourite poets and the latter served as a pleasant distraction for my friends and I during study leave.

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We began our trip with a walking tour of the main tourist attractions in the city, seeing sights such as the Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain, Colonna di Marco Aurelio, the Pantheon, the Fontanna dei Quattro and the Basilica di San Giovanni (Rome’s first Christian church). Our sore feet were eased only by the ice cream that we enjoyed at the end.

These two polar examples serve to illustrate the allencompassing nature of the Reading Group, which is open to all students in Lower and Middle VI, regardless of whether or not they study English for A-level. It is far from the analytical approach which takes place in the classroom, and instead provides an enjoyable and down to earth meeting of minds about all there is to love about books, as well as an oasis of tranquillity, tea and biscuits amidst the hectic pace of sixth year life.

Having gone on to study an Arts course at University, which takes into account a broad range of subject matter, I feel that my exposure to material that I personally may not have selected has been invaluable to me. For this reason, as well as the fun, chat and occasional debate we had under Ms Graham’s leadership, I would recommend joining Reading Group to every pupil, regardless of whether you consume Shakespeare for breakfast, aspire to be the next J.K. Rowling, or are just partial to a bit of One Day while lying on your sun lounger.

Grace Kenny (MVI)

RECYCLING A total of 8,860 kg of cardboard and paper was recycled during the academic year 2011 - 2012. Mark Johnston, Ali Sha’ath and Samuel Baxter of Form V continued to supervise the recycling programme. During their GCSE study leave, the task was undertaken by David Anderson, Callum Dalzell and Harry Brewster of Form III. It is good to have a team of dependable pupils who are willing to take charge of recycling on behalf of the school.

N.E.M.

ROMA The trip to Rome this year was for five days, and even in those five days it was impossible to see and experience all that the city offers.

The trip to the Colosseum and Roman Forum was as stunning as ever. There we soaked up the atmosphere of these ancient sites and finished our visit with the now customary open air debate at the Arch of Constantine.

Results of the debate can be seen on Mr Jamison’s DVD. Our final two days were spent at the ancient Catacombs di San Sebastiano and in the Vatican City. In the catacombs we saw the site where Peter and Paul’s remains were allegedly hidden and in the Vatican we had the opportunity to visit the Sistine Chapel. The trip to the Vatican was rounded off with a visit to the stunning St Peter’s Basilica.

Roma 2011 was not just about visiting ancient monuments, the group had the opportunity to shop and enjoy the al fresco cafe culture that Rome offers. We had dinner outside the Pantheon, Pizza in the Piazza Navona and we rounded off our trip with a meal at the Hard Rock Café.

Thanks to Mrs Healsip for her ‘Tour Guiding’ and her invaluable help with the organisation. Thanks also to Mrs Magowan, Mr Jamison and Mr John Heaslip for giving up their time and agreeing to come on the trip.

P.D.

ROCK CHALLENGE This year Belfast Royal Academy competed in the Rock Challenge UK competition for the first time. Rock Challenge is an annual dance/drama competition run by the ‘Be Your Best Foundation’, a charity set up to encourage “young people to lead healthy lifestyles and to be their best without the need for tobacco, alcohol or other drugs.”

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In June 2011 two Lower VI pupils recommended the competition to Dr Scully who showed a keen interest in the anti-drug message and, as many pupils expressed an interest in dance, it was decided that a team should be entered into the 2012 regional heats. With the help of several Middle VI pupils, Miss Craig took over the organisation of the team in September.

“BRA’s Got Talent” started the year with a number of promising hopefuls auditioning, and after a difficult selection process, we had three day’s worth of showstopping performances in a filled assembly hall. All shows were enjoyed by those who attended and credit is due to all who helped with organisation before and during the event.

Rock Challenge proved to be a huge undertaking and there was much to be organised; it was a difficult year, trying to bring together all of the production elements.

Mr Jamison organised copyright licences for the music and put together the lighting for the show. Dr Lomas and Chloe Craig made all of the costumes for the dancers; Mrs Burch rallied the hair and make-up stylists; Miss Tinman put together a fantastic stage crew; Laura Atkins spent long hours, along with several student helpers, painting our set and Miss Craig arranged for a choreographer to come into school to assist with the dance.

The annual non-uniform day, in aid of Save the Children gave pupils a chance to express their individuality by donating £2 in order to come to school in their ‘normal’ clothes. The welcome break from uniforms was a great success and a fun way to involve the whole school in contributing to a worthwhile cause.

Eventually, after several weeks of panicking and manic rehearsals, everything came together and on Thursday 19th April 35 girls made their way to the Waterfront Hall for the competition. The dancers were accompanied by the hair and make-up team and stage crew, which brought the total numbers to 50.

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The team competed against Hazelwood Integrated College, Little Flower and Ballee Community High School. Ashfield Girls’ School also show-cased at the event. The whole crew put on a spectacular show on the night and received three awards: Drama Skills, Hair Design and Concept Interpretation, and were placed third overall. We are already preparing for next year when we plan to make it all the way to the final!

L.E.C.

SAVE THE CHILDREN Save the Children at Belfast Royal Academy continues to grow from strength to strength with a variety of fundraising events running throughout the year.

Next came the Save the Children barbecue at the school’s annual sponsored walk. Manning the three grills were Dr Bell, Dr Springer and a few ‘willing’ volunteers, with others on hand to temperature check and serve the burgers to the extremely long queues.

After two hours of constant smoke-in-the-eyes, a few fallen/burnt casualties and lots of ‘Are they ready yet?’ we sold out - 400 burgers in record time.

A new event to raise money this year was our relay team which ran in the Belfast Marathon. Matthew Donnelly, Seana Harley-Moyes, Mark Kerr, Dr Bell and Dr Springer (who went on to complete the marathon) all ran through very wet conditions to complete the course in an impressive 3 hours and 59 minutes. We hope this will be continued next year with Dr Springer improving his time!

After another successful year, the committee has raised £5000 for the charity through events enjoyed thoroughly by all. We would like to thank Mrs McIntyre, Dr Bell and Dr Springer for their continued support and contribution, as well as making the committee a very worthwhile and enjoyable experience for all involved.

Save the Children Committee

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SCHOOL COUNCIL The School Council for 2011/2012 met on four occasions (once in the first term, twice in the second, and once in the third) to discuss various issues brought to us by the Pupil Council. The Pupil Council is made up of an elected boy and girl representative from each Tutor Group. This body then elects one boy and girl from each Form to sit on the School Council along with the Head Boy (Secretary), Head Girl (Vice-Chair) and a Senior member of staff (Chair). Dr B Lomas took the responsibility of overseeing the Pupil Council and Ms W Graham chaired the School Council and I would like to take this opportunity to thank them both for all their hard work and dedication this year.

Throughout the academic year we discussed issues such as lunchtime arrangements, bus timetables and safety, uniform (including the wearing of nail polish, makeup, cardigans and earrings), the Jackson and Bruce toilets (concerning toilet roll dispensers, facilities and the installation of a water fountain), lockers, bike racks, the football club, the one-way system, library opening hours, homework and revision classes, year group photographs, price and variety of canteen food, and the use of the Louis Lord playground. Many of these issues saw positive results thanks to regular meetings organised by members of the School Council with members of staff, both teaching and non-teaching.

Again I would like to thank the various members of the Academy staff who met with the councillors for giving freely of their time and for listening to our concerns, complaints and proposals.

Several of the actions undertaken by the School Council will hopefully be in evidence in the near future: • Concerning the issue of wearing Canterbury tracksuit bottoms instead of Kukri bottoms, Mr McGonigle agreed to involve the School Council in the decision - making process when he is next negotiating a deal with a company to supply sportswear; • The School Council will have the opportunity in September to put in a bid for a particular charity to be supported through one of the weekly school charity collections. Other funds raised by the School and Pupil Councils and not deployed for school matters will also be given to the chosen charity. In this way the wishes of the entire student body may be represented; • One of the recurring requests throughout the year was for more picnic tables, bins and benches. As this was an issue of financial cost, the School Council made a request to the Bursar for additional

funding and agreed to share some of the cost through fund-raising activities planned for 201213.

I feel very fortunate to have been a part of the School Council this year, as we took it into our own hands to find solutions to problems that directly affect us, the pupils. The School Council is a most effective way for the students to put across ideas and requests and to make their voices heard.

Judith Bingham (Head Girl) Academy Pupil Councillors at Stormont On Tuesday 6th March three representatives - Naomi Newton, Ruairi Hurston and Patrick McGeogh - from our School/Pupil Councils were invited to attend a Focus Group meeting at Stormont.

We met with representatives from the Education Committee and with pupil councillors from two other schools. These schools also had three pupil representatives each. We were seated around a large centre table and the chairwoman explained the purpose of the meeting and began by asking various questions about our experiences of School and Pupil Council.

After the questions, we were asked to take part in two further activities. For the first of these each school group was given an A3 page with the numbers one to ten on it and ten smaller pages with words such as “uniform” and “behaviour” written on them; we were asked to place in order each page where we felt we had influence - one being the least influence and ten the most. After completing this, we compared the differences between each school’s choices and the pages were taken away with our choices still where we put them. Each school was then given another A3 page which was divided into two columns labelled “better” and “worse”. The chairwoman then read out a list of other schools’ alternatives to having a School Council, including a proposal such as a suggestion box, and we had to write down our opinion of such alternatives in whatever column (better/worse) we felt appropriate.

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This activity was followed by some further discussion and the conclusion was drawn that School Councils are the best option for giving pupils a voice. Again this page was collected in and we were thanked for attending and provided with a free lunch, the highlight of the day according to Patrick!

As a follow up to this, we have been invited back to hear the outcome of our focus group discussion in a formal debate at Stormont later this year.

I would like to thank Dr Lomas for being our chaperone for the day. I was very pleased to represent the Academy on this occasion and I am grateful to Ms Graham and Dr Lomas for giving me this opportunity.

Naomi Newton (II)

SCHOOL LIBRARY Pupils attended in large numbers to read, borrow, research, use computers and to socialise. Most days there were around 90 pupils using the Library at break and lunch. Each week a minimum of 15 periods were timetabled for Form I and Form II English classes.

Many pupils offered up their time to help out in the Library. Several of these pupils were appointed as Library Assistants and became proficient in using the Library Cataloguing system and in their understanding of the Dewey Decimal System. An impressive number of pupils were awarded with Librarian badges.

• Motivate pupils of all ages and abilities to read more and better books; • Diagnose problems and direct ongoing practice; • Raise literacy standards amongst all pupils from Form I; • Develop a life-long love of reading in pupils.

LIBRARY EVENTS • Junior pupils attended a visit by Author Colin Bateman in the School Library; • Two Scholastic Book Fairs were held throughout the year. Over £700 in free books were raised for KS3 pupils; • A team from Form I took part in the Regional Lit. Quiz hosted by Wellington College. The team performed well and won books at the Quiz; • World Book Day: Tokens given to every pupil at BRA; • Two former pupils - Scott Jamison and Stephen Connolly gave a reading of their poetry on World Book Day 2012. A book swap and book review competition were also held on World Book Day. The winners of the competition were Zuzanna Loboda, Lucy Gaston and Patrick Donnelly.

Each pupil won gift vouchers to spend at the School Book Fair; • The School Library hosted a Belfast City Council Titanic Exhibition to mark the Centenary of the Titanic disaster.

E.M. / T.C.

SENTINUS STEM ROBOTICS ROADSHOW

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COURSES ATTENDED The Librarian attended Podcast training throughout the year alongside Librarians from other Northern Ireland schools. This training was aimed at promoting reading and information literacy in the School Library.

The Librarian also attended Accelerated Reader training. This scheme is being implemented into the School Library for the 2012/2013 academic year. This scheme aims to:

Six weeks before the Curiosity Mars Rover made its first journey on the Martian surface, sixty of our pupils engaged in The Sentinus STEM Robotics Challenge - to navigate their Mars robot across the dangerous terrain of the Assembly Hall. Assisted by a team of ten Form IV mentors, the Form II pupils had a crash course in programming the ‘bots before setting about completing the course. Sentinus presenter James Connor led the event which proved to be both an educational and enjoyable way to spend the penultimate day of the summer term.

N.E.M.

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THE STEM MODULE AT BELFAST ROYAL ACADEMY During the last week of the summer term, Form III Technology pupils spent a day on board the STEM Module. This £1.2M mobile lab is managed as a regional facility by the North Eastern Education and Library Board and travels across the North of Ireland to provide state-of-the-art facilities for schools to help promote STEM subjects, (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) and encourage young people to get involved in STEM at an early age.

The pupils used the Computer Aided Design and Computer Aided Facilities on the module to design and manufacture a nameplate in a single session.

N.E.M.

FIFTH SPANISH EXCHANGE WITH IES JUAN DE VILLANUEVA ASTURIAS ‘Has everyone got their passport?’ Mrs Roberts asked the BRA Exchange group at 5am at Belfast International airport. 11 pupils answered ‘Yes’ but one (who shall remain nameless) asked ‘Do we need our passports?’

Panic, in fact, total panic ensued as frantic phone calls were made to mobiles and to homes. With seconds to spare, mum arrived with the missing passport and the group set off in high spirits to the sunny climes of Asturias with Mrs Roberts and Mr and Mrs Mc Camley in tow!

This was our return leg after hosting 15 Spanish students and their 2 teachers, Dioni and Elena, earlier in the month. The Spanish group enjoyed their stay in Belfast and were able to take part in activities both in and out of school. The experience for both Spanish and BRA pupils is immensely enriching from both cultural and linguistic aspects. I asked both Spanish and BRA pupils to recount their experiences and below are listed some samples of their thoughts of the Exchange: ‘From my point of view our experience in Northern Ireland couldn’t have been better and the only difficulty was saying goodbye. Thanks to the family, I have learnt a lot about Irish culture. They showed me the most important landmarks in Belfast and told me about the traditions of Ireland and I sampled typical food. We had the chance to visit interesting places, such as the amazing “Giant’s Causeway ” and the Titanic museum.

In the evenings our Irish friends always had plenty of activities planned for us. We experienced a different school system and a different way of life, but the most important part was we met amazing people that opened up their houses to us. I’ll never forget this week!

Sandra Antuña Villa, 1 Bachillerato

In September 2012, our fifth Exchange visit to Belfast Royal Academy took place. Fifteen of us came accompanied by our two teachers, Elena and Dioni.

There, we had memorable visits to Giant´s Causeway, Stormont… and we also went to Dublin.

The families took care of us as if we were their own children. It was a great opportunity to improve our English and we experienced Irish culture first hand. We attended some classes at BRA, even one or two Spanish lessons. It was very interesting!

I didn´t think that two weeks was enough time in order to make such good friends. I really hope we keep in touch with all of our Irish partners.

Taking part in the exchange was one of the best things I’ve ever done. If you are given the chance to do it, don´t think twice, because it is really worth it!

Julia Pérez, 1 Bachillerato The Exchange school is called IES Escultor Juan de Villanueva in the small Asturian town of Pola De Siero.

It has approximately 700 students and 70 teachers. There is a main building in which there are 50 classrooms.

Also there are two other buildings. One of these is a sports hall for P.E. and the other is for students who don’t follow the Bachillerato (A Level) and it is like our Technical colleges. They have break after 3 classes at 11.15 with each class lasting 55 minutes. The Spanish students go home for lunch, so school finishes at 2:30.

In Bachillerato they have to study more subjects than us, approximately 8 subjects. If you fail more than 2 examinations, you have to repeat the whole year again until you achieve the necessary passes. It is an interesting system and it certainly makes you study hard.

Charlotte Noble/Alexandra McGovern Spanish is the main language spoken in Spain, but there are many different dialects. In Asturias they speak Spanish in the ‘Bable’ dialect. There are also other languages spoken in Spain: Catalan, Gallego and Vasco. The pronunciation is different in each region, for example, here instead of ‘h’ they say ‘f’ and in the south Spain instead of ‘s’they say ‘c’, and so we had to adapt very quickly. We also learnt colloquial Asturian phrases such as: ‘estoy fartuca’(I´m full), ‘tengo fame’ (I’m hungry), ‘fae cutu’ ( It’s cold). However, these phrases wouldn’t be understood in other parts of Spain.

Our stay with a Spanish family exposed us to the culture of Asturias and allowed us to develop our language and knowledge of their lifestyles in the north of Spain.

Emma Kelso /Elizabeth Sinclair Asturias borders with the “Mar Cantábrico” in the North, the Cantabrian Mountain Range or “Picos de Europa” in the South, Galicia in the West and Cantabria in the East. Asturias is one of the smallest

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Asturias to Belfast

Belfast to Asturias

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regions of Spain but also, undoubtedly, one of the most beautiful. The landscape is very mountainous and the green surroundings resemble those of Ireland due to the rainfall. An unusual feature of the mountains are their steep slopes into the sea. One of our excursions was a trip to Covadonga and the mountain lakes. The views are magnificent and the hairpin bends scary!

Katie Watt/Eilis O´Loan In each region of Spain there are different specialities of food. For example, Valencian Paella, Andalucian Gazpacho and Galician Octopus. In Asturias we tried some of the most popular local dishes, for example, `Fabada´ (A spicy bean stew with chorizo and pork) and also `Tortos de maiz con huevos y picadillo´ (Maize tarts with eggs and spicy meat). We also tried some typical Asturian desserts, such as, Casadielles and Carbayones.

In addition, the most popular drink in Asturias is the local cider and we had the opportunity to visit the cider museum in Nava which we found very interesting. If you go to an area like Asturias, you must sample the local food and drink. It is very hearty food but so delicious!

Ben McConnell/Ruth McConnell Asturias is known for its traditional music which is characterized by the use of drums, bagpipes and tambourines. Sometimes with a fast rhythm called ¨sota¨ and other times with a slow rhythm. There are three different types of costumes from different parts of Asturias. In the west of Asturias the dress is very elaborate and has a lot of accessories. In the central region, it is characterised by being simpler whilst the Eastern costume is distinguished by being very plain and dark. The most common costume is made up of a sash, a cap, sandals and “madreñas” (clogs). The madreñas are typically made of oak or chestnut and are worn over slippers to keep your feet warm and dry. Another typical clothing item of Asturias is the ¨Boina¨, a round, black hat which is traditionally worn by men to stay dry.

Nowadays, the madreñas are worn for gardening and the Boina is only worn by elderly people.

Nicole Moody/Oriana Firgau El Camino de Santiago is the pilgrimage route to the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Galicia in North Western Spain, where tradition has it that the remains of the Apostle Saint James are buried. This pilgrimage has lasted for over one thousand years, and it was one of the most important pilgrimages during Medieval times. Today, tens of thousands of pilgrims from all denominations set out each year from different starting points across Europe to make their way to Santiago de Compostela.

This pilgrimage is not only a physical challenge, but a mental one.

There are many ways to take part in the Camino de Santiago and there is an excellent route through Asturias. Whilst in Pola de Siero, we visited a hostel for the pilgrims. There are many hostels in the North of Spain, which house the pilgrims as they make their way along the challenging route.

The visit was very interesting and it would certainly inspire us to walk the ‘Camino one day!’

Scott McMurtry/Sarah Minford We are deeply grateful for the opportunity to visit the Exchange school and for the wonderful hospitality we received. We hope that, through our new friendships, we can return the hospitality when you visit our country. ¡Viva Asturias! ¡Viva España!

Mr Mc Camley The Spanish Exchange to Asturias was an invaluable experience which heightened the understanding of the language as well as providing awareness of another culture and building confidence. It gave pupils the opportunity to make new friends and be involved in an unforgettable and rewarding experience. The Exchange programme has become an integral part of Spanish department with many of our pupils repeating this experience yearly. I encourage those pupils who have not yet tried the Exchange to sign up next year. You will not be disappointed! Finally, I wish to thank all pupils for their participation and Mr and Mrs Mc Camley for their encouragement and support during the trip.

S. Roberts (Spanish Dept.)

S.R.

SPEECH AND DRAMA CLUB This year members of the Speech and Drama club entered a number of competitions with some very pleasing performances.

In October, Jessica McVeigh (Form II) and Claire Hughes (Form V) entered the ‘BBC Off By Heart Shakespeare’ competition, for which they learned a famous Shakespearean monologue and performed it in front of three judges. Unfortunately, the girls did not progress to the next stage, but they got the opportunity to participate in professional acting workshops which focused on Shakespeare’s work.

Sarah Minford (Form V) and Emma Quinn (Form LVI) took part in the Soroptimist NI Public Speaking competition in November. They spoke on women’s rights and the issue of rising tuition fees. They placed second and fourth respectively and were commended for the delivery and the content of their speeches.

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Daniel Davison (From II) participated in the Environmental Youth Speak Competition. He spoke on the issue of waste electronic and electrical equipment and how we can prevent the problems caused by this waste.

He competed against two pupils from St Malachy’s and was placed second in the Senior category.

All of the pupils were a credit to Belfast Royal Academy and are already looking forward to representing the school in next year’s competitions.

L.E.C.

SPONSORED WALK The 39th sponsored walk took place on the 15th April 2011; the good weather meant that the long course was in use again this year.

Over 900 participants walked, ran or sprinted around the course. The ‘Save the Children’ Committee provided a BBQ, the Rugby Club organised a tuck shop and the Hockey Club ran a cupcake stand.

This year the walk had a new and safer section added to the top of the course: ‘McCoy’s Mile’. The sign-in procedures were moved to the entrance of the castle and the huge marquee, similar to last year, was placed on the pitch at Ben Madigan where Mr Jamison acted as an MC / DJ and the Rugby Club organised an ice cream van.

The Sixth Form blazed the trail, closely followed by Forms I and II. The good weather and atmosphere at the Castle grounds created a wonderful environment for the ‘whole school’ to congregate, play and enjoy the atmosphere of the day. The event passed smoothly without any major mishaps, and all staff members dutifully operated their stations on the course and around the Castle grounds.

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Next year is the 40th Anniversary of the walk and we hope to celebrate this by bringing back as many members of staff who have helped over the years to make it the successful event that it is today. We will

set ourselves an aspirational charitable target and I hope the pupils rise to the challenge in light of such an important anniversary.

Thanks should be extended to all staff who gave of their time and to Ben Madigan for permission to use their grounds.

P.D.

SKI TRIP This year’s ski trip took place in the beautiful mountains of Passo del Tonale, Italy. Approximately 70 pupils, accompanied by eight teachers, braved the elements and took on the slopes. Over the six days skiers of every ability were able to participate in professional lessons from the resort’s ski instructors. By the end of the week we could say “good-bye” to snowploughs and “hello” to parallel turns.

As the sun went down and the ski boots came off, the pupils took part in various activities arranged by the teachers. Bingo, quiz night, karaoke and a disco were among the most enjoyable. The time spent in Passo del Tonale saw new friendships made, practical jokes go awry and some very dodgy dancing. The pupils would like to thank Mr. Nash for organising an outstanding ski trip. It was one filled with good fun and good memories, memories that will last a lifetime. Without him this experience would not have been possible.

Rachael Elmore, Seana Harley-Moyles and Sarah McGrath (MVI)

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SWEDISH EXCHANGE 2011/2012 was the year in which we welcomed, in November, a visiting group of students from Fyrisskolan Upper Secondary school in Uppsala and returned the visit in February 2012.

The continuation of a long-standing exchange programme with Sweden opens up opportunities to many of our pupils, both for those who have the opportunity to host a Swedish student, and for those who then get to visit Sweden and be hosted in return. However, it offers other opportunities for our pupils who cannot do either; many Senior pupils were actively involved with the visiting students when they were with us, attending Stormont, touring the City Hall, experiencing the Open Top Bus tour of Belfast (which would undoubtedly have been much nicer without the continuous monsoon that accompanied us from leaving the city centre until we returned, as drowned rats, 2 hours later).

We had a one day Conference in school, which consisted of presentations, from both our students and the Swedish students, discussion groups and a tour of school conducted by our Senior pupils. The ‘Irish night’ hosted

by Dr Lomas in her house, saw huge quantities of Ulster Fry, Irish Stew and Champ followed by Apple Tart with cream being consumed by hungry teenagers. Thanks to Niall McIlroy and Aoife McAtamney for providing the traditional music which is so important to the evening.

Important as hosting is, the opportunity to visit Sweden is unquestionably the highlight of the exchange, especially since we only offer the experience every other year.

Mr Nash, Mr Cupples and Dr Lomas headed off to Sweden in the February half- term with a small group of 13 Senior pupils, mostly Form V and some Lower VI. We visited Uppsala first, and stayed with our hosts from Fyrisskolan; this is the great benefit of having the October home-stay as most of our group felt they were staying with friends they already knew. For the few who had not met their hosts, it did not take long to settle down. The friendliness of the Swedish people and their excellent command of English makes any exchange relatively easy.

We visited the school, took part in classes, went iceskating on the open-air rink in Studenternas and some brave souls even played ice-hockey against our hosts.

It is reassuring to know that not all Swedish teenagers ice-skate like professionals, but watching families with three and four year olds who skate better than you do, is just a tad daunting. Mr Nash occupied his usual position as official photographer; you could be absolutely certain he would video you just as you inelegantly fell. Mr

Cupples encouraged everyone from the safety of the sidelines and Dr Lomas attempted to look composed on ice skates as she tottered round the edge of the ice rink; at least this year she did not do a perfect ‘snow angel’!

We all enjoyed the tour of Uppsala given by the Swedish teacher, Kristina Rudbyer, whose version of Swedish history is irreverent and lots more interesting than many guide books. The city is so picturesque, even in subzero temperatures and the heated paving stones of the pedestrian area meant that wandering about and shopping was a real pleasure. Families were often very generous with both time and their hospitality and it was with real regret that we left Uppsala to come to Stockholm.

This is the first (and hopefully last) year that we did not have a second school to visit. Our connection to Vilunda Gymnasium had been doubly broken: the school no longer exists, having been bulldozed to form part of state-housing and the retirement of the last teacher who ran the exchange meant that no-one in the new school at Upplands Väsby was ready to continue the collaboration.

In Stockholm we stayed in a Student hostel at the top end of the main shopping street called Drottningatan (Queen Street). It was quite a new experience for many people and whilst very central, clean and well run, we would much rather have stayed with families and had the second school contact. Hopefully two schools in Stockholm will join the exchange in future as our ‘Stockholm end’ and we will then be able to offer the double visit once again.

While in Stockholm we visited the Town Hall (the Stadhuset), with its amazing Gold Room, and walked down the staircase to the Grand Hall where the Nobel Prize dinner is held annually. We visited the Parliament, or Riksdag and had a good tour of the Old City (Gamla Stan) which is built largely on stilts on reclaimed land, has the narrowest of streets and some buildings that go back to the 14th and 15th centuries. The shopping centre of Drottningatan meant it was always easy to find the way back to the hostel, often laden with parcels as well as footsore and weary. We liked our first restaurant so much we ate there the second night as well.

The flight home seemed to come so quickly but armed with bars of Marabou we braved the transfer in Copenhagen and arrived home safely in Dublin, ready for the bus back to Belfast and a welcome bed and bath. We should like to thank Dr Lomas, Mr Nash and Mr Cupples for accompanying us and making the trip possible and look forward to the next trip (we’ll still be in school!!)

Aoife McAtamney, Ryan Hamilton and Danny Worsell (V)

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BELFAST ROYAL ACADEMY CELEBRATES WORLD BOOK DAY On 1st March 2012 pupils and staff at Belfast Royal Academy celebrated World Book Day. To mark the event Belfast Royal Academy held a one-week Scholastic Book Fair. The Book Fair was a huge success raising over £700 pounds and earning the School over £350 pounds worth of free books from which to choose. Popular children’s authors Jacqueline Wilson and Derek Landy released special books to celebrate World Book Day 2012. Special versions of ‘Where’s Wally’ by Martin Handford and Roald Dahl’s ‘Fantabulous Facts’ were also released. These were available on World Book Day from the School Library.

Throughout the week a book review competition was held by the School Librarian for the best book review.

The top three entrants were awarded with gift vouchers to spend at the book fair. First place was awarded to Zuzanna Loboda for her excellent and illustrated book review on ‘Marked’ by P.C and Kristin Cast.

Second place was awarded to first year Lucy Gaston for her interesting review on ‘Knife Edge’ by Malorie Blackman and third place was awarded to another first year Patrick Donnelly for his excellent writing on Darren Shan’s ‘Demonta Series’.

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The School Library also hosted a book swap during World Book Day. Staff and pupils were invited to bring in a book they no longer wanted to place in the specially designed BRA World Book Day basket.

Those who donated a book to the basket were then entitled to select another book from the basket to keep.

During lunchtime on World Book Day, two past pupils, Scott Jamison and Stephen Connolly, came into School to read their poetry. The Poetry Reading was opened by the Headmaster who read two poems from his own collection of poetry and then the floor was given over to Scott and Stephen. As well as reading their own work, poems from Louis MacNeice (who was born in a house on the school site) and Leontia Flynn were read and the former pupils spoke about their writing. The first issue of The Open Ear, a collection of contemporary writing, edited in Queen’s University and published in Summer 2011, features the writing of both Scott and Stephen and another former pupil, Eve Cobain.

Two poems by Stephen and Scott are published below:

HOOD In West Belfast someone has rigged up Christmas lights to the streetlamp across the road from their house, ropes and ropes of bulbs are tacked to the council-estate eaves.

Rudolph the electronic reindeer is grazing in the yard on Black Mountain granite chips and Regal Filter butts beside a Vauxhall Astra and a clapped-out fridge.

There are penguins with motion-sensors who will wish you a merry Christmas and a happy new year.

People have gathered and are drop-jawed in awe.

A parent is hunched over their child’s shoulder, they are pointing at the Divis Transmitter and suggest, as their eyes travel as one, that a flicker in the sky could be anything the child wants it to be.

They squeeze a crisp fiver into the charity box. The owner, a fat man in a red coat, is chuckling at his own kindness.

Stephen Connolly

RUG I like to think that in some past life grandpa tracked you through jungle and over plain sweat collecting on his moustache and parting (that I have lately chanced to divine his spirit with) a taut-packed cigarette hanging between his tar and wealth parched lips until you, the regally striped nemesis entered his crosshair one final time.

That you pawed the dry jungle floor before you, eye glinting then bowed in submission hum-growling your own eulogy before nobly taking one in the frontal lobe.

That when the bullet hit, all around you burst to life, Midas fallen back to the soil Tibouchina, Kniphofia and vine sparkling out to my grandfather’s boot-tips.

That he knelt to say a quick prayer before removing his jacket to wrap you in carrying you on his back, a sombre fireman’s lift, a trail of natives following him back to their village to see some elder wordlessly bless the kill knowing that the death of the great beast would mean feasting and dancing under the stars.

I have a vision of him on the deck of the next ship home beside the captain it taking two of them to hold up your gutted outer for a photograph.

That once he fell on hard times, swapped the life of a big-game hunter for the classroom You proved unsellable, unpriced, made to lie at his feet by the fire, ‘till he died.

Scott Jamison W.G.

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WORLD RECORD SCRUM On the 30th March 2012, following months of planning, Belfast Royal Academy co-ordinated an attempt that broke the World Record for the largest rugby scrum. The new record of 840 people took place at Ravenhill, home of Ulster Rugby, smashing the previous record of 202.

The scrum was part of the build up to the Senior Rugby tour to South Africa in July 2012 and was seen as a way of involving the whole school in that venture. It was also viewed as an excellent opportunity to promote rugby in and reinforce links with schools in the local area. We are grateful to RaboBank who sponsored the scrum and who were energetic in promoting it in the press and on social media.

On the day 840 pupils from schools in the North Belfast Area Learning Community including some 750 from the Academy, met in school to rehearse the building of the scrum which had to follow strictly rugby law in terms of proportion, binding and engagement.

Once the scrum had been built pupils boarded buses bound for Ravenhill for the record attempt. Participants were counted on to the field by independent adjudicators and the scrum was officiated by Rabodirect Referee David Wilkinson. The ball was fed into the scrum by former pupil and Ulster rugby player Stuart Olding.

Following the successful attempt and celebrations the world record holders stayed to watch a Rabopro12 match between Ulster and Italian side Aironi.

This successful record attempt would not have been possible without the support of school staff, Ulster Rugby, Translink, RaboBank, David Wilkinson and Barney McGonigle our expert independent witnesses and of course the 840 participants who crouched, touched, paused and engaged on an epic scale.

Mr Jamison made a DVD of the World Record and we are very grateful to him for this. It captures the scale, excitement and celebration of this great achievement and can be found on YouTube.

C.M.C.

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Games THE RUGBY CLUB The atmosphere at Roughfort on a Saturday morning is something that I look forward to. You find all types of individuals from 11 year old boys to 18 year old men giving their all to better themselves as rugby players, to do their best for their team, and to represent their school to the best of their ability.

Boys learn many key life skills on Saturday mornings.

They learn how to enjoy victory and deal with defeat, but perhaps more importantly, they learn to give of their best and to work as a member of a team both in adversity and triumph. As the legendary American Football coach Vince Lombardi once said, “People who work together will win, whether it be against complex football defences, or the problems of modern society.”

Extra-curricular rugby would not be possible without staff giving of their time. Staff set the highest of standards for pupils and their enthusiasm and effort are second to none and I would like to thank them all for their efforts: Mr McGonigle, Mr Hughes, Mr Stretton, Mr Shields, Mr Irwin, Mr Moffett, Mr Martin, Dr Brown, Mr Cartmill and Mr Young. They are ably supported by a group of knowledgeable former pupils including Callum Leckey, Conor Spence, Iain Henderson, David Cartmill and Richard Bell.

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After a disappointing exit from the Schools’ Cup at the hands of Rainey Endowed the 1st XV picked themselves up and enjoyed a good run in a very competitive Bowl competition. Hard fought victories were secured against Wellington College and Down High School on the road to the final. The opposition in the final was Sullivan Upper School. A very nervous first half display saw the team trailing 19-0 at half-time.

However, a spirited second half performance saw the team almost snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. A late intercept try from Sullivan was enough to see them home. Congratulations to David Patterson who played

for Ulster U19 and Daniel Dass who played for Ulster U18.

The 2nd XV Rugby team had, on the whole, a very successful season. The squad came to within three points of a semi-final place in the 2nd XV Cup. In a closely fought quarter-final match against Sullivan Upper we lost by 17-14, a defeat that was very hard to take. The squad was without doubt good enough to have won the 2nd XV Cup. Highlights of the year came in the lead up to Christmas time where in four matches against Dungannon Royal, Foyle and Londonderry College, Regent House and Bangor Grammar, a massive 214 points (for) were scored with only 13 points against.

The team was awarded the Former Pupils’ Cup for being the most successful rugby team at the Colours Award Ceremony.

The 3rd XV had a very successful season. The strength of this team ensured that they progressed to the quarterfinal of the Cup losing out in an excellent game to a very powerful Inst 3rd XV team. The team gave them a shock, opening the scoring with one of the team’s traditional super tries which covered almost the full length of the pitch. Jonathan Orr, the leading try scorer, repeated the feat later in the game, but in the end the Inst players were deserving winners, but were generous in their praise of our team and in particular about the style of play.

The Medallion XV had a strong season, but unfortunately lost to strong CAI side in the fourth round of the Medallion Shield. The squad displayed excellent commitment and determination throughout the year.

Their fine and diligent effort in training reaped rewards in terms of progress on the pitch. All season long, the boys were a credit to themselves and the School and with a more fortunate draw in the Shield would have progressed much further.

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SOUTH AFRICA RUGBY TOUR

The Medallion ‘B’ XV competed in an extensive fixture list this year. The squad contained a core group of players whose commitment and determination to improve and succeed optimised the ethos of the team. The team recorded mixed results throughout the season including narrow defeats to Wallace, Boys’ Model and Lurgan. They recorded wins over Ballyclare, Sullivan and Catholic University School (Dublin), but also came out at the wrong side of some big scores against Campbell, Methody and Belvedere.

The most emphatic win of the season came when the team travelled to Ballymena in October. They battled against extreme weather, horrible pitch conditions and a strong Ballymena side and came out victorious.

On July 12th 2012 thirty five boys and six staff departed for a two-week rugby tour of South Africa.

The team visited Cape Town, Stellenbosch, Pretoria, Johannesburg and Bella Bella. In all, eight fixtures were played over a ten day period against very strong opposition. BRA won two of the eight matches, but gained much from the experience of playing against some of the best schoolboy teams in the world. Off the field the team soaked up much of the South African culture with many enjoying the fine food and shopping. The boys also gained an authentic South African experience by being hosted by families for four nights.

It was a very successful season for the Under 14 rugby team. Notable victories throughout the year came against Ballyclare High School, The Royal School Armagh, Grosvenor Grammar School and Belfast High School. The team also won the Bowl at the annual MCB tournament in which the team only lost against the eventual champions Campbell College. The season concluded with a very enjoyable tour to Cambridge in March.

Highlights of the tour included a trip up Table Mountain in Cape Town, a visit to Nelson Mandela’s prison cell on Robben Island, meeting the Blue Bulls Super 15 side at Loftus Stadium, watching the Western Stormers taking on the Rebels at Newlands in the Super 15, petting cheetah and lions at animal sanctuaries, a visit to Langa Township and enjoying dusk and dawn game drives on horseback and on quad bikes at Mabulla Game Reserve.

The Under 13 rugby team had a successful season, winning 12 of 19 games, which represented a significant recovery from a poor start. They improved on each of their results from Form I and have significant potential for the future.

The squad also visited Tygerberg Children’s Hospital to donate a cheque for £5000 which they had raised as part of their fundraising. This was a charity selected by Ulster Rugby captain Johann Muller who had done much to help with fundraising.

The Under 12 rugby squad were a very enthusiastic bunch this year. They began the season very well winning a tournament against Carrick Grammar and the Boys’ Model. They also had a very good victory against Coleraine Inst. They produced some very good performances in the final tournament of the year at Coleraine Inst. losing out narrowly to Campbell College in the quarter-final of the Plate competition.

C.M.C.

Below are some comments by members of the touring party describing their experience.

Mark Wylie - The tour was a once in a life-time experience on the rugby field and off. My highlights would be the visit to Langa township and Table Mountain. The “tanter” was incredible and it has helped us become a close group of friends!

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Games

Ross Vance - The tour was brilliant. Playing rugby in the southern hemisphere was thoroughly enjoyable but difficult to adapt to with their different rugby play and environmental conditions. The highlight of my tour was the safari seeing a wide range of animals in a densely populated area.

Declan Coghlan - The tour was fantastic and the highlight for me, except the rugby of course, was the lion park in Pretoria where we got to stroke baby lion cubs. I’d also like to give a big shout out to my boy Gon Corleone for being a top lad. Live long and Toga.

Phil Warke - A great tour from start to finish, a great experience and one I will never forget. This trip has brought us all closer together as a team and I have gained friends from it.

Jamie Laughlin - The rugby tour was one of the most memorable and epic experiences of my life. A trip that was truly once in a life-time and I was fortunate enough to embark on such a journey. My most memorable moment was wrestling with a lion cub. You stay classy BRA. Dave Patterson - The tour was an incredible two weeks of good food, tough rugby and excellent banter. The memories and bonds we have made will last a life-time.

Joshua Rooney - Mashoongas, lad-stripes and togas; all played a part in the trip of a life-time. My favourite day on the tour was the contrast between visiting the Apartheid Museum followed by going to Gold Reef City theme park. We experienced real South African life with visits to townships and made lasting friendships when we went on homestays. Needless to say, the “tanter” was of extremely high quality throughout!

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Andrew McClements - South Africa is a beautiful, diverse country, both culturally and aesthetically. The wildlife and many attractions are vastly superior to any I have seen before, but I cannot say enough about the people, the individuals I have met here, the lads on tour and the staff.

Adam Brice - The highlight of my tour were going to the lion park in Pretoria or the safari on the last three days stroking lions and cheetahs and getting nearly within touching distance of rhinos. I also enjoyed the ‘Goni’ version of ‘Call Me Maybe’.

Daniel McFadden - I thoroughly enjoyed my time in South Africa. However there was one moment that stood out; the visit to the lion park in Pretoria where we got to see lions in their everyday life and pet the lion cubs.

Matthew Simpson - An unforgettable tour. Petting lion cubs, visiting the Langa township, and meeting Morne Steyn & Pierre Spies stand out as the highlights of my two weeks.

Steven Bigger - This tour was an unbelievable experience and the perfect way to leave BRA. It will live with me forever, great memories of an amazing time such as being chewed on by a lion cub and the view from Table Mountain.

Dylan Tinsley - This tour was a once in a life-time opportunity and I am very grateful to have been a part of it. For me the tour as a whole has been the highlight, but I especially enjoyed the visit to Gold Reef city theme park and also enjoyed the three-day safari at the end of the trip.

Chris Torrens - Overall this tour was an incredible experience as we got to do many once in a life-time activities such as going on a safari and petting lion cubs. The highlight of my tour was going to a cheetah rescue enclosure and we got to pet full-grown cheetahs.

Ross Bryans - The rugby tour to South Africa was one to remember for everyone. For me, the best moment of the tour was visiting the lion park where I had the opportunity to stroke the lion cubs, feed a giraffe and go on a safari to see many of the animals which live in South Africa.

Stewart Martin - The main highlights of the trip were visiting the theme park in Pretoria, seeing the elephants for the first time on safari and getting to score a try in South Africa.

Stephen Craig - The highlight of my trip was definitely watching the Stormers-Rebels game at the Newlands Stadium and also seeing the lions on safari.

Jordan Carlisle - I had a brilliant two weeks on tour and the highlight for me was either the Langa township visit or the trip to the lion park in Pretoria.

Max Oates - One of the highlights of my trip was going on the safari and being within several feet of lions and a rhino. I also enjoyed several of the song renditions that were performed at the front of the bus while travelling.

Jonathan Rainey - One of my highlights was my second homestay in Pretoria with Daniel McFadden (the white rhino). We stayed with a very nice family and it was a great few days.

C.M.C.

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1st XV There were plenty of endeavours this season from the 1st XV. However, the side struggled to find form and as a result victories were hard to come by.

September is traditionally a very tough month as our fixture list is so strong and this year was to prove no different. The team suffered defeats against Ballyclare High School, Methody, Catholic University School and Belvedere College. There were, however, encouraging performances from a number of players and with our representative players due to return at the start of October there were real signs of encouragement.

These signs came to fruition in the first match of October when the team secured their first win of the season over a fancied Sullivan Upper School side. Another victory against Larne Grammar followed quickly, but defeats against Dungannon Royal School, Wallace High School, Portadown College and Ballymena Academy highlighted that there was still much work to be done.

November and early December saw the team start to gain momentum with victories over Regent House, Bangor Grammar and Coleraine Academical Institution with only a narrow loss to Foyle and Londonderry College.

The last game before Christmas was against one of the Cup favourites, Armagh. The team was very competitive for most of this match and only fell away in the closing stages. This gave the squad encouragement going into the Christmas break.

The first match of the New Year was against defending Schools’ Cup winners Campbell College. The team was defeated in the match, but played well and was very competitive throughout. Early January also saw the side turn the tables on Portadown College who had narrowly defeated them earlier in the season.

The final preparation before the Cup was a three-way tournament at Osbourne Park. This was a mixed day as the side was defeated 18-7 by Grosvenor Grammar, but encouragingly was narrowly denied victory over RBAI through a score by the opposition with the last play of the match that left the result 5-5. This performance against heavyweights RBAI gave great encouragement for the Cup game against Rainey the following week.

The Cup match against Rainey was a ‘just one of those days’ when nothing went well. BRA was by far the better side and totally dominated up front. However, at crucial moments the team made errors and allowed Rainey to win the game narrowly. This was a huge disappointment to all involved as being beaten is hard to take at the best of times, but when you totally underperform, there is no consolation.

After that very disappointing exit from the Schools’ Cup at the hands of Rainey Endowed the team picked themselves up and enjoyed a good run in a very competitive Bowl competition. Hard fought victories were secured against Wellington College and Down High School on the road to the final. The opposition in the final was Sullivan Upper School. A very nervous first half display saw the team trailing 19-0 at half-time. However, a spirited second half performance saw the team almost snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. A late intercept try from Sullivan was enough to see them home.

The team also enjoyed some success in the Ulster Schools’ Sevens Competition at Campbell College reaching the semi-finals playing some champion rugby.

Jordan Carlisle was the outstanding player of the day scoring some excellent tries.

Carlisle played at full back; he is an excellent broken field counterattacking player. He has great pace and feet and should prove to be a key player for the side next season.

Andrew McClements was the regular player on the right wing. He had a very difficult season plagued by injury. He missed approximately 75% of matches but when fit, he caused major problems for defences with his raw pace and jinking running style.

Mark Wylie was our first choice centre. He played well throughout the season and was very solid in both attack and defence. With improved self confidence he could go on to receive representative honours next year.

Jamie Loughlin also played many games in the centre.

He is a stereotypical route 1 player; hard-running and physically strong, he regularly got over the gain line.

Kurt Martin played in the centre and at out-half during the season. He is a talented player who is quick and strong. He had many good performances throughout the season.

Sam Lindsay played most of the season in the centre and made some appearances on the wing. He is a physical player who dominates in contact. He too has much potential and I look forward to his development next season.

Stephen Craig played throughout the year making appearances on the wing and at full-back. He is versatile and has the potential to play anywhere in the back-line. He will be a key man next season.

Ross Vance started the season as our first choice fullback. However, injury ruled him out of much of the season and ultimately cost him his place in the side. He is a talented player who put in some very physical tackles.

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Philip Warke was once again robbed of a regular place on the 1st XV this season due to his chronic ankle injury which again required surgery. He played at out-half, scrum-half and full-back at various stages throughout the season. He will be a valuable asset to any club in future years.

improve upon this he will make an impact next season.

Jonathan Rainey played many matches at out-half throughout the year. He has an excellent pass and is solid in defence. He should work on his pace and kicking out of hand if he is to become the complete player.

Ryan Hogg and Adam Brice were the regulars in the engine room. Both are athletic and were effective in carrying the ball in open play. They also both had a good work-rate. Adam was more of a threat in the lineout whilst Ryan’s main weapon was his tackling and ball carrying.

Ross Bryans and Max Oates ‘scrapped it out’ for the scrum-half position. Both are potentially very good players. However, they should both aim to improve the consistency of their performance. With both players returning to school next year this interesting battle should continue.

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Jordan Thompson, Declan Coghlan, Daniel McFadden, Ryan Montgomery and Robert Moffett all played at prop throughout the year. Declan had a great season.

His work-rate and commitment were of the highest standard. He was probably the first forward’s name on the team sheet at the end of the season. Jordan was playing on the 1st XV for the third season. He is a very solid player, good at scrimmaging and lifting and he was an option to carry the ball in open play as well.

He also threw in the line-outs and made great progress as the season progressed. Daniel missed most of the season due to a knee injury. He will make a big impact next year when fit. Robert Moffett has a huge physical presence. He is not the most natural rugby player, but his strength and power made him an important part of our squad. Ryan has great potential as a front-row player; however, his mobility holds him back. If he can

Eoin Linden played hooker during the year and had a good season. He is an industrious player who was keen to get his hands on the ball. He will be a key player next year.

Daniel Dass played at number 8. He thoroughly deserved his selection for Ulster Schools’ U18. He is a very powerful runner and is physically very strong; he made many excellent breaks throughout the season scoring some fine tries. He is capable of playing at the very highest level, but if he is to get there he must work on his work-rate.

David Patterson, the captain, played at open side flanker. He too thoroughly deserved his selection for Ulster, playing for the Ulster U19 side during their inter-provincial campaign. I have never seen a school boy tackle like David. He was ferocious. He led by example on the field and was an excellent example to younger players in the squad.

Stuart Martin played at blind-side flanker throughout the year. A Form V pupil, he did not look out of place on the 1st XV stage, in fact quite the opposite, as he was regularly the best player on the pitch. He has a big future in school rugby.

C.M.C.

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Rugby

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there were many pleasing signs; it was a disciplined and clinical performance that gave much confidence for the games that lay ahead.

The following two matches saw us slide to a very listless and disappointing defeat to Wallace High School 38-7. This was maybe the motivation we needed as we bounced back the following week with a very convincing 56-0 victory away to Dungannon Royal.

2nd XV The season began with much promise and belief that we could achieve something special. Our target - to win the 2nd XV Cup. This was an aim which I still believe was realistic despite the disappointment of being knocked out at the quarter-final stage by Sullivan Upper.

We began the season with a satisfactory performance against a poor, ‘injury hit’ Ballyclare High School 2nd XV. It was a comfortable victory. We started with a relatively inexperienced pack and with our own ‘injury hit’ back-line we were content to come away with a 22-7 victory. It was obvious from early in this game that we needed to develop a killer instinct as we missed numerous opportunities throughout the match to score.

However, there were enough positives to be confident for a successful season.

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The month of September saw our depleted team win a closely fought encounter against Catholic Universities 7-5, and then lose to Belevedere College 26-5, followed by a performance, that despite losing 43-12 to Methodist College, showed further promise, with some encouraging phases of play. However, injuries to the 1st XV meant that we couldn’t sustain our initial high level of performance and we leaked a number of late tries.

The attitude of the boys, despite this heavy defeat, must be praised. They never gave up and were determined to put long hours in on the training ground to address their defensive frailties in preparation for future games.

October and November offered a packed fixture list.

Nine games in all were played where our record was on the whole very good. The boys stuttered to a 3815 defeat in which we played much of the game with 14 men against a youthful, but very talented Sullivan Upper side. This was a team that Sullivan had kept together having won the Medallion Shield the previous year. Their teamwork was on a different level to ours but given time we would develop that important attribute. This was followed by a comprehensive 48-0 victory over Portadown. Despite the ease of the victory,

Our next four matches included a string of victories that saw us play some brilliant, expansive, open rugby.

This also provided much needed self-belief, a belief that we were genuine contenders for the 2nd XV Cup. We defeated Bangor Grammar 58-7, Foyle and Londonderry 65-0, a very capable Regent side 26-7 and gained revenge on our last year’s Cup opponents, Coleraine 57-5. This, for me, was the performance of the season. The boys were hungry. It was obvious they had a point to prove. Their rucking, their defence, their offensive attacking lines, their determination, their will to win were all at the top level. BRA left the pitch with pride, with confidence and genuine belief.

Unfortunately, this level of performance was not always maintained. We lost our next match against Armagh, albeit one where we had a number of injuries.

We followed that up with a closely fought match which we lost to Campbell 15-7.

We had two morale-boosting victories before the Christmas period against Larne and another fixture against Portadown, winning them easily, 55-7 and 513. Despite the ease of victory, there were more pleasing signs to come from these games such as our improving ability to break teams down after numerous phases of play and we were becoming much more clinical. We had learnt to be patient and control the game. Our ball retention, our improved body angles when rucking and our direct lines of running had developed, thus making us a formidable side in attack.

The boys left for their Christmas holidays knowing their first game back in the New Year would be their opening Cup fixture against Antrim Grammar.

Christmas came and went and the Cup was upon us. We comfortably beat Omagh Academy 54-7 after a slow and nervous start. It was a very pleasing performance where we showed many encouraging signs that we might be about to peak at the right time of year.

The 2nd round draw was tough but I thought favourable enough to us; a home fixture against a much fancied but somewhat unknown Dromore High School. This current crop of Dromore boys had knocked us out of

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the Medallion Shield competition two years ago. We were very well prepared for this game and after a slightly nervous start we beat them in a very closely fought encounter. We were 7-5 up at half-time and I felt controlling the game. A converted try either side in the second half saw us leading by two points with only seconds remaining. With the play just inside our half, foolishly we were caught off-side leaving them with a kick to win it, but fortunately their out-half pushed it narrowly wide to give us a 14-12 victory. We were so relieved, but it was a deserved victory against a very good Dromore team. This game gave us a place in the quarter-finals against Sullivan.

Special mention and my thanks should go to my captain throughout the year Tom Marsh, whose enthusiasm and desire to succeed should have been rewarded with more success than we had; and to Mr. Cowden who refereed many of our home matches to a very high standard.

2nd XV Squad: J. Laughlan, J. Torrens, C. Torrens, J. Diamond, B. Martin, T. Marsh(C), A. Marica, P. Warke, J. Walsh, R. Montgomery, J. Rooney, D. Tinsley, R. Bryans, G. Gilfillan, K. Martin, N. Lyons, R. Vance, J. McCreesh, R. Moffett, C. Lawrence, J. Orr, R. Shaw, S. McCombe, J. Kane, B. O’Neill.

P.M. / C. L. / S. P.

Our earlier fixture against them in October had seen us lose by 38-15, albeit with 14 men, but we had learnt a great deal that day and we had made massive strides as a team since then. Sullivan would be up against a very different BRA side this time round.

We started fairly well but it was clear that we were going to have to play near our best if we were to progress to the next round. They had a very aggressive, robust pack which we more than matched in the opening encounters.

As the game developed we were dominating in territory and possession. There were some massive hits, some great line-breaks and we scored a lovely try just before half-time to give us the lead we deserved. We led 11-7 at the break.

The second half was much the same as the first half.

It was intense! Unfortunately Sullivan found an extra gear from somewhere during a 10-minute spell that saw them score two tries, one of which they converted. We responded with seven minutes to go with an unconverted try, leaving the score agonisingly 16-19. There were five minutes left, a penalty and a drop goal, would earn us a replay. The boys gave their all, but unfortunately came up just short as the game ended. On another day, we could have beaten them but it wasn’t to be.

The boys to their credit never gave up fighting to the end. However, victory was not to be. The final whistle saw a season of so much promise end at the quarterfinal stage. I was extremely disappointed for the boys who had given their all and had deserved so much more.

Trials, hardships, disappointments and defeats can make you a ‘better person’ and it is my belief that this successful season will turn out to be a brilliant strengthening and learning experience for bigger days to come. Many of these boys will form next year’s 1st XV and it is my belief that with further expert coaching, they will again compete for the Schools’ Cup. I thank them for their efforts throughout the season and wish them every success in their future rugby careers.

3rd XV Enjoyment tinged with occasional frustration could be used as an appropriate summary of the season. Overall, it was a good season in which the concluding part in particular was full of great enjoyment and success brought about by the realisation of the team’s talents, when the best team was available, and in pleasing end of season results.

The 3rd XV in school will always be at a disadvantage in the early part of the season simply because it is a pool of reserves for the 2nd XV which likewise is a pool of reserves for the firsts. However, the 2nd XV and the 3rd XV in particular are more than reserves. They in themselves are the developing grounds for younger players and indeed some older players who have had their interests in rugby restored. This is naturally the case in teams which have to be developed in levels of seniority and ability, but there are frustrations.

Frustration in not always having what we would like did not detract from the commitment of the team in seeking to improve by developing skills, techniques and fitness, and in growing in the understanding of how best to play the game to achieve good results using those available for selection. Indeed, it was the makeup of the team and the ongoing commitment to have fifteen-man involvement as much as possible which

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contributed to our style of play, a running and passing game. Frequently the coaches of the opposing teams were generous in their praise of our back-play, which of course was made possible by the excellent continuity play of the forwards. Many of the tries scored were a delight to observe and the skills and speed of some of those involved brought their call-up to the higher teams. Fortunately, the other teams did not have the same fluidity of style to suit the particular skills of our players and we were delighted to have them return.

Style of play and enjoyment are rarely sufficient to generate complete satisfaction and not least when those involved both as players and as coaches are highly competitive and love winning. Winning is the normal objective, but not at any cost and satisfaction can always be found in many aspects of play even in defeat. Fortunately, the team were more accustomed to winning than losing and over the full season were statistically one of the most successful teams in the school. Keeping a statistical record of wins and losses may be important to some but, at best, it can only be a partial measure of success. In general terms, the team only lost a few games and those were against schools with very big rugby playing numbers and which are traditionally strong. Even against such schools we were always competitive and against the others usually victorious, recording some large scores.

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Unfortunately, many only see rankings in sport and achievement in the Cup competitions as a measure of success, largely because they do not understand the full realities of the sport. It is not unusual in the early rounds of competitions for the second best to be eliminated because they were drawn against the best. That does not make them a failure but it does ensure they are forgotten, or how many will remember some of the outstanding athletes in the Olympics who finished in 4th place and did not get a medal. Our 3rd XV this year had the difficult task of following the previous year’s team’s success of the winning the 3rd XV Plate. They had been knocked out of the 3rd XV Cup competition by the best team in that competition. This year’s team set their ambition of going one better, seeking to win the 3rd XV Cup. The success of this team ensured that they progressed beyond the Plate competition and indeed reached the quarterfinal of the Cup losing out in an excellent game to a very powerful Inst. 3rd XV team. Our team gave them a shock, opening the scoring with one of our traditional super tries which covered almost the full length of the pitch. Jonathan Orr our leading try scorer repeated the feat later in the game, but in the end Inst. was the deserving winner, but were generous in their praise of our team and in particular about our style of play.

Too many players, well over 30 played for the team on at least a few occasions and trying to mention players could never do justice to all. Many had spells on the

2nd XV, but we were always glad to have them back.

However, there are a few who particularly deserve to have their name mentioned in the Owl in what is really a permanent school record.

Conor Brogan, although not the most experienced, proved to be an able captain. He was very committed on the pitch, but his greatest attribute was his efficiency in looking after the team and making sure all of the players were fully aware of the match details and that despite many late call-ups to the 2nd XV we always had a team. In this matter he was ably supported by Niall Sheilds. This contribution and the help of others was greatly appreciated.

Mention was made earlier of the free running of our team and this was epitomised by Jonathan Orr as mentioned earlier, but also by Andrew Curtis and Nathan Lyons.

It is not surprising that these three were part of a very good Senior boys 4 x 100m athletics relay team later in the year. Amongst the forwards the consistent excellent contribution of Brendan O’Neill was outstanding and he was ably supported by some good players with much future potential even if not always fully realised on our team. Amongst them are Dillon Tinsley, Jonathan McCreesh, Alex Deany and Calvin Lawrence.

It was a great delight to work with so many great young men and it makes me realise yet again how blessed I am in being able to join with them in doing something we enjoy. Unfortunately, it has one major short-coming. It does little to help me realise that youthful spirit in an older body does not always go hand in hand.

R.G.M.

MEDALLION A XV Played 18

Won 10

Drawn 1

Lost 7

Training began in earnest at the end of August and it was soon evident that in terms of numbers, this was again a small squad to choose from. However, those young men who formed the squad were both talented and big in heart. The team had shown much promise

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and potential at Under 14 level and it was hoped by their new coaches that this could be taken and further developed for the season which lay ahead.

Early matches were as always played against the toughest opposition and there were early signs that the season could be positive.

Ballyclare was beaten at Roughfort and that was followed by a narrow loss to the Catholic University School of Dublin. Two of our toughest opponents were next, The Methodist College was victorious at Roughfort and Sullivan Upper, a very strong team, beat us in Holywood.

Wallace High School won also at Roughfort.

Ballymena was beaten in Ballymena after a terrific performance, with Dungannon, Foyle, Bangor and Regent all being dispatched in consecutive fixtures.

The first fixture of December saw a strong Coleraine team come to Roughfort. BRA raced in to a 15 points to nil lead and looked comfortable in every department.

After a few tactical changes and substitutions, CAI came back at us and managed to snatch a draw with the last play of the game. We feel that this maybe gave them the upper hand psychologically in the Medallion Shield match played in January.

Banbridge, Armagh and Portadown were all comfortably beaten before Christmas, before a heavy loss to Ballymena, a much-improved side, over the Christmas period. A strong and much fancied Campbell team travelled to Roughfort in January and after probably the performance of the season, we managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory after some awful defensive blunders. However, confidence was high after this performance and the thrashing of Grosvenor High School before the Shield match.

The draw for the Shield was far from kind; away to Coleraine Grammar. We travelled with confidence, having eased into an early lead against them previously in the season, even though we threw that lead away, we knew we were the better of the two teams and that progression to the next round was in our own hands.

It was a very bright, but cold morning on the North Coast, with conditions under foot not good. We could not have possibly made a worse start, going two tries down in the early stages under some intense opposition pressure. Once we found our feet, we started to compete at the breakdown and obtain good spells of ball retention and put Coleraine under pressure. Their defence was outstanding on the day and no matter what was thrown at them, they stood firm and score we could not. They seemed to have done their homework on us

and were able to slow the ball down at rucks, which is what we thrived on and even though we got a late score, it proved no more than a consolation. It should be said that CAI went on-to contest the semi-finals of the Shield having comprehensively beaten a strong RBAI team in the round after us.

The ‘Front Row Union’ was made up of Will Montgomery and Gary Nelson in the prop positions, with Sean Rice at hooker. Both Will and Gary were inexperienced in their positions at the start of the season, but soon learnt their trade and became more than competent in the set-piece. Will had a particularly good season, getting round the pitch like an extra back-row, making good tackles and the occasional rampaging run. Sean was one the players from Form III who played up a level for the season. He is a dynamic hooker, whose undoubted strength is his throwing to the line-out. With hard work he will improve further and have a promising season next year.

The second-row positions were taken up by Alex Steenson, David McCullough and David O’Donnell Anderson. Alex grew in stature over the course of the season, becoming stronger with every match and by the end of the season was starting to revel in the contact situation. David McCullough was a converted backline player and had pace to burn. Strong in attack, he scored some vital tries over the course of the season.

David O’Donnell Anderson played in more positions over the course of the season than any other. He was an invaluable player due to his ability to play in so many positions, whether it be front-row, second-row, backrow or indeed in the back-line. Fearless in both defence and attack, he will improve much over the years to come.

The back-row consisted of Gareth McAdams and Rhys Donaldson on the flanks with Ruairi Brogan at Number 8. The combination of the three was as near perfect as a Medallion back-row could have been. Gareth was another of the players from the year below, but never once let the side down. A great ball carrier, his main asset is his defence, where he was fearless and great things can be expected of him in years to come. Rhys is an exceptionally strong player. He played open-side flanker for the season and was undoubtedly the number one player in the team regarding turn-overs. Time and time again he was first to the breakdown, turning over opposition ball, a wonderful ball-carrier and equally good in defence, it was a weekly competition between him and Ruairi as to who could put the biggest ‘hit’ on an opponent. Ruairi at Number 8 was a wonderfully balanced player. Probably the best all-round athlete on the team, he possesses great pace and intelligence and he made countless try-saving tackles week after week due to the fact that he would never accept that he was beaten.

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At scrum-half for the majority of the season was Peter O’Neill. Peter possesses a lovely pass and was able to get the back-line moving at pace. He improved immeasurably over the season and proved to be a pivotal part of the team.

different ways and the best of luck to you all as you go on to ply your trade in Senior rugby.

The out-half position was taken by Andrew Forbes.

Andrew is a fantastic talent. He lacked confidence at the start of the season, but as he grew in ability, his confidence grew also. An aggressive runner of the ball, he also had the ability to get those outside him moving at pace, he too should go on to represent the School at a higher level.

Many thanks also to Mr P Cartmill who helped with coaching duties. He must be given great credit for the shape and structure he gave to the back-line, both in attack and defence.

The centre partnership was a balanced one, made up of Captain Scott McMurtry and David Campbell.

Scott and David possessed real pace in their centre partnership, both very direct runners of the ball, capable of breaking the gain-line and defended their own line with great authority. David in particular had exceptional feet and a strong hand off. Scott made a fantastic captain, always leading by example, making good decisions and bonding the team as a whole.

Michael Wilson and Eric MaCaulay were to be found on the wings. Eric was the pocket dynamo of the team.

What he lacked in real pace, he certainly made up for with heart and commitment; never afraid to run hard and make aggressive lines in attack, nor to put his body on the line in defence. Michael was another of those who played up a year group. Michael is not a natural winger, but played in that position because of the attributes he brought to the team. A splendid kicker of the ball, both from hand and tee, he kicked us out of trouble on many occasions and was always a threat to opposition with his shots at goal.

Gavin Arrell was the last line of defence at full-back.

Another hugely talented player, Gavin was ever dependable in defence, under the high-ball and in attack.

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Ben Sayers, Pearse Geraghty, Drew Willis, David Reid, Ben Cave, Christian O’Connor and Scott MaCaulay made up the rest of the squad and played frequently over the duration of the season, but were unable to gain a regular place. Scott, Ben and Christian are fortunate as they are a year young and will no doubt go on to play regularly next season. To the others, we give a huge vote of thanks for your efforts and commitment over the course of the season. We could never have improved as a team so much without your levels of diligence and attendance at practices.

To all the young men who represented the Medallion this season, we thank you immensely. Your level of focus, commitment and intensity was second to none.

The future of Senior school rugby is safe in your hands.

Thanks very much for a very special season in many

Many thanks also to Mr Cowden who gave up his time on a Saturday morning to referee home matches.

One last group who deserve special mention are the parents, who gave their support over the course of the season. Rain, hail or shine they were in attendance wherever the venue and their support was much appreciated at all times.

N.I.

MEDALLION B XV The Medallion ‘B’ XV competed in an extensive fixture list this year. The squad contained a core group of players whose commitment and determination to improve and succeed optimised the ethos of the team.

The team recorded mixed results throughout the season including narrow defeats to Wallace, Boys’ Model and Lurgan. They recorded wins over Ballyclare, Sullivan and Catholic University School (Dublin) but also came out at the wrong side of some big scores against Campbell, Methody and Belvedere. The most emphatic win of the season came when the team travelled to Ballymena in October. They battled against extreme weather, horrible pitch conditions and a strong Ballymena side and came out victorious.

N.I.

UNDER 14 A XV The Under 14 A rugby team had a season of mixed fortunes, experiencing a number of highs and lows.

Notable victories throughout the season came against Foyle and Londonderry College, The Royal School Armagh, Ballyclare High School, Grosvenor Grammar School and Belfast High School. Unfortunately, these victories were interspersed with defeats against a number of schools.

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side played exceptionally well and recorded one win, one draw and one defeat.

After outstanding pre-season performances four boys: Sean Rice, Gareth McAdams, Michael Wilson and Ben Sayers were rewarded for their individual efforts and promoted to the Medallion XV. This then provided opportunities for other boys to impress, which they did, albeit on an inconsistent basis.

The season started with a very hard-fought victory against Ballyclare High School, 19-14. Tries from Jay McCrum, Francis Collins and Michael Wilson nudged BRA over the winning line. This victory was followed up with another close win against Lurgan Junior High School, 17-14, with Jack Gill, Jay McCrum and Cameron Gergett scoring the all-important tries.

October and November are always difficult in terms of fixtures against strong rugby schools. Unfortunately, the team lost a run of matches against Methody, Ballymena Academy, Sullivan Upper School and Wallace High School. The character of the team was never in question as they battled on stoically until the final whistle of each game.

Morale-boosting victories against Foyle and Londonderry College, 52-7, with a returning Sean Rice scoring three tries, Connor Boyd (2), Jack Gill (2) and Callum Dalzell (1), were followed up with wins against Rainey, Banbridge Academy, The Royal School Armagh, Killicomaine Junior High School, Grosvenor Grammar, Belfast High and Dalriada in December, January and February. During these matches a number of tries were scored by Jack Gill, Jonny Mooney, Cameron Gergett, Scott Macaulay, Michael Wilson, Francis Collins, Connor Boyd, Jay McCrum, James Reid, Robert Bowman, Luke Auterson and Lewis Donaldson.

In the annual end-of-season tournament at RBAI the Under 14 XV won the ‘Plate’ competition. Their only defeat was against a very strong and powerful Campbell College side in their first game.

At the end of the year the side toured Ipswich and Cambridge, playing fixtures against The Pearse School and a three-way invitational tournament against the Leys School and Mill Hill. During these matches the

The regular team comprised the following: the front row consisted of James Reid, Conor Benson, Jonny Mooney and Harry O’Hagan. They proved to be a powerful and mobile unit. Mooney in particular showed good determination and aggression in a number of games and is a tremendous ball-carrier. In the second-row was a combination of Ben Sayers, David McClements and Luke Auterson. All were involved in the majority of rucks and mauls and were very solid in defence.

A special mention must go to Luke Auterson who captained the side extremely well throughout the season.

He led from the front in every match and was always positive, demanding every player to give their best.

The back-row was composed of Jack Gill, Lewis Donaldson and Cameron Gergett. This was a potent partnership which never dodged a tackle; they were tireless in defence and scored a number of invaluable tries.

Scrum-half alternated between Scott Macaulay and Cameron Black. Both possess a lovely pass and have good spatial awareness. Scott in particular is a very intelligent player with good hands and knowledge of the game. His blistering pace enabled him to score a number of tries to become a match winner in a number of close games.

Out-half was shared between Niall Gray and Francis Collins. Both have their notable strengths; while Niall organised the forwards and backs particularly well, Francis’s kicking game was superb and he easily turned defence into attack.

The centre and wing positions were the most keenly contested. Roy Chia, Jay McCrum, Connor Boyd, Michael Bradley, Chris McLoughlin and various other players mentioned above, competed for four positions.

All were fearless in attack and had an uncanny knack for breaking the gain-line. However, sometimes the opposition exploited some weaknesses in their tackling.

Callum Dalzell was the last line of defence at full-back.

Dalzell is a very talented player, a ferocious tackler and strong in defence. He improved immensely over the course of the season and proved to be a most valuable asset to the team.

In closing, apart from the boys, I am also indebted to the hard work and professionalism of my fellow coaches during the year: Mr Stretton, Mr McCarey, Mr Cartmill, Mr Ingram and Mr McGonigle. Their support, dedication and friendship made it a joy to be involved with coaching such a pleasant and enthusiastic group of boys. I wish the team well in their future rugby careers.

T.H.

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U14 B XV Played Won Drawn Lost

8 3 1 4 This U14 B side contained some very talented individuals, and experienced reasonable success despite some factors affecting team selection and overall continuity within the squad. A declining amount of ‘B’ opposition available made fixtures sporadic, and a filter of players lost to the ‘A’ side made it difficult to attain the desired level of consistency; such is the nature of ‘B’ level rugby.

Campbell College marked the final game of the season.

However, players such as Boyle, Bowman and Miller continued their progress making some appearances for the ‘A’ side.

I would like to thank the boys for a very enjoyable season. Their discipline and effort were commendable and I wish them well for their progression to Medallion level. I would also like to give special thanks to parents and guardians whose presence and support throughout the season was greatly appreciated.

P.T.S

The season began on a positive note, as soon-to-be sidelined full-back Christopher McLoughlin used his pace and agility to secure a well deserved 25-15 win against Catholic University College Dublin in the opener at Roughfort.

A tough second game against Methodist College Belfast ensued, but despite a valiant team effort, the game was lost 39-0. A disappointing loss against Sullivan Upper followed, but the team remained buoyed due to stand-out performances from Robert Bowman and Cameron Black.

A handsome win would soon follow against Ballyclare, where utility player Sam Millar displayed some stellar kicking to ensure a 42-5 win. Elected captain Emmet Boyle, David McLarnon, Mark Caughey and Kuda Kunaka scored the tries. A tough fixture against Ballymena in October saw the team show some great spirit and character after a weak first half performance with Josh Craig, Caughey, and McLarnon showing steely determination to keep the score-line respectable.

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The largest win of the season was to follow when Rainey Endowed visited Roughfort grounds. A rare start for a full-strength side made a considerable difference in a match that will be remembered for one of the tries of the season with Conor O’Neill and Lewis Donaldson exchanging a number of excellent off-loads before placing the ball between the posts. Positive performances led to deserving tries for Michael Bradley and Philip Rowan, helping the team to a fantastic 53-7 victory.

A tight 17-17 draw against Regent House in November saw speedster Roy Chia run the length of the pitch, beating most of the opposing team members on his way to scoring the try of the game. Gritty performances from William Watty, Ryan Lightowler, Dean Harrison, and Cianan Gutermann epitomised the mental resilience within the team.

Unfortunately, the season quickly fizzled out following the Christmas break when a close 20-15 loss to

U13 A XV Played 20

Won 12

Drew 1

Lost 7

2011-12 was an encouraging season for a talented and hard-working U13A rugby team. This promise is reflected in the record above, especially when one considers that they lost four of their first five games.

The side was led by a ferocious front row comprising Marica, Borne and McCorry. These three were joined in the tight-five by a combination of Cairns, McGaughey, Ireland and the two Godfreys. The backrow was virtually ever-present and contained the energy of Russell at blind-side, the destructive Saunders at Number 8, and the terrier McCracken on the open-side.

The side was fortunate to have two very talented scrum-halves, McAuley and Osborne, who alternated throughout the season. Burton, the out-half, used his significant distributional skills to feed McMahonBeattie and Davidson in the centre and, often, Purcell and Dickson on the wings. The side was usually completed by the robust McMurray at full-back, before an operation ended his season early.

I am looking forward to working with the same group of boys in 2012-13 and hope to be writing about fulfilled potential this time next year.

M.R.S.

The Owl 2012

U13 B XV The U13 ‘B’ rugby team had a successful season, winning more games than they lost, and achieving big wins against Ballymena, Ballyclare and others. A number of players progressed to play for the ‘A’ team, including: Cameron McGaughey, Rorie Godfrey, Daniel Allen, Jason Stubbs and Chris McConnell.

These were supplemented by a number of other talented boys who will feature strongly for the Academy in the future. The team was ably coached by Mr Graeme Young and, on behalf of the boys, I would like to thank him for the considerable energy and enthusiasm which he showed throughout the year.

M.R.S.

FORM I The Form I rugby squad consisted of approximately 40 boys. There were practices on a Monday afternoon

and a Saturday morning as well as their timetabled games session. All the boys acquitted themselves well throughout the season. There were 10-a-side games against the Boys’ Model and Carrick Grammar School in an early season tournament which we won convincingly.

There was a close encounter with Regent Grammar which we lost narrowly having played very well.

The fifteen-a-side games began after Christmas and resulted in a victory by two tries over Coleraine Inst. There were further games against Dalriada and Ballyclare, both of which ended in defeat. There is considerable potential in the side and this was realised in the final tournament of the year at Coleraine Inst. We were in a very difficult group and, despite losing our three games, we played very well losing narrowly to Campbell in the Plate semifinal. I would like to thank Mr Bell and Mr Patterson for their help throughout the season and wish the entire squad of boys all the best for the future.

I.M.G.

BOYS’ HOCKEY 1st XV With many experienced Middle Sixth pupils in the team, the 1st XI enjoyed a successful season. The campaign started well with friendly wins over Regent House and Wallace and a narrow defeat to a strong RBAI side. The team gelled together well in these opening games, with the central defensive pairing of Christopher McVeigh and Adam Walsh looking particularly strong. In attack, Duncan Taylor and Michael Stewart linked the play well, while the pace of John McBride, Angus Moore and Niall Bradley was constantly a threat.

The Prior Shield got off to a slow start with a draw against Regent House. This was followed by a narrow victory over Bangor Grammar, and convincing wins

against Wellington and Laurelhill Community College, setting up a deciding match against Sullivan for semifinal qualification. The boys rose to the occasion, playing their best hockey of the season to win 2-1 and progress to the semi-finals for the first time in recent years. Captain Christopher McVeigh was man of the match, leading from the front with commitment and excellent tackling.

This result was followed by an impressive 4-2 win against a strong Friends’ side ahead of the crucial semifinal against Wallace. Wallace, however, proved to be the better side on the day, winning 3-1 to qualify for the final, despite a battling performance from the homeside. Credit must go to the players for their achievement in reaching the semi-finals; some of the hockey along the way was excellent.

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The disappointment of losing in the Prior Shield was followed by a very frustrating defeat to Antrim Grammar in the Burney Cup. Despite this, the boys made the most of the season and ended with a very enjoyable tour of Dublin to support Ireland in the Olympic Qualifiers and play against several Dublin schools. A thrilling win against Wesley College was followed by defeat to St. Andrews and Sutton College, but the standard of hockey was extremely high and the boys rose to the challenge.

Mr Lunn and I would like to thank the team for their commitment and hard work over an enjoyable season.

We wish the departing Middle Sixth boys success in the future, both on and off the hockey field.

A.G.F.

COLTS 168

The 2011-2012 season was a relatively successful one for the Colts XI, progress was made in the Taylor Cup to the semi-final stage, but ultimately there was no silverware to show. Much progress was made throughout the season and many of those who started on the Colts were already staking a claim for a 1st XI place before the season was done.

The playing record of matches won wouldn’t make the most impressive reading. However, there was very evident improvement both in results and in the less tangible ‘progress’ category during the course of the season.

Daryn McMeekin was the goalkeeper with the penchant for the spectacular. He made many notable diving saves, that other ‘keepers would not have been able to make. However, he sometimes employs these acrobatics needlessly and it has a tendency to leave him exposed to the rebound.

The back-four was often held together by Callum Shields and in the Taylor Cup games we were reliant on his big hitting to get the ball out from the back. He has tidy stick skills and was a wilful competitor, but his stamina was occasionally found wanting by the end of the game. His strikes at short corners amounted to a significant proportion of our goals.

Callum was partnered in the centre of defence by Neil McAllister. Neil was a good foil for Callum.

He was a disciplined man-marker and had ‘a good engine’. Sometimes he had a tendency to panic when in possession; he needs to be aware that that he often has more time to get his head up and find a pass than he thinks. In the Taylor Cup James Bingham took over from Neil. He has tremendous ability and a good clean hit. He is comfortable and composed on the ball. However, as with Callum his engine did have a tendency to splutter in the latter part of the game.

Jordan Shaw was used equally at half-back or in midfield, showing his versatility. He has tidy stick skills and brought a thoughtful, considered mind-set to the role. He needs a bit more belief in himself and conviction if he is to realise his full potential on the hockey pitch. Danny Worsell emerged as a left-back

The Owl 2012

option over the course of the season. His improvement was exponential. He is fit and strong and brave in the tackle. He has a good slap hit, a useful tool for any leftback, and brought a level of fitness to the back-four. I expect as he continues to improve he should make the left-back place his own on the 1st XI next season.

James Carey was our first choice right-back. He has great pace and strength as he supported the attack and defended stoically. He is a fearless competitor who could always be relied upon to give 100%. Improvement could be made in his stick skills, particular in tight corners of the pitch. He also needs to develop a bit more vision and composure; occasionally he has a tendency to just shovel the ball on without sufficient thought for where it is going to.

Alan Jones was our second option at right-back and made significant progress throughout the year. I particularly remember a fine performance away to Banbridge, where he was competitive and combative.

He needs to be stronger on the ball and try to develop a more effective hit.

Ryan McAlister and Oliver McGowan had the ability to offer versatility. This on occasion frustrated them as they had to put up with the coach’s occasionally whimsical approach to selection - they were often asked to play left-back and right-wing in the same game.

Ryan has a good understanding of the type of movement required, a competitive instinct and a thought process as to what he is trying to do. He needs to get his centre of gravity a bit lower to the ground; sometimes he lost possession of the ball needlessly because the opponent was lower in the tackle. If he can bend his knees more, his output will be greater.

Oliver, through musical commitments, was not always available. He tried tirelessly for the team when he was there. He tackled manfully and covered a large proportion of the pitch. He needs more composure when he is on the ball and to link up more effectively with his teammates as we move forward.

Mark Kerr provided a bit of steel in his own inimitable fashion. He was our most fiercely competitive player, but he needs to ensure that what he says to teammates on the pitch is encouraging and constructive. He had a good eye for the goal and his stick skills showed a measure of improvement during the course of the season. In the Taylor Cup games Mark’s absence from the unit was noticeable as his leadership was missed.

Alan Curtis was our most naturally gifted player. His performances with this team were largely limited to the

Taylor Cup. He is an impressive athlete and gave every sinew of effort each time he stepped on to the pitch. He has all the natural attributes; tidy stick skills, a good solid hit, pace and power. On occasion matching him in the games I found myself willing him to assume a bit more leadership and control within the team. He has the ability to be a very good hockey player.

James Donaghy was the final of the Sixth Form contingent who played in our friendly matches, but not in the Taylor Cup. When he was there his input was impressive. He had pace on the right-wing or at right mid-field. However, he had a tendency to go it alone too often. He needs to be more aware of his teammates around him if he is to have greater impact on the game.

Chris Roe was employed at centre-midfield or centreforward. He started to make an impression on the 1st XI before the season was out. He runs around the pitch admirably, but on occasion he chases after the ball on his own in a way that is not always helpful for the team. He also has a bad habit of playing with only one hand on the stick. Sometimes this can cost him and the team possession. Having said all of that he is a great competitor and has the ability to take defenders on and beat them in a way few others on the team can. He also scored more goals than anybody else from open play.

The final two regulars with the team were Chris Jones and Mark Johnston. They were utilised up front. Mark needs to get stronger on the ball. He has some good tricks in possession, but too often he was too flimsy on the ball. If he can get lower and into a stronger body position he should be able to correct this. Chris like his twin brother needs to learn to hit the ball with more conviction. He has a good positional sense but like many others in the team needs to add a bit more conviction into his play.

Overall, while they were not the most talented group of hockey players anybody has had the pleasure of working with they were a good bunch, who seemed to enjoy the games. The run to the semi-final of the Taylor Cup, where we lost to a very strong Portadown side, the eventual winners, was a tangible reward for their efforts throughout the season. I hope that they will continue to play hockey next season and look forward to working with many of them again.

M.G.H.

U14 XI The U-14 Boys’ Hockey Team is made up of Form II and III players, with good experience now of school hockey, and several Form I players; some playing hockey for the first time.

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As a result, the team relies heavily on several key players and it is a steep learning curve for the inexperienced Form I players.

The season started slowly, with losses to Wallace, RBAI and Banbridge. However, a 3-0 victory against Friends’ gave the team much encouragement and they were motivated greatly by this victory. Owen Kinnear (FIII) scored two excellent goals and Conor Foster (FI) scored the third, showing much promise as a Form I forward. In the return match against Friends’ an enthralling match ended 5-5! The match involved BRA playing without a goalkeeper, Owen Kinnear scoring four goals then leaving to play rugby and a last minute equaliser by Friends’ - not for the faint-hearted!

In the Bannister Bowl Cup competition the team was drawn away to a strong Sullivan Upper side. In horrendous conditions we were 5-0 down at half-time and all we could do was play for pride in the second half; which the boys did, by only conceding one goal in the second half.

Despite exiting the Cup, the team showed great character in their next match by winning 2-1 against Regent House and ending the season with a 1-1 draw against Bangor.

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John Miller (FIII) led the team well as captain, and showed a determined and skilled approach. The combination of Ben Irvine (FIII) and Richard Ware (FII) was key in a well tested central defence. Strong, athletic and skilful performances from Thomas Carey and Jason Roe (both FII) were crucial in mid-field. The ‘poaching’ and aggressive play from Owen Kinnear at centre-forward made the difference in tight matches.

The team showed great development in character and skill throughout the year and it was a pleasure to coach them.

K.L.

The Owl 2012

GIRLS’ HOCKEY For the 2011/12 season we fielded our usual four Senior and four Junior teams every Saturday in our block fixtures. Also every Saturday morning our Form I club ran, coached again by Neil Hermon and Louise Mellor.

Louise is an ex-pupil who has helped coach the First Form and the Mini section since leaving school to study medicine. Unfortunately, Louise can no longer coach for us as she has just qualified and taken up a post in London. We wish her well!

the training squad for a second year at this level.

Neil Hermon has also given a fantastic commitment to our Form I hockey over the years and we are lucky that he can continue to do so despite now having other coaching commitments.

Incredibly the 1st XI record finished exactly the same as last season! It was however a more successful season as we reached the quarter-final stage of the Senior Schools’ Cup for the first time in 10 years.

The Owls’ Cup is presented every year to the most successful team and this year it was won by the Under 13 team who lost only four games all season. They won the South Antrim league by winning all their matches.

The team was strongly led by Captain Erin Getty. Erin went on to play for Ulster U15s along with Abbie Brown. Both girls had represented the U15 Belfast team along with Lucy Miller.

After getting a ‘bye’ past the 1st round we travelled to Dungannon Royal and fought out a 1-1 draw which stayed the same after extra-time. After five penalty strokes each of the teams were still level on 4-4 taking the game in to sudden death.

Both Erin and Abbie played on the U15 Ulster team who were invited to play in and won the annual youth tournament hosted by a Dutch club based in Amstelveen, a fantastic experience and achievement.

We had other girls with representative honours, most notably Faye Kidd who represented Ireland at Under 16 level and also played an international tournament in Holland.

Anna Hutchinson and Holly Reid won a gold medal playing for the Belfast Area U17s and both girls earned themselves an Ulster trial, Anna has been included in

Emily Reid our 1st XI captain played for the Ulster U21s at the Inter-provincial tournament in Cork.

1st XI Played 19

Lost 7

Drawn 2

Won 10

Anna Hutchinson stepped up to score a superb stroke followed by a top-drawer save from keeper Lucy Dugan to put us through to the next round. Grosvenor was our next opponent and this time extra-time was not required as we won 4-0. Unfortunately, for the quarterfinal match against Strathearn we were on the receiving end of a 4-0 defeat, and so it was the end of our Cup run for another season.

In the South Antrim league the 1st XI finished runnersup to Ballyclare High, winning five out of their six matches with their only loss being to Ballyclare who were also the 2012 Schools’ Cup winners.

Unfortunately, we lose 6 of the girls who played on this year’s 1st XI and will have to look to rebuild next season.

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and a will-to-win attitude. The success of this year’s team was down to a group of girls from Form IV – MVI who bonded as a team very quickly. This was due to their captain Lauren McKay, a popular and enthusiastic player who led by example, both at training and during matches. Team morale and spirit remained high throughout the season. It was a great pleasure to work with such a dedicated, exuberant group of girls.

2A XI The 2As were captained by a committed Katie O’Neil, who ended up playing for the 1st XI as well every week.

Due to various reasons the 2As ended up only playing 14 matches this season. They managed only five wins and one draw.

They had been unlucky in their Cup competition to go out to Belfast High on penalty strokes and the lack of consistency was in part due to an ever-changing team.

One player that didn’t change was Beth Marsh our goalkeeper who regularly displayed excellent performances and was rewarded with some 1st XI team appearances.

This season the 2B XI came second to Ballyclare High School in the South Antrim Schools’ League. The League consisted of Antrim Grammar, Ballyclare High School, Belfast High School, Carrick Grammar and Larne Grammar. The girls won against Larne and Belfast High drew against Antrim and very narrowly lost in the last minute against Ballyclare High School.

Every season the girls compete in the 3rd XI Cup which begins in October. The matches were played in an initial group stage. The girls produced three excellent results which enabled them to progress into the next round. Unfortunately, we were beaten by Rainey Endowed. The results from our section:-

3rd XI Cup Results Group Section

Thank you to Mr.Dorman for all his hard work and commitment in working alongside me in taking the 1st XI and 2As. N.N.

Belfast High Strathearn

Won 1-0 (Goal scorer: Hilary Ferris) Won 3-0 (Goal scorers: Hilary Ferris, Katie Nixon and Hannah Allen) Sullivan Upper Won 1-0 (Goal scorer: Hilary Ferris) Second Round Rainey Endowed Lost 2-0 As a special thanks to the team for working so hard and showing commitment throughout the season, they were rewarded with a tour to Edinburgh in February. It was a very successful and enjoyable way to end the 2011/12 season.

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2B XI Played Won Drew Lost 22 14 4 4

Player of the Year: Hannah Allen

Top Goal Scorer: Hilary Ferris Most Improved Player: Emma Gray Captain: Lauren McKay Vice-Captain: Samantha Branagh The 2B XI this season was a fantastic team. Players always arrived to training and matches with enthusiasm

The four MVI girls leaving this year will be missed.

I hope that Lauren, Samantha, Sophie and Paula will carry on playing hockey at university or club level.

Special thanks must go to Lauren McKay, who made an excellent Captain, motivating and encouraging her team. Her organisational and leadership skills have been second to none.

Squad: (GK) Lucy Browne, (SW) Lauren McKay, (RB) Emma Gray, (CB) Hannah Allen, (LB) Sophie Allen, (RL) Samantha Branagh, (CL) Paula O’Hare/ Sarah Smith, (LL) Charis Hanna, (RW) Katie Nixon, (CF) Hilary Ferris, (LW) Alex Devine.

J.R.S.

The Owl 2012

Captain’s Report The 2B XI had a great season this year! The nicknamed “Dream Team” was placed second in the South Antrim Schools’ 2B XI League and BRA was also placed second overall with 24 points, narrowly losing out to Ballyclare High School by two points! This is an incredible achievement not only for the 2B XI but for BRA hockey as a whole.

enjoy the rest of their hockey careers as much as I have and that they can pass on a little bit of our team-spirit to the younger girls who are moving up. It has been an honour to play with all of you and I will miss you all.

Thank you.

Lauren McKay (MVI)

As well as the league we had a brilliant run this year in the Cup winning the group stages and reaching the quarter-finals, which is one of the best achievements for a 2BXI in the last few years.

The success of the team was evident throughout the season with good wins against very strong hockey schools including Victoria College and Methodist College.

Each individual in the team this year could not have worked or trained harder and everyone gave of their absolute best in every match of the season. Not only did the girls train hard, but they came to training and matches with an abundance of enthusiasm that was infectious throughout the team. In my personal opinion the team performed so well this year due to both the talent of all the players and also the relationships within the team as a whole. The team this year became very close and lasting friendships were formed, dubbed our very own ‘hockey family’ with staff included!

The highlight of our season was when we were permitted our very own 2B XI tour to Edinburgh. The girls even did some of their own fundraising for tour through bun sales! We stayed in the Premier Inn Haymarket in Edinburgh, only a short walk from the main shopping streets! During our time there we played St. George’s (a very strong hockey school) and drew 0-0 which was a brilliant result, despite a BRA goal being disallowed.

The team enjoyed a dinner at the Hard Rock Café that night in the city centre and spent the next day visiting Edinburgh Castle, The Royal Mile and catching up on retail therapy! Those of us who were brave enough also took a trip to the dungeons!

Very special thanks must be given to our coach Mrs Shaw who was very patient and caring with us throughout the season, listening to our nonsense chat and allowing all the birthday celebrations at training.

Due to her enthusiastic and supportive coaching the team was willing and excited to go to every training session and every match. The success and enjoyment of this season would simply not have been possible without our coach.

Finally, I would like to thank the girls themselves. To the girls who are leaving with me this year I wish them all the best for the future in whatever they choose to do.

To the girls who still have time left at BRA, I hope they

3rd XI Played Won Drew Lost

12 7 3 2

Player of the Year: Mykila Donaldson

Top Goal Scorer: Lauren Crothers Most Improved Player: Leah Baillie Captain: Kelly-Anne Rainey

Vice Captain: Orlagh McBriarty The 2011/2012 season proved to be a most enjoyable experience for the team with a range of players from Form IV to LVI. We made a positive start to the season playing away to Regent House and beating them 1-0.

We continued our winning streak until January, only losing to Methody 1-0 in a tight game.

There were eight players who had just moved up from the U14s. The step up from Junior to Senior level was at first a challenge, but the team quickly established themselves as a most capable side with many excellent wins against Belfast High School, Glenlola, Bloomfield, Strathearn, Victoria College and Larne Grammar. Congratulations to Lauren Crothers from Form IV who was this year’s top goal scorer. Our player of the year Mykila Donaldson acted as a reserve for the 2B XI. She played on many occasions and always showed her versatility and commitment to whatever team she was asked to play for.

We finished the season with a home game against Friends’ School. The match had to be abandoned in the first half as one of our forwards, Megan Bingham took a ball to the head after a deflection off a stick.

Megan was a true sport and was still smiling even when injured! The rest of the team and I admired her bravery.

Thankfully Megan wasn’t badly injured and returned to school on Monday to show us her war wounds!

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I would like to make special mention of our Captain, Kelly-Anne Rainey, who led by example with her helpful, organised and pleasant manner as she performed her duties throughout the season. I would also like to thank Orlagh McBriarty for stepping up to the role as Captain when Kelly-Anne was injured.

Many thanks go to the girls for their commitment and effort this season. The team members worked very hard to produce their best in games. With continued effort and determination many of the 3rd XI will be representing higher teams next year. I therefore wish them every success at these levels.

Squad: (GK) Lucy Browne, (SW) Kate Taggart, (RB) Melissa Moffett, (CB) Mykila Donaldson, (LB) KellyAnne Rainey/Amy Hunter, (RL) Niambh Benson/Alex Kyle, (CL) Orlagh McBriarty, (LL) Helen Diamond, (RW) Leah Bailie, (CF) Elizabeth Sinclair/Megan Bingham, (LW) Lauren Crothers, Rebecca Rowan.

J.R.S. Captain’s Report The 3rd XI had a very successful year this year. Due to the timetabling of Games periods, the team was unable to train together as a full team at any one time, meaning that team bonding and training were all carried out during Saturday morning warm-ups, right before we played our matches. However, this did not deter the girls’ hunger to win, as they learned to work together as a team quickly and without any complaint and this was reflected in our hockey match results.

All the triumphs this year would not have been achieved without the staffing help of our coach Mrs Shaw. Her enthusiastic and up-beat attitude at every training session and match was infectious and every girl fed off her energy and benefited from her fun and understanding method of coaching. The team would like to thank Mrs Shaw for all her support, guidance and laughter provided throughout the season.

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Finally, I would like to thank the team for their dedicated presence at practices and matches for the duration of the hockey year. They were always ready and eager to play and some close team friendships were formed even though very little whole-team training actually took place. I would like to thank the vice captain particularly for being a great support and willingly stepping up to the mark when I was unable to fulfil my role! I wish the team the best of luck for next year, whether they move up into another team or remain on the thirds I hope their next season is as enjoyable as this one has been.

Kelly–Anne Rainey (LVI)

U14 A XI The U14s had an excellent captain this year in Taylor McCombe. This was an enthusiastic and talented team.

Indeed many of these girls will hope to earn a place on next season’s 1st XI squad. Taylor along with Abby Brown, Judithe Allen and Lucy Miller attended regional development training with Lucy progressing to represent Belfast Area and Abby progressing to play for Belfast Area and Ulster U15.

The girls had a slow start to their season but really improved over the year getting into winning ways and showing much improvement as a team.

They were very unlucky to go out of their Cup at the quarter final stage. We travelled to Banbridge Academy for this match and went out 1-0 to a very strong team, the team’s performance and effort could not have been faulted. In the South Antrim league the girls finished a creditable third.

Thank you to Mark Mills for all his help in coaching the team alongside myself.

N.N.

U13 A XI Played 16

Won 11

Drew 1

Lost 4

Captain: Erin Getty

Vice Captain: Lucy Stewart

Top Goal Scorer: Anna Wilson The U13A team had a very successful season. They were a very dedicated and hard-working group of girls, their commitment in trying to improve individual skills and teamwork during games were second to none.

Attendance at practices was excellent.

The Owl 2012

The girls were very competitive for places on the team and for scoring goals. This was a great season for scoring goals. A total of 47 goals were scored among six girls: Anna Wilson (16), Erin Getty (6), Laura Fleck(11), Lucy Stewart (4), Savannah Thompson (4) and Yasmin McClean (6).

We began the season with a great win against Regent House, but then met Methodist College and lost 1-0.

After regrouping, we won most of our remaining matches.

Weather again hindered our progress, with some matches cancelled and others having to be played at the end of the season. Despite this, the girls maintained a high level of enthusiasm and were a pleasure to work with.

We played six schools in the South Antrim League for a trophy. This year, to my delight, we won it. This was a great achievement and well deserved by the girls and a lovely end to the season.

Results: BRA v Belfast High BRA v Antrim Grammar BRA v Ballyclare High BRA v Larne Grammar BRA v Carrickfergus Grammar

5-0 3-0 2-0 5-0 5-1

The trophy was presented in school assembly to the captain, Erin Getty.

The most outstanding player was Erin Getty. Her skills, leadership and popularity helped the team to success. She was selected for the Ulster U15 team, her outstanding skill being noticed by others. Towards the end of the season, Erin was moved up to play for the 1st XI, where she is currently playing.

I really enjoyed taking these girls and look forward to seeing many of them on the senior teams in the future.

Squad: Katy Wallace, Jessica North, Naomi Martin, Erin Getty, Chloe Dawson, Cherie Mcdermott, Caitlyn Keitan, Lori Mcdermott, Lucy Stewart, Savannah Thompson, Anna Wilson, Yasmin Mcclean, Laura Fleck, Jenna McMurtry, Rachel Gault.

B.M.C.

U13 B XI Played Won Drew Lost

12 4 3 5 Captain: Jamie Murray

Vice Captain: Anna McCrory

Top Goal Scorer: Jamie Murray The U13 B team had a mixed season with a number of wins, draws and losses. Attendance at practice was excellent and a great deal of work was devoted to improving basic skills, particularly spacing, passing and tackling. Competition for places in the squad was good and fortunately most players were able to gain more experience.

Again this season, the biggest problems were scoring goals and the weather, the latter leading to the cancellation of a number of games. However, the girls enjoyed the hockey and their enthusiasm and commitment remained high throughout the season.

B.M.C.

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Hockey

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CRICKET 1st XI Winners of the Eadie Shield Played Won Lost

8 6 2 Batting Jordan McClurkin Phil Warke Daniel McFadden Ross Bryans Jordan Carlisle Bowling Andrew Forbes Jordan Carlisle Ben Kane Adam Montgomery

227 runs at 37.8 193 runs at 24.2 171 runs at 17.1 154 runs at 22 102 runs at 17

44.4-3-165-17 44-3-220-15 32-0-177-14 38-2-191-10

The above records do not adequately describe the fluctuating fortunes of the 1st XI’s season. The side approached the summer with some hope, as most of the players had significant experience of 1st XI cricket.

This was partially fulfilled with comfortable victories over Foyle and RBAI (and a postponement against Bangor Grammar School) giving the Academy the Eadie Shield for the first time in its present form.

Wins over Wallace, Friends’ and Ballyclare High School drove the Academy’s progression to the semifinal of the whole schools’ competition, the McCullough Cup. This was a journey that ended in narrow defeat to Sullivan Upper.

These positives must be set against the disappointment of not adding the Schools’ Cup to our list of achievements. After a comprehensive victory over Lurgan College, we were narrowly beaten by eventual winners Grosvenor Grammar School on a rainy Wednesday afternoon, a game which was to prove their only close fixture in the competition.

The team was led superbly by Jordan Carlisle, an outstanding fielder, capable batsman and left-arm medium pace bowler. It featured Jonathan Rainey, Daniel McFadden, Ross Bryans, all of whom return next year, in the top order alongside Ireland Under 19 wicketkeeper-batsman, Jordan McClurkin, and Phil Warke, who returned from the ankle injury which kept him out of cricket in his Lower Sixth year.

The bowling was led by the captain, Bryans, McFadden and Adam Montgomery, a consistent out swing bowler of some repute in cricketing circles. These four were joined by fourth years Andrew Forbes and Ben Kane, both of whom have significant futures at this level.

This was, in the main, a pleasing season. One’s hope, with a tour to Sri Lanka in Easter 2013, and seven returning players, is that we may add one, or both, of this year’s missing trophies in the near future.

Finally, congratulations to Jordan McClurkin, Daniel McFadden and Jordan Carlisle who were the top three scorers for Ulster Schools in their tour game against the West of Scotland Academy.

M.R.S.

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2nd XI The 2nd XI is a vital part of a school’s development in cricket. It is a stepping stone for players hoping to play for the 1st XI next year and gives those who believe they are good enough to be on the 1st XI a chance to impress and often out of form 1st XI players get a chance to get their eye back in. High standards in batting, bowling and fielding are expected, and nothing but a win is good enough.

The 2012 BRA 2nd XI were much more interested in having fun while playing than the actual results, a “social cricket” attitude that attracted the players who didn’t want to play cricket very seriously.

Unfortunately, the commitment levels weren’t high enough and we struggled to get 11 men on the field for many of the games. Those who did consistently turn up for games made up the core of the team, and I feel the boys who played 100% of games should be thanked for their enthusiasm and reliability. They are Matthew Simpson, Jonny McCreesh, Nathan Rooney and Ben Devlin. In terms of results it was a poor season, but every week the boys who played enjoyed themselves and participated fully, which was felt to be of higher importance than the results.

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Nathan Rooney was consistent with both bat and ball, opening the batting and bowling and always performing. Jonny McCreesh, who was Vice-Captain, joined Nathan opening the batting. His big hitting was often very useful, and he impressed with his seam bowling, often opening the bowling attack. From there on, the batting line-up varied. Early in the season Callum Shields played, impressing with his ability to hit big shots and fielding talent before receiving a well-deserved call up to the 1st XI. Matthew Simpson captained the side and scored a few good totals and turned the arm over when needed. Aaron Cairns bowled well throughout the year and was useful with bat in hand. Niall “Duck” Shields is a patient spin bowler, with good batting ability. Oliver Browne was mainly used as a bowler, his “pace” bowling frustrated many batters. Ross Chapa bowled well throughout the year, but was unable to play a few important games.

Jai Bhardwaj was the team wicket keeper for the most part, and credit should go to him for doing so without any previous experience. Ben Devlin was enthusiastic in the field and batted well. Matthew Acheson started to play late in the season and showed batting talent as well as ability in the field. Useful cameos were made throughout the season by Chris and Jonny Torrens, Kurt Martin, Bill Hunter, Cameron McClurkin, Patrick McGeough, Mark Kerr and fourth years David Reid, Suraj Tirupati and Andrew Palmer.

The Season began with an away game against Sullivan Upper. This game could have been won had the fielding been tighter. We bowled first and broke down their top order leaving Sullivan 16-4. At the end of 20 overs Sullivan was 76-8, wickets coming from Cairns (3), Browne (2), McCreesh and Rooney (1 each). Our batting wasn’t up to par, and we lost by 11 runs.

A mid-week game against Ballyclare High followed, and due to rain it was originally shortened then cancelled. We batted first, scoring an admirable 99 off 16 overs, with Kurt Martin scoring 28 and Callum Shields scoring 31*. We had Ballyclare on the back foot, with Nathan Rooney taking a wicket in the first over before the match was abandoned. The match ended as a draw.

Next was our first game in the Duke of Abercorn Cup, away to Limavady Grammar. This was a thoroughly enjoyable game and the 2nd XI’s only win of the season. We elected to bat first and posted a competitive total of 106-7 at the end of 20 overs. Kurt Martin scored 16, Callum Shields scored 26 and Matthew Simpson scored 32. Our bowling and fielding were better than any other game, fourth year David Reid was excellent, stepping up as wicket keeper. Wickets came from Chapa, Browne, Cairns (2 each), Rooney, Palmer and Simpson (1 each). We progressed to the next round of the Cup after a 17 run victory.

We then had a hugely disappointing 10-wicket loss to Foyle in a friendly at the Castle. Bill Hunter scored 22*, but our total of 74 was chased down within 10 overs.

An away game to Friends’ School, Lisburn followed, and we were simply outplayed by a very good Friends’ side; Nathan Rooney’s fantastic run out was the only highlight in the field. Rooney scored 17 opening the batting, and his fellow opener Suraj Tirupati scored 15 before a total collapse in the batting line-up led to a 94 run loss.

Yet another away game, this time a league match against Wallace. We batted first and posted a poor total of just 74. Niall Shields took the only wicket before Wallace got the total in the 10th over. We then played Wallace again, this time in the next round of the Duke of Abercorn Cup at Lisburn Cricket Club. Wallace batted first, setting a huge total of 196, with their opening batsman, Reid, scoring 98*. This total was virtually impossible to chase down, Matthew Acheson scored 15, and Matthew Simpson scored a quick-fire 18*at the end of the innings but it ended as a 121 run loss. This time Mark Kerr, Ben Devlin and Matthew Acheson fell victim to the bowling of Wallace’s female star!

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The season ended with a loss, away to Sullivan Upper.

Sullivan set a good total in their 20 overs, and we offered no real competition while batting, Matthew Acheson’s 14 being the high score in the final game of the season.

At the end of the season, Aaron Cairns had taken the most wickets and Matthew Simpson had scored the most runs.

My thanks go to Mr McGonigle for his coaching and support throughout the season.

M.S. / S.G.

control at 47-2 after 10 overs. The bowling of Tirupati, Kane, Palmer, Forbes and Wilson, however, was remarkable at times and they reduced Wallace to 11 runs in the following 8 overs, setting up a tense climax to the match. The Wallace batsmen responded well to the challenge, scoring 14 off the next 3 overs to leave BRA leading by 1 run with 1 ball to go. Tirupati, whose bowling was particularly impressive, was unable to produce the all-important ‘dot ball’ and the scores were tied, sending Wallace through.

The nature of the game summed up the entire season.

The boys were passionate in their commitment and endeavour, but came up just short in the end. If they continue to show the same level of enthusiasm, and work hard on the technical aspects of the game, there could yet be success in the future.

A.G.F. / B.M.M.

COLTS The 2012 season was a relatively successful one for the talented Colts team. Despite losing the bowling ability of Ben Kane and Andrew Forbes to the 1st XI for many games, they competed well and recorded some pleasing wins. They were captained by Andrew Palmer, who led from the front throughout, and carried out the role well.

The season started with wins against Sullivan and Friends’. David Reid and Suraj Tirupati performed extremely well with the bat at the top of the order, while Andrew Palmer was effective with the ball. This was followed by defeats to Wallace and Foyle and Londonderry College, before the performance of the season against a very strong RBAI side, in which Suraj Tirupati made a half century to seal an impressive win.

There was a slight feeling of disappointment in the Cup competition, as the team was undoubtedly strong enough to progress to the latter stages. That said, there could be no faulting the efforts of the boys as they drew a thrilling match against Wallace, losing only because of the number of wickets taken. In difficult conditions, Wallace bowled extremely well, limiting the BRA innings to 72. There were solid performances with the bat from Kane and Wilson, while there was considerable input from the Wallace bowling attack who contributed 21 in extras.

In contrast, the bowling of BRA was extremely disciplined, giving up only three extras. The Wallace innings got off to a good start and they looked in

JUNIOR COLTS The Junior Colts proved to be a real challenge for us as coaches. We knew their previous year’s wins / losses record was good; they were described to us as a team of much talent and enthusiasm. We were therefore excited at the prospects that lay ahead.

At the end of the season the Junior Colts were awarded the prize of BRA ‘Cricket team of the Year’ with a record of Played 10; Won 8; Lost 2. Noteworthy victories came against Foyle and Londonderry College, Sullivan Upper and Wallace High School. Although the season was very pleasing the boys failed to win any domestic silverware as they came up against a very strong and powerful RBAI team in both semi-finals of their Cup competitions.

Each Monday and Wednesday (barring heavy rainfalls) brought a large turn-out of determined, hungry Colts all striving for the honour of making the Junior Colts XI. There was never a dull moment at training, whether batting, bowling or fielding. The boys encouraged each other when they performed well and chirped at each other when under-performing, all of which

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contributed towards team-building and a strong sense of camaraderie.

There were several key performers, who, on their day could win matches almost single-handedly, but too often couldn’t rely on the support of others around them. Despite this, the team-spirit never wilted.

Francis Collins, when available, captained the team.

He is a young man with a huge potential. He is a very talented spin bowler who doesn’t always get the rewards he deserves. His batting is excellent; his timing of the ball is outstanding and when available he made a number of telling contributions as the season unfolded, especially in the Cup against Grosvenor Grammar School.

Conor Boyd, our vice - captain was an important ‘allrounder’ who could deliver on any given day with bat or ball. A pacey right arm fast-bowler who is unplayable at times was very unlucky not to take more wickets (sometimes due to his balls being too good). He also made a number of valuable contributions with the bat.

Michael Wilson was another who was known for his batting and more often than not, would play the role of No.4 batsman. He has a good technique and often punished the bad ball. He must work on his shot selection to improve further, but he has the makings of a very talented batsman. He also bowled brilliantly throughout the season but needs to strive for consistency with both bat and ball.

David McLarnon is another who didn’t quite reach his maximum potential often enough. He trained very well and showed much promise. He is a very talented medium-paced bowler who doesn’t always get the rewards he deserves. His technique with the bat is good, but he didn’t often have the power to make big scores. With a few more years behind him and greater consistency he will be a very valuable asset to the Senior teams.

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There are many others who made valuable contributions throughout the year. Supporting bowlers included Jack Burton (Form II), who also batted well on a number of occasions, Benjamin Stevenson, who could swing the ball as well as anyone ‘on his day’ and Sam Millar who were all very accurate, and at times, unplayable.

Others who contributed throughout the year included John Mooney, Jason Fleming, Connor McCaughey, Ryan Corry, Niall Gray, Scott Macauley and Ben Irvine. Jack Burton came in for the few Cup matches that we played and never looked out of place.

P.M.

JUNIOR XI The Junior cricket team progressed very well this year.

They started the season with a narrow two-run defeat to Sullivan with Samuel Osbourne taking three wickets for 12 runs. This was followed by a 7 wicket victory over Ballyclare with Jack Burton scoring 34 runs.

There were to be two wins over Ballyclare High when we beat them in the Cup by 9 wickets. Despite a very good effort by the team we lost by 3 wickets to Foyle with Beattie and Godfrie both taking wickets.

In a thriller at Friends’ School Lisburn we won by 4 runs ensuring league success for the School. Down High pipped us in the Cup by 8 runs with 3 of our players being run out. The season ended well with Jack Burton scoring 53 runs and the School reaching the semi-final of the McCullough Cup where we were narrowly beaten

by Sullivan Upper. My thanks go to Dr Bell and Mr Cartmill for their help throughout the season.

I.M.G.

UNDER 12 XI The Under 12 XI cricket team grew in stature throughout the year. The first league match against Ballyclare High School ended in a narrow defeat. The bowling attack of Ben Greenlees and Oliver Lapworth was to be used to good effect throughout the season with Oliver picking up a hat-trick against Ballymena in the Centenary Cup. There were very good performances against Friends’ School Lisburn with Greenlees scoring valuable runs.

The school reached the semi-finals of the McCullough Cup and the Under 12 XI made a valuable contribution to the league points total. There were valuable contributions throughout the season from Carroll, Dodds, Meeke, McDonald, McNeill, Lyons, Minford, Cowden, Greer and Simpson. If these players continue to play club cricket regularly then I am sure they will achieve further success. I would like to thank Mr Stewart and Mr Buchan for their help throughout the season.

I.M.G.

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BOYS’ ATHLETICS CLUB The season started early in the summer term with a friendly meeting in Coleraine against Ballyclare High School and Coleraine Academical Institution. The following week the team participated in a friendly meeting with Campbell College and Bangor Grammar School. Both events were very competitive and successful and were excellent preparation for the forthcoming District Championships.

The District Championships were very successful for the Club with the team finishing second overall on points.

Academy pupils were district champions in nine events and qualified for some 25 events at the Ulster Schools’ Championships. An overview of results can be found below. One of the highlights of the day was the District record-breaking throw by Robert Moffett in the Senior Boys’ Hammer. Other district champions include Andrew Curtis, Nathan Lyons, Stewart Martin, Alex Steenson, Alan Curtis, Ruairi Brogan, Jack Plackett and the Minor 4 x 100m Relay team consisting of Shane Martin, Conor Ferguson, Joshua Hegarty and Aaron Campbell.

At the Ulster Championships Academy athletes once again produced performances of the highest standards. Three athletes became Ulster Schools’ Champions, Robert Moffett (Senior Hammer), Alan Curtis (Intermediate 400m Hdls) and Stewart Martin (Intermediate Hammer). In addition many athletes produced personal bests with Academy pupils qualifying for eight events at the Irish Schools’ Championships. A highlight of the day was the outstanding performance of the Minor 4 x 100m Relay team who produced an excellent performance and were denied glory by a hair’s breadth with the race being decided by a photo finish.

The Irish Schools’ Championships was once again a most impressive occasion. In the sunshine at Tullamore the standard of athletics was extremely high. The Academy boys rose to the occasion and performed very well. To win a medal at this level is a huge achievement and that is something that was achieved by three boys.

Robert Moffett won Bronze in the Senior Hammer, Stewart Martin won Silver in the Intermediate Discus and Alan Curtis won Bronze in the Intermediate 400m Hurdles. In addition to the medal success Alan Curtis was denied a medal in the Intermediate Long Jump in the last round of competition. To reach this level of performance in two events deserves great praise.

Congratulations to Stewart Martin, Alan Curtis, Scott McMurtry and Ruairi Brogan who were selected to represent Ulster in the Inter-provincial Championships at Santry, Dublin. All boys performed very well on the day. Stewart won the Discus competition, Alan won the 400m Hdls and Ruairi was second in the 100m Hdls.

Scott finished sixth in the Hammer.

Alan Curtis’ success continued over the summer as he was selected to compete at the Bedford AAA Championships, he qualified for the final after securing 2nd place in the heats on Saturday. He finished 8th overall in the final on the Sunday. He was also selected to compete for Ireland U17 at the Schools’ International in England in which he ran a PB of 57.18 to finish 5th in 400m Hurdles.

Rory Brogan: 100m Hurdles, Alan Curtis: Long Jump and Stewart Martin: Discus were part of a 40 strong team selected to represent N. Ireland to compete against

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the full Scotland and Wales teams and 5 regional England teams at the UK School Games in the Olympic Stadium. The enormity of the task our athletes faced might be realised when one considers that each of the English regions has a population of about 4 times the number in N. Ireland.

None of our athletes won a medal, indeed none of the N. Ireland athletes won a medal and yet all competed exceptionally well. N. Ireland only had one medal the previous year, a Gold in the Boys’ Hammer. A more realistic and knowledgeable measure of their success can be seen in the fact that all of our three athletes set new personal bests.

A huge thank you must go out to all staff involved, Mr Carolan, Mr Patterson, Mr Moffett and Miss Stewart.

Mr Moffett and Miss Stewart in particular deserve extra credit for their enthusiasm, commitment and expertise.

They continue to be the driving force behind much of the success of this club.

DISTRICT CHAMPIONSHIPS, ANTRIM FORUM SENIOR BOYS Robert Moffett 1st Hammer (New District

Record) 56.62m &

3rd Discus 30.61m Andrew Curtis 1st 200m 24.2secs Malachy McKenna 3rd 1500m 4min 48 secs Nathan Lyons 1st High Jump 1.85 m &

2nd Triple Jump 11.50m Daniel Dass 3rd Shot 11.02m 4 x 100m Relay 3rd 46.3 secs (A. Curtis, A.

McClements, N. Lyons, J. Orr) Team finished 1st overall

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INTERMEDIATE BOYS Alan Curtis 1st 400m Hurdles 59.2 secs

& 1st Long Jump 6.04m Ruari Brogan 1st 100m Hurdles 14.1 secs Alex Steenson 1st Shot 10.66m Stewart Martin 1st Discus 37.91m James Carey 3rd Long Jump 5.82m Scott McMurtry 2nd Hammer 41.40m Rhys Donaldson 2nd Javelin 34.43m 4x100m Relay 2nd 46.8 secs (R. Brogan, A.

Curtis, D. Campbell, J. Carey) Team finished 3rd overall JUNIOR BOYS Sean Rice

Thomas Carey Gareth McAdams

Stephen McCrorry 4 x 100m Relay

1st Junior Long 5.22m and 2nd Triple Jump10.06m 3rd Triple Jump 10.03 2nd Javelin 35.84m and 2nd Discus 36.90m 3rd Hammer 29.00m 2nd 51.4 secs (S. Rice, R. Chia, C. McLaughlin and J. Gill)

MINOR BOYS Jack Plackett Shane Martin

4 x 100m Relay

1st Shot 7.80m 3rd 100m14.0 secs and Long Jump 3.80m.

1st 57.4 secs (S. Martin, C. Ferguson, J. Hegarty and Aaron Campbell)

ULSTER SCHOOLS’ CHAMPIONSHIPS MINOR 4 x 100 m Relay

3rd 55.09 secs (S. Martin, J. Heggarty, A. Campbell, Conor Ferguson)

JUNIOR Stephen McCorry 4 x100m Relay

Sean Rice

Gareth McAdams

3rd Hammer 31.99m 5th 49.56 secs (J. Gill, C. McLaughlin, S. Rice and R. Chia) 6th Long Jump 5.26m and 7th Triple Jump 10.04m 6th Discus 32.64 m and 4th Javelin 39.72m

INTERMEDIATE Stewart Martin 1st Discus 43.23m Alan Curtis 1st 400m hurdles 59.66 secs and

2nd Long jump 6.01m Ruairi Brogan 3rd 100m Hurdles 13.97 secs Scott McMurtry 2nd Hammer 45.17m Inter 4x 100m 5th 46.67 secs (R. Brogan, A.

Curtis, S. McMurtry and D. Campbell) SENIOR Robert Moffett Andrew Curtis Nathan Lyons

1st Hammer 50.82m 2nd 200m 23.64 secs 2nd High Jump1.80m and 5th Triple Jump 11.35m

IRISH SCHOOLS CHAMPIONSHIPS SENIOR Robert Moffett Nathan Lyons Andrew Curtis

3rd Hammer 5th High Jump 8th 200m

INTERMEDIATE Stewart Martin Alan Curtis

Scott McMurtry

2nd Discus 39.92m 3rd 400m Hdls 58.84 and 4th Long Jump 6.34m 6th Hammer 49.27m (PB)

JUNIOR Stephen McCorry

7th Hammer 32.41m (PB)

AVIVA TAILTEANN INTER-PROVINCIAL GAMES, SANTRY Ruairi Brogan 2nd 100m Hdls - 14.1 secs Alan Curtis 1st 400m Hdls - 57.5 secs Stewart Martin 1st Discus - 41.42m Scott McMurtry 6th Hammer - 46.13 m C.M.C.

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Sports Day

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GIRLS’ ATHLETICS CLUB

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Club Captain: Lucy Dugan Athletics Cups - Summer 2012 A.R. Foster Cup - Best performance by a Minor girl - Trinity Geddis Air Formations Signals Cup - Best performance by a Junior girl - Victoria Beattie Glanville Cup - Best performance by an Intermediate girl - Emma Kelso Girdwood Cup - Best performance by a Senior girl - Lucy Dugan

ULSTER SCHOOLS’ CHAMPIONSHIPS 26 girls qualified for the Ulster Championships, many qualifying for two events. There were top performances from: Victoria Beattie 2nd Pole Vault, Naomi Martin 2nd Discus, Emma Kelso 1st Pole Vault - personal best, Melissa Moffett 2nd Hammer, Hannah Allen 1st Hammer, Lucy Dugan 1st Pole Vault and Lauren McKay 2nd Hammer. All 7 girls qualified for the Irish Championships which took place at Tullamore on Saturday 2nd June.

UK SCHOOL GAMES Emma Kelso (V) and Melissa Moffett (IV) were selected to represent Northern Ireland in the UK Schools’ Games in London on Wednesday 9th May 2012. Emma Kelso placed 7th in the Pole Vault (2.90m) and Melissa placed 7th in the Hammer with a personal best of 38.75m.

IRISH SCHOOLS’ CHAMPIONSHIPS The Irish Schools’ Athletics Championships took place on Saturday 2nd June in Tullamore. Seven girls qualified to compete at the Championships and they produced many excellent performances, with many of the athletes achieving personal best performances. Performance of the day was by Emma Kelso in the Intermediate Girls’ Pole Vault, who broke her team mate Lucy Dugan’s Irish record.

DISTRICT CHAMPIONSHIPS 55 girls were entered for the District Championships held at Antrim Forum at the start of May. The Minor team was 3rd, Junior team was 5th, the Inter-team won overall and the Senior team was 2nd. There were top performances from: Trintity Geddis (Minor) 1st Long Jump, Charlotte Anderson (Minor) 1st High Jump, Victoria Beattie (Junior) 1st Pole Vault, Rachel Millar (Inter) 1st 300m Hlds, Anna Hutchinson (Inter) 1st Triple Jump, Emma Kelso (Inter) 1st Pole Vault - personal best, Melissa Moffett (Inter) 1st Hammer, Lucy Dugan (Senior) 1st Pole Vault and Emily Reid (Senior) 1st Triple Jump.

SCHOOL SPORTS DAY Sports Day was held at Roughfort on Monday 18th June. Thankfully the rain held off and approximately 240 girls were able to take part. There were many good performances and a good time was had by all. The House Cup was won by Cairns.

IRISH SCHOOLS’ INTER-PROVINCIAL On Saturday 23rd June, Mellissa Moffett, Emma Kelso and Victoria Beattie represented Ulster in the Irish Schools’ Tailteann U17 Inter-provincial competition

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at the Morton Stadium, Santry. All athletes performed well, contributing valuable points to the team competition, special mention must go to Emma Kelso who won the girls’ Pole Vault.

ATHLETICS NORTHERN IRELAND RISING STARS PROGRAMME Congratulations to the following girls who were selected for the Athletics Northern Ireland Talent Identification Programme: Lucy Stewart, Laura Fleck, Trinity Geddis, Ellen Dalzell and Alice Reid. On Monday 24th September the girls took part in a preselection programme in our school sports hall. A number of specific tests in running, jumping and throwing were used to help identify suitable athletes for the programme. The girls will now take part in an eight-week training programme. Through involvement in the squad the athletes will develop skills that are transferable into other sports and will greatly increase the athlete’s chances of achieving sporting success in the future. It is also a great opportunity to develop their self confidence and make new friends.

J.R.S.

Daire Drysdale 2nd Discus Q and 4th Javelin Mykila Donaldson 2nd Hammer Q and 3rd Shot Q Rachel Andrews 3rd Discus Q Natalie Duff 3rd Javelin Q Holly Reid 4th 800m Hannah Booth 4th Long Jump Relay 3rd Q Team place overall 1st SENIOR Lucy Dugan 1st Pole Vault Q and

2nd 400m Hlds Q Emily Reid 1st Triple Jump Q L.

O’Donnell Anderson 2nd 3000m Q Hannah Allen 2nd Hammer Q and 2nd Javelin Q Lauren McKay 3rd Hammer Q Hilary Ferris 3rd 100m Q and 3rd 400m Hlds Q Lauren Montgomery 3rd 800m Q Sarah McGrath 3rd 1500m Q and 4th Javelin Megan Reilly 3rd Long Jump Q and 4th Triple Jump Charlene McAdams 3rd Discus Q Relay-3rd Q Team Place Overall 2nd

DISTRICT CHAMPIONSHIPS ULSTER SCHOOLS’ RESULTS MINOR Trinity Geddis

Charlotte Anderson Lauren Hamilton Ellen Dalzell Team place - 3rd JUNIOR Victoria Beattie Megan Geddis Naomi Martin Laura Fleck Natalie Watson Mimi Joffroy Abbie Brown Emma Harkens Relay - 6th Team place - 5th INTER Rachel Millar

Anna Hutchinson Emma Kelso Melissa Moffett Yasmin Anderson

Robyn Geddis Clara Montgomery

1st Long Jump Qualifies for Ulster’s & 3rd 100m 1st High Jump Q 5th Shot 2nd in 800m Heat - Q

1st Pole Vault Q 3rd 75m Hlds Q and 5th 100m 2nd Discus Q 4th 75mH 5th 1500m 5th Triple Jump 6th Triple Jump 6th 1500m

1st 300m Hlds Q and 3rd 80m Hlds Q 1st Triple Jump Q 1st Pole Vault New PB Q 1st Hammer Q 2nd 300m Hlds Q and 3rd High Jump 2nd 300m Q and 6th 80m Hlds 2nd Long Jump Q and 3rd Triple Jump Q

MINOR Trinity Geddis 6th Long Jump Charlotte Anderson 7th High Jump JUNIOR Victoria Beattie Naomi Martin Megan Geddis

2ndn Pole Vault Qualifies for Irish 2nd Discus Q 5th 75m Hlds

INTER Emma Kelso Melissa Moffett Rachel Millar Mykila Donaldson Anna Hutchinson Clara Montgomery

Natalie Duff

1st Pole Vault New PB 3.08m Q 2nd Hammer Q 3rd 300m Hlds 5th Hammer 7th Triple Jump 8th Long Jump and 6th Triple Jump 6th Javelin

SENIOR Hannah Allen 1st Hammer Q Lucy Dugan 1st Pole Vault Q and 5th 400m Hlds Lauren McKay 2nd Hammer Q Hilary Ferris 4th 400m Hlds Charlene McAdams 5th Discus Emily Reid 6th Triple Jump Megan Reilly 7th Long Jump Relay-5th

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IRISH SCHOOLS CHAMPIONSHIPS SENIOR Lucy Dugan Hannah Allen Lauren McKay

INTER Emma Kelso Melissa Moffett

JUNIOR Victoria Beattie Naomi Martin

1st Pole Vault 2.90m 7th Hammer 34.79m PB 8th Hammer 32.95m PB

1st Pole Vault 2.91m *New Record 8th Hammer

4th Pole Vault 2.20m 9th Discus 18.95m

BADMINTON

UNDER 14 COMPETITION The Form II Girls’ team competed against Methody, Hunterhouse, Friends’, Belfast High School and Victoria College.

Their results were as follows: • Jenna McMurtry - 4th 100m • Lucy Stewart - 5th Long Jump • Rachel Gault - 5th High Jump • Naomi Martin - 5th Javelin • August Kennedy - 5th Shot • Relay Team - 3rd (Laura Fleck, Lucy Stewart, Jenna McMurtry, Savannah Thompson) UNDER 14 INTER DISTRICT TEAM COMPETITION

Badminton again ran once (sometimes twice) a week in the Sports Hall. The Senior Team consisted of Bonnie Li (FV), Yvonne Wong (MVI), Jenna Todd (FV) and Yasmin Anderson (FIV) and they competed in the Senior Girls’ League. For the first time a Junior team was entered into the Junior Girls’ League and this group consisted of Jenna Todd (FV), Yasmin Anderson (FIV), Megan Bingham (FV) and Rachel Millar (FV). The Senior Boys’ Team comprising Matthew Cheung (MVI), Adam Montgomery (MVI), Joel Auterson (MVI) and Daniel McCarthy (MVI) competed in the Boys’ Cup. All of the teams played admirably and fought every point, often against very difficult opponents. Major Honours were awarded to Bonnie Li and Yvonne Wong for their contribution and achievements in badminton for the school.

S.C.S.

The following girls were chosen to represent District ‘B’ in the Inter-District Competition held at Antrim Forum: Naomi Martin - Discus Laura Fleck - Hurdles NI AGE GROUPS

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Erin Moffett

Megan Geddis

U14 Girls’ Hammer 2nd, Discus 3rd and Shot 4th U15 Girls’, 80m Hlds 3rd

IRISH SCHOOLS’ INTER-PROVINCIAL

CROSS COUNTRY CLUB The following girls were selected for the Ulster U17 team: Emma Kelso Melissa Moffett Victoria Beattie

1st Pole Vault 6th Hammer 33.99m Pole Vault J.R.S.

While it would be false to claim that the Cross Country Club prospered during the 2011-12 season, it is fair to say that a number of our runners showed considerable promise. Should this promise be allied to consistent training and commitment to the Club, then perhaps we can look to the future with some optimism.

As ever, the focus of the season was on the schools’

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championship events. Here, an exciting talent was unearthed in Ellen Dalzell (Form I). Ellen, running in the Mini Girl category, capped an outstanding debut in school colours by finishing 4th in the District Championships, and arguably surpassed even that achievement in the Ulster Championships by placing 6th. Should she so wish, Ellen has a very bright future as a runner.

Club Captain Matthew Donnelly, long a club stalwart, also enjoyed a season of note. Qualifying for the Ulster Championships by finishing 5th in the Districts, he completed the former in 23rd place, having run against formidable opposition.

It is the tradition at this stage to bid farewell to departing athletes who have served the Club well over the years. Emily Reid and Lauren O’Donnell Anderson ran over the country regularly and with distinction.

Both qualified yet again for the Ulster Championships.

Academic pressures meant that Lauren was not perhaps as fit as might ideally have been the case. Nevertheless, she was to cross the finishing line in a creditable 29th position. Unfortunately, injury prevented Emily from taking up her place in the starting line-up. We wish both well in their academic careers and beyond.

Thanks are due in no small measure to Mr Patterson and Mr Cleland, without whose input the Club might not have survived the year. Mr Patterson continued to be a mainstay of the Club, while Mr Cleland demonstrated to its members the levels of fitness and commitment necessary to succeed in top class sport.

J.H.C.

GIRLS’ CROSS COUNTRY Ellen Dalzell of Form I put in the performance of the Girls’ Club this year finishing 4th in the district championships and then going on to finish 6th in the Ulster finals out of a field of 110! We look forward to watching Ellen’s cross country running progress in future years!

Other qualifiers from our district championships who made it through to the Ulster finals were Faye Kidd at Intermediate level and Emily Reid and Lauren O’Donnell Anderson at Senior level.

N.N.

GOLF Our first competition of the year was the Senior Matchplay Schools’ Championship at Dungannon – Darren Clarke’s old club. The course was very soft under foot but overhead you couldn’t ask for a better

day – beautiful blue sky with a light breeze. The team consisted of Matthew Weir (5) (team captain), Aaron Cairns (9), Jamie Dwyer (12) and Pierce Clements (13).

Unfortunately the team as a whole did not perform and did not qualify for the next stage.

The following event, where we were determined for a big improvement, was the Winter League. Our home matches were played at Hilton Golf Club and our away matches at Lisburn Golf Club. Our opposition consisted of Regent House and Wellington College.

We played each team home and away, defeating Wellington College in both fixtures 3-1. Our downfall was against Regent House; they beat Wellington College home and away also. We played them at home and halved the match 2-2 and then they beat us away 3-1. Unfortunately, matches are won and lost on fine margins and they came out on top in the group stages and proceeded to the next round. Again we so narrowly missed out and as a result that was the end of competitive golf for another year.

The other Golf Competition that ran either side of the Easter break was the Darren Clarke Schools’ Golf League. We were paired in this competition with Aquinas Grammar School, St. Malachy’s College and St. Mary’s CBS. Unfortunately, we, as a team lost all three fixtures but this, I believe, was largely due to us giving youth a chance. There were some excellent individual performances but unfortunately, some of our less experienced players were paired against some very able golfers, and despite handicaps being considered, our opponents were often too strong.

Also worthy of note were performances by Judithe Allen and Amy O’Donnell who played in the Ulster Schools’ competitions coming second in 2011.Along with others they also played in the Darren Clark School League with Judithe pacing 5th in the Darren Clark finals day.

Judithe has also been on the Ulster Development Squad for 6 years and Amy has been on the same squad for two years. Furthermore, Judithe played and qualified for the top 16 in the Ulster Girls’ at Moyola Golf Club, the Ulster Women 2012 at Killymoon Golf Club and she was selected for the Ulster Under 18 Inter-provincial Squad 2012.

I am confident, however, that with an extra year’s experience behind them, this group of players will be much more competitive next year. The players who competed in this competition included Pierce Clements (FIV), Judithe Allen (FIII), Amy O’Donnell (FIII), Ryan Corry (FIII), Connor Boyd (FIII), Samuel Osbourne (FII), Connor McAuley (FII), Owen Donnelly (FI) and James Desmond (FI).

P.M.

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Belfast Finals where they fought hard, but unfortunately lost narrowly.

The Junior ‘B’ team played with great enthusiasm and for a few girls this was the first time they were representing the School. Unfortunately, the team did not progress beyond the group stages of the league.

There are many very talented players at this level and I hope they continue to play netball throughout their time at BRA.

FORM I NETBALL The netball season started on 14th September for the Form I girls interested in netball. Approximately 25 girls met each Wednesday after school and engaged in warm-up activities, developing their ball skills and matches. They enjoyed the activities and were always enthusiastic and very competitive.

After Christmas, teams were selected to participate in the North Belfast ‘A’ and ‘B’ Leagues. The ‘A’ team had their first match against Dominican College, who always provide stiff competition, but won it convincingly with a score of 8-4. Amber Vick should be congratulated on her performance, scoring all 8 goals. Unfortunately, they lost their next match against Aquinas who went on to the next stage of the competition, but had another convincing win over Hunterhouse to round off their season.

Junior A Lucy Miller, Courtney Duncan, Mimi Joffroy, Judithe Allen, Hannah Torrens, Abbie Brown, Anna Hogg, Kellie McLean, Emer Gribbon, Emma MacDougall.

The BRA ‘B’ team played with determination and had a good victory over Hazelwood (8-0), but were defeated

by The Girls’ Model and Hunterhouse.

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In May the girls participated in the tournament at Rockport School, where they faced opposition from Belfast and Co. Down teams. An enjoyable day was had by all involved.

H.M.

JUNIOR NETBALL Junior netball has become so popular that we entered two teams into the Minor League this year. The girls trained diligently on Monday afternoons and improved their skill set enormously.

The Junior ‘A’ team won all of their matches in their section, with convincing scores against Bloomfield 14-7 and Aquinas 16-1.They progressed through to the

Junior B Amber Maxwell, Abigail Magill, Amy Collins, Lauren Shivers, Jessica Donnan, Darcy King, Rebecca Briggs, Amy O’Donnell , Louise Ussher.

V.H. / F.G

MINOR NETBALL The Minor ‘A’ team had quite a good year despite being in a very tough league group. In the league we were defeated by Methody, Victoria and Hunterhouse, but won a very close match against Grosvenor Grammar School (5-4). We met Lurgan Junior High School in

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the first round of the Cup and won 4-3. Unfortunately, we were put out of the Cup in the second round by Our Lady of St Patrick’s. Everybody had a very enjoyable year and would like to thank Miss Ardis for taking us every week for training and matches.

Ciara Patterson

With the help of our coaches, Mrs Patterson and Mrs Shaw, we began to co-operate as a team and in a short space of time our skill levels improved dramatically.

Without their help our achievement would be limited, so I would like to thank them both for their time, dedication and hard work.

The team played in League ‘A’ and despite of all our hard work, we did not have a very successful season.

The team showed great determination throughout every single match but unfortunately did not progress through to the finals. However, I think it is true to say that every single girl on the team played to the best of her ability in each match and had a very enjoyable season.

The team consisted of Melissa Moffett, Lauren McCullough, Faye Kidd, Naomh McGuigan, Claire Hughes, Sarah Moore, Kathryn Brice, Hannah McCalmont, Ling Cheung, Lori Turkington, Ruth McConnell and Rachel Miller.

Minor Netball ‘B’ Team The Minor ‘B’ team had an enjoyable and successful season. Out of the four matches we played, we won against Our Lady of Mercy (10-5), Hazelwood (10-7) and Aquinas (7-4) and lost narrowly to Ashfield Girls’.

We would like to thank our coach Miss Ardis for her enthusiasm and encouragement and Mrs Miller for assisting at matches. Thank you to all the girls who were so committed to the team and for coming each week to training.

Hannah Edgar

INTERMEDIATE NETBALL TEAM The Intermediate Netball team met every Tuesday after school. During practice we worked on footwork, passing, signals, calling, fitness and many more skills.

The team was extremely enthusiastic and committed and came determined to improve their skills.

The whole team is looking forward to the netball season next year and we hope to keep improving to accomplish more of our goals.

Rachel Miller (IV)

SENIOR NETBALL This year the girls played in the Senior ‘B’ League and had a very successful year. The team worked and trained hard throughout the year. The team played a number of League matches and were undefeated making it to the League finals.

The finals day was at Lisburn Raquets Club and it was a really exciting occasion for the whole team.

Unfortunately, we did not have our strongest team out, due to illness and other commitments on this day.

However, the girls played exceptionally well against a much stronger side and came runners-up on finals day.

It was a wonderful experience for the girls and we hope to do better next year.

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Lucy Dugan as captain was outstanding. She led by example, motivating and encouraging the team, ensuring each member was at training and playing to the best of her ability. She was very organised and will be sorely missed this next season. Not only was Lucy a great support for her team she was a true inspiration, Lucy was selected to play for Northern Ireland U21s and captained the team on a number of occasions.

We wish Lucy every success in her future sporting engagements.

It was a fantastic year for the Senior team and I would like to thank each girl for her commitment and determination throughout the year and look forward to training with them again in the coming season.

Senior Squad: Lucy Dugan (Captain), Charis Hanna, Emily Taggart, Katie Nixon, Stephanie Stronge, Sarah Smyth, Victoria Sefton, Paula Keenan, Eva Rooney, Sophie Allen.

D.B.C.

BURGHLEY HORSE TRIALS

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On the 31st August 2012, at the bright and early hour of 5:30am, the school equestrian team set off by flight to Stansted Airport to go and view the Burghley Horse Trials on a team-building exercise. The team consisted of Sarah Sproule, Ana Desmond, Amy Wilson, Beth Moss, Kelly McDonald, Victoria Minford, Victoria and Rebecca Beattie, Jessica Johnston, Amber Vick and me (Mimi Joffroy). We were under the supreme leadership of Mr Murphy, our chef d’équipe.

He was ably assisted by Mrs. Roberta Brown.

We landed at Stansted airport for 7:15 am and were greeted by glorious weather. As per usual, a team photograph was necessary during the arduous wait for our bus and allocated driver for the weekend. The next stage of our trip was to proceed directly to the showground when our adventure really began.

Day one was dressage day, and the stars were turned out in their finest to perform an intricate piece, making every effort to accumulate as many marks as possible in an endeavour to produce accuracy, impulsion, consistency and fluency. I am told it was very impressive although in reality, apart from my observations of William FoxPitt I took the opportunity to shop for a nice new pair of sweats. A highlight of the first day was for most members of the team to meet Mary King, the legend herself. As it turns out, I chose my shopping moments wisely as “Dumb, Dumb and Dumber” were shopping and missed the momentous meeting. In addition, on the first day, we had the great fortune to walk the crosscountry course and I was amazed at the difficulty and height of the fences. The fences were aesthetically pleasing in the extreme, with extravagant themes and clearly built to the highest of standards. By way of aside, one of our number managed to injure herself to such degree that she demanded wheelchair assistance for the night’s activities. Dinner was consumed in a humble Chinese restaurant before returning to the hotel where sleep was much deserved, particularly for those of us who had to walk!

The following morning pursuant to a wholesome and healthy breakfast we adopted an economical approach to our nutrition by a short visit to Asda where we purchased our food for the remainder of the day. Day two at the showground was again an enjoyable experience when we viewed the delights of the cross-country competition. Over the course of the events, two friends and I witnessed a horrific fall at fence 21, in which the horse landed in the ditch and the rider momentarily disappeared from view, causing us much consternation. We subsequently discovered that Clayton Frederic had miraculously made good his escape, as did his horse. Following our return to the hotel and after completing our ablutions we dined at Nando’s before an “interesting” trip to the cinema. Suffice to say that Lazarus Beattie had made a remarkable recovery and was able to dispense with the services of our celebrated wheelchair-pusher.

Our final morning commenced pretty much as it had on day two: breakfast, Asda and then showground. The Olympic parade was a spectacle which none of us will ever forget. It was incredible to feel so close to such inspirational athletes. The show-jumping phase followed with the top 20 riders placed overnight based on their previous two days’ competition. The results were somewhat unexpected. The hunts parade terminated the Burghley Horse Trials and it was with much sadness that it also concluded our phenomenal weekend. Our return trip to Belfast was uneventful. We would like to take this opportunity to thank Mr. Murphy.

Mimi Joffroy (IV)

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SHOW-JUMPING On Saturday 8th October the show-jumping team competed at the first round of The Meadows Equestrian Centre Championships 2011/12 (Lurgan). This competition runs as a league with the final being held in January.

The Novice Team consisted of: Jessica Johnston FIII, Victoria Beattie FIII and Amber Vick FI. They put up a good performance to finish in fourth place.

The Open Team consisted of: Anne Sheridan MVI, Sarah Sproule LVI, Jessica Johnston FIII and Ana Desmond F3.The girls won the competition and put themselves top of the leader board.

In the Individual competition Kelly McDonald FIII finished in fourth place with Amber Vick FI in seventh.

Saturday 22nd October was the first round of the Ulster Schools’ Show-Jumping Championships which took place at Knockagh View Equestrian Centre, Greenisland. This Competition runs as a league with the final being held in December.

Anne Sheridan MVI. Shaw: Ana Desmond FIII, Amy Wilson FV, Beth Moss FV and Sarah Sproule LVI. On Saturday 12th November the show-jumping team competed at the second round of The Meadows Equestrian Centre Championships 2011/12 (Lurgan).

This competition runs as a league with the final being held in January.

The Novice Team consisted of: Jessica Johnston FIII, Victoria Beattie FIII, Kelly McDonald FIII and Amber Vick FI. They put up a good performance to finish in second place.

The Open Team consisted of: Pottinger: Anne Sheridan MVI, Sarah Sproule LVI, Jessica Johnston FIII and Ana Desmond FIII. Cairns: Sarah Sproule LVI, Beth Moss FV, Amy Wilson FV and Amber Vick FI. The Pottinger team won the competition by 0.34 seconds which put them top of the leader board; Cairns team finished on four faults which was good enough to put them third. In the Individual competition Amber Vick FI had the fastest time of the day to win the competition.

In the Novice Team event we had 2 teams competing: Currie: Amber Vick FI, Jessica Johnston FIII, Victoria Minford FIII and Kelly McDonald FIII. Shaw: Amber Vick FI, Mimi Joffroy FIII, Victoria Beattie FIII and Jessica Johnston FIII.

Saturday 19th November was the second round of the Ulster Schools’ Show-Jumping Championships which took place at Knockagh View Equestrian Centre, Greenisland. This Competition runs as a league with the final being held in December.

BRA’s Currie team produced three faultless rounds to get into the jump-off. Amber and Jessica were selected to go against the clock and they produced excellent times to win the competition by four seconds; the Shaw team finished in ninth place.

In the Novice Team event: Currie: Amber Vick FI, Kelly McDonald FIII, Mimi Joffroy FIII and Victoria Beattie FIII. BRA’s Currie team produced three faultless rounds to get into the jump-off. Amber and Mimi were selected to go against the clock and they produced excellent times to finish in second place just one second behind Cambridge House. This result put BRA top of the leader board.

In the Open Team event: Pottinger: Jessica Johnston FIII, Sarah Sproule LVI, Courtney Ferris MVI and

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In the Open Team event: Pottinger: Ana Desmond FIII, Sarah Sproule LVI, Courtney Ferris MVI and Anne Sheridan MVI. Shaw: Amber Vick FI, Amy Wilson FV, Beth Moss FV and Sarah Sproule LVI. BRA’s Shaw team finished on four faults after the first round and finished in seventh place. The Pottinger team finished on a zero score and had to jump-off; unfortunately they faulted in the jump-off which dropped them to fourth place. This result put them in third place in the league.

Saturday 3rd December was the third round of the Ulster Schools’ Show-Jumping Championships which took place at Knockagh View Equestrian Centre, Greenisland. This Competition runs as a league with the final being held on 17th December.

In the Novice Team event: Currie: Amber Vick FI, Jessica Johnston FIII, Mimi Joffroy FIII and Victoria Beattie FIII. BRA’s Currie team produced four faultless rounds to get into the jump-off. Amber and Jessica were selected to go against the clock and they produced excellent times to finish in second place just behind Loreto College. This result put BRA top of the leader board by seven points.

In the Open Team event: Pottinger: Ana Desmond FIII, Sarah Sproule LVI, Courtney Ferris M6 and Anne Sheridan MVI. Shaw: Jessica Johnston FIII, Amy Wilson FV, Beth Moss FV and Sarah Sproule LVI. BRA’s Pottinger’s team finished on four faults after the first round and finished in sixth place. The Shaw team finished on a zero score and had to jump-off; unfortunately they faulted in the jump-off which dropped them to second place. See league table results below.

The Ulster Schools’ Show-Jumping Championship 2011 was decided on Saturday 17 December at Knockagh View Equestrian Centre. The league was running since October with a competition each month to distinguish which school would gain the title of ‘Ulster Champions 2011’.

Nerves were running high from both riders and teachers as all was still to play for to determine who would walk away with the silverware. The course on the final day proved to be challenging but fair. Schools from all over the province made the journey to Greenisland, some as far away as Donegal. The arena was looking brilliant thanks to course builder Alistair Megahey and the team at Knoackagh.

The Open Team event with nine teams got underway at lunch time with four teams making it through to the jump-off. Riding for Ballyclare High School Lucca Stubington and Holly Wray were first to go in the jumpoff; they held their nerve and produced two fast clears to win the competition. They were followed closely

by Saintfield High School in second and Belfast Royal Academy in third.

Fourth place from Ballymena Academy was enough to put them on 33 points in the league the same as Limavady Grammar School; because of their better place in the final they have been crowned with the title of ‘Open Ulster Champions 2011’ with Limavady Grammar in second and Ballyclare High School in third.

OPEN TEAM FINAL LEAGUE RESULTS POSITION SCHOOL POINTS 1 Ballymena Academy 33 2 Limavady Grammar 33 3 Ballyclare High School ‘Brann’ 32 4 Belfast Royal Academy ‘Pottinger’ 28 5 Saintfield HS ‘Jumping Jacks’ 25 6 Belfast Royal Academy ‘Cairns’ 22 7 Antrim Grammar 17 8 Ballyclare High School ‘Russell’ 4 9 Kilheel High Flyers 3 10 Saintfiend HS ‘Silver’ 2 NOVICE TEAM FINAL LEAGUE RESULTS POSITION SCHOOL POINTS 1 Cambridge House ‘Green’ 30 2 Belfast Royal Academy ‘Currie’ 28 3 St Joseph’s Grammar 24 4 MCB 23 5 Limavady Grammar 21 6 Cambridge House ‘Red’ 20 7 Cambridge House ‘White’ 19 8 Antrim Grammar 16 9 Ballymena Academy 13 10 Loreto College 10 Great day for BRA’s Show-Jumping Team: On Saturday 14th January 2012 the Show-Jumping team competed at the final of the MEC Inter Schools’ ShowJumping Championships. This league was running since October with one show per month. The Novice team finished second on the day and moved from fourth in the league to runners-up. The team consisted of: Amber Vick FI, Jessica Johnston FIII, Victoria Beattie FIII and Victoria Minford FIII. The Open Team won the competition and was crowned as MEC Inter Schools’ Champions 2012. They went top of the leader board by 4 points. The team consisted of: Ana Desmond FIII, Jessica Johnston FIII, Sarah Sproule LVI and Anne Sheridan MVI. Amber Vick in FI rode in the Individual competition; she won the competition and also managed to win the league. Amber was crowned as Individual MEC Champion 2012. Victoria Minford on her new pony put up a good performance to finish 6th in the league.

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SHOW-JUMPING RESULTS FROM PORTMORE EQUESTRIAN CENTRE On Monday 19th March 2012 the Show-Jumping Team took part at NI Charity Schools’ Show-Jumping Challenge at Portmore Equestrian Centre. There were over 70 different schools competing from all over the province. The Novice Team consisted of: Jessica Johnston FIII, Victoria Beatie FIII, Victoria Minford FIII and Mimi Joffroy FIII. The girls produced four very fast times to win the competition beating off some very stiff competition from 30 other schools. Mimi Joffroy finished in 3rd in the Individual competition.

The Open Team consisted of: Beth Moss FV, Amy Wilson FV, Sarah Sproule LVI and Anne Sheridan MVI. The team finished in a well deserved 3rd place.

S.B.M.

SWIMMING CLUB Captains: Larragh Mann Mark Wylie What a tremendous year for the School in swimming:Ulster Novice Swimming Gala - 22 Medals Ulster Minor Schools’ Swimming Championships - 21 Medals Irish Minor Schools’ Swimming Championships - 19 Medals Ulster Grammar Schools’ Championships - 37 Medals Ulster Secondary Schools’ Championships - 22 Medals Irish Schools’ Swimming Championships - 11 Medals

Belfast Royal Academy shines again in the world of swimming. After a very successful Ulster Minor

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Schools’ Championships in October 2011, the School picked up 21 Medals. This is down to the very talented group of Form I pupils who joined us this year.

Their success continued to December and the Irish Minor Schools’, the girls won Gold in both the relays (Maria Del Castillo, Zoe Parkes, Sinead Gourley and Charlotte Anderson) making them All Irish Champs. With the boys not being outdone, they won both of theirs as well (Conor Ferguson, Lui Hurson, Finn Purdy and James Desmond). Conor and Lui won individual medals too.

At the Grammar Schools’ in November BRA won the overall title again and the Intermediate Girls became Ulster champions. 37 medals is the highest ever medal tally won at one competition; outstanding performances from the Intermediate Girls (Eorann O’Neill, Alice Kavanagh, Clara Montgomery and Mykila Donaldson) winning relays and individual medals.

In January, at the Ulster Secondary Schools’ Championships 22 medals were added to the trophy cabinet. Outstanding swims came from Mark Wylie, who left all the opposition in his wake, winning the Senior 100m Breaststroke. The Intermediate Girls again won everything in sight. And the Senior Girls picked up Silver and Bronze in both their relays (Shannon Alexander, Larragh Mann, Andrea Shaw, Seana Harley-Moyes and Kate Miller).

The Senior Irish Schools’ Championships were held in Dublin, Conor, Eorann and Mark picked up individual medals, with Eorann and Conor qualifying for the British Championships in July. The Intermediate Girls became All Irish Champions. Eorann was selected for the Ulster and Irish Squads: Clara Montgomery was picked for the Ulster Schools’ Squad for elite training in Tenerife.

At the British Championships, Conor Ferguson won Silver and Bronze medals in the 200M and 100M backstroke events.

E.A.

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The U14 boys won the League and the Ulster Schools’ final.

The Senior Girls’ team went on tour with the Senior Boys’ teams to Sunderland University in March. We had a very eventful tour. The pupils entered a charity sponsored swim for the university and in an hour swam over 16 miles. During the Waterpolo tournament the mixed team won two matches and lost one. This was a fantastic result considering they were playing older teams.

E.A.

WATERPOLO Captains: Shannon Alexander Fergus Carlin The girls’ Waterpolo team have had a very good season.

They headed to Limerick in January and finished 3rd in the Irish U19 Championship. Two months later they were back in Belfast for the Irish U16 Cup, where they made the final and placed 2nd for the second time in a row.

The team ended the season on a high by winning the Division 2 Irish Senior Women’s League. Eorann O’Neill and Lori Turkington were selected for the Irish U16 Team, with Shannon Alexander and Caroline Montgomery making the Irish U19 Team.

Eorann and Lori will represent Ireland in Cardiff at the Tri-Nations in October, with Shannon and Caroline making their first appearances as Senior Irish Women at the same tournament.

The boys’ teams have had a mixed year. The Senior Boys’ team were without Captain Fergus Carlin in training due to knee surgery. However, they managed to finish 3rd in the Canada Trophy (Waterpolo Schools’ Cup). Fergus was also selected for a second year on the Irish U19 team.

The U16 team played well all season and when it came to the Irish Schools’ Cup placed 4th with two wins and two losses. There was some great play from Tom Donnelly, Ruairi Hurson and David Speers to name a few.

LIFESAVING Captain: Andrea Shaw This sport has really taken off in school in the last couple of years. Not only do we train people to become qualified lifeguards, but we now compete at the highest level: 147 passes in Bronze Medallion, 25 Awards Of Merit, 10 Distinctions, 6 Beach Bronze, 6 Beach Silver, 8 NRASTC, 18 NPLQ (pool lifeguards) and 14 NBLQ (beach lifeguards).

At the Ulster Championships we won eight medals, Shannon Alexander and Eorann O’Neill were Senior Girls’ team Champions. Ruairi Hurson and Alan Curtis won Silver in the Senior Boys’ competition with Tom Donnelly and Robert Bowman picking up Silvers in the Junior Boys’ competition.

At the British Championships in March at Sheffield the Senior Girls’ team won the Rope Throw Relay and placed second in the Medley Relay. The Senior Boys’ team won Bronze medals in the Obstacle Relay. Eorann O’Neill picked up some individual medals along with Mark Wylie. The team collected 20 medals in total and Eorann set a new British National Record in the 100m Obstacle race.

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Shannon and Eorann competed in the British National Surf Lifesaving Championships in Cardiff in April and picked up two Silver and two Bronze medals, another great result.

To top off the year for lifesaving, Shannon Alexander and Mark Wylie were selected for the NORTHERN IRELAND COMMONWEALTH GAMES TEAM, and went to South Africa to compete Mark set a new British National Record in the 200m Obstacle race.

Roll on next year when we are hoping for bigger and better things. The Aquatic Sports at Belfast Royal Academy just keep getting better and better. Keep up the hard work guys!

E.A.

GIRLS’ TAG RUGBY This year tag rugby was introduced to Forms III -V during Games. It proved to be a popular games choice which resulted in some girls joining a rugby club outside school. The girls were taken by two coaches from Malone Rugby Club.

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On Thursday 22nd March 2012, three teams from Form III, IV and V played in a Girls’ Tag Rugby tournament at Malone Rugby Club. The tournament was played in a round-robin format against Victoria College and Grosvenor Grammar. Our Form V team won the tournament. Well done to all involved. We hope that girls’ rugby will continue to be as popular and successful next year.

J.R.S.

BOYS’ TENNIS Boys’ Tennis continued to meet for tennis at the Cavehill courts on Fridays of the summer term. Despite often unfavourable weather, the club members played on enthusiastically. The Club has grown significantly and members continue to display great commitment and enjoyment of the sport.

S.C.S.

GIRLS’ TENNIS Numbers remained high for girls’ tennis clubs throughout the week and on a Saturday morning at Cavehill Tennis Club.

Teams were entered at all age groups, although it is becoming increasingly difficult to get a Senior team as pupils have their examination commitments to consider early in the summer term. Mrs. Nicholl coached the Form I and II players while the professional coach at Cavehill continued to work this year with the team players from Forms III and IV. The Intermediate team was the only team who qualified from their section.

N.N.

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SPORTS COLOURS AWARDS AND TROPHIES HOUSE TROPHIES

Boys’ Hockey

Rugby

Form I

Janson De Sailly - Cairns

Best player during the year

Christopher McVeigh

Form II

Sarcelles - Shaw

Most improved player

Matthew Constantine

Form III/IV Junior Football - Pottinger

Young Player of the year

Overall

Swimming

Jack Kyle - Cairns

TEAM AWARDS GIRLS’ HOCKEY OWLS CUP

(Most successful Hockey team) Under 13 A XI Captain: Erin Getty RUGBY:- FP CUP (Most successful rugby team) Under 13 A Captain: Conor McCauley

INDIVIDUAL AWARDS

Bicentenary Cup (Best performance by a boy swimmer)

Thomas Carey

Mark Wylie

Bicentenary Cup Eorann O’Neill (Best performance by a girl swimmer) Commonwealth Cup (Most improved girl swimmer)

Kirsty Miller

Rugby Patterson Shield Stewart Martin (Most promising young senior player)

Netball Outstanding contribution to Netball Junior Netball Award

Lucy Dugan Emer Gribben

Dalzell Silver Ruari Brogan (Most promising junior player) Honours Caps:- Daniel Dass, David Patterson

Girls’ Hockey Carroll Cup Robyn Geddis (Most promising middle school player) Davis Shield (Greatest contribution to club)

Emily Reid

School Plaques (For playing over 50 1st XV or 75 1st XI matches) Rugby

Jordan Thompson

Hockey

Emily Reid, Jess Kidd

COLOURS AWARDS - EASTER 2012 Badminton Major New Colours:-

Bonnie Li, Yvonne Wong

Minor Colours:-

Yasmin Anderson, Jenna Todd

Hockey (Boys) Major Re- Dates:-

Niall Bradley, John -William Carey, John McBride, Christopher McVeigh, Angus Moore, Michael Stewart, Duncan Taylor, Adam Walsh

Major New Colours:-

Matthew Constantine, Alan Curtis, Mark Kerr, Neil McAllister, Jordan Shaw, Callum Shields

Minor Colours:-

James Carey, Christopher Roe

Hockey (Girls) Major Re-Dates:-

Lucy Dugan, Anna Hutchinson, Faye Kidd, Jess Kidd, Sarah Martin, Kerry McLeod, Amy Mellor, Shannon Nash, Emily Reid, Holly Reid

Major New Colours:-

Robyn Geddis, Lauren Montgomery, Katie O’Neill

Minor Colours:-

Hannah Booth, Rebecca Curtis, Julia Diamond, Taylor Dougan, Beth Marsh, Sarah McGrath, Sarah McGuckin, Clara Montgomery, Beth Moss, Megan Reilly

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Rugby Major Re-Dates:-

Adam Brice, Jordan Carlisle, Daniel Dass, Sam Lindsay, Andrew McClements, David Patterson, Jordan Thompson, Ross Vance, Mark Wylie

Major New Colours:-

Declan Coghlan, Stephen Craig, Ryan Hogg, Eoin Linden, Kurt Martin, Stewart Martin, Max Oates, Jonathan Rainey

Rugby 2nd XV

Minor Colours:-

Ross Bryans, Gavin Gilfillan, Jack Kane, Jamie Laughlin, Nathan Lyons, Angelo Marica, Tom Marsh, Ben Martin, Stuart McCombe, Robert Moffett, Ryan Montgomery, Breandan O’Neill, Joshua Rooney, Dylan Tinsley, Christopher Torrens, Jonathan Torrens, Philip Warke, Johnny Walsh

Medallion XV Minor Colours:-

Gavin Arrell, Ruairi Brogan, David Campbell, Ben Cave, Rhys Donaldson, Andrew Forbes, Pearse Geraghty, Eric Macaulay, Gareth McAdams, David McCullough, Scott McMurtry, Will Montgomery, Gary Nelson, David O’Donnell-Anderson, Peter O’Neill, David Reid, Sean Rice, Ben Sayers, Alex Steenson, Drew Willis, Michael Wilson

Netball Major Re-Date:-

Major New Colours:-

Minor New Colours:-

Lucy Dugan Charis Hanna, Katie Nixon, Vicky Sefton, Stephanie Stronge, Sarah Smyth, Emily Taggart Paula Keenan, Eva Rooney, Sophie Allen

Swimming Major Re-Date:-

Seana Harley-Moyes, Alice Kavanagh, Larragh Mann, Kate Miller, Eorann O’Neill, Mark Wylie

Major New Colours:-

Shannon Alexander, Fergus Carlin, Mykila Donaldson, Ruairi Hurson, Sam Lindsay, Clara Montgomery, Andrea Shaw

Minor Re-Date:-

Alan Curtis, Tom Donnelly, Thomas O’Callaghan, Robbie Shaw, Lori Turkington

Minor New Colours:-

Robert Bowman

Waterpolo (Boys) Major Re-Date:-

Fergus Carlin

Waterpolo (Girls) 198

Major Re-Date:-

Shannon Alexander, Caroline Montgomery, Eorann O’Neill

Major New Colours:-

Lori Turkington

Minor Re-Date:-

Rachael Abbott, Hannah Robinson, Jenna Todd

Minor New Colours:-

Andrea Shaw

Lifesaving Major Re-Date:-

Shannon Alexander, Sam Lindsay, Caroline Montgomery, Eorann O’Neill, Andrea Shaw

Major New Colours:-

Fergus Carlin, Alan Curtis, Ruari Hurson, Robbie Shaw, Lori Turkington, Mark Wylie

Minor Re-Date:-

Tom Donnelly

Minor New Colours:-

Robert Bowman

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COLOURS AWARDS AND TROPHIES - SUMMER 2012 Cricket R.U.C. Cricket Shield (For the most promising Junior cricketer):- Andrew Forbes

John Shaw Cricket Cup (For the most successful team):- Shared: Colts XI Captain: Andrew Palmer and Junior Colts XI Captain: Connor Boyd

Hat Trick Ball trophy:- Oliver Lapworth: Under 12 XI v Ballymena and Dean McLarnon: Junior Colts

Boys’ Athletics A.R. Foster (Best performance by a Minor boy):- Shane Martin R.A.F. Cup (Best performance by a Junior boy):- Gareth McAdams Junior Athletics Cup (Most consistent performer throughout the season):- Stephen McCorry G.B. Taylor Athletics Cup (Best performance by an Intermediate boy):- Scott McMurtry Girdwood Cup (Best performance by a Senior boy):- Robert Moffett

Girls’ Athletics A.R. Foster Cup (Best performance by a Minor girl):- Trinity Geddis Air Formations Signal Cups (Best performance by a Junior girl):- Victoria Beattie Glanville Cup (Best performance by an Intermediate girl):- Emma Kelso Girdwood Cup (Best performance by a Senior girl):- Lucy Dugan Tweedie Cup (For the girl who has contributed most to girls’ games):- Shared: Emily Reid and Lucy Dugan

Girls’ Tennis Minor:- Irish Alvardo

Form II:- Amy Wilson

Form III:- Lucy Miller

Intermediate:- Anna Hutchinson

Plaque:- James Reid: All Ireland, Ulster and Northern Ireland Champion and Commonwealth Judo Championship Bronze

Evans Trophy:- Cairns

Boys’ Athletics

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Major Re-Dates:-

Nathan Lyons, Robert Moffett

Major New Colours:-

Alan Curtis, Andrew Curtis, Daniel Dass, Stewart Martin

Minor Colours:-

Girls’ Athletics

Ruairi Brogan, David Campbell, James Carey, Andrew McClements, Scott McMurtry, Jonathan Orr, Alex Steenson

Major Re-Dates:-

Hannah Allen, Lucy Dugan, Emma Kelso, Charlene McAdams, Lauren McKay

Major New Colours:-

Hilary Ferris, Anna Hutchinson, Megan Reilly

Minor Colours:-

Victoria Beattie, Sarah McGrath, Melissa Moffett, Emily Reid

Games

Rifle Shooting Major Re-Dates:-

Adam Purvis

Major New Colours:-

James Duffy, Eric Macauley

Minor Re-Dates:-

Luke Frame, Alistair Ogilby

Minor Colours:-

Peter Gilleece, Jake Magill

Golf

Major New Colours:-

Matthew Weir

Minor Re-Dates:-

Jamie Dwyer

Minor Colours:-

Judithe Allen, Aaron Cairns, Pierce Clements, Amy O’Donnell

Bridge

Major Re-Dates:-

John William Carey, Ridwan Farouki, Niall McIlroy, Adam Purvis, Luke Taylor, Alan Warnock

Major New Colours:-

Melissa Antonio, Scott Boyd, Daniel Hickland, Aoife McAtamney, Hannah McBride, Rebecca Rowan

Minor Re-Dates:-

Victoria Frame, Pooja Sridhar, Lucy Kinnear

Minor Colours:-

Jason Roe, Ryan Lightowler, Owen Kinnear, Philip Rowan, Chris Turnbull

Show-Jumping

Major Re-Dates:-

Anne Sheridan, Sarah Sproule

Minor Colours:-

Ana Desmond, Jessica Johnston

Tennis Major New Colours:-

Jess Kidd, Amy Mellor

Minor Re-Dates:-

Anna Hutchinson, Emma McAllister, Elizabeth Sinclair

Minor Colours:-

Lucy Miller

Cricket

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Major Re-Dates:-

Ross Bryans, Jordan Carlisle, Daniel McFadden, Adam Montgomery, Jonathan Rainey, Philip Warke

Major New Colours:-

Andrew Forbes, Ben Kane, Cameron McClurkin

Minor Colours:-

Jai-Dev Bhardwaj, Oliver Browne, Aaron Cairns, Ben Devlin, Jack Kane, Jordan McClurkin Jonny McCreesh, Nathan Rooney, Callum Shields, Niall Shiels, Matthew Simpson

Waterpolo Minor Re-Dates:-

Alan Curtis, Tom Donnelly, Matthew Francey, Aleksy Gaj, Ruairi Hurson, Sam Lindsay, Mark Wylie

Minor Colours:-

Peter Bannon, Robert Bowman, Peter Hughes, Michael Kane, Tom Loane, Malachy McKenna, Adam McQuoid, Gary Nelson, Christian O’Connor, Ben Sayer, Robbie Shaw, David Speers

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Ben Madigan CHARITY NEWS

DIARY

A number of charity donations were made this year.

We again supported Operation Christmas Child by collecting 120 filled shoe boxes. There were online donations included with these gifts. £500 was given to BRA’s Malawi Project and £500 to the Chest, Heart and Stroke. For the annual Children In Need appeal we were able to donate £248 and £586 to the Motor Neurone Association. £23 was sent the Children’s Hospice, £20 to Action Cancer and £96 to The Poppy Appeal.

August 26th Mr. Patterson started Ben Madigan as a new P.E. and Prep 4 teacher.

Prep 6 raised an amazing £615 with a Bring and Buy Sale. The proceeds were sent to Action Aid. Thank you to all who helped with these very generous amounts which we hope will enrich the lives of those in need around the world.

Mrs. B. Marshall

September 13th Auditions were held for P4 - P5 boys for St. George’s choir.

29th Parents’ Evening took place.

October 10th School assembly about Allergy N.I. speaker Mrs. Paul.

11th M&M productions gave a performance of

Robin Hood.

12th Lyn from PSNI talked to Pre-Prep, Prep 1 and 2 about firework safety.

13th Jump, Jiggle & Jive visited Pre-Prep.

26th Prep 7 was visited by U105 as class of the week.

28th Prize Day

BOARD GAMES

November 9th Health Action Heroes visited.

18th A Non-uniform day was held.

Enthusiastic board game members participated in a variety of activities on Tuesday afternoons after school.

Everyone enjoyed themselves and this club encourages a relaxed atmosphere which is further fostered by the provision of refreshments.

Mrs. P. Lennon

December 14th The annual Carol Service was held in Whitehouse Presbyterian Church.

15th A Magician visited Pre-Prep.

16th Preps 1-3 performed their nativity play,

“Aliens at Christmas”.

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Some of our new Outdoor Equipment

Dentist visit Pre-Prep Healthy Teeth

Ben Madigan

19th Preps 3-7 visited the cinema to see Arthur Christmas.

20th The Pre-Prep Nativity play took place.

17th Ben Madigan Sponsored Walk.

23rd Pre-Prep visited the zoo.

January 11th Prep 4 visited Salisbury Avenue Library.

Prep 7 had a Bee Safe Event.

21st Ski Trip.

February 29th Prep 4 visited All Fired-Up Ceramics.

June 1st Swimming Gala.

11th Mrs. Bingham brought in her Olympic torch to talk to the children in Pre-Prep.

March 1st Preps 6 and 7 visited UUJ for a Science Day. 5th There was a Book Fair Week.

15th Ben Madigan Choir took part in BRA Spring Concert.

26th Prep 6 visited Whitehouse Presbyterian Church to participate the events of Holy Week and Easter.

Happy y ick’s Da St. Patr

13th Prep 3 enjoyed a music morning at

Fortwilliam School of Music.

19th Prep 6 and Prep 7 tour Belfast stopping at Stormont and the Imperial War Museum.

21st Prep 5 visited Crawfordsburn Country Park.

22nd Pre-Prep and Prep 2 held a Summer Concert.

Prep 2 visited the Folk Museum. ****

May 1st The PSNI visited Prep 7.

2nd There was a visit by members of the Chest, Heart and Stroke Association.

4th There was a Healthy Eating Talk to Preps 5

and 6 by the Dairy Council.

16th Prep 3 visited the Balmoral.

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SKI TRIP After having no trip in 2010 a large group of adults and children were keen to go to Ehrwald. We had a smooth flight and transfer to arrive in Austria, in the Tyrol area, shortly after lunch.

We got “kitted out” with boots, skis and helmets and headed out for a delicious lunch in a local restaurant, pizza being the order of the day.

We stayed in the Hotel Sonnenburg in Ehrwald which had a slope running past the side of the hotel. It was an idyllic spot especially since many of the resorts in Europe had so much snow; an ideal location for beginners and some great runs for more advanced skiers.

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We travelled a short distance on two days to experience skiing much higher on a glacier and to a different resort. Generally the weather was perfect, but we did have a day of low cloud and fog which can make even the most experienced skier slow down.

Once again it was encouraging to see “novice” skiers talk of snow ploughs at the start of the week and parallel turns and black runs at the end of the week.

This was Mr Patterson’s first time accompanying the Ben Madigan ski trip. He was a great asset in helping sort out groups and room allocation before we left and proved to be a competent skier and handy with a screwdriver when a drawer broke!

Mr P. Ingram

The ski instructors were excellent and had a great command of English and the slopes which was proven one day when we had some fog.

****

SPORT AT BEN MADIGAN Rugby: With a large group in the Prep 7 class, the boys were keen to attend training and play some matches against other schools. We entered three festivals: one at Downey House, and two at Campbell College. The last tournament at Campbell was memorable for the attacking style, stout defence and the weather being so glorious that we had to rest in the shade between matches.

The team was made up of mostly Prep 7 boys with a few from Prep 5 who earned their first cap. When we were at our strongest we were a match for any team.

Our first match was against Andrews Memorial from Comber. We had a very shaky start letting in a score close to our own line. We quickly rallied and had some good phases going in at half-time - up 2 scores to 1. We

kept on with more pressure on the opposition running out winners 4 tries to 1.

In the next two matches we faced a useful Inchmarlo side and a large team from Edenderry. We played brilliantly in both matches resulting in a few minor injuries which made the squad slightly weaker, but all spots were seamlessly replaced by P7’s or P5’s. The older boys were considerate of the younger pupils and guided them in attack and defence. I hope that some of the Prep 7 boys will go on to play rugby at a higher level.

The squad on the day: Tom Stewart (C), Myles Ingram (VC), Adem Tepe, Oliver Allen, Luca Johnston, Ethan Hughes, Stuart Wightman, Rhys Cobain, Mitchell McKay, William Irons, Eliot Donaldson, Ben Jackson and Jude Moorehead.

Cross Country: All the hard-work running around the Castle Grounds paid off for both the boys’ Cross Country team and the girls’ Cross Country team this year. The girls qualified in 2nd place overall for the Northern Ireland Finals and the boys qualified 3rd overall.

Rugby Team Photo

In the girls’ race it was a tale of the two sets of twins.

The race was won convincingly by Amie Bradley who finished almost 200m ahead of her closest rival, a great achievement considering there was a strong field of 124 girls competing. Emmanuella Mathioudaki was the second Ben Madigan girl to come in and recorded a top 10 finish. Both girls were closely followed by their

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twin sisters, Ellie and Anastasia. A great run from all the girls involved.

The boys’ race was a lot closer with all boys contributing to a 3rd place finish overall. At the Northern Ireland Championships both teams competed very well on a tough course, but narrowly missed out on a top three finish. A special mention must go to Mitchell McKay who was the first Ben Madigan runner home.

In the Active Belfast Cross Country Challenge U11 Girls, Cara Carson (Prep 7) came third place overall having competed in four races at different venues and Amie Bradley was runner-up.

produced some great Golf and was rewarded with a Silver and a Bronze medal. Tom has true potential and is one to watch out for in the future.

Hockey:

Boys’ Team: Louis Gould, Mitchell McKay, Stuart Wightman, Oliver Allen, Adem Tepe, Odhran Catney, David Service and Myles Ingram.

Ben Madigan Hockey team had a very successful year this year with many wins against teams who on paper looked much stronger. They participated in the Belfast Blitz at Grosvenor Grammar School over three weeks and both ‘A’ and ‘B’ teams managed to lose only four games between them out of the 18 games played.

During the Blitz Ben Madigan ‘A’ managed to beat Sullivan ‘A’ and MCB ‘A’ to ensure that going into the regional qualifiers they were one of the most feared teams participating.

The Ulster Regional Qualifiers took place at Campbell College Belfast and the girls didn’t reach the potential which they had demonstrated to Mr Patterson and Mrs Lennon in the previous weeks. They went out at the SemiFinal Stage and the fact that they were disappointed at

Girls’ Team: Clara Walker, Ellie Bradley, Cara Carson, Amie Bradley, Julia Forbes, Emmanuella Mathioudaki, Zara Watson and Anastasia Mathioudaki.

Golf:

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Tom McKibbin (Prep 5) is one of the most promising sporting prospects Ben Madigan has seen. Tom participated in US Kids’ Golf Ireland Regional Championship at Portmarnock Golf Links and won his category. He scored 37 over 9 holes and finished just 1 over par. Tom has qualified to play in the 2012 European Championships in Scotland alongside 450 players from over 30 countries.

Following Tom’s success at Portmarnock Golf Links he participated in the World Championships which were played at Pinehurst, North Carolina, USA. Again Tom

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Sports Day:

this is testament to the high standards which they had set themselves following the previous week’s performances.

With the disappointment still hanging over them from the Regional Qualifiers, the Ben Madigan girls took to the pitch at Roughfort for the last tournament of the year - The BRA Blitz. The real Ben Madigan team turned up for this one and they didn’t stop running until they had secured victory in one of the best tournament performances the school has displayed. There are many Prep 7 girls who have since moved on and will be sorely missed this season, but there have been signs over the year that there is a great deal of talent coming through.

A big ‘well done’ to all the girls who participated in both the ‘A’ and ‘B’ teams, you have done the school proud.

Girls who played for Ben Madigan ‘A’ - Ellie Bradley, Amie Bradley, Anna Wightside, Nadia Lennon, Clara Walker, Alex Fawcett, Julia Uprichard, Annabel McGrath and Cara Carson.

Girls who played for Ben Madigan ‘B’ - Fabienne Gogarty, Orla O’Kane, Julia Forbes, Laura Meeke, Emmanuella Mathioudaki, Anastasia Mathioudaki, Jasmine Bingham and Kate Handley.

N.I. Schools’ Judo Championships: It has been a fantastic year for Ben Madigan Judo under the tuition of Jonathan Cooke. In the N.I. Schools’ Judo Championships Ben Madigan fielded a team of 11 from Preps 5 and 6 and won the following medals: Jack Bingham (Gold), Louis Adams (Gold), James Russell (Gold), Sasha Mateer (Silver), Kate Handley (Silver), Zara Handley (Silver), Julia Forbes (Silver), David Service (Bronze), Zak Thabeth (Bronze), Jonathan Forbes (Bronze), Sophie Winn (Bronze). In addition the girls’ ‘A’ team (Julia Forbes and Kate Handley) won the team trophy, and the ‘B’ team (Sasha Mateer, Sophie Winn and Zara Handley) took Bronze in the same event.

The boys’ team (James Russell, Jack Bingham, David Service and Zak Thabeth) narrowly missed out on the trophy, but secured silver. Ben Madigan came first out of all the N.I. Primary Schools in the medal league table, a fantastic achievement - well done.

Due to June being a very wet month, Sports Day was postponed several times, but thankfully, never cancelled.

With Sports Day being just before the commencement of the Olympic Games, Ben Madigan decided to make use of the Olympic theme. Each class chose two countries to represent. They dressed in the colours of these countries and made flags from those countries. As each class paraded out, they were met with a round of applause from the onlooking spectators. After Mr Wilson read out the Olympic Motto, the events got underway. The PrePrep and Preps 1 and 2 got things off to a great start with an array of equipment on display. The main event saw Preps 4 – 7 battle it out in many disciplines from sprint races to obstacle races. It was a successful day all round with plenty of silverware on show for the efforts of all those who took part.

Sports Day Cup Winners:

Name of Cup

Winner

Cricket Cup (McClay) Ethan Thompson Athletics Cup (Ryan Moore) Stuart Wightman Athletics Cup (McCoubrey) Amie Bradley Cross Country Amie Bradley Swimming (Jacobs) Mitchell McKay Swimming (Girls) Anna Whiteside Mini-Rugby (School) Tom Stewart McCoubrey (Most Improved) Adem Tepe/

Myles Ingram Hockey Nadia Lennon Physical Education Oliver Allen/Cara Carson Skiing Cup (Cowan) Tom Stewart/

Fabienne Gogarty Peter Thompson Cup Tennis Cup Luca Johnston/Ellie Bradley Gymnastics Cup (Warke) Jasmine Bingham Creative Writing Oliver Lewis Art Matthew Branagh Violin Clara Walker/William Irons Music Orla O’Kane Music Theatre Nadia Lennon 205

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MUSIC AT BEN MADIGAN

COOKERY CLUB

We started the school year with a very healthy level of interest being displayed in our choir and the choir members sang at the Annual Carol Service in Whitehouse Presbyterian Church on 14th December.

They also performed at the Grammar School concert on 15th March and greatly enjoyed the experience. We are wholly indebted to Stefan Tucker and Stephen Doyle respectively for their flute and piano accompaniments.

The members of the choir participated in our short concert during the Open Afternoon and we were able to enjoy listening to the music, both instrumental and vocal, provided by some very talented Senior Ben Madigan pupils.

Our Cookery Club continues to be supported enthusiastically by eager budding cooks and chefs from Prep 3 to Prep 7. We try to provide a mix of sweet and savoury recipes which encourage the children to taste various foods that they might be unwilling to try at home. There is nothing quite like tasting something you have made yourself!

Miss Jane McCartney and Mrs Ruth Wilson continue to teach piano, violin, viola and musical theatre. We are grateful to them for the work which they do and we are hoping to expand our range of instrumental tuition during the next year.

Thanks to Mrs Tyndall, Mrs Del Castillo, Mrs Montgomery, Mrs Taylor, Mrs Lennon, Mrs Service, Mrs Hollywood and Mrs Quinn who helped with the Prep 3 children.

Mrs. S. Sherrard / Mrs. B. Marshall

Examination Successes: London College of Music Music Theatre Nadia Lennon

Grade 4 with distinction.

Piano Clara Walker

Step 2 with distinction.

Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music Violin Zara Watson

Grade 1 with merit.

Flute Julia Uprichard

Grade 1 with Distinction.

Piano Dervla Craig Ella Harvey

Grade 2 with Distinction.

Grade 1 with Distinction.

Trinity/Guildhall Piano

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Cara McGrath

Initial

Merit

Beth Russell

Initial

Merit

Oliver O’Kane

Initial

Merit

James Russell

Grade 1

Pass

David Service

Grade 1

Merit

Zac Thabeth

Grade 2

Merit

Orla O’Kane

Grade 3

Merit

The younger children had fun rolling out pastry and making quiche, pizza, sausage rolls, apple crumble and sweet treats while the older children chopped onions and garlic cloves for spicy pasta, make rocky roads, wheaten bread and many other recipes.

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LITERARY CONTRIBUTIONS

A MYSTERY One day I was in my front garden and I saw a man with one of my neighbour’s dogs. I told my mum and dad and they said, What!

I said I know. It’s really bad.

We all told my sister Dervla and she said Wow! I said again. I know it’s really bad.

We all couldn’t find out about it but the dog was alright in the end. We still don’t know what it was about. It’s a mystery.

Blanaid Craig, Prep. 2

LAST CHRISTMAS Last Christmas I helped Santa deliver all the presents because some of his elves were sick. I went in the sleigh with Rudolph pulling it then I went home and I went to bed. For Christmas I got Lego Witch doctor and a skateboard. I also got a Ben Ten alien chamber. I then went to my uncle’s and granny’s for dinner. It was good fun.

Joshua Gould, Prep. 2

MEN AT WORK One day men were in our playground. We couldn’t play in our playground. They drove a big digger in and a lorry dropped lots of stones. They put in big drain pipes. They put the small stones in too. We went to watch them from outside our class. We can play there soon. I can’t wait.

Corey Mitchell, Prep. 2

MY MAGIC PENNY I found a magic penny one day. I wished for my own swimming pool and my own car. I loved it. Now I go out every day in my car. It’s good fun.

I have my friends to play in my swimming pool every day and we all have fun with my car and my swimming pool. Savannah comes too.

Lucas Thompson, Prep. 2

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CHICKS I really liked the chicks. They felt tickly and soft. We kept them in a cardboard box that was circular and we set out chick-meal and water for them. There was a heat lamp above them. This box was called a brooder.

I liked it when they were running on the floor. There were eight chicks altogether. When they were on the floor we got to go on our knees and stroke them. When I held one it nearly fell off my hand. I just moved my hand in time. The chick walked up my arm. I thought it would fall off but luckily it didn’t. I thought it would have pooed or peed on me. When Mrs Sherrard brought the chicks and when she held them they looked like they were dancing. On the last day their wings were a bit white and they were starting to change colour.

Benjamin Watson, Prep. 3

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Prep Three found these facts when searching the internet as part of our farm topic: Chickens • There are more chickens on earth than people.

• They are the closest living relation to Tyrannosaurus Rex. • A fear of chickens is called Alektorophobia.

• A female is called a chicken, the male is called a rooster or cockerel and the baby is called a chick.

• A group of male and females is called a flock.

• Chickens give us eggs and meat.

Cows

Sheep

• Cows have 32 teeth.

• There are over 1 billion sheep in the world.

• They eat grass, silage and hay.

• China has the largest number.

• Dairy cows can only give milk if they have had a calf.

• There are 900 different breeds of sheep.

• People started raising sheep over 10 thousand years ago.

• They can give an average of 6000 litres of milk a year.

• Beef cattle give us meat and leather.

• Spinning wool into thread began about 5 thousand years ago.

• The female is called a cow, the male is called a bull and the young is called a calf.

• A male sheep is a ram, a female is a ewe and a baby is called a lamb.

• A group of cows is called a herd.

• A group of sheep is called a flock.

Pigs • The pig is the fourth most intelligent animal in the world.

• Pigs are omnivores, (like humans) they can eat both plants and other animals.

• They need to cover themselves in mud to help them cool off and to keep bugs off their bodies.

• A male pig is called a boar and the female is called a sow.

• Both the male and female pig have 2 rows of nipples. The female uses hers to nurse her young whilst the male’s are useless.

• A baby pig is called a piglet.

• A group of pigs is called a herd, but the babies are called a litter.

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THE CLEVER MICE

THE CLEVER MICE

Puss was the one and only cat in the Loughess castle.

One day he was sitting by the mouse hole waiting for Jaq, Gusty and Hop to come out of the mouse hole.

There was a mouse trap in the mouse hole but the mice were smart, they pushed the mouse trap on the cat’s tail. Then there was a loud snap! The cat jumped up and ran. While he was in so much pain the mice ran to the kitchen. They had had a lovely feast of all the cheese in the kitchen. Then the princess walked in and caught all three of the mice and put them outside. Then they locked the door and everyone lived happily ever after, including the mice.

Emma Uprichard, Prep. 4

Once upon a time there was a cat called Zac and three mice called Phil, Phillip and Philippa. Zac was a black cat. He lived in a little blue bed beside the fire. The three mice lived in a little mouse house. Phil slept in a little green bed with white knitted curtains. The curtains were knitted by Philippa. Phillip slept in a blue bed with the same curtains as Phil. Philippa had a pink bed with purple knitted curtains. One day Zac was sitting just in front of the mouse hole. The mice had a mouse trap. The mice attached the mouse trap on to Zac’s tail. One of the mice, Phil, tapped Zac on the bottom. It gave Zac a fright. The mouse trap went off and Zac jumped five feet in the air and ran away. The mice had a celebration. That night the mice went to the kitchen. They celebrated the whole time there in a play car they got in a dump. When they got to the kitchen Philip lassoed a piece of cheese and put it in the boot and went home and they all enjoyed eating the cheese.

Georgia Harvey, Prep. 4

THE CLEVER MICE One day a cat called Lucky was waiting by a mouse hole. She wanted to eat the mice inside. She was absolutely starving. Inside the mouse hole the three mice, Lilly, Bob and Emily were having a chat about Lucky. Lilly and Bob were scared of Lucky, but Emily wasn’t. Lilly and Bob were twelve and Emily was ten.

Emily said, “I know! We can put a mouse trap by her tail”. Lilly and Bob agreed with this so they pushed and pushed for half an hour! They waited for ten minutes then it snapped Lucky’s tail. She walked away in pain.

The mice cheered “Hurrah”. They ran into the kitchen and grabbed the cheese.

Zara Handley, Prep. 4

THE CLEVER MICE Once upon a time there lived a cat called “Billy”. Billy was very sneaky. But Jay, Ella and Thumper were sneaky and clever. Jay, Ella and Thumper are mice.

They live in a mouse hole in the living room. On a cold, winter, night Billy stood outside the mouse hole and said, “I will KILL you all”. Thumper was eating a bag of crisps when he heard Billy say, “I will kill you all”, then Thumper shouted, “AHHH BILLY IS GOING TO KILL US ALL!” Then Ella said, “Don’t worry Thumper, I’ve got a plan!” Ella got the things she needed and got ready. She got a mouse trap and said, “We need to push the mouse trap on to Billy’s tail and then very fast put a fire on his tail!” They started to push the mouse trap then Thumper fell on his fat bum, and said “I am puffed!” Thumper got back up when Ella and Jay brought it to the mouse hold. Ella lit the fire and snapped Billy’s tail and Jay put the fire on his tail. Billy let out a big “Meeoww” and ran away in pain! The mice ran and got all the cheese and lived happily ever after!

Eva Bannon Mutlu, Prep. 4

KIDNAPPED Today was my first day back at school. I should have been back over a month ago but things didn’t go as planned. OK, that’s an understatement. I got kidnapped! Here is how it happened ……

I was at the shopping centre with my Mum, but there wasn’t anything interesting outside Monsoon. My Mum met a friend from work and they began to talk. It was soooooooo boring! I wanted to go to Hollister, the only good shop in the place. My Mum didn’t like Hollister so she said I could go on and she would catch me up. I ran off as fast as I could to get the maximum time but half way to it a man stepped out of the shadows. He gagged me and took me away to a waiting car. In the car he put a blindfold on me. The driver was a woman from what I could tell and the car smelt of cigarette smoke. I hate the smell of cigarettes but then I didn’t care. I concentrated on what I could hear. Eventually we arrived at a farm. The blindfold was removed and they threw me into an old stable. There was a grid in the wall, looking into the next stable. In the stable there was a small pony. He was a skewbald (white with black splodges) and he stood at around 13 hands.

Later on in the day they came for me. They said that they’d let me go if my parents paid the money. Then they put me back in the stable with the threat that if I put a toe out of line they’d cut off my finger. Late that night I escaped. I vaulted and climbed over the door.

Then I looked around for tack. Finally I found some.

Well I found an old head collar, two lead ropes and a mouthing bit, but it had to do. On the horse’s door there

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was a sorry looking nameplate reading Paddywhack. I wasn’t sure if that was his real name but Paddy seemed to suit him. I used some old bailer twine to tie the bit to the “bridle” and used the two lead ropes as reins.

Then we were off, but just as we galloped out of the farmyard, disaster struck. Paddy’s near hind shoe came off and went flying through the window of the big house. The kidnappers must have heard it! I knew that the chase was on, and we had no time to lose.

At a full gallop I hurtled down the track out onto the road and past the church. As we came to the level crossing the kidnappers were right behind us and the gates were closing fast. A shot behind me made up my mind. We were going to jump! Coming into the first one I counted down and strides in my head “3, 2, 1” and Paddy leapt. We cleared it with only inches to spare, the second, one millimetre, and then the bullet hit me in the back.

As I lay slumped across his neck Paddy galloped on.

Eventually I slid off. I had no strength left in me and everything went black.

3 Days Later I was in hospital. To start off there were lots of flowers from friends and family but I asked for them to be removed as they reminded me of funeral wreaths and I was very much glad to be in the land of the living.

Apparently Paddy saved my life. After I passed out the kidnappers caught up with me but Paddy saved me.

He kicked the gun out of the man’s hand and trampled it into the grass until it was no longer able to be used.

Bystanders said it looked almost as if he knew what he was doing. The next day I was discharged. The doctor ordered five weeks rest so I was off to Florida. After the five weeks I came back to school and that’s the end of my story.

Sophie Winn, Prep. 6

OFF TO AMERICA

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The lights, the excitement, it’s electric. The people under the giant lion puppets. It lights up the City, Chinese New Year. “Do you think it’s better than last time, Aki?” asked her mum, Mandy. Her black hair glowing in the red light.

“The whole city is buzzing,” replied Po, Aki’s dad.

“It is almost over Papa,” sulked Aki. “Time for bed now Aki, you’ve got school tomorrow,” ordered Mandy.

“Night, Night,” said Aki.

In the morning Aki woke up at 7.30 am and got dressed to go to school. Her mum dropped her off at the school gates like she always does. “Have a nice day at school,” said Mandy. Aki walked through the main entrance and she waved at Su, her best friend and only friend. Su was pretty, her short, dark, brown bob was always gleaming. “Hey Aki!” she said smiling. Su was popular even though she only hung round me and I wasn’t popular one bit.

We went to English first which was so boring and then the day flew past after that. Walking out of the gates I saw mum, she looked sad even though she was always happy. “Hi darling,” Mandy said with a dull tone. I got into the car and when we got home she sat at the table and said, “Aki, Po got cancer and the treatment that he needs is in America,” said Mandy.

“What do you mean?” Aki asked confused.

“I mean we need to move to America”.

I was stunned, America I mean WOW! “When do we pack?” Aki asked excited.

“Well, our flight leaves in 2 hours so now!” I sprinted up the stairs and packed all my belongings.

I went downstairs with my suitcase ready to go. As soon as we got on the plane I got nervous. In my head were all these unanswered questions...was dad ok? What will my school be like? Where in America are we going? and stuff like that. I ordered a hot sandwich for the long plane journey and waited until we landed. When we landed, we got a taxi to our new house in Atlanta.

“It is way different in China,” I said to Mum and Dad. Dad had to go straight to the private clinic where they checked him out and said that he would need to have radiotherapy but apart from that everything was going to be ok. The house was very tall and when you walked in a giant staircase shone in the light coming through the windows. My room was violet, my favourite colour. The kitchen was an old fashioned country style.

There was an Aga, which Mum always wanted and a marble-like worktop where she can cook.

“It’s wonderful!” said Aki. “Wait ‘til you see the garden,” said Po. Aki ran into the garden, “You didn’t tell me there was a swimming pool!” shouted Aki. “Time for bed,” said Po. In the morning Po had to go to the clinic and the surgery went really well. “My cancer has gone!” shouted Po happily and Aki, Mandy and Po decided to stay in America.

Fabienne Gogarty, Prep. 7

The Owl 2012

CLOSE ENCOUNTERS

ALIEN INVASION!

It all started when in the middle of the night a very light green light shone on my window. I got out of my bed and looked out the window and a two metre alien was on a giant spider. The alien had a ray gun. I ran down the stairs to get my slingshot. I fired at the alien with stones. Everybody got out of the house then the alien shot at us and we jumped out of the way and it hit the house and it exploded into millions of pieces.

On 21stApril a 12 year old boy was taken by an unexpected UFO! He was taken at midnight while he was outside with his friends. One of his friends said there was a flash and he was gone!

After that I felt dizzy and next I was unconscious.

When I woke up I was in a dark room. I got up and looked for my friends. I found them in the room beside me. There were windows so I could see we were at a weapon’s room. There were swords, shields, guns, a mace, a spear and weapons I had not seen. We picked up some guns and had a stakeout. Tom had duel ray guns, Oliver had a Sigmus, Mitchell had a Pyton. We got out of the room. Aliens were everywhere. We fired, dodging bullets and shooting aliens. Blue blood was flying everywhere. Mitchell was shot in the arm and fell to the ground. I threw Mitchell over my shoulder and ran into a room. The biggest alien was sitting on a throne. My friends distracted him and then the alien exploded into green goo. I took the control panel and we flew home.

Myles Ingram, Prep. 7

Two days ago a man was walking through the streets of Belfast alone and he heard squeaking noises and crashing sounds and we think that may be linked to the boy being taken.

The day the boy was taken green slime was found on the streets of Belfast which was noticed by an elderly man but that is it.

Scientists have been working on it to find where this boy is and we have sent rockets up to look for him, but nothing has been seen, although further investigations will continue.

Orla O’Kane, Prep. 7

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Former Pupils’ News

Former Pupils’ News OLD GIRLS’ ASSOCIATION

OLD GIRLS’ NEWS

The Old Girls’ Association has been in existence for more than 50 years. Mary Hyndman was one of the founders of the Old Girls’ Association and our first President. She was a member of the Academy teaching staff and served the School devotedly for over forty years, during which time she had been Domestic Science Mistress and Senior Mistress.

At the 207th anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar Donna Cullen piloted the Fisheries Protection Vessel HMS Tyne into Belfast after months patrolling the Celtic Sea. Lt Donna Cullen has been in the Navy for six years and has spent the last two as the OP’s Officer on the Tyne.

From September 1900, girls who had hitherto attended the Preparatory Department, continued their education through the higher classes of the Academy. In 1923 it was the decision of the Headmaster, Mr Foster, to make the Academy a co-educational school. This important development would not have been accomplished as smoothly as it was had not Miss Hyndman supervised the practical details of the change. Mary Hyndman remained a Patron of the Old Girls’ Association until her death in 1958.

The Constitution states that the aim of our Association was to unite former pupils of the Academy and to engage in social, philanthropic and educational enterprises. Membership came under the headings of ‘Ordinary’ and ‘Magazine’. Ordinary membership included former pupils and members of staff who had been connected with the School for at least one year.

Magazine membership was for former pupils residing in Great Britain or abroad, who would not receive any notices or invitations connected with the Association, but would receive ‘The Owl’.

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Today we have Life Members from as far away as South Africa, Hong Kong and New Zealand. If you are not a member, and would like to be, please contact the School.

****

Former pupil Dr Jessica Thompson was married in St Peter’s Church, Antrim Road on 26th August 2012. Her husband is Thomas Cairns. ****

Christina Kerr, graduated June 2012 Honours Degree of Bachelor of Architectural Science, University College Dublin. ****

Joy Alexander was asked by the London Organising Committee to officiate Track and Field events at the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. ****

Andrea Bingham (nee Glass) 2012 was a very special year for Andrea Bingham (nee Glass) who was selected to carry the Olympic Torch through Templepatrick. And the reason for Andrea’s nomination was especially poignant.

Andrea’s son Ben suffers from a medical condition which, during his mother’s pregnancy, caused his kidneys to be damaged. Since birth Ben has had to have a series of operations (including bladder surgery) and the implantation of a feeding tube. Since 2009 Andrea and Ben had been preparing for a kidney transfer from mother to son. In order to lose the required weight Andrea, who was a Judo Coach at the Valley Leisure Centre, underwent a strict regime of training. Thereafter, she became Northern Ireland Senior Champion in her chosen sport, and then went on to win a Silver Medal in the Northern Ireland Open and a Bronze in the Scottish

The Owl 2012 Open Championships. Ten days after his fifth birthday, Andrea’s son Ben more than matched his mother’s courage by becoming the youngest person in Northern Ireland to receive a life donor transplant. This operation took over seven hours and Ben was in Intensive Care for three days afterwards. Unsurprisingly, given the skill and dedication of the medical and nursing staff who attended Ben, he is determined to become a children’s renal doctor someday.

With their lives transformed by the transplant, both Andrea and Ben look forward to participating in future sporting events.

Andrea was indeed a worthy bearer of the Olympic Torch, and those who would like to read (and see) more about Andrea and Ben will find them online in the Belfast Telegraph of August 23rd 2012. ****

Nia Campbell Nia Campbell (nee Williams) attended the Academy from 1992 to 1999. Thereafter she graduated from Queen’s University with a Joint Honours degree in French and Spanish - with a distinction in oral French.

Nia was married in August 2003.

In the tradition of modern language graduates, after university Nia spent some time abroad, her further study based on the delightful French town of Rheims.

Those who can afford it will know of course that this is in the beautiful region which produces the world famous Champagne; those who can’t afford it will simply have to use their imagination.

After a year as a language assistant Nia managed to drag herself away from all these delights and returned to Belfast to take her PGCE in Modern Languages.

In September 2004 she began her teaching career in the Girls’ Model School - not far indeed from her old school. It was her first interview and her first job.

That she had clearly made a huge impression on the interviewing panel is attested by the rapid progress she made in her teaching career thereafter. By 2006 she was appointed Teacher in Charge of Spanish and in 2008 she became the Head of Modern Languages.

Nia has deftly managed to combine a successful teaching career with being a mother to two small girls and loves to spend as much time as possible in France and Spain where she finds the way of life especially appealing. She remembers her former language teachers in the Academy with affection and was delighted to hear of the marriage in the summer of 2012 of Sandra Parks, the former Head of Modern Languages in the Academy, to Michael McCoy, the former Head of History, whose

combined sense of humour, she says, enlivened the school trips to France that she enjoyed in their company. ****

OLD BOYS’ ASSOCIATION The main event in the Association’s calendar is the Annual Dinner. This was held in the Wellington Park Hotel on Saturday 26th November 2011. The President, Mr Stephen Orr, welcomed a total of around 160 members and their guests. The speakers at the dinner were David McCalmont, the Headmaster, The President and Trevor Ringland. The success of the dinner was due, in no small measure, to the Dinner Secretary, Iain Knox, who worked extremely hard to encourage a large number of members to attend. It is very encouraging to note that a good number of ‘recent’ Old Boys now attend the Annual Dinner.

The annual Table Quiz was held in Greenisland Golf Club on Tuesday 6th March 2012. The event was organised by Adrian Brown and Mark Cooper with Question Master Robin Reid, ably assisted by Denis Allen, challenging the teams with his usual blend of pictures, anagrams, local geography and general knowledge. Although the attendance at the quiz was a little smaller than in previous years, all who attended had a good night’s entertainment. Why not plan to attend the next quiz which will be held in February 2013? [Date will be posted on the Old Boys’ website.]

The Old Boys’ website: www.belfastroyalacademyoldboysassociation.com continues to attract a great deal of interest from younger and older members alike. The Association is in the debt of Iain Knox and Michael Bennett for keeping this internet site up-to-date.

The Annual General Meeting of the Association was held on 23rd April 2012 and the following officials were elected for 2012/2013:

President Vice President Hon. Secretary Hon. Treasurer Hon. Membership Secretary Dinner Secretary Hon. Auditor

Geoff Simon David Haslett Louis Campbell Nik Simon Michael Bennett Iain Knox Drew Wilkinson

The Committee for 2012/2013 was also elected. It is again worth noting that key positions on the Committee are now held by Old Boys who left School relatively recently. The future of the Association depends upon Old Boys becoming involved and I would again appeal to anyone who has an interest in joining the Committee to speak to the Hon. Secretary or any member of the Committee.

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Former Pupils’ News

Sadly, the annual cricket match of the Old Boys’ XI against the School XI had to be cancelled because of the inclement weather.

OLD BOYS’ NEWS

The Golf Society, under the leadership of Ken Knox, continues to attract good numbers of golfers for the two main competitions held in June and September. The results this year were: Picken Cup at Malone G.C. Thursday 21st June 2012 Winner: Nik Simon Graham Lynn’s Captains Day at Royal Belfast GC Friday 7th September 2012 Winner: James Beattie Ferguson Cup for best aggregate score over two outings Winner: James Beattie An Old Boys’ team of Tim Weir, Mike Bennett, Stewart Beattie, Iain Knox and George Armstrong won the Old Boys’ Shield at the Ulster Public Schools’ Old Boys’ Golf Tournament played on Friday 25th May at The Royal Belfast Golf Club. They narrowly missed out on the Gross Trophy, by one shot, to a team from the Methodist College; Stewart Beattie was second in the individual Nett Competition. Congratulations to the team on a good performance.

Throughout the year, Robin Reid again masterminded, with the assistance of others, a series of monthly lunches which are normally held in golf clubs around the greater Belfast area. These continue to be very popular with around 40 or more, mainly retired, members attending.

At the time of writing these notes, the President’s letter has just been sent to all members; a copy of the School’s Academy Newsletter was also sent with the letter. Also included in this mailing was the first edition of the Old Boys’ Newsletter which highlights the activities of some of our Old Boys. If you would like to contribute an article for a future edition of this Newsletter please contact the Hon. Secretary at: honorarysec@bra-oldboys.com

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Inevitably, many of these letters are returned to School as members have moved away from the address kept by the Membership Secretary. I would appeal to all members who have moved in recent months or years to contact Michael Bennett at: membershipsec@bra-oldboys.com Again, I appeal to those Old Boys of School who are reading these notes but who are not members of the Association, to think about joining and thereby restoring links to the School.

L. Campbell Hon. Secretary

The photograph shows four generations of past and former Academy students from the Simon family: Des = 1921 - 1934, Geoff = 1948 - 196, Nik = 1982 - 1995 and Alex who started in 2012 in Ben Madigan Pre-Prep. ****

Matthew Beattie gained a place on the TADD programme which involved the completion of an application form, a presentation and an interview. He was selected for one of only four places on the programme. The TADD programme is a three-year programme run by the School of Nursing and Midwifery at QUB. The programme involves travelling to a partner university - Washburn University, Topeka, Kansas, USA and completing their BSc in Nursing degree. This involves nine months of study including placements in various locations in the state. Following this Matthew will spend a further three months in Mikkeli University of Applied Sciences in Finland. ****

Samuel Marsden received a prestigious Engineering Leadership Advanced Award from the Royal Academy of Engineering. The awards are made only to the most outstanding undergraduates who have the desire and capability to reach the top of the engineering industry. ****

The Owl 2012

Professor Geoffrey Beattie Geoffrey Beattie is one of the best known (not to say colourful) psychologists practising today.

After leaving the Academy he gained a First Class degree from Birmingham and subsequently took his PhD at Trinity College, Cambridge. Geoffrey is now Professor of Psychology at Manchester University and a former President of the Psychology Section of the British Association for the Advancement of Science.

He is the author of over twenty books - not all of which are directly related to his academic interests. His On the Ropes: Boxing as a Way of Life was shortlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year, while Corner Boys and We Are the People: Journeys Through the Heart of Protestant Ulster were shortlisted for the Ewart-Biggs Literary prize. He has also written with great feeling and his customary wit about growing up in those parts of North Belfast which had been greatly afflicted by what we have come to know as the Troubles.

Professor Beattie remembers being interviewed as a boy just before his admission to the Academy. He was asked the title of his favourite novel and stunned those present by naming Moby Dick. When a tentative enquiry was then made about the plot of this blockbuster, he provided a detailed and convincing summary with a description of the main characters - all gleaned he says from watching an old Hollywood movie.

No stranger to controversy, Geoffrey was appointed to the position of official psychologist to the successful Channel 4 programme Big Brother and shortly thereafter he was off to the United States as a consultant for television programmes on serial killers. He also writes for the Guardian and Independent newspapers.

Those of our readers who would like a sense of Professor Beattie’s approach to Psychology can see him on YouTube giving advice on the all important issue of dealing with ups-and-downs of getting a first job. ****

Michael Leckie Michael Leckie left the Academy in 2005. After graduating with 1st class honours in photography from the University of Westminster, Michael has made an impressive career as an editorial, portrait and commercial photographer based in London. His ability to work in a wide range of styles has led to him competing successfully with some of the biggest names in the world of music, fashion and print.

Regularly commissioned by the Sunday Times Style section Michael’s talent for creating dynamic, Thepresented photograph unusual and exciting images has himshows with a Spitfire VcAR501 being flown by Stewart. the opportunity to undertake projects which include

editorials for the new luxury magazine Tempus; a QVC marketing campaign for the new Style Channel; and for shooting portraits of some of the world’s most successful artists at the 2012 BRIT Awards for Warner Music.

Indeed, Michael has worked with some of the biggest names in music, film and fashion, including singers Cee-lo Green, Ed Sheeran, Professor Green and Rachael Stevens; Hollywood legend Robert Redford; jewellery designer Stephen Webster for Elle Magazine; and bestselling author Adele Parks for the Sunday Times.

A contributing factor to Michael’s success has been his facility for putting his clients and subjects at ease with his professional and friendly approach to his work.

He meticulously plans every project in advance with clients, helping them to decide on a theme or style, while his confidence and professional skill helps get the best out of every subject and every shoot.

Michael has recently investigated the aesthetic and commercial possibilities of video games and animated film and we may confidently expect him to be as successful in this enterprise as he has been in his other ventures. ****

Stephen Kell Throughout the post-war period the RAF presence in the Academy was identified with the late Mr Ken Perrins, a former Spitfire pilot. During his career as a teacher of French, Ken was closely associated with the Air Training Corps which he established in the School. Mr Perrin’s son, Bill, in turn became an RAF pilot. A recent edition of The Owl has highlighted the distinguished RAF career of Air Marshal T.M. (Timo) Anderson, another former pupil, who is currently the present and first Director-General of the United Kingdom Aviation Authority.

Air Commodore Stephen Kell, who left the Academy in 1979, has maintained this association with the oldest independent air force in the world.

Stephen’s involvement with the RAF has taken, one might be forgiven for saying, a different trajectory, to those mentioned above. After the Academy he studied Law at Queen’s University, graduating in 1983. He proceeded to the Bar and thence to the Inns of Court of Northern Ireland, and then to membership of Grays Inn, London. He then changed direction.

In 2010 and 2011 Stephen took an MA in International Strategy and Security at Kings College London and at

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Former Pupils’ News

present he is Deputy Director of Legal Services with the RAF.

After the UK budget dried up Donald represented Ireland in veteran athletics events.

Like T.M. Anderson, Stephen became deeply involved with RAF rugby and is now Chairman of the RAF Rugby Union in which capacity he recently negotiated a deal with Canterbury, one of the world’s leading rugby brands. In July 2012 Canterbury became the official kit partner of the Royal Air Force. The four-year contract will see Canterbury supplying team and leisure-wear to the RAFRU. This partnership complements the existing agreement with the evocatively named RAF Spitfire 7s team.

Donald Dickson was an exceptional man. He was of that generation which strove for success, but not at all costs, firmly believing that whilst the result or end achievement was important the manner of how it was achieved was even more important. He was a clever and kind man and a true Corinthian.

****

Tribute to Dr. Donald Dickson I would like to pay this personal tribute to an Old Boy of the School Dr. Donald Dickson who has passed away at the age of 87 on 19th May 2012. Donald was a true and close lifelong friend of my late father, Eric Kyle. Their friendship began when they met at BRA and upon my father’s passing Donald kindly paid tribute to him in a note that was published in The Owl shortly after his passing.

Donald’s achievements were wide and varied. He was a school prefect in the years 1942 to 1943 and joint Head Boy in his last year at school in 1943. He was captain of the House athletics, cricket and rugby teams 1942/43 and captain of the Table Tennis Club 1941/43.

He was a member of the School first eleven cricket teams in the years 1941, 1942 and 1943, and a member of the Ulster Schools’ Cricket Eleven in 1943.

Academically he gained a First in Chemistry at Queen’s University Belfast and in 1949 obtained a Ph. D in Physical Chemistry. He played cricket and rugby for Queen’s.

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He worked as an industrial chemist in the London area before heading back in to academia as Head of Chemistry at Malvern College. Following on from this he returned to Northern Ireland settling in Portstewart becoming the principal of the North Antrim Technical Education Area. Donald was a great admirer of the work of C. P. Snow and planned to write a biography of him, but sadly whilst much work and research was done in connection with this, the book was never finished. However, all of his papers were donated to Cambridge University.

Donald maintained his interest in sport throughout his life and this involved, not only the enjoyment of watching sport, but also participating in veteran athletics. He was proud to represent the UK in the 6570 age group at the veteran championships in Finland.

After my father’s passing Donald invited me to accompany him to an Old Boys’ Dinner. I accepted the invitation and sat with Donald and contemporaries of him and my father. It was a privilege and a pleasure to witness the joy they expressed in their fellowship and shared experiences. I was younger then and it was immensely reassuring to witness the energy and enthusiasm still so evident in these ‘Old Boys’.

Donald’s wife Audrey predeceased him. He is survived by his son Andy and his three grandchildren. They will miss him and so will I. Eric Kyle ****

John McGimpsey Prize Awarded On 15 June 2012, at a ceremony in the School of Dentistry, Belfast, the Faculty of Dentistry of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) awarded the inaugural John McGimpsey Prize to Caoimhe McVeigh, a final year dental student at Queen’s University.

The late Professor John McGimpsey, a member of the Board of Governors of Belfast Royal Academy and Warden 1990-91, was Consultant in Oral Surgery at the Royal Victoria Hospital, and Director of Teaching and Learning at Queen’s University, Belfast. He was also Dean of the Faculty of Dentistry, RCSI from 1998-2001.

The John McGimpsey Prize is awarded to an outstanding student who communicates with patients and their relatives with empathy and understanding, and who has also achieved excellence in all aspects of the Dental Curriculum throughout his or her training at the School of Dentistry, Belfast.

P. McGimpsey ****

Fiona McAlpine (BRA 1986-1993) was married to Drew Launchbury on 21st June 2012. The wedding took place in Belfast City Hall.

The Owl 2012

UNIVERSITY DESTINATIONS MIDDLE VI GIRL LEAVERS 2012

Laverty Katie Susan Bath Social Work and Applied Social

Studies (including Placement)

Nash Shannon A Bath Mathematics

Faloona Niamh Lauren Belfast Metropolitan College HND in Journalism

Gilmore Robyn Belfast Metropolitan College Foundation: Art and Design

Moan Rachel Belfast Metropolitan College BTEC Public Services

Nugent Hannah L Belfast Metropolitan College BTEC Level 3 Beauty Therapy

Burns Claire Bible College, Dunmurry Theology

(Accredited by Cumbria University)

Patterson Jayne Bronwyn Conroy School CIBTEC/CIDESCO - Beauty Therapy Armstrong Maeve Dundee Medicine

Bingham Judith E Dundee Medicine Diamond Julia Dundee Medicine

Flatley Kathryn Dundee Psychology

Forbes Deborah Dundee Medicine

Martin Sarah Dundee English with French Thompson Alexandra L DUR General Engineering

Massey Jessica A Edinburgh English Language and Literature McCusker Caoimhe Edinburgh Electronics and Electrical Engineering

O’Neill Katie R Edinburgh Biological Sciences

Mitchell Gemma M Glasgow English Literature/French

Logan Suzanne M Harper Adam’s University College Veterinary Nursing (with year 0) Alexander Shannon R Heriot Watt Biological Sciences

Jackson Nicola Imperial Electrical & Electronic Engineering

with a Year Abroad

Shaw Andrea Imperial Chemical Engineering

Lyons Shannan Inverness Nursing

Johnston Anna Liverpool Biological and Medical Sciences

(deferred final choice options)

Bryce Katie Liverpool John Moore’s English and Media & Cultural Studies

Brown Rebecca J Liverpool Metropolitan International Tourism Management

Fenton Chloe Manchester Biomedical Sciences Carmichael Melissa Newcastle Medicine (stage 1 entry)

Kidd Jessica Ellen Newcastle Biomedical Sciences

Sefton Victoria J I Newcastle Law

Cahill Naomi Joy Northumbria Fashion Marketing

McKay Lauren A Northumbria International Business Management

with Spanish

Gargan Sarah Plymouth Biomedical Sciences

Abbott Rachael QUB Applied Mathematics and Physics

Brown Katie QUB Children’s Nursing

Campbell Jazmin QUB French and Spanish

Craig Hannah QUB Pharmacy

Dalmeny Lianna QUB Biomedical Science

Fusco Kathryn Joyce QUB French and Spanish Hutchinson Katherine QUB Pharmacy

Long Portia A QUB Biochemistry

McCue Robyn J QUB Psychology McKenna Marie-Claire QUB Actuarial Science and Risk Management

McNeill Shauneen QUB Criminology and Sociology McQueen Rachel QUB Geography

Moss Catherine Ruth QUB Accounting

Murray Christabel V J QUB Psychology O’Connor Hannah QUB History

O’Hare Paula QUB Mathematics with Finance

Orchin Georgia M QUB Drama

Paul Nicole QUB Biochemistry with Professional Studies

Phillips Amy QUB Nursing

Rea Leah R QUB Law

Sullivan Hannah QUB Biological Sciences Thompson Cara QUB Theology

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Former Pupils’ News

Tohill Lauren QUB

Warnock Toyah M C QUB

Corry Maeve Southampton

Mallaghan Meabh Southampton

Allen Sophie Stirling

Beck Helen A Stranmillis Bengtsson Natalie Stranmillis

Guiney Jennifer Stranmillis McLeod Kerry Stranmillis

McShane Anna University of London Institute in Paris Montgomery Victoria University of Wales Trinity St David

Bannon Rachel UU

Black Ashleigh UU

Booth Linley UU

Boswell Bernadette C UU

Collins Rebecca UU

Cooper Ciara J UU

Cupples Gabrielle A UU Davison Erin UU

Garry Kathryn UU

Harvey Rachel UU

Hill Stephanie UU

Hughes Lorna UU

Jamison Jade Jamie UU

Keers Stephanie UU McAdams Charlene J UU McMurray Rachel UU

Mifsud Amy UU

Rooney Amy UU

Sayers Victoria UU

Smyth Aimee UU

Walsh Antoinette UU

Weir Rebecca UU

Kenny Grace UUG

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Psychology Chemistry Medicine - Widening access (6 year) incl. Foundation Yr 0 Medicine - Widening access (6 year) incl. Foundation Yr 0 Law Primary Early Childhood Studies Primary Primary French Studies Physical Education Occupational Therapy Business with Marketing Radiography (Diagnostic) Accounting Clinical Physiology (Cardiology) Psychology Psychology with DIS/DAS Optometry Economics with Accountancy Studies Geography Psychology Business and Accountancy Marketing Business with Marketing Social Work (Belfast Metropolitan College) Communication with Counselling Finance and Investment Analysis Speech and Language Therapy Law with Criminology Marketing Business with Marketing Business Management English

MIDDLE VI BOY LEAVERS 2012

Allister Samuel Gap Year/Reapplying

Andrews Wallace Gap Year/Reapplying

Bell Darren Gap Year/Reapplying

Bigger Steven Gap Year/Reapplying

Borne Paul Gap Year/Reapplying

Boyd Scott GAP YEAR / MISSION

Coghlan Declan Gap Year/Reapplying

Colhoun Reece Gap Year/Reapplying

Diamond Johnny Repeating / Gap Year

Kane Jack Employment McCaughey Fintan Gap Year/Reapplying

Millar Rory Gap Year/Reapplying

Mullaney Christopher Gap Year/Reapplying Ringland Matthew Apprenticeship

Rodgers Philip Gap Year/Reapplying

Roy Philip Gap Year/Reapplying

Walsh Adam RAF

Warnock Alan Gap Year/Reapplying

Ferris Adam Aberdeen Genetics

Frederick Ben Arts Bournemouth Acting Low-Hong Yanick Bath Physics

Stark Daniel Bath Mathematics

Dougan Perry BMC Business Course Thompson Jordan BMC Music A level / Reapplying

Farouki Ridwan Cambridge Mathematics McClean Samuel Dundee Economics

The Owl 2012

McCarthy Daniel

Marica Ciaran McClements Andrew

Watson William

Moore Angus

Marsh Tom

Patterson David

Rooney Joshua

Hunter Bill Auterson Joel

Cheung Matthew

Klein Tom

Mason Connor Thompson William

Carey John-William

Gaj Aleksy

Fulton Neil

Abbott Dean Acheson Matthew

Brown Ryan

Corry Laurence Dickinson James

Dungca Aldrian

Edens Ross Hickland Daniel

Loyola Allen

Lyons Nathan

Magill Matthew

McBride John McClurkin Jordan

McIlroy Niall

McShane Jonathan Montgomery Adam

O’Neill Breandan

Orr Jonathan

Scott Samuel

Stewart Michael

Taylor Duncan

Thorburn Jordan

Thornton Jake McCluskey Steven

Purvis Adam

Laughlin Jamie

Morgan Ryan

Baxter Thomas

Carlin Fergus

Cromie Samuel

Deaney Alex

Fullerton James

Gray Adam

Hall Michael Harrison-Ankin Jack

Holland Pete

Long Alex

Martin Ben McComiskey Dale

McVeigh Christopher

Mitchell Christopher

Rea Craig

Robinson Ben

Thornton Johnny

Vance Ross

Warke Philip

Edge Hill Edinburgh Edinburgh Edinburgh Exeter Glasgow Glasgow Glasgow Hull Imperial Imperial London Met Northumbria Northumbria Oxford Oxford Paris QUB QUB QUB QUB QUB QUB QUB QUB QUB QUB QUB QUB QUB QUB QUB QUB QUB QUB QUB QUB QUB QUB QUB Sheffield St. Andrews Stirling University of London UU UU UU UU UU UU UU UU UU UU UU UU UU UU UU UU UU UU UU

Law Economics Economics Physics Biological Science Pharmacology Mechanical Engineering with Aeronautics Dentistry Biomedical Science Computing Material Science and Enigineering Events Management and Public Relations Criminology and Forensic Science Business and Marketing History Philosophy, Politics and Economics French Studies Applied Mathematics and Physics Mathematics Biological Sciences Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering Physics Aerospace Engineering Chemical Engineering History Physics Physics Law with Politics Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering Law Music Gap Year/Reapplying Physics Pharmacy Business Economics Chemical Engineering French and International Studies Law with Politics English and History Mechanical Engineering Aeronautical Engineering Medicine Criminology and Law Law Mechanical Engineering Psychology Technology with Design Engineering Management Business Management Geography Business Studies Creative Advertising Technologies Art and Design Sociology Economics Radiography Computing Science Accounting and Marketing Mechanical Engineering History with English Business with Accounting Mechanical Engineering Sport Development Coaching

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Degrees and Diplomas

Degrees and Diplomas QUEEN’S UNIVERSITY

BEng

PGCE

BDes

Stephen Shannon

Victoria Phillips

BA

MB

Whitney McAdam Sara-Jane Carmichael David Cummings John Gibson Robert Stitt Marianne McBride

Jason Boyd Darran Carson Stephen Henderson Michael McMorran Holly McMurray Louise Mellor Christopher Quail Keira Walsh

Lynsey Alphonso Janine Crawford Rachel Ferres Samantha Lockhart

BSc Zainab Ali Mark Bailie Liam Bennet Peter Black Ashley Boyd Samuel Bunting Orla Drysdale Philip Green Patrick Geary Graeme Kelly Leanne Kingston Kevin Latimer Ciaran McCarthy Sarah McGee Amber MacLennan Parisa Norton Glenn Pierce Leeona Robinson Luke Rogan James Stainer BSW Danielle Boyd 222

LLB Robbie Creighton Craig Jackson Orla O’Hare

Holly Rice Dip (PD)

BEd Christine Wilson

UNIVERSITY OF ULSTER

M Arch

BA

Scott Todd

Tory Gaston Lisa McMinn Jane Redmond

Claire Logan BSc

Stephen Stitt

Jonathan Acheson Simon Campbell David Clarke Morgan Comer Stephen Ferguson Luke Gourley Paul Grills Claire Hedgecock Fiona Magee Michelle McAdams Catherine McAlister Laura Spratt

PhD

BEng

Alan Cooper Samantha Stewart

Christopher Gibson

Jacob Anderson Sarah Brown Philip Lisk Matthew McAuley MEd Nigel Roddy MEng

UNIVERSITY OF ABERDEEN

Trevor Lyle

Jemma Cochrane Julia Nicholl

MSc

Luke Campbell

Cert (PC)

BDS

M Pharm

LLB

BSc Aaron Murray LLB Christopher Hegan MB Rebekah Long

UNIVERSITY OF BRISTOL BSc Olivia Moore

UNIVERSITY COLLEGE DUBLIN B Arch Christina Kerr

The Owl 2012

Births, Marriages and Deaths BIRTHS

LAMONT, 15th of September 2011 to Fiona (nee Montgomery) and husband, a daughter, Erin MCCAREY, 19th September 2012 to Gemma and Christopher, a daughter, Ivy Elizabeth Lavina MCCORRY, 7th July 2012, to Wendy (nee Bingham) and Thomas, a daughter, Caitlin MCCULLOUGH, 22nd September 2012 to Kate (nee Andrews) and Matthew, a daughter, Maisie Patricia MCDEVITT, 22nd December 2012 to Lynsey (nee Cochrane) and Charlie, a son, Lochlan NEILL, 10th July 2012 to Gail (nee Marshall) and Alan, a son, Arthur ROOPE, 12th September 2012 to Ye and Larry, a son, Leo SCHOBER, to Tony and wife, a son, Kinan SHIELDS, 16th April 2012 to Richard and Nicola, a daughter, Grace WILSON, 11th October 2012, to Heather (nee Bell) and Alistair, a son, Luke

MARRIAGES

PARK-McCOY: 27th July 2012, Sandra Park and Michael McCoy

MCALPINE-LAUNCHBURY: 21st June 2012, Fiona McAlpine and Drew Launchbury THOMPSON-CAIRNS: 26th August 2012, Jessica Thompson and Thomas Cairns WINNING-SHAW: 29th June 2012, Jenny Winning and Paul Shaw 223

Births, Marriages and Deaths

DEATHS

BROWN: (date uncertain), Thomson Brown DICK: (date uncertain), Tom Dick DICKSON: 19th May 2012, Donald ELLIOTT: 27th February 2011, Dorothea FINLAY: 21st March 2012, Norman

FORBES: 27th August 2011, Jean

HALL: 3rd February 2011, Granville HAMILTON: 12th August 2012, Jack Hamilton JOHNSTON: (date uncertain), Eva JOHNSTON: (date uncertain) Roy LAWTHER: 6th February 2012, Noel LUNEY: 23rd April 2012, Les McCOUBREY: 22nd August 2012, Jack McCoubrey PINKERTON: (date uncertain), Billy ROBINSON: 26th December 2011, Earl K Robinson

ROSE: 21st October 2012, Hinda

SPRATT: December 2012, Beryl TATE: 16th December 2011, Trevor

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