Last week, our Year 13 English Literature students visited the Seamus Heaney Homeplace. The students explored the exhibition and received a lecture and seminar experience from QUB lecturer, Fran Brearton and her PHD students.

Congratulations to Katie Knowles (Year 14) who took the New Driver NI safe motoring pledge, committing to be a safe driver and in doing so I gained entry into their cash draw and won £100. Congratulations Katie!

Mrs Shingleton led an assembly for our Years 8 and 9 pupils to celebrate in the exceptional successes of our fabulous musicians during their time at the Ballyclare Music Festival. The choir also started our day off beautifully with some wonderful singing.

Below are the overall results from an amazing week and a massive well done to everyone who took part.

Joint 2^nd place  - Jayden Doak  and Oliver McIlwaine in the Traditional Class 

2^nd place  - Jayden Doak Under 11 piano solo

3^rd place - Ruby Cartwright Under 16 piano solo

1^st place - Lauren Ferguson Under 16 piano solo.  

2^nd place - Hannah Gillespie under 18 piano solo

3^rd place - Hollie Hamilton 12-14 brass solo

2^nd  place - Erin Ashe15-16 brass solo

1^st place - Brass ensemble

1^st place - Lucy Bingham under 11 solo.

Joint 3^rd place - Abigail Pye and Daniel Campbell in the 15-16 vocal solo.

2^nd place - Eva Campbell in the 15-16 vocal solo.

3^rd place - Chloe Gilmore in the 17-18 vocal solo

1^st place -  Jack Metcalfe in the 17-18 vocal solo

Overall best vocalist of the day Jack Metcalfe          

1^st place - Grace Martin under 11 woodwind class

3^rd place - Abi Caldwell in the under 12-14 woodwind class

1^st place - Taylor Carmichael 15-16 woodwind class

2^nd place - Hannah Caldwell under 17-18 class

1^st place – Flute ensemble

2^nd place – Clarinet ensemble

Joint 3^rd - Lois Bell and Sarah Dalzell in the 12-14 string solo class

Joint 2^nd place – Ruby Cartwright and Lewis Clark in the 15-16 string solo class

1^st place – Joel Porter in the 15-16 string solo class

2^nd place – Senior String Ensemble                   

3^rd place – Junior String Ensemble

1^st place – Orchestra

Best overall instrumental performance of the day

t has been a busy year so far in the Music Department, and we would like to invite you to join us in celebrating our pupils’ achievements in our Spring Showcase on Wednesday 29th March 2023 from 5.00-6.00 pm. This event will take place in our assembly hall and drinks and refreshments will be available before the start of the event. Tickets for this event will be £5 for adults and £3 for children/concessions and can now be purchased on Parent Pay App. Printed tickets will not be distributed for the event, but names will be ticked off at the door.

Our Year 8 rugby team played in the annual U12 High Schools’ Eastern Qualifier on Tuesday 7th March at Lisburn Rugby Club. The boys played Breda Academy in their first match and won 13-0 (tries). Their second match was against Glastry College, and they won 7-2 and the boys won their final group match against St. Columbanus, Bangor 7-0. The boys played fantastically well with nine different players scoring tries. Ballyclare Secondary won their group and have now qualified for the U12 Ulster High Schools’ Finals on Monday 27th March 2023 at Lurgan Rugby Club. Well done and good luck!

Megan is one of our Year 12 pupils and has been taking Irish dancing lessons from the age of four at the Mackay school of Irish dancing in Templepatrick. Her dance teacher is Iain MacKay and dance teacher assistant Susan Purdy. So far, Megan has enjoyed every minute of it and is not planning on leave it anytime soon. Her ambition is to go on and perform with the Riverdance crew.

At Megan’s last festival in Loughgall Millennium Centre, she achieved very pleasing results with three 1st and one 2nd place in the 15-16 age category (3 trophies and 1 shield). Well done Megan. We are so proud of you.

Please find below our Weekly Communication Bulletin for Parents and Carers and other important documents which has been sent out to you via Sims App.

What another amazing day for all our performers at the festival. Today it was the turn of our woodwind and string pupils. Grace Martin was the first to perform in the under 11 woodwind class and did an amazing performance that secured her 1st place! In a very competitive under 12-14 class, we were delighted that Abi Caldwell was awarded 3rd place. Taylor Carmichael gave a stunning performance in the 15-16 woodwind class and was awarded a well-deserved 1st place. Hannah Caldwell competed in a challenging under 17-18 class and we were thrilled that she gained 2nd place.

In the woodwind ensemble class, the flute ensemble was award 1st place with the clarinet ensemble coming in a close 2nd. 

In the String classes we were very proud of both Lois Bell and Sarah Dalzell who came joint 3rd in a very competitive class. In the 15-16 class we were delighted to have 3 wonderful performances with Joel Porter taking 1st place, Lewis Clark 2nd and Ruby Cartwright 3rd!

In the String ensemble class, the senior and junior string ensembles gave great performances and were places 2nd and 3rd retrospectively.

The day finished on a tremendous high with our school orchestra winning not only the orchestra class but also the best overall instrumental performance of the day, which was a massive achievement. 

Again, we are so proud of all the pupils who have taken part and thank you so much for all your effort, hard work, and commitment that has made all this possible!

Today at SU we had a brilliant quiz where pupils had to guess the flag of the country on the screen, then the iconic world landmarks and finally the country of some famous footballers. Congratulations to Owen Blackwell 9F who has an amazing knowledge and he won the quiz. Lucy Barnett 9M also showcased her fantastic knowledge of countries around the world.

We were humbled to learn about our visiting speaker Cat who grew up in a Romanian orphanage and now wants to help others around the world who are in need. He works for an organisation called Barnabas Aid and they work with schools and church groups to help people who are in a crisis situation. Recently they have helped the people in Turkey who have no home due to the devastating earthquake, by shipping out boxes of essential food supplies. Staff and pupils were surprised to learn that a bag of porridge can cost as little as 6p so we were all challenged to think about how we could help people who are in need.