Issue 53 June 2019

Dates for your diary

Thursday 15 August AS/A2 Results

Thursday 22 August GCSE Results

Wednesday 28 August Years 8, 11 and 13

Thursday 29 August Years 8, 12 and 14

Friday 30 August All Years

Monday 2 September All Years - Full school day School buses available

Congratulations to Ellie Rea and Jill Smiley on their selection for Netball NI’s National Long Squad and to Eva Wilson and Madison McFadden on their recent Netball NI U13 Academy awards Billy Reid Bursaries

Congratulations to Year 13 pupils Talula Reid, Erin Peel and Holly McKinney who were presented with Billy Reid Bursaries from Ballyclare Lions. Talula won £500 first prize which she will use to continue her Chinese studies and Erin and Holly won joint third prize which will be put towards music expenses.

Athletics Success Another fantastic athletics season for our athletes with 47 District medals, 15 Ulster medals and 5 Irish medals (Joshua Knox, Iona Macpherson, Zane McQuillan and Isabel Stafford Santana - see pages 10, 11 and 12 for full details). Special congratulations to our Year 8 boys’ team who won the Ulster Schools’ Year 8 Team Competition held at Antrim Forum on Thursday 13 June.

Ulster Champions

Zac McFerran Leo McCrea Michael McDermott Jakson McAdoo Peter Huey Jayden Lloyd

Belfast City Marathon Fun Run Just over 30 pupils from Years 8-14 participated in the Belfast City Marathon Fun Run on Sunday 5 May for the charity BART. Belfast Arthroplasty Research Trust (BART) was formed in 2002 by surgeons from Musgrave Park Hospital and a mechanical engineer from Queen’s University Belfast. The aim of the charity is to provide funding for various research projects in joint replacement for the benefit of patients in Musgrave Park Hospital and further afield. Since the charity has been established it has raised over £2 million for joint replacement research. Well done all!

2019 Junior Maths Challenge Award Winners

Gold Awards Year 8: Ciara Wilson Leo Zhang

Silver Awards Year 8: Leah Horan Year 9: Claire Brennan Conor Cunningham Anya Laughlin Freya McAvoy

Bronze Awards Year 8: Lila Beattie Joel Clotworthy Tara Loughrey Kent Shirlow Luke Wilson Year 9: Conor Ringland Stuart Doyle Oisin Frost James Hodgkinson James Serplus

Sentinus R&D Congratulations to our Year 13 Sentinus R&D team who were presented with a Northern Ireland Young Scientists Award and are one of 5 teams selected to represent NI at the Big Bang Fair at the NEC in Birmingham in March 2020. The team attended the Big Bang Fair Northern Ireland on 24 June at Ulster University, Jordanstown and competed in the Young Scientist category against schools from across Northern Ireland. The fair had over 3,000 pupils in attendance. Throughout the day the team was judged on their water disinfection project by scientists and engineers from different companies.

Salters Festival of Chemistry Our Year 9 Chemists Eve McConkey, Adam Patterson, Rebecca Taggart and Tim Swarbrick had a great day at Queen’s University on 17 May working in their labs to solve chemical problems and carry out practical challenges. They had a brilliant day finishing with a “Chemistry Magic” demonstration. Well done for all of your hard work!

Community Service News Members of Community Service presented a cheque for £1,000 to Women's Aid-ABCLN Make It Better Appeal to support awareness raising and education with children and young people. The pupils decided to support Women’s Aid ABCLN Make It Better team as they provide excellent support in our school. The Make It Better team has delivered Social, Emotional, Behavioural Development programmes and Heading for Healthy Relationships to pupils, trained our School Prefects to deliver All About Change to Year 8 classes and completed Level II OCN in Domestic Violence Awareness. Community Services also presented a cheque for £1,000 to Elaine and her guide dog Chaz and Paula from Angel Eyes. Our pupils continue to support and volunteer at the Angel Eyes monthly Saturday Youth Club.

Enthuse Stem Technician Awards Congratulations to our Senior Technician Mr Wilson Agnew who was a finalist in the Enthuse Stem Technician Awards at Stormont in May.

Old Girls’ Association AGM and Dinner The Templeton Hotel was the venue for this year’s Annual General Meeting and Dinner. Thanks go to Mrs Pamela McAllister for organising the evening which was thoroughly enjoyed by everyone. Mrs Paula Creighton presented Mrs Charlotte Weir, Principal, with a generous donation for the school from the Association which will be used to purchase a new lectern for the assembly hall.

First Aid Training Congratulations to three of our Classroom Assistants who have passed their EA First Aid Course - Lindsay Hinton, Cathy Moorehead and Laura Smallwood.

Lorna’s Buzzing Year 9 pupil Lorna Ashcroft has an interesting hobby which is opening up some very exciting opportunities for her. Lorna has been beekeeping and managing her own bee hives and bee colonies since she sat her first beekeeping qualification aged 8. When she qualified she became the youngest qualified beekeeper at the time and was awarded Young Beekeeper of the Year 2015 and the Duncan Saunders Memorial Trophy by the Ulster Beekeepers Association. Lorna recently took part in a selection day at Greenmount College held by the Ulster Beekeepers Association and has been selected to represent Northern Ireland at the International Young Beekeepers 10th Anniversary Convention in Banská Bystrica, Slovakia. Lorna will “Fly” off in July for 5 days, taking part in a very full itinerary of bee keeping seminars and practical assessments with young people from around the world. Lorna is one of three qualified beekeepers from Northern Ireland selected to go to Slovakia. She is looking forward to showing the skills Northern Ireland’s young beekeepers have in conservation, queen rearing and successful healthy hive management, including honey production, and actively encouraging more young people to take part and enjoy beekeeping as a hobby to help boost and turn around the decline of the humble honey bee which is so important to our eco-system. Whilst in Slovakia Lorna will undertake various written and practical tests and be assessed along with her other two team members to prove the calibre of young qualified beekeepers from Northern Ireland.

HSK2 Chinese Exam Success Congratulations to Year 14 pupils Ethan Boyd and Lara Halici who have passed their HSK2 Chinese exam. Ethan scored a fabulous 196/200 with full marks (100/100) in the Reading section of the examination.

Culture Club Thank you to our Year 14 pupils who researched the culture of India and then led three workshops with Year 8 pupils.

IET Faraday Challenge Congratulations to our Year 9 pupils who competed in the Institution of Engineering and Technology’s Faraday Challenge.

Sailing News Congratulations to Year 10 pupil Daniel Corbett, a member of the RYA NI Performance Programme, who was selected to participate in this year’s Eric Twiname Championships at Rutland water in May. Year 13 pupil Joseph Karauzum, who represented Ireland at the World Championships in Poland last year, has moved to a new laser boat, which he will be sailing in Germany this year. Joseph was also the recipient of a Mary Peters - Coca Cola Thank You Fund which facilitates young people who excel in their sport to become Level one coaches.

Disability NI Following training by Disability NI, a number of our Year 10 girls have been helping to deliver PE lessons in Hill Croft School, Thornfield House School and Jordanstown School - S Baxter, L Brines, L Clinton, E Foreman, N Jackson, L McCallan, A McCalmont, E McConway, H McCullagh, S McKeegan, M O’Brien, G Rafferty, I Stafford Santana, H Turkington, A Vance and M Wallace.

Athletics NI - Rising Stars Congratulations to our Year 8 and 9 pupils on their selection for Athletics NI’s Rising Stars squad. The pupils will attend weekly training sessions at Ulster University Jordanstown led by Athletics NI professional coaches.

Conor Cunningham Erin Diamond Daniel Harvey Leah Horan Laila Hunter Peter Huey Jayden Lloyd Zoe Martin Jakson McAdoo Leo McCrea Michael McDermott Zac McFerran

School Council News Members of the school council attended the EPSRC ACCEPT Transitions Project Launch on Monday 10 June at Riddel Hall, Queen’s University Belfast. They were invited to display a poster as competition winners of the ‘Plastics in School’ competition. The pupils also received a tour of the Polymer Processing Research Centre in the Ashby Building. This centre is a world leading state of the art facility which assists in the design and prototype building products that use significant quantities of recycled plastic waste.

Ju-Jitsu Success Congratulations to Year 11 pupils Hannah Emerson and Juma MacMillan on achieving their junior black belts from the World Ju-Jitsu Federation - a result of 10 years hard word, perseverance and commitment.

BHS Wins Rockport Invitational Netball Tournament Congratulations to our Year 9 netball team, assisted by some Year 8 girls, who won the Rockport Invitation Netball Tournament on Monday 13 May. Twenty-four schools participated and the girls defeated teams from Down HS, St Genevieve’s HS, Victoria College, Our Lady and St Patrick’s College and Rathmore GS to reach the final against Aquinas which our girls won.

Trampolining News Congratulations Fahriye Onur and Jack Prior who competed in the NDP semi finals in Birmingham Arena in June. Jack finished 15th in the 13+ boys competition and Fahiyre finished 4th in the 11-12 girls com-petition, qualifying for the finals in Coventry in July.

Ice Skating News Congratulations to Molly O’Brien who competed in an international competition at Lee Valley, London in May. Molly finished an impressive 9th out of 22 skaters in her class.

Athletics Success Congratulations to all our athletes who competed at District, Ulster and Irish level. At the Districts, our pupils won 47 medals in total (16 gold, 17 silver and 14 bronze). Forty-two individuals and 6 relay teams represented the school at the Ulster Athletics Finals on 17 and 18 May. At the Ulster Champion-ships our pupils won 4 gold, 7 silver and 4 bronze medals. Our mini boys team finished in 1st place in the team competition and our junior girls team in 3rd place. Nine pupils travelled to Tullamore on Saturday 1 June to compete in the Irish Schools’ Championships where Joshua Knox won 2 silver medals in the triple jump and high jump, Isabel Stafford Santana won silver in the pole vault, Zane McQuillan won bronze in the long jump and Iona Macpherson won bronze in the triple jump.

Ulster Medallists:

Leo McCrea Ulster Champion/Gold medallist, High Jump Zane McQuillan Ulster Champion/Gold medallist, Long Jump Zane McQuillan Ulster Champion/Gold medallist, 80m Hurdles Isabel Stafford Santana Ulster Champion/Gold medallist, Pole Vault Scott Dennis Silver medallist, Discus Zara Espie Silver medallist, Pole Vault Ethan Gardiner Silver medallist, High Jump Joshua Knox Silver medallist, High Jump Joshua Knox Silver medallist, Triple Jump Iona Macpherson Silver medallist, Triple Jump Mini Boys 4x100 relay Silver medallists (P Huey, J Lloyd, L McCrea, M McDermott, Z McFerran) Scott Dennis Bronze medallist, Shot Erin Diamond Bronze medallist, High Jump Holly Diamond Bronze medallist, 1500m Steeplechase Rhea Whittley Bronze medallist, Pole Vault

Joshua Knox Ulster and Irish Silver Medallist High Jump and Triple Jump

Isabel Stafford Santana Ulster Champion and Irish Silver Medallist - Pole Vault

Zane McQuillan Ulster Champion and Irish Bronze Medallist Long Jump Ulster Champion 80m Hurdles

Iona Macpherson Ulster Silver Medallist and Irish Bronze Medallist Triple Jump

Mini Boys Team Ulster Silver Medallists - 4 x 100m Relay Ulster Schools’ Mini Boys’ Team Winners

Leo McCrea Ulster Champion High Jump

Zara Espie Ulster Silver Medallist Pole Vault

Scott Dennis Ulster Silver Medallist - Discus Ulster Bronze Medallist - Shot

Ethan Gardiner Ulster Silver Medallist High Jump

Erin Diamond Ulster Bronze Medallist High Jump

Holly Diamond Ulster Bronze Medallist 1500m Steeplechase

Rhea Whittley Ulster Bronze Medallist Pole Vault

Mini Boys’ Team Ulster Schools’ Mini Boys’ Team Winners Zac McFerran, Leo McCrea, Michael McDermott, Peter Huey and Jayden Lloyd

Ulster Athletics Congratulations to Holly Diamond, Joshua Knox and Finlay Stewart on their selection for the Ulster team to compete in the Irish Life Health Tailteann Games on Saturday 22 June at the Morton Stadium, Santry. held in Dublin. Holly competed in the high jump and 1500m steeplechase, Joshua secured silver in the triple jump and bronze in the high jump and Joshua and Finlay were selected for the 4x400m relay team, winning bronze. The Ulster boys’ team finished in second place overall while the girls’ team finished third.

IFA Annual Girls' Tournament Our Year 10 and 11 teams had a great day at the IFA annual girls’ football tournament at Mallusk on 12 June. Eighty-one teams took part from across Northern Ireland. The goal scorers were Katie Lyness, Sophie Crumlin, Katie Finlay and Chelsea Johnston. Leyla Moore, goalkeeper, also had an outstanding day.

Year 8 Cricket Team Congratulations to our Year 8 cricket team who defeated Enniskillen Royal GS by 4 wickets to reach the semi-final of the U12 Ferris Plate. MOTM Archie Cruickshank who took 4 wickets for 6 runs and Jayden Lloyd 3 for 6.

Tennis Success Congratulations to our senior girls’ team on reaching the final of the Ulster Schools’ Senior Plate. The girls played some highly contested matches but unfortunately lost to MCB. They were presented with their runners-up medals at Belfast Boat Club following the final on 25 June.

Rugby News Congratulations to Year 13 pupil Scott Hutton on his selection for the Ulster Schools' U19 development squad. The squad, currently training 3 times per week, will be cut at the end of July in advance of the inter-pros taking place in August.

Duke of Edinburgh Congratulations to Belfast High School Gold Award recipients who were presented with their awards at Buckingham Palace on 23 May - Migual Gedtal, Matthew Gregg, Jonathan Gregg, Andrew Beggs and Daniel de Becker. The boys were joined on their special day by Duke of Edinburgh scheme leader Mrs Cosgrove.