other talented pupils from across the United Kingdom: Antonia Campbell - English Language, Andrew Curtis - Computer Science, Kieran McGahan - Environment and Society, Jonathan Rainey - PPE, Kelly-Anne Rainey - French, Paul Rodgers - Mathematics, Elizabeth Sinclair - Biology: Ecology and Evolution, Matthew Smith - Biology, Sarah Sproule - Geography, Jenna Todd - Art and Design: Mapping the Visual, Christopher Turnbull - Mathemat-ics: Chaos or Clear Cut? The CBI, in ‘First steps – a new approach for our schools’, a report pub-lished in November 2012, proposes a model of education to which we should aspire if our society is to succeed economically in the future. It considers international examples of educational excellence and highlights the need to, “emphasise culture and ethos in schools.” It notes that Singapore’s “world class education system” produces “a confident person who has a strong sense of right and wrong, is adaptable and resilient … thinks independently and critically and communicates effectively … has a strong civic conscious-ness and takes an active role in bettering the lives of others around him.” Underpinning such a system, and the economic growth which it generates, is “… a set of behaviours and attitudes, a kind of social literacy that we must foster…… These personal behaviours and attributes – sometimes termed character – play a critical role in determining effectiveness in [the pupils’] future lives… Everything that happens in a school should embed the key behaviours and attitudes.” Judging ourselves against such an ambitious model is challenging indeed, and yet I believe that we must do so. The report highlights the necessity of capability in ‘core’ and ‘enabling’ subjects, and stresses the importance of ‘non-curricular activities’ in developing the qualities, values and attitudes upon which the future success, not only of the individual but of our society, will be founded. This report offers a passionate and closely argued validation of the ambitious vision of education which characterises a school such as the Academy. A synopsis such as this cannot hope to be comprehensive – a fuller picture of school life will appear in ‘The Owl’. However, it may be possible to convey some sense of the range of the activities which surround the core concern of learning and teaching at the Academy, through which “key behaviours and attitudes” are embedded. One of the busiest areas of “non-curricular activity” in school is the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award which, with more than 400 members, is among the largest in the United Kingdom. Mr Reilly inspires both loyalty and confidence in his ability to organise a very wide range of challenging activities. In doing so he depends upon the support and assistance of a team of former pupils, parents and others which he has developed over the years. It was very gratifying to see the contribution of one member of that team celebrated this year. In rec-ognition of his outstanding commitment and years of service to our Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Scheme, Mr Frank Workman received a “Long Service Recognition” certificate from H.R.H. Prince Edward at Hillsborough Castle in February.

To describe our Inspection as one of the highlights of the year may require the suspension of disbelief on the part of some members of staff, but it was, nonetheless, a very positive experience. One of the things which the in-spectors remarked upon was the diversity of our school: we are a commu-nity of pupils from all social backgrounds, from many religious faiths, and none, and with a significant range of academic abilities. We value, and are ambitious for, them all. The inspectors also noted our sustained improvement in academic perform-ance. This progress was maintained last year, when at both GCSE and Advanced Level our pupils surpassed the achievements of the previous year. At GCSE, 90% of pupils achieved A* - C in 7 or more subjects, includ-ing English and Mathematics, while 96% achieved A* - C in 5 or more sub-jects. Elizabeth Sinclair gained 11 passes at A*, and 48 pupils achieved 9 or more passes at A* or A. At Advanced Level, 74% of pupils achieved a mini-mum of 3 Cs, indeed 86% of the 596 subject entries were passed at grades A* - C. 10% of subject entries were awarded A*, for which a score of 90% at A2 is required. In 22 subjects there was a 100% pass rate – out of 596 subject entries only 9 were failed. Ridwan Farouki achieved 4A* and 1 A passes, Julia Diamond and Daniel Stark gained 4 A* passes, and 19 pupils achieved 4 passes at A* or A. Daniel Stark was placed 3rd in CEA Further Mathematics. Three pupils from last year’s MVI took up places at the ancient universities in September: Ridwan Farouki is reading Mathematics at Corpus Christi College, Cam-bridge, John William Carey is reading History and Politics at St. Benet’s Hall, Oxford, and Alexsy Gaj is reading Politics, Philosophy and Economics, also at St. Benet’s Hall. In all, our pupils went to 33 universities, including the UCL Institute in Paris, to study in 41 different degree disciplines. It was appropriate that Professor Janice Carruthers, Head of Modern Lan-guages at Queen’s University, was the Guest of Honour at Prize Day, our celebration of pupils’ academic achievement. Professor Carruthers is a former pupil, no stranger to Prize Day in her time, and her parents were both teachers of Mathematics in the Academy. It was a pleasure to attend a Prize-giving of her own, in the University, in July, when Kathryn Fusco and Jazmin Campbell received prizes – Kathryn won the First Prize in the Santander Spanish Essay Competition and Third Prize in the French Essay Competition; Jazmin received the Third Prize in the Spanish Essay Compe-tition. Jazmin returned to school, along with Michael Stewart and Sasha English, in the autumn to talk with our Modern Language Sixth Formers about their experience of studying languages at Advanced and at Under-graduate Level, giving advice on study skills and revision techniques and sharing information about various courses at Queen’s. In the course of the year, eleven pupils attended residential academic read-ing parties at Villiers Park, where they had the opportunity to study with

The AcademyNewsletter

Belfast Royal Academy June 2013

Headmaster’s Notes

Celebration of Excellence Award for her PhD research project at the School of Medicine, Dentistry and Biomedical Sciences. Her research will form the basis of future genetic screening to enable early diagnosis and treatment of chronic renal diseases. Our engagement with schools and educators beyond Northern Ireland, reflected in the International School Award, was much in evidence this year. In September we hosted 15 Spanish pupils and two members of staff as part of an exchange scheme and, as part of the European Day of Languages, we welcomed a group of Danish teachers to the Modern Languages Department. In October, 12 pupils travelled to Asturias in North West Spain for the ‘abroad’ component of their exchange. Four teachers from Pudong, Shanghai, spent a day in school during the autumn to observe how languages are taught here. Their visit coin-cided with a Chinese Food Theme Day in our canteen, which amused our visitors greatly. Two students from Germany who are studying at Stranmillis University College visited school at the end of November to observe lessons, and in December we hosted a visit by seven Chinese School Principals and Senior Administrators. We welcomed a group of pupils, teachers and Rotarians from Chicago in March, and will host a number of visiting parties of American pupils and teachers in the sum-mer. Our work with schools from Sweden and Dublin continues to thrive. Our international projects relate directly to the aspirations outlined in the CBI document: for example, those who travel to Malawi and Roma-nia are faced with challenges which help to develop the confidence, resilience and concern for others (the “social literacy” defined as “character”) which that document considers crucial. Last summer seven pupils travelled to Romania as part of a Habitat for Humanity Global Village Build. They observed classes and gave pres-entations to students at Colegiul Technic Victor Ungureanu and visited children at a local orphanage as well as participating in the building project. Throughout this year ten LVI pupils have taken part in Habitat for Hu-manity’s Schools’ Programme. Paired with De La Salle Boys’ School they have completed citizenship training and spent a day renovating a Simon Community shelter for the homeless in Downpatrick. The group is committed to raising £1250 for the charity, the cost of building a Habitat home in a developing country. At the end of June two teams totalling 46 LVI pupils, 10 staff and two support staff travelled to Mulanje Mission Station, Malawi, for work experience opportunities, mainly within medicine and teaching but also in health care and business. Refurbishment service projects focused on the construction of new latrines at our partner Primary School and improvements to the classrooms at the Apatsa Aids Orphanage and school. This concern for the welfare of others is much in evidence closer to home also. In October, Georgia Johnston from Save The Children came to Senior School Assembly to receive a cheque for £5000 from last year’s committee and to present the School with the Rita Rodden Cup which is awarded to the school which raises most money for the charity. Through the autumn, Holly McCoubrey raised money for the Northern Ireland Children’s Hospice. She recorded three songs and sold CDs in aid of the charity. Among other performances, she sang to pupils and parents at our Open Evenings and appeared on U105 Ra-dio’s Breakfast Show. More than £5,000 was raised for charity in the weekly Registration collections. In January, Sorcha Chipperfield, Fund-raising Co-ordinator for the Northern Ireland Cancer Fund for Children came in to School to receive a cheque for £3,263 which was raised by the pupils of Form I and II during ‘Read-On’, the sponsored reading event, and to speak to pupils about how their money would be used. Laura Bannon, Cara O’Kane, Aine Flynn and Lauren Bradley volun-teered with Lighthouse and Opportunity Youth, and, assisted by Adam Barnes, organised an awareness-raising event in school. The School Council forged links with students from BMC’s e3 campus in an events-planning activity and twenty Form III pupils joined other North Belfast schools in Co-operation Ireland’s CATCH project. Lauren Bradley, Niamh Duffy, Leona Holmes, Paula Keenan and Alex Devine received the Award of Excellence from Volunteer Now in December, having completed 200 hours of volunteering in the local community with pro-jects such as Woodlands Day Centre and the 147 Trust . Our pupils have, indeed, “a strong civic consciousness”, and are pre-pared to take “an active role in bettering the lives of others.” Our pupils’ experience of the world beyond Northern Ireland is not confined to Malawi, Romania, Sweden and Spain. Groups also trav-elled to Paris and to ski in Italy. Our Senior Rugby players toured South Africa in the summer, the U14 squad played matches in Ipswich

(Continued on page 3)

One of this year’s most interesting new projects has been the ‘Shared Experi-ence’ Seminar series, in which former pupils have been invited to come in to school to reflect upon their career experience with groups of senior pupils. The sessions, involving Noel Lamb (Finance), Basil McCrea (Politics), Claire McCollum (Media) and Judith Gillespie (PSNI) have been fascinating, and we look forward to developing this project next year. Well-established activities continue to prosper also. Members of the Junior Book club attended the event at which the winner of N.I. Book Awards was announced in March. In November they had been present at the unveiling of the shortlist and met author Joe Craig. The much-travelled Jun-iors also thoroughly enjoyed a talk and book-signing by Robert Muchamore, whose sense of humour was described by one club member as “amazing.” Form I pupils also had an opportunity to meet children’s author Katherine Rob-erts, who visited school in November to read from her latest Arthurian adven-tures. While their knowledge of the Status Quo oeuvre may have been limited, Form II pupils thoroughly enjoyed the drum workshop given by Quo drummer Jeff Rich in the Assembly Hall in November. He explored the history of the drum and other types of percussion and gave every pupil the chance to play a percussion instrument. Someone described it as “a cacophony of fun.” The LVI Music class attended a composition workshop with the distinguished Scottish composer, James McMillan, in which he discussed developments in 20th century music as well as talking about his own compositions. The Senior Traditional Group played at a Duke of Edinburgh’s Award ceremony held at the University of Ulster in October. Two members of the group, Conor Brogan and Dan McKenna, had to make a quick transition from being Silver Award recipients to performers in the group. Also in that month, the group played at the Headmasters’ and Headmistresses’ Conference (HMC) Gala Din-ner, held in the Titanic Building. The visiting Heads thoroughly enjoyed the lively selection of Irish and Scottish pieces. A month later, the Chamber Choir, Big Band and Traditional Group travelled to Gonzaga College, Dublin, to perform in a concert for Habitat for Humanity. Almost 200 pupils took to the stage of the Ulster Hall for the Spring Concert in March. The varied and ambitious programme included Karl Jenkins’ ‘Requiem’ and featured performances by the School’s Junior, Senior, Chamber and Boys’ Choirs, Junior and Senior Strings, Wind, Big and Brass Bands, Junior and Sen-ior Traditional groups and the Orchestra. It was a marvellous occasion. The Senior Dramatic Society’s production of Mr Jamison’s musical play ‘Snared’ played to full and appreciative houses in November. It was the turn of the Junior Dramatic Society in May – their production of ‘Little Shop of Horrors’ was great fun. A team of 50 pupils returned to the Ulster Hall, after a last-minute postponement due to the wintry weather, to compete in Rock Challenge 2013. Our dancers put on a spectacular show and received awards for Choreography, Performance Skill and Soundtrack. The team also received the Student Leadership Award for the leadership role taken by the pupils themselves. The team came 2nd overall in a competitive field. Our performers displayed exceptional creativity and skill. Pupils with a particular interest in Science have had a rewarding year also. The Senior Science Society invited guest speakers in to school and heard talks on subjects such as ‘Trends in Global Biodiversity’ (Dr Jack Lennon, QUB), ‘Exercise and Spinal Injury’ (Ms Victoria Wightman), ‘Bird Navigation : from quantum physics to global migration’ (Dr Richard Holland, QUB), ‘Invasive Spe-cies’ (Dr Jaimie Dick, QUB), and ‘The glue that holds us together – how external factors influence cancer cell behaviour’ (Dr C. McCaig). A group from the INIS Hydro-Project (Scotland) visited school in January to highlight the findings of recent hydrographical sea bed mapping surveys. The Young Einstein Club undertook a programme of lunchtime experiments including Raft Design (a competition to build the raft that would carry the great-est load from a sheet of A4 paper), Invisible Ink, Optical Illusions (Thaumatropes and Flicker Books) and Perching Parrots. MVI pupils who intend to pursue a career in Medicine or Dentistry attended a ‘Stem Cell Debate’ in W5 at the Odyssey, at which guest speakers spoke about Stem Cell research and the ethics debate surrounding such work. This group of pupils also took part in a seminar in school with Dr Melissa McCullough (QUB) on medical ethics related to issues such as stem cell technology and abortion. Sixth Formers also attended a presentation by Martin McGinn and Mike McQueen (University of Ulster) on 3D design and the built environment, while our senior Biologists visited Greenmount Agricultural Campus to investigate the challenges facing the agri-food sectors in Northern Ireland. Congratulations to Dr Currie, who was awarded the Queen’s University Annual

2 The Academy Newsletter 2013

The Academy Newsletter 2013 3

(Ulster Junior Swimming record – 100m Backcrawl); Charlie George, Katie Baird, Finn Purdy and Zoe Parkes (individual Gold medal winners, Ulster Schools’ Minor Swimming Championships); Kuda Kunaka (Best Junior Delegate in the Africa Committee in the Wesley College, Dublin, MUN conference); Abby Brown and Faye Kidd (Ulster U17 Hockey team: Faye was captain of the team which defeated England); Carly McCullough (starred as the lead role, Maria, in the Belfast Youth in the Arts production of ‘West Side Story’); Chloe Lynas and Ciera McCotter (had supporting roles in the same production, which ran for five nights at the Waterfront Hall, Belfast in April); Nikita McCoubrey, a member of the Northern Ireland Sea Cadet Corps, selected to represent the City of Belfast in the position of Lord Lieutenant’s Cadet for 2013; Emily Taggart (has won a rowing and academic scholarship to Michigan State University, USA: she trains at Belfast Boat Club with the Rowing Ireland Development Academy); Luke Taylor, Ryan Lightowler, Melissa Antonio and Rebecca Rowan (N.I. Bridge team for the Under 20 Home Internationals - Ryan and Melissa also in the Euro-pean Under 20 Championships); Cathryn Morrissey and Rebecca Marno (Taekwondo – won 4 Gold and 2 Bronze medals while representing Northern Ireland at the British National Poomsae Championships); Ross Bryans and Andrew Forbes (Ireland U17 Cricket squad); Daniel McFadden and Jordan Carlisle (Ulster Schools’ Cricket squad); Judithe Allen and Amy O’Donnell (Ulster Junior Girls’ Golf champions and Irish Schools’ Junior Cup winners - Judithe also won the trophy for best gross score at Junior level); Jack Agnew selected for the Great Britain Under 18 Wheelchair Basketball squad for the Paralympic Youth Festival in Utrecht, Netherlands. Congratulations also to the Open Show Jumping team, MEC Champions (the third year in a row that we have won this League competition); The Intermediate B Netball team, Belfast Area League champions; the 1st XI Girls’ Hockey team which enjoyed a thrilling Cup run to reach the Semi-final at Lisnagarvey Hockey Club, where they lost to the eventual winners, Lurgan College; the Girls’ Swim-ming Team, Ulster Champions for the 5th consecutive year; the Bridge Club, whose teams finished in 1st, 2nd, 5th and 6th in the Irish Championships; and the 1st XV, which reached the final of the Subsidiary Shield, losing narrowly to Campbell College at Ravenhill. Surrounding these individual and team achievements are the daily activities, the clubs and societies which give pupils opportunities to make friends and develop skills and confidence, whatever their particular interests. Pupils enjoyed the annual Scripture Union weekend at Castlewellan Castle, while others took part in events such as the International Women’s day STEM event, the Teenage Wellbeing Fair, the Book Fair, National Poetry Day readings, the Prefects’ team-building Day, the Robotics Roadshow, debates, a Global Entrepreneurship Challenge, the World Wise Quiz, the Schlumberger Gender Diversity in Industry careers event, the Kids’ Lit Quiz, the Interview Skills seminar, Careers visits, a STEM Carousel, the Roadsafe Roadshow, the EUNICAS seminar, the Mathe-matics Olympiad, a Stock Market Challenge and events to mark World Book Day. The vitality of our school community depends upon the shared enthusiasm and commitment of pupils and members of staff. When teachers leave, their involve-ment in a plethora of school activities is missed. We are fortunate indeed to attract first-rate colleagues from a new generation, who bring a new array of interests and initiatives, but the contribution of the members of staff who are departing now has been significant, both in the classroom and to the extra-curricular life and ethos of the school. ‘The Owl’ will outline the careers of Dr Lomas, Mr Moore, Mr Nash, Mrs Thompson and Mr Forrest in a way which is not possible here. Suffice to say that we will feel their absence and we wish them well. Our priority is to enable pupils to fulfil their academic potential, whether they are among the top performers in the UK, or having to work hard to achieve a place in the Sixth Form or at a university. However, our ambition is to look beyond qualifications, and through the culture and values of the school and the range of opportunities and challenges which it provides, to enable our pupils to achieve their personal, human potential so that they may develop the “character” which will underpin their future happiness and the success of the next generation in all areas of our society. Promoting aspiration and ambition, fostering the growth of confidence and self-reliance, and developing a ‘skills passport’ for employment: it is a challenging agenda, but, judged against the CBI blueprint, and by a rigorous Inspectorate, we have travelled far along the road already.

J.M.G. Dickson

and Cambridge in the Spring, our Equestrian team visited the Burgh-ley Horse Trials, our Girls’ Hockey 1st XI travelled to Gibraltar and Spain for matches at the end of the season and at Easter the 1st XI Cricket squad became the first school team from Northern Ireland to tour Sri Lanka. Join a team and see the world! Great credit must go to the pupils, staff and parents who organised and supported the fundraising events and activities which made such expeditions possible. Information about a range of activities and achievements appears in other sections of this magazine. I will therefore confine myself to highlighting the achievements of only a few individuals and teams: Daniel Dass (Ulster Schools’ U18 XV and Ulster U20 squad); Stewart Martin (Ulster Schools’ U18 XV and Ulster U19 squad); Alan Curtis (1st in 400m Hurdles and the 4 x 100m Relay at the Inter-provincial Athletics Championships, Ireland U17 Team at Schools’ Interna-tional); Lucy Stewart, Laura Fleck, Trinity Geddis, Ellen Dalzell, and Alice Reid (selected for Athletics Northern Ireland Talent Identification Programme); Alex Steenson, Shane Martin, Matthew Dalton, Stephen McCorry, Victoria Beattie and Mellissa Moffett selected to represent Ulster at the AVIVA Tailteann Irish Schools’ Inter-provincial; Tom Donnelly, Ruairi Hurson and David Speers (selected for Ulster Schools’ Water Polo team); Katie Baird (won the Elizabeth Long Trophy for the “most promising 11 year old boy or girl” at the Ulster Age-Group Swimming Championships); Cameron McCaughey and Andrew Milligan (Intermediate Champions, Ulster Schools’ Pairs’ Bridge); Adam Barnes (Commended Delegate in the George Wat-son’s MUN Conference held in Edinburgh); Jessica Johnston (represented Ireland at the Fontainebleau Show Jumping event); Erin Getty (Ulster and Ireland U16 Hockey); Conor Ferguson (Silver and Bronze medals in the British Age-Group Swimming Championships); Melissa Antonio and Rebecca Rowan, Luke Taylor and Ryan Lightowler (winners, Ulster Schools’ Teams’ Bridge Championships – our teams finished in second and third place also); Odhran Catney, Tiernan Coulter, Jack Green and Tom McKee (Irish finalists, Credit Union Quiz); Chris Turnbull, Philip Rowan, Angela Cao and Eilis O’Loan (Irish Bridge Teams’ Champions); Kelly-Anne Rainey (1st in both the Intermediate Exercise Pairs and Intermediate Exercise Team events at the Northern Ireland Creative Movement and Aerobic Championships); Angelo Marica (Ulster U19 Rugby squad); Lucy Kinnear (won the gavel for the Best Junior delegate overall in the MCB/Wallace High School Model United Nations Conference and was best Junior Delegate in the George Watson’s MUN Conference held in Edinburgh): Jessica Dowey (Best Junior Delegate in the Envi-ronment Committee, MCB/Wallace Conference), Kuda Kunaka (the best Junior Delegate in Eco-Soc Committee, MCB/Wallace Confer-ence), Alizeh Ali (Commended delegate in Middle East committee, MCB/Wallace Conference); David Campbell and Jordan Hylton (Ulster Schools’ U18 Rugby squad); Matthew Dalton (Ulster U16 Elite Rugby squad); Richard Ware, Andrew Milligan, Lui Hurson and Daniel Quigley (Northern Ireland Champions, UKMT Mathematics Challenge); Kieran McKenna (second in the All-Ireland Youth Climb-ing Series finals in Dublin in April, he has qualified to represent Ire-land at the UK Championships); Jamie Dwyer, Aaron Cairns, Kyle Higginson and Pierce Clements (Ulster Schools’ Golf Winter League finalists); James Reid (Gold medals, both N.I. and Irish Schools’ Judo, Silver medal Irish Open); the Judo team of Matthew Elliott, Dylan Getty and James Reid won a Silver medal at the N.I. Schools’ Championships; Kiah Reid (All-Ireland age-group Judo Champion, Bronze medal in international competition, Gold medal at N.I. Schools’ Championships, Silver medal at N.I. Open); Conor Ferguson

(Continued from page 2)

4 The Academy Newsletter 2013

Drama Notes - Snared Usually as soon as I have completed one play, I have already started to plan the next. In this case, I can hon-estly say that I miss working with the cast and crew of ‘Snared’ and while I know there are so many young stars on their way, I will live off the memories for some time yet.

Thank you to all those involved in ‘Snared’, in whatever capac-ity, and to parents, pupils, staff and friends of the School who attended the per-formances.

R. Jamison

have been taken seriously and so she dresses as a boy for the auditions. Predictably, she gets the job. Then she falls in love with the lead singer, and has the dilemma of how to tell him that she is in fact his drum-mer. Meanwhile, he is offered a recording deal as a solo art-ist and he has the dilemma of how he deals with the other band members. The moral of the story is about priorities in life and what ultimately satis-fies.

I love being involved in drama and this project was one of the happiest I can remember. No need for hair-rending or gnash-ing of teeth. With such a won-derful group of young people and adult friends around me it was a blast from start to finish.

That was the starting point for ‘Snared’. I wanted a show that was entertaining to watch and to be in. I wanted a context that would be engaging, that would stretch the actors and would have many speaking, non-speaking and singing roles to satisfy the diverse and im-pressive talents of Academy pupils and, in particular the girls, who traditionally audition in greater numbers than the boys.

Superficially, the story set amid the Mods/Rockers riots in Brighton 1963, is about a boy who dreams of stardom in a rock band. He is unsuccessful in auditioning for a drummer until a girl from the local private school fits the bill. Of course, in 1963 a girl drummer would not

“Sir, do Grease, go on do Grease”. I understand fully the reason why I am encouraged to make this choice every year: the youthful energy, the American high school context, the timeless boy meets girl storyline, the fashion and, of course, the evocative music. So why have I not done it? Well, for very selfish reasons really. I am attracted to stories that have a moral. Whether it is the Faustian soul-selling tale behind ‘Little Shop of Hor-rors’, the convent-saving an-tics of the ‘Blues Brothers’, the class-based value systems of ‘Much Ado’, or the mutual sac-rifice of father and son in ‘Bleachers’, I like to have something to hang the fun on to.

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nothing short of a fantastic ex-perience both academically, as I have had so many leading academics tutoring me, and socially as I’ve become inte-grated into our college’s family-like atmosphere and am able to continue with other activities such as playing hockey. For anyone passionate about his or her subject and thinking of applying to Oxbridge I would encourage you to do so. If you’re successful it opens up a

had paid off and, thankfully, it had. I still needed to achieve the grades that were asked of me, and with hard work throughout the year as well as reading around my subjects, I was able to do this. All colleges in Oxford have their own personalities and St. Benet’s Hall is no different, particularly in that it only ad-mits boys, as there is a com-munity of Benedictine monks studying with us. It has been

For me, the idea of studying History at Oxford can be traced back to two of my teachers: Mr Buchan telling me that I had the potential to aim for Oxbridge and Dr Brown telling my Maths class of his own experience study-ing there. I chose History be-cause it was the subject that most enthralled me, as even from an early age I read about history for fun. All those who had decided to apply to Oxbridge attended classes led by Dr Brown from the end of Lower Sixth into Middle Sixth until we went for our interviews in November/December 2011. These classes concentrated on what to expect in, and how to deal with, interviews as well as building our confidence in an interview situation. The inter-view was a daunting experi-ence, as published historians quizzed me, and I experi-enced the full range of emo-tions during the days I was there. A few weeks later on the 16th December 2011, I found myself in my Economics class in school nervously opening the email that would tell me whether the hard work

J.W. Carey - First Year At Oxford world of opportunities and even if you’re not, the experi-ence itself is hugely beneficial. Don’t let fear of disappointment prevent you from pursuit of your goals. Belfast Royal Academy is such a great place to launch yourself from and whatever your university or career aims, be sure to take advantage of the committed staff and everything the school offers.

John William Carey

tacular show and received three awards: Choreography, Performance Skill and Sound-track. The team also received the Student Leadership Award for being entirely pupil-led. To complete a fantastic night, the team was placed 2nd overall. Preparations for next year have already begun and taking on board all of the judges’ comments, we are hoping to put on an even better show and finish the night in 1st place!

L. Craig

On Monday 15th April, a team of 50 pupils returned once again to the Waterfront Hall to compete in Rock Challenge 2013. The competition was originally due to take place on Friday 22nd March but was cancelled due to bad weather at the time. Standards were very high in all aspects of the competition this year and the team com-peted against Ballee Commu-nity High School, Hazelwood Integrated College and Little Flower. Ashfield Girls’ School and the Girls’ Model also show-cased at the event. The dancers put on a spec-

Rock Challenge

form at a fund-raising concert for Habitat for Humanity. It was a very enjoyable day and de-spite the concert starting half an hour later than advertised with Ms McMullan being told to “relax….this is the way it hap-pens in the South…”, everyone had an excellent night’s craic. The Gonzaga boys will be coming to the Academy in No-vember of this year and we are already looking forward to the ‘BRAzaga Experience’ – Ruari Brogan’s words, not mine. De-tails about the concert will be posted on the School website closer to the time. The Annual Spring Concert in March was a huge success. Fourteen different groups and over two hundred students per-formed to a packed Ulster Hall. With so many different musical genres represented throughout the evening it really was a feast of music. I think everyone enjoyed the experience of per-forming Karl Jenkins’s ‘Requiem’ with the School Or-chestra, especially the Bass Section whose rendition of their part in ‘Dies Irae’ and ‘Rex Tremendae’ was quite simply awe-inspiring. Once Mr Briggs and Jamie Dwyer real-ised that the start of ‘Rex Tre-mendae’ was not to do with calling for a lost dog, standards improved considerably! Stefan Tucker performed the MVI solo demonstrating his dexterity on the flute. Special mention must go to the various members of MVI for whom this will be their last concert. There are simply too many to mention by name in this short article but Mrs

6 The Academy Newsletter 2013

2012/2013 has proven to be a very busy and exciting year for the Music Department. Re-hearsals commenced immedi-ately in September for all groups. Instruments were re-trieved from the depths of bedrooms and store rooms and everyone seemed to really enjoy meeting each other again after the summer break. The first performance was at the School’s Annual Prize Day in UUJ. The Senior Orchestra performed ‘Marche Slave’ by Tchaikovsky and the Chamber Choir sang ‘Locus Iste’ by Anton Bruckner. Prize Day is one of the Music De-partment’s favourite days of the year and everyone thor-oughly enjoyed sampling the various coffee establishments in UUJ between rehearsals. Immediately after the half term break, rehearsals commenced for the Senior and Junior Carol Services. Once again the Senior Choir, Chamber Choir and Senior Orchestra performed at the Senior Carol Service, with Michael Bell singing the tenor solo in ‘O Holy Night’ and Faye Kidd, Cameron McCartney and Cameron Gergett singing the solos in Howard Darke’s beautiful arrangement of ‘In the Bleak Mid-Winter’. Special thanks must go to Mr Stephen Hamill who accompanies the Senior Choir every year with-out complaining! In November the Big Band, Chamber Choir and Tradi-tional Group travelled to Gon-zaga College, Dublin, to per-

Music Notes

company and take part in so many instrumental and choral groups. Special mention must go to Miss Carson who man-ages the Boys’ Choir with great aplomb! Without your support the Music Department would find it very difficult to produce music of such a high standard. Thanks also to the instrumen-tal teachers in the School who have shown such commitment to the groups they have taken throughout the year.

M. McMullan

The Senior Traditional Group has had a particularly success-ful year under the leadership of Dr Scully. In October they had the privilege of performing at the HMC Conference in the Titanic building and also at the Duke of Edinburgh’s Silver Award Ceremony at the Uni-versity of Ulster. They have recently entered Music for Youth by video recording and are through to the next round in Birmingham in July. We wish them all the best for that com-petition. The Music Department would like to take this opportunity to thank the various members of staff who sing, conduct, ac-

McConnell, Jamie Dwyer, Con-nor Brogan and James Don-nelly. We shall all miss their wit and humour, especially Ben’s ability to start playing random solos at any point in the music. Mrs Burch directed the Junior Musical ‘Little Shop of Horrors’ which has taken years off her life, but she says that she will do it again! The quality of sing-ing and dancing (at the same time) was quite remarkable considering the short space of time that they had to rehearse. Hopefully, this will prove to be a more frequent venture, espe-cially since we have discov-ered Mrs Burch has a hidden talent for choreography!

Burch, Mr Briggs and myself have greatly appreciated your support during your time at the Academy. The Music Department’s cal-endar of events continued into the Easter term. Michael Bell competed in and won the Catherine Judge Memorial Award on Saturday 20th April. He received a cheque for £5,000 towards furthering his studies at university and per-formed live on Radio Ulster on 6th May. The Big Band per-formed at the Ulster Youth Jazz Orchestra Showcase held at the Black Box after Easter. This was the final per-formance from stalwarts of the Big Band such as Ben

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hopes to use the money for singing lessons in London.

M. McMullan

Michael has been offered a place at St. John’s College, Cambridge, in September 2013 as a Choral Scholar. He

Leader of the Ulster Orchestra, Tamas Kocsis, made the pres-entation. Fellow judges on the panel included Ireland’s inter-nationally renowned piano player Una Hunt, and Dr Joe McKee.

The Award was created in memory of Catherine Judge, an employee of Bank of Ireland who passed away in August 2005, as a way of supporting a new generation of musical tal-ent. The Award is open to all of Ireland as part of the Bank of Ireland’s Secondary Schools’ Programme. The Award is pre-sented annually to an excep-tional solo classical musician who wishes to pursue third-level music education.

Congratulations to Michael Bell (MVI) who was the winner of the Bank of Ireland's Cath-erine Judge Memorial Award. The live final was held on Sat-urday 20th April 2013 in the Great Hall at Queen’s Univer-sity, Belfast. Michael received a cheque for £5,000 and an invitation to perform at the Sir Charles Wood Festival in Au-gust.

Competition this year was fierce, with soloists from Ban-bridge Academy, Cambridge House Grammar School, CIT Cork School of Music, Meth-odist College, RBAI, Royal Irish Academy of Music and Thornhill College. Michael per-formed pieces by Bach, Brit-ten and Mozart.

Catherine Judge Memorial Award

CLASS OF 1993 20 YEAR REUNION

Saturday 27th July 2013 National Trust Minnowburn, Shaw’s Bridge

Anyone interested in attending

or for more information, please contact:

Heather Sharpe - heather@firemed.co.uk or

Nikki Johns (nee McStravick) - nickj1969@hotmail.co.uk

Belfast Royal Academy pro-vides excellent opportunities for pupils throughout the School. I would like to thank the staff for all their hard work, dedication and commitment to all aspects of sporting endeav-our at the Academy. The 1st XV played well this season, winning the Former Pupils’ Cup as the most suc-cessful team in the School and reaching the Final of the Subsidiary Shield. Daniel Dass and Stewart Martin played for the Ulster Schools’ U18 team in the Inter-provincial Championships. Congratulations also to An-gelo Marcia, Jordan Hylton, David Campbell and Matthew Dalton who have been in-cluded in various Ulster age-group squads for next sea-son’s Inter-provincial Champi-onships. Captained by Matthew Simp-son (MVI) the 2nd XV saw some memorable perform-ances, beating convincingly a strong Wallace High School, Regent House and Portora Royal. The 3rd XV developed as the season progressed and many of the players should come through to form the backbone of senior rugby next season. The Medallion XV had a very promising season. They made good progress on the pitch and the highlight of the season was the Medallion XV’s win at Roughfort against a much-fancied Ballymena Academy team. The U14 sea-son culminated in the tour to Cambridge, where the boys beat an undefeated Perse School 27-5. The U13 team

8 The Academy Newsletter 2013 games, beating Ballyclare High by 14 points to 10. We entered four teams in the British Schools’ Karting com-petition, achieving 2nd and 6th in Northern Ireland, with out-standing wins from Michael Woods, Stephen Rea and Pe-ter O’Neill. The Swim Team had another great year. Once again, B.R.A. is the top Grammar School in Ulster, with the Junior Boys’ team (Finn Purdy, Lui Hurson, James Desmond, Charlie George and Lorcan Gourley) winning medals in every com-petition. Conor Ferguson set two Ulster Schools’ records and was selected for the Ulster Schools’ Inter-provincial team. In total, B.R.A. boys and girls won 132 swimming med-als during the last school year. The Senior Boys’ Water Polo team finished 3rd in the Schools’ League, 3rd in the Canada Trophy and 3rd again in the Irish U19 Schools’ Championships. Tom Don-nelly, Ruairi Hurson and David Speers were selected for the Ulster Schools’ U19 Inter-provincial team and finished runners-up in the Irish Inter-provincial Tournament. The U16 boys finished 2nd in the league and will play in the Irish Schools’ in September. Both of the Senior Boys’ teams finished 1st and 2nd at the Ul-ster Lifesaving Championships and go through to the Irish tournament later in the year. Ruairi Hurson was selected for the Commonwealth Games team and in September 2013 will be going to the Games be-ing held in Canberra, Australia.

W. McGonigle

and 200m), Matthew Dalton (Junior 80m Hurdles and High Jump) and Alan Curtis (Senior 400m Hurdles and Long Jump) all became double Ulster Champions, with Thomas Carey winning the Junior Triple Jump. There were many other fine individual performances which contributed to the Junior Boys’ team becoming Ulster Junior Champions and the Boys’ team finishing second overall. At the Irish Schools’ Athletics Championships in June, Mat-thew Dalton (Junior High Jump) and Shane Martin (Junior Pole Vault) became Irish Champions. Matthew also finished second in the Junior 80m Hurdles, as did Thomas Carey in the Junior Triple Jump. Alex Beattie (Junior Pole Vault), Robert Moffett (Senior Hammer) and Alan Curtis (Senior 400m Hurdles) all won Bronze medals. The Junior Boys’ team won the overall Irish Junior Boys’ Championship. The Senior Boys’ Cross Coun-try team, comprising Matthew Donnelly, Mannix McAllister, Malachy McKenna, James Duffy and Caolan Lyttle, fin-ished runners-up in the District Championships and in a credit-able 6th place at Ulster level. The Golf team took part in the Ulster Schools’ Winter League. They qualified for the Final against C.A.I. and St. Killian’s at Royal Portrush. The team deserve a lot of credit for reaching the School’s first ever golf final. The 1st XI Cricket team suc-cessfully negotiated its first McCullough Cup series of

had an encouraging season, winning ten games, including a victory against St. Joseph’s, Ipswich. The Form I Rugby team had a promising debut season, reaching the final of the Plate competition in the annual Coleraine Tournament. The Hockey 1st XI finished 3rd in their Prior Shield qualifying group. The Athletics Club competed at the Junior and Senior Dis-trict Championships. There were some outstanding per-formances, including new Dis-trict records for Stephen McCorry in the Junior Hammer and Matthew Dalton in the 80m Hurdles. In the Senior and Intermediate District Athletics Champion-ships both teams finished sec-ond in overall points. Shane Martin won the Pole Vault which, when added to the Jun-ior Boys’ team’s excellent ear-lier performances, was enough to see the Junior Boys’ team become District champions. The Boys’ team finished sec-ond in the Victor Ludorum, when performances in all age-groups are added together. Jack Agnew competed in the inaugural T54 events with great success, winning both the 100m and 200m. At the Ulster Schools’ Athletics Championships, Stephen McCorry set a new Ulster re-cord in the Junior Hammer, throwing a massive 50.43m; Robert Moffett retained his Senior Hammer title and Jack Plackett won the Junior Pole Vault. Jack Agnew (T54 100m

Boys’ Sport

The Academy Newsletter 2013 9 Lifesaving Awards. Lori Turk-ington had a great Ulster Life-saving Championship, finishing in third place and progressing to the Irish finals later in the year. The Girls’ team for the British Championships had a good competition and picked up sev-eral medals. Maeve Gallagher and Ashley Johnston will com-pete in the Ulster Junior Life-saving Championship. Eorann O’Neill won the 100m Obstacle and finished 2nd in the 200m Obstacle, as well as the Rescue Medley. Eorann and Lori were selected for the GB National squad and the Northern Ireland Common-wealth Games Lifesaving team. In September 2013, they will travel to the Games being held in Canberra, Australia. The Swimming team, cap-tained by Kate Miller and Se-ana Harley-Moyes, is the top Grammar School club in Ul-ster, with the Senior Girls’ team becoming Ulster Champi-ons. Eorann O’Neill and Katie Baird were selected for the Ulster team which won the In-ter-provincial Championships at the beginning of May. Both Senior and Junior Relay teams are Ulster Champions in Medley and Freestyle. At the Secondary Schools’ Champi-onships Eorann O’Neill won 5 Gold medals. Golfers Judithe Allen and Amy O’Donnell became Ulster Jun-ior Girls’ Golf champions and Irish Schools’ Junior Cup win-ners - Judithe also won the trophy for best gross score at Junior level.

N. Nicholl

outstanding form at the District Championships and recorded nine 1st positions on the way to finishing 1st overall in both the Senior and Intermediate team standings, with the Junior Girls' taking 2nd place. The Ulster Championships saw Hannah Allen, Emma Kelso and Alex Beattie win Gold medals in the Senior Hammer, Senior Pole Vault and Junior Pole Vault respectively. Both Emma and Alex continued their good form in the Pole Vault, taking Gold and Bronze medals in their events at the Irish Schools’ Athletics Cham-pionship in June. In Cross Country, at the Dis-trict Championship, Form I’s Aimee Bradley and Ellen Dal-zell of Form II both ran out-standing races to qualify for the Ulster final. Our highest finishers at each level at the Districts were, Rioghnach Cat-ney (Junior), Natalie Watson (Intermediate) and Katie Nixon (Senior). The Senior Girls’ Water Polo team, captained by Caroline Montgomery, saw Lori Turking-ton selected for the Irish U16 team to compete in the Tri-Nations in Cardiff. Eorann O’Neill and Caroline Montgom-ery continue to train with the Irish U19s. More recently, the U14 team competed in the Irish U14 tournaments in Gal-way and Dublin. Outstanding play was in evidence from Maeve Gallagher, Anna White-side, Cara Carson, Emma Gourley and Jennifer McCorry. The Lifesaving Club, under the captaincy of Sam Lindsay, won the award of top school/club in Northern Ireland for success-fully completing and passing

upset the odds with two memo-rable victories and a drawn match. For the second year Erin Getty has been selected for Ulster U15s, and in June travels to Holland with the team to play in a European tournament. Other players from our Junior teams winning representative honours at Belfast U15 level were Lucy Stewart and Irish Alvarado. Lucy also had the honour of captaining the team and progressed to selection for the Ulster B squad. The 2A XI, led by Captain Megan Reilly and Vice Captain Sarah McGrath, played 15 games, won 5, drew 4 and lost 6 matches. The U14s were captained this year by Savan-nah Thompson who, along with Lucy Stewart, shared the Player of the Year Award. Anna Wilson was top scorer for the U14s, who finished in sec-ond place in their South Antrim league. The U13s, captained by Trinity Geddis, had 7 wins and 4 draws out of 13 matches played. The top goal scorer was Maria Del Castillo, while Alice Reid was named Player of the Year, an Award voted for every week by team members. Tennis teams were entered at Junior, Intermediate and Sen-ior Level. Senior and Interme-diate teams have won all their matches to date and have pro-gressed to the knock-out stages of their respective Cup competitions. The Girls' Athletics Club was in

For the 2012/13 Hockey sea-son we fielded 4 Senior and 4 Junior teams every week. In addition to our 8 regular teams, the Form I side played friendly fixtures against Bally-mena Academy, Grosvenor, Methody, Friends’ and Bally-clare High. The team ended the season playing in the long-established annual tourna-ment hosted by Grosvenor Grammar School. The Owls’ Cup is awarded every year to the team that wins the most matches and this year the honour fell to the 1st XI. Under the leadership of Captain Amy Mellor and Vice Captain Faye Kidd, and with the help of fifteen goals scored by Sarah Martin, the 1st XI played 22 games, won 15, drew 3 and lost 4 matches. It was an excep-tional achievement for the 1st XI to reach the semi-final of the Schools’ Cup for the first time in some 20 years. There was no shame in their defeat to the eventual Cup and All-Ireland Trophy winners, Lur-gan College. Reward for the success of the season in-cluded a trip to Marbella, where the 1st XI played two matches against Spanish op-position. Players from the squad who gained representative honours for the Belfast Area U17 team included Judithe Allen, Faye Kidd and Abbie Brown. Faye and Abbie went on to repre-sent Ulster U17s, with Faye having the honour of captain-ing the team. They played a three-match series against England U17s at Lillishall and

Girls’ Sport

more awesome than I ever thought it would be. I will be back as soon as possible.

Niamh: I went to Cluj-Napoca, Romania because I wanted to have the experience of helping people help themselves. Doing this with Habitat for Humanity meant I could be a part of this process – actually helping in the building of a family home. It also gave me an opportunity to see and experience a new country and culture.

Leona: The modern parts of Cluj-Napoca were not what I had expected, especially the shopping mall. I did see the poorer housing and the older flats built prior to the revolution and realised the need for help.

Heather: Habitat is a very sus-tainable charity and for this reason I thought it would be very worthwhile to get in-volved. The past 12 days have been a great experience to be a small part of a really big pic-ture.

Oliver: I thought it would be a great and rewarding experi-ence. I wanted to help the fam-ily myself, rather than just do-nating, as I wanted to be able to see where my money and time went. I was able to see the result of work done by my-self and my team.

Peter: I really wanted to do something worthwhile with my summer, and thought the trip would be a good way of forget-ting about my exams and also helping out people less fortu-nate than me. I saw the trip as an opportunity to visit a country I otherwise never would have been able to.

Niall: I honestly had no idea what I expected, but this trip showed me the severe gap between poverty and wealth for many people in Romania.

D. Keenan D. Nash

The Habitat Team

briefing, we were set to work like little elves hammering iron rods to make 25cm square supports to help reinforce the concrete structure. This was high precision work and many of our efforts failed Vio’s qual-ity control and had to be re-done: we had to raise our game and become skilled at this task before we would see progress in our labour! Our motivation came from the fre-quent family visits of Adrian and Ancuta Vlaic, for whom we were helping to make this house a reality. Ancuta often brought her children to see the ‘new home’ developing and during tea breaks treated the workers to some of her home cooking. News of our work spread fast and we were soon to appear on Romanian televi-sion, when the young pre-senter even interviewed Niall! Three days in, driven by Mr Nash, we were mixing, shovel-ling and ferrying bucket loads of cement in a Romanian heat wave. Heather, Leona, Niamh and Sarah proved worthy of the task and kept the boys, Oliver, Peter and Niall, under pressure to fill 60 metres of first floor foundation in double quick time! Wherever we went in Cluj the people were friendly and wel-coming, impressed that such a young team had travelled to their country to help them. A local factory owner even bought us ice-creams and des-serts to show his support for our work. On the final day of our build we downed tools at lunchtime and celebrated a farewell barbeque with the family, Vio, Geta, Al-exandra, Dr Oliver and the girls from Victoria College, who had joined us for part of our time. A few thoughts from the pupils:

Sarah: I joined the volunteer-ing programme for Romania - it was an experience I couldn’t pass up. My opinion on the experience – I wouldn’t change it for the world. It has been an amazing 12 days, and it was

local town, Campia Turzii. The bonds of friendship were strengthened further that weekend when pupils and staff from Colegiul Tehnic “Victor Ungureanu” extended their hospitality by taking us on a visit to the stunning Turda Salt-mine in the morning, followed by a picnic lunch and walk through the Turda Gorge in the afternoon. The saltmine has recently been converted for tourists into an impressive un-derground leisure complex complete with a number of at-tractions including a Ferris wheel, a boating lake and bowling alley. Even after a short time there, we felt the benefits of ‘halotherapy’ in the cool air, just what we needed before our hike through the Gorges in sweltering tempera-tures. After a weekend to acclimatise and relax, on the Monday morning we awoke full of en-thusiasm to begin our build. As we left our hotel in the uni-versity district for the thirty min-ute drive to the site, we passed through the contrasting dis-tricts of Cluj – modern com-mercial and shopping areas juxtaposed with cramped, out-dated and poorly maintained housing. Arriving at our destination we were met by site managers Vio and Geta, who have worked for Habitat for about 10 years after being involved alongside other volunteers in the building of their own ‘Habitat homes’. Following a health and safety

Having been involved with Habitat for Humanity N.I. for three years we decided, in June 2012, to take the next step in the journey and go on an international build to Cluj-Napoca, Transylvania, Roma-nia. Several pupils from Victo-ria College came with us. Cluj, the second city of Roma-nia, located in the north of the country we soon came to know is one of contrasts: a vibrant centre, with high qual-ity restaurants and beautiful architecture, belies an under-class of poor people. Concen-trations of soulless, grey tower blocks and dilapidated build-ings are durable remnants of the old communist system of governance. On arrival we were met by Alexandra, our young Habitat representative, who was to look after us during our time in her country. Before beginning the hard physical work on the building site we had the op-portunity to undertake a num-ber of educational and cultural activities. A link fostered by Mr Nash through his work with Euro-pean Studies allowed us to visit a local school, Colegiul Tehnic “Victor Ungureanu”. After sitting in on morning les-sons (English, Mathematics and Geography), both sets of pupils in a packed lecture theatre gave presentations on our different cultures and schooling systems. The Ro-manian students took the Bel-fast pupils for lunch in their

Habitat for Humanity - Romania 10 The Academy Newsletter 2013

bers of the surrounding area. It was surprising to hear that the foundation runs entirely on do-nations. After our visit we com-pleted a beach clean-up and had a well-deserved swim.” The good work continued that evening, when the students gave cricket and football train-ing to 60 local children. Students also enjoyed visiting many tourist sites, including a tour of Kandy, an excursion to a Buddhist Temple, snorkelling in the Indian Ocean and a trip to an elephant orphanage. They also received a talk about the Sri Lankan conflict. For many, the highlight was a trip to the Cricket Shop, where many bats and shirts were pur-chased. The boys were also treated to a visit to Premadasa International Stadium to watch the face-off between Great Britain Combined Universities and Bangladesh. Overall, the tour was a huge success and enjoyed by all involved. Form IV student, Mi-chael Wilson, concluded, “We boarded the plane saying fare-well to a nation we have be-come very fond of, making new friends and leaving with happy memories.”

M. Shields

The Academy Newsletter 2013 11

draw'.” The last match of the tour was played against Colombo Inter-national School, where B.R.A. secured an impressive first win. Form V pupil, David Reid, commented on the winning formula: “We started off with CIS bowl-ing a lot of extras and were going well until 2 quick wickets fell, leaving us 22-2. However, Fettis and McFadden (36) bat-ted superbly to take the match away from CIS with a partner-ship of 62. Jordi Fettis ended with a brilliant 50*, his 2nd fifty of the tour. It was great to get our first win, so after the game we celebrated by having an ice-cream with the opposition and then had a quiet relaxing last night in Sri Lanka.” As well as sporting endeav-ours, the students also worked closely with two Sri Lankan charities, Child Action Lanka, and the Foundation of Good-ness. David McLarnon ex-plained the work undertaken to help others:

“We travelled to the Founda-tion of Goodness Centre, where on arrival we were met by Mr Anura. He gave us a tour around the centre and ex-plained to us what the centre offers to the local people of the Seenigama village: courses in Business Studies, English and Electrical Wiring, among oth-ers. There was also a medical centre located on the site which provided a free service and free medication to mem-

Eventually, Ananda College's batting was too much to handle and we lost by 6 wickets.” The team’s third match was played against the formidable Foundation of Goodness Acad-emy, who beat the B.R.A. stu-dents in an exciting showdown. Form III pupil, Jack Burton, shared his thoughts on the successes of his opponents: “They beat us by 8 wickets, chasing down our modest total. The highlight for us was Ross Bryans' fiery opening spell, in which he took two wickets. Francis Collins' juggled catch was also impressive. At the end we were told by their coach, Mr Anura, that because they have little rain, they train 7 days a week, 365 days a year. This definitely showed in their performance.” Another exciting match was played at the famous Interna-tional Galle Stadium against Nottingham High School. B.R.A.’s Francis Collins re-viewed the match in this way: “Nottingham had a good start - an opening stand of 115 runs. We finally broke the partner-ship when Michael Wilson bowled a 'jaffa' down the leg side and David Reid took a sharp catch. We fought hard after that and with good spells from Ben Kane, Jordan Car-lisle (who bowled the England U17 captain), Andrew Forbes, Jordi Fettis and Andrew Palmer, we broke through to their tail. However, their num-ber six counter-hit well and scored a quick-fire 51* off 30 balls. They ended their innings on 254-6. “With a defeat on the cards, David Reid batted 29.4 overs in the intense heat, scoring a well-fought 22 off 84 balls, ably supported by Jack Burton. Jor-dan Carlisle came in and picked up the run rate by scor-ing 36no off 34 balls, but at this stage we realised we couldn't get bowled out if we were to get a draw. We succeeded in not being bowled out and ended up settling for a 'fair

On Wednesday 27th March, the 1st XI Cricket team trav-elled to Sri Lanka for a pre-season tour, becoming the first school from Northern Ire-land to do so. The tour was productive, both in a cricketing and educational sense, as well as being immensely en-joyable. Highlights included playing at the Galle Interna-tional Stadium, snorkelling in the Indian Ocean, bathing ele-phants, singing in a tree hut and working closely with two Sri Lankan charities, Child Action Lanka, and the Foun-dation of Goodness. Students found the hot and humid conditions challenging at first, but they soon acclima-tised, ready for their first match against Kandy Acad-emy at Dharmaraja College Grounds. B.R.A. student, Suraj Tirupati, outlined the dramatic events of the match: “They batted first and scored 132 in 20 overs on a very fast outfield (Ben Kane 4 overs for 9 runs). We backed ourselves from the start to put up a good fight - and that’s exactly what we did! Jordi Fettis scored 60 off 43 balls and was supported by David Reid (28). After a see-saw battle we needed 26 off the last two. A massive six by Cameron McClurkin pro-vided some impetus. Ross Bryans took 16 off the final over (3 off the final ball) to finish the game in an incredi-ble tie.” The students’ next match was against Ananda College at Shugathadasa Stadium. MVI pupil, Jordan Carlisle, outlined the highlights of a well-fought battle: “We won the toss and opted to bat first. The heat in Colombo was even more intense than Kandy and the opening bats-men, Francis Collins and Jack Burton, were relieved when the sky clouded over just prior to the start! After a decent first 10 overs, we struggled to get momentum, losing wickets quite regularly but posted a reasonable score of 161.

Cricket Tour to Sri Lanka

12 The Academy Newsletter 2013

successfully involved in a busy period of expedition work at Bronze, Silver and Gold levels, on foot in the Antrim Hills and the Mourne Mountains, and, by canoe, on the River Bann. The exceptionally poor weather at the end of March and the be-ginning of April caused the postponement of some expedi-tions until the arrival of better conditions. After the summer examinations the programme of expedition work will continue right through until the end of October.

J. Reilly

Edinburgh’s Award. An Award Ceremony was held on Tues-day 12th February at Hillsbor-ough Castle where Mr. Work-man was presented with his Certificate by HRH Prince Ed-ward, the Earl of Wessex. On Tuesday 5th March in the Headmaster’s Study Mr. Dick-son presented Mr. Sharp with his Certificate. We thank Dr. Lomas very much for her outstanding com-mitment and long years of ser-vice to our Centre as Co-ordinator of the Skills section and wish her a long and happy retirement. We are very grate-ful to Mrs. L. Nicholl for agree-ing to become the new Skills section Co-ordinator. Two hundred and thirty-five of our members have been very

from Forms III to MVI, as well as 36 adult helpers, including former pupils who are Gold Award holders, parents and teachers. In excess of five ton-nes of rubbish were cleared from 13 sites in the Mournes’ area. We received much ap-preciated assistance from Down District Council, Newry and Mourne District Council, The Mourne Heritage Trust, The National Trust, Tidy North-ern Ireland and Mark’s Skip Hire (Kilkeel). This year, the Mournes’ Clean-Up raised £2,301.87 for our funds. In recognition of their out-standing commitment and long years of service to our Centre, Mr. David Sharp and Mr. Frank Workman each received the “Long Service Recognition” Certificate from The Duke of

The DofE in the Academy continues to go from strength to strength. Currently our membership stands at 418 pupils from Forms III to MVI: this means that the Academy has the largest school-based Award Centre in Northern Ire-land, and possibly the United Kingdom. Since 1984 the following Awards have been gained by our pupils:

• Bronze: 1,152 • Silver: 628 • Gold: 418

The 23rd Annual Sponsored Mournes’ Clean-up and Envi-ronment Day was held on Sat-urday 8th December 2012. Taking part were 155 people, i.e. 119 pupils, all Duke of Ed-inburgh’s Award members

Duke of Edinburgh’s Award

The Ben Madigan girls can hold their heads high as they are the 3rd best team in Ulster Primary Schools’ Hockey. A tremendous effort!

V. McCaig

tively. The semi-final saw the girls come up against a well-drilled Waringstown team, who had won this competition several times in the past. The girls showed no fear and were win-ning 2-1 with 30 seconds re-maining. Waringstown, how-ever, scored a last gasp equal-iser which sent the game to extra time. There was nothing to separate the two teams and the game was forced to go to penalties. Waringstown showed great composure and won 2-0 in the penalty shoot-out. They then went on to win the final with a 4-goal margin.

land Primary Schools’ Hockey Cup. They stormed through the qualifiers and were quietly opti-mistic about their chances in the finals. Having been placed in a tough group with one of the favourites, the girls played extremely well and qualified 2nd in their group with convinc-ing wins over Victoria Prep, Ballyholme, Cookstown and Carryduff. They avoided the Plate competition and qualified for the Cup. The girls were only 4 victories away from win-ning the entire competi-tion. They stormed past their next two opponents, Carrick Model and Hazlett Primary with 6-0 and 5-1 victories respec-

This year all of our teachers have been supplied with iPads to use in their teaching. Training in their use has be-gun and various apps have been downloaded for use. Fully filtered Wi-Fi will be in-stalled soon, along with two AppleTV systems. If insur-ance is in place, we hope to expand the number of iPads next year to enable more pu-pils to access them and possi-bly permit pupils to bring their own iPads to school. On 24th March, the Ben Madi-gan Hockey team travelled to Lisnagarvey to participate in the finals of the Northern Ire-

Ben Madigan Notes