Inside this issue Inside this issue:
Principal’s 2 Foreword
Age N.I. 3
SERVE - South 4 Africa Communities in 5 Dialogue
International 6 Men’s Day
Geography Update 7 SERVE - South Africa Communities in Dialogue R.E. Trip to 8 Islamic Centre Hampers for 9 Storehouse Feeder Primary 10 School Visits
Careers 11 Convention
Calendar 12
International Men’s Day Christmas Chemistry
Careers Convention Cross Country
Please note that our Newsletter can be viewed in colour on our College website: www.lagancollege.com
LAGAN COLLEGE UPDATE P AGE 2 Principal’s Foreword
It was lovely to see the international dimension of Lagan College’s ethos and values showcased in the run up to Christmas.
We were delighted to host the IEF Communities in Dialogue event which enabled many of our young people to share their experiences of Northern Ireland to local politicians and community leaders.
In addition, 12 of our young women in Sixth Form visited South Africa with SERVE in October 2017. It was very rewarding to see where the £12,000 money raised from 2013-16 is being utilised. Students stayed with the Tsholofelo Community and gave back by painting their nursery school and engaging with the local people.
Lagan College staff and students also enjoyed a host of festive events including the Christmas card competition, our international Christmas tree decorations and a beautiful Carol service held in St Bernadette’s Church, to get us in the festive spirit.
We welcome 2018 and all the learning opportunities and success that it holds in store for our young people.
Mrs A McNamee Principal
Christmas Card Competition
Congratulations to Jessica Murray whose Christmas design was chosen as the Christmas Card for Lagan College 2017. Runners up were Lucy Waterson, Rebecca Bell, Alia Azeem and Alice Crawford.
Mrs McNamee, Principal, Alicia Crawford, Lucy Waterson, Jessica Murray and Ms Niblock, Head of Art and Design
Student Success!
Rebekah Cooke has achieved 2nd place in Northern Ireland for GCSE Contemporary Crafts, Charlotte McClenaghan has achieved joint 3rd place in Northern Ireland for GCSE Drama and Hayley Carson has achieved 2nd place in Northern Ireland for A Level Applied Business Double Award. This is great news for the students involved! Many thanks to all those staff who in any way contributed to helping these students achieve these wonderful results. The students will be receiving a certificate directly from CCEA to reward them for their achievements.
Miss Atkinson Vice Principal LAGAN COLLEGE UPDATE P AGE 3 Feliz Navidad
For the second year running, students and staff from different countries placed Christmas decorations saying “Merry Christmas” in their own language on the school Christmas Tree.
Year 13 Students Support the Age NI Campaign
Six young people were invited to visit the Skainos Day Centre on Friday 24th November by Mrs Siobhan Casey, Director of Marketing and Business Development and Centre Manager. The students enjoyed meeting the older people and were given a tour around the facilities.
Public Services
Miss Smyth's Year 11 BTEC Public Services class would like to say a massive thank you to Mr Martin Campbell who visited our classroom as a guest speaker in December. Martin delivered the most inspiring talk on his personal reasons behind changing careers from architecture into counselling and we were left feeling so utterly humbled by his career experiences and life advice.
LAGAN COLLEGE UPDATE P AGE 4
SERVE - South Africa Project
At the beginning of November, twelve students from Year 14 went to South Africa with the chaplains and the charity ‘SERVE’. They stayed for ten days in an area near Rustenburg, with a group of young people who live in the most extreme poverty. They made friends with many talented, ambitious and inspiring young people, all of whom are held back from achieving their full potential because of the extreme conditions in which they live.
Our students stayed with the Tsholofelo Community, a charity which provides skills training, clinics, early years education study opportunities for young people. Tsholofelo gives hope to people in the most difficult circumstances. The students gained a deeper understanding of social justice and global development work. In particular, they found out about the dangers faced by girls living in these poverty conditions. The group returned home with a changed understanding of the world and an experience that will stay with them for a lifetime.
Travel and Tourism
In December, the Year 13 BTEC Travel and Tourism class visited Oasis Travel in Ballyhackamore. They were warmly welcomed by the staff and gleaned lots of useful information for their assignments. They also got free tickets to the Holiday Show at the Titanic Exhibition Centre. Not a bad morning's work!
Miss A Bell
LAGAN COLLEGE UPDATE P AGE 5 Carol Service
The College Carol Service took place this year St Bernadette’s Parish Church where we celebrated the hope of the Christmas story. It was lovely to see students, staff, past pupils, family members and friends join together for this annual gathering. The choir, orchestra, African drumming group and Traditional Group provided a variety of seasonal music under the direction of Mr McKay and Miss Hoy. Students, past pupils and staff shared readings and Father Tom Layden, a friend and member of our Board of Directors, led us in a reflection on Christmas hope. Mrs Cooke provided beautiful images which were revealed as the story unfolded. We are grateful to the congregation of St Bernadette’s for their warm welcome and support.
Communities in Dialogue
Thank you to all the young people who attended the Communities in Dialogue event. Alice Lukasik, Emma Kelsall, Talimul Ali, Sixth Form and Tino Mhande, Year 11, spoke about their experiences living in Northern Ireland. I was inspired by what our children said and the discussion in the library from the young people about the theme, ‘All Equal, All Different.’
We had community, PSNI and political leaders represented as well as our friends from Our Lady and St Patrick’s College, Knock, Lough View Integrated Primary school, Forge Integrated Primary School and Malone Integrated College in South Belfast.
The event was supported by the IEF and the Choir, the Chaplains, the Integration team, Mrs Charley, the Diversity Team and Miss Collins, Vice Principal. A big thank you to staff and students.
Miss D Collins Vice-Principal
LAGAN COLLEGE UPDATE P AGE 6 Clare Bailey MLA Visit
Clare Bailey, one of the first students of Lagan College and MLA for the Green Party, came in to connect with the student council and to talk about current affairs.
International Men’s Day
On 28th November, 10 very excited young men in Year 10 and 11 travelled to London to celebrate International Men’s Day. As guests of Lagan College’s Business in the Community partners, Pinsent Masons Law firm, the boys attended a full day conference called ‘Raising Your Game – Inspiring Boys’.
After a very early start, the boys, accompanied by Mrs McNamee and Mr McGuigan, negotiated the London Underground to arrive at Pinsent Masons Head office in central London. Here they participated in a variety of workshops with 3 other schools with the aim of inspiring achievement and success and negotiating the barriers that exist in today’s society.
Before flying back to Belfast, the boys were whisked off on a bus tour to see the sights of London. An excellent day was experienced by all who attended.
The boys who attended were; Tom Warnock, Lance Castaneda, Michael Graham, William Poland, Adnan Nasir, Ethan Wright, Jack McBride, Tristin Barrett, Colm Livingstone and Ethan Russell.
Mr McGuigan
LAGAN COLLEGE UPDATE P AGE 7 News from the Geography Dept.
It has a been a busy first term in the Geography Department. Year 13 students have been embracing their new A Level course. They spent a day at Murlough Beach investigating plant succession in the dune system. This allowed them to gather the data necessary to complete the Skills and Techniques exam paper. Our thanks to Mrs Smyth for accompanying them and to Vincent McAlinden from Killowen Outdoor Education Centre for his tuition and craic!
Year 13 and 14 students have also attended a series of lectures at the Geography Department of Queen’s University. These lectures are arranged by the Geographical Association and are directly relevant to the CCEA specification. Of particular interest, were the 2 Skills and Techniques lectures in December. These are led by CCEA examiners and provide students with invaluable exam technique and advice.
Left: Year 13 students gather for a Geographical Association lecture at QUB
Year 11 students have embarked on the new CCEA GCSE course and had an insightful visit from Jill Lapping, a past pupil who has been working with refugees in camps in Athens. She told us of the difficulties faced by refugees who are in a state of ‘limbo’ as they cannot work and yet are unable to move to other European countries. It was also interesting to hear of the cultural differences and the lack of freedom that women have compared to Northern Ireland. We are very grateful to Jill for helping us understand a crucial part of the new specification.
Right: Year 11 students with Jill lapping who gave them insight into her work with refugees in Athens.
Year 9 and 10 pupils were hard at work over the Christmas holidays making volcano models (Year 10) and models of imaginary animals adapted to specific biomes (Year 9). We were thrilled with the creativity and ingenuity of our pupils and will proudly display their work on Open Day. Many thanks to all Year 9 and 10 pupils (and parents!) who contributed so enthusiastically to these projects. Christmas Chemistry
We really enjoyed mixing it up with the P5 students from Lough View Integrated Primary School, Saint Joseph’s Primary School and Knockbreda Primary School. A fun filled three days was had by all!
LAGAN COLLEGE UPDATE P AGE 8
Year 9 R.E. Trip to the Belfast Islamic Centre
In the R.E. Department, Year 9 pupils were given the opportunity to produce a group presentation based on the ‘Five Pillars of Islam’ as part of a competition. As a class, pupils then peer assessed each group to decide which group deserved to visit the Belfast Islamic Centre to further their knowledge on the topic of Islam. The standard was incredibly high as all pupils worked very hard to produce both engaging and informative presentations. On November 9th, the winning groups visited the Islamic Centre. As part of this visit pupils were given a tour and they received a talk from the Imam including a question and answer session. The pupils truly reflected on the ethos of our school in which they developed their understanding of other faiths, traditions and cultures.
Congratulations to all pupils involved, especially the winning groups! They were outstanding ambassadors for Lagan College.
Miss Goddard
Lexia
Congratulations to our Lexia readers who have achieved their Certificates of Achievements at Level 1 and Level 2.
Poetry Aloud
Well done to our student group who spoke at the recent ‘Poetry Aloud’ event in the Linen Hall Library.
David, Maddy, Lucy, Casey, Jess, Sophie, Mirran, and Tiarnan spoke so well that Miss Smyth, also pictured, was bursting with pride!
LAGAN COLLEGE UPDATE P AGE 9
Maths Clinic
Dr Kate Brown and Dr Billy Blackwood, Year 13, run this club every week! This is to help Year 8, 9 and 10 with any problems they are having in Maths. New members welcome!
Politics Trip to Stormont
Students enjoying their recent Politics trip to Stormont.
Christmas Hampers for Storehouse
We'd like to say an enormous THANK YOU to all the pupils, parents and staff at Lagan College for putting together the incredible Christmas hampers for Storehouse this year! Storehouse, and the recipients of the hampers, are so thankful for your amazing generosity!
LAGAN COLLEGE UPDATE P AGE 10
Shared Education Event
Shared Education Event in PTA - Our Lady and St Patrick's College, Knock. Run by Learn Spark, it involved helpful revision strategies and resilience building. It focused on believing in yourself to achieve your potential, whilst also giving the students the tools to maximise their performance academically.
Feeder School Visits
Lagan College students visited Primary 7 pupils as part of Lagan College's drive to build strong and collaborative relationships with our feeder primary schools. At Lough View Integrated Primary and Nursery School, Tom Beattie and Georgia Deans delivered letters from our Year 8 students, explaining their thoughts and how they have settled into life at Lagan College during this first term.
All of our students really enjoyed talking to the primary schools about life at Lagan College!
Lough View Integrated Primary and Nursery School with ex students, Tom Beattie, Georgia Deans (Year 8 ) and Rose McKiernan (Year 13).
LAGAN COLLEGE UPDATE P AGE 11 Young Enterprise
Year 10 students taking part in a Young Enterprise Masterclass in Entrepreneurship at PTA - Our Lady and St Patrick's College, Knock. Teams joined students from OLSPCK, Strathearn School, Bloomfield Collegiate School, and Tor Bank School. The students worked to develop a business idea and present their ideas at the end of the day. A great day was had by all.
Careers Convention
Our biennial Careers Convention took place on 23rd November. The event was open to all students in Years 9, 11 and 13. Each subject taught in school was represented in the Sports Hall by our own teaching staff and guest exhibitors from our local universities, colleges, and the world of work. There was a great turn out on the night, and a real buzz in the Sports Hall as Mr Gareth Hetherington, Ulster University, opened the event with his talk on ‘Skills for Success’. The internet café was bursting with exhibits from FE Colleges, training organisations and employers, and the biggest hit of the night was definitely DJ Kwa who took the Bistro by storm. Many thanks to all who came along to support the event.
Work Experience
Work experience is vital for students to gain insight into career pathways they may want to undertake, and allows them to ‘get a feel’ for the job and see if it is really right for them. Work experience motivates students, either to push forward and get the grades they need to do the job they have sampled, or to critically think about what they might do instead. They build skills, network within the areas they eventually want to work in, and realise the challenges and rewards of a working week. This year, our Year 13 Work Experience took place during the week of 27th November. All of our students were placed in a variety of different jobs and had the chance to sample the world of work. This year, students were working in placements as diverse as architecture, education, law and archaeology. Many interesting experiences have been shared, and many decisions have been made about careers and pathways in the weeks following the placements. LAGAN COLLEGE UPDATE P AGE 12 Cross Country
Congratulations to our Cross Country Team! The team had a fantastic performance at the annual Cross Country School Championship, Bangor, despite the hard and frosty conditions. Our runners reached podium in all year categories and definitely gave their best.
Our medal winners were:
Year 8: Noah Mitchell - Silver Tom Beattie - Bronze
Year9:
Lily Moore -Silver Cameron Hamill - Silver
Year 10: Dylan Malcolm - Bronze Ciaran Whyte and Erin McCabe 4th place in their categories.
Year11: Niall McKnight - Gold
What a team!
Calendar
January 2018 Wednesday 31 Year 10 Options Fair
Monday 5 - Friday 9 Ski Trip
Friday 9 Year 11 Parent Teacher 10am - 12noon Meetings
Friday 9 Year 12 Parent Teacher 1pm - 3pm Meetings
Monday 12 - Friday 16 (inclusive) Half Term Break
Thursday 22 - Friday 23 (inclusive) Year 12 Options Interviews