BELFAST Friday 27 January, 2017 • Parliament Buildings, Stormont #BelfastBlackboard s principal sponsor, it is a great about investing in young people. We are financially confident. pleasure and honour for us to very proud of our partnerships with Our SMART Junior programme is Awelcome you to this year’s Ulster Colleges GAA, Ulster Schools’ specifically designed to introduce the Blackboard Awards. Cup and, more recently, the Northern topic of money to Foundation Stage, Key This is the fourth year of the Ireland Schools’ Football Association. Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 pupils. And our Blackboard Awards and we’re delighted These partnerships allow us to play our SMART Partnership for post-primary that they have gone from strength to part alongside teachers and coaches in schools supports 13- to 16-year-olds strength each year; they are indeed a nurturing and developing local sporting become more financially confident true a reflection of the sheer quality and talent. through a range of cross-curricular talent of the principals, teachers and We also take our role in society modules and resources delivered in classroom assistants in schools right seriously and believe that children classrooms by our own staff. across Belfast. should be encouraged to learn about On behalf of everyone at Danske For us, the awards are an important personal finance from an early age. It Bank, I commend all those nominated in event in the calendar, they provide us not only benefits them later in life but this year’s awards and wish you all the with an opportunity to recognise the also contributes to a more prosperous very best. outstanding contribution that schools economy and society. That is why we and individuals make in inspiring and have developed our SMART Partnership Katherine Morrow, encouraging our young people. programmes which support children Regional Manager, As a local bank, we are serious and young people in becoming Danske Bank works to enhance the quality of life approximately 2,500 people each networks. The charity also provides and the employability of people living year through its recovery clients with the skills to build a better with mental ill-health or a learning programmes and another 16,000 future, set personal goals, develop disability in Northern Ireland. AMH, through its outreach programmes. coping skills, re-engage with society was set up 53 years ago and operates Action Mental Health provides its and become more employable. across 11 locations delivering services clients with opportunities, Visit www.amh.org.uk/services/ Action Mental Health (AMH) is a local and projects to all members of our encouraging them to adopt healthier for more information on our services Northern Ireland based charity which communities. The charity helps lifestyles and to widen their social for children and young people. 2 THE 2017 BLACKBOARD AWARDS ou’ll find out in the pages inside teacher slowly scanned the class and I well remember the first time: the just why it is that the best occasionally – only occasionally – her desperate struggle to open the door Yteaching is about much more eyes would lock on mine and she’d with my elbows and forearms, the than sums and tables and dates. I summon me forward. There was a awful lurch of disappointment as found that out early – and here’s how. spring in my step as I made the short sweet after sweet hit the polished At St Comgall’s Primary School in walk with a classmate along the floor. When I finally got the door open, Divis Street, our Principal, Mr O’Neill, cloistered corridor, the grass I looked back, horrified to see well would send his secretary to every rectangle to our right. Mr O’Neill sat over half my treasure on the parquet, class on Friday afternoon. Her mission smiling as we entered, four grey and how vividly down through the was to return with the two ‘best boys’. cardboard boxes of sweets on the years I can see the plump, kindly face She came at the same time every desk in front of him: strawberry bon- of Mr O’Neill. Still smiling, but a little Friday and as the big clock ticked bons; birds’ nests; liquorice allsorts; more broadly. towards her arrival, with every brandy balls. The reward: to scoop as From then on, I took my sweets with passing minute our behaviour many sweets as we could carry. The one hand. improved, until when the door finally condition: we had to leave one at a opened, all 32 of us not only had our time and exit the door with sweets Robin Livingstone, arms crossed – we also had one index still in hand. The complicator: the Group Editor, fingers on our lips. doorknob was not only slippery and Belfast Media Group We’d watch wide-eyed as the shiny, it was round. Photography: Mark Jones, Thomas McMullan, Design: Scott Silver. This supplement is published by Belfast Media Group. Copies are available in pdf downloadable format at www.belfastmediagroup.com. For additional print copies call Jacqueline O’Donnell on (048) 9060 6850 or email [email protected] THE 2017 BLACKBOARD AWARDS 3 Niamh Cuffe n 2009 I joined Malone College as a student teacher... and I Your school: Malone Integrated College. haven't really left since! I was lucky enough to get a permanent Subject: English. job in Malone and then become a Head of Department. The Your place of birth: Dublin. I school has been really loyal to me and given me lots of Studied at: Queens University Belfast. opportunities over the years. Malone College is a great place to First job: Bartender. Martin McCaughan work as a young teacher; you will be surrounded by passionate, What it taught me: Working behind a bar taught me the enthusiastic and caring professionals who are committed to importance of working hard, being polite to people and smiling... providing the best learning experience for young people. Your school: CBS Glen Road. all these skills are important as a teacher too! My colleagues are an endless source not just professional www.cbsglenroad.com Family/status: Single. support, but also fun – I don’t think I’ve ever had a day in work Subject: Religious Studies Best advice anyone ever gave you: 'You make the weather.’ As where I haven’t laughed; that’s important in any workplace. I think Your place of birth: Ballycastle. teachers we're in a privileged position – we have control of our it’s important for pupils to learn outside the classroom setting, and Studied at: Cross and Passion College Ballycastle. classroom environment and it's up to us to make it a happy, I’ve been fortunate enough to accompany pupils on school ski St Mary's University College Belfast. productive place. trips. These are highlights for me because you get to see a new First job: Aged 14, building site. Best advice you could give someone thinking of a teaching side to pupils and have some fun. Malone has also become a very What it taught me: The value of money and the career: People thinking of becoming a teacher should remember diverse school in recent years, making it a really exciting place to meaning of hard labour, in addition it made me that being a teenager can be hard, so it's important to be kind to work. I love that I get to teach pupils not only from different realise the importance of listening, learning from pupils, to have a sense of humour and try to see life from their communities in Belfast, but from all over the world. mistakes and not taking myself too seriously. perspective. I’d also encourage them to make the most of the great Family/status: Married with two beautiful children. summer holidays! Best advice anyone ever gave you: The good you do today may be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway. Best advice you could give someone thinking of a teaching career: Teaching is the best job in the Patrick English world, it constantly changes and you get to meet the most amazing young people. Be open to learning every day and when dealing with young Your school: Malone Integrated College. people ask yourself the question, ‘If this was my www.malonecollege.org.uk/ son/daughter/niece/nephew how would I want Subject : Careers. them to be treated?’ Always try to see the good in Your place of birth: Bangor. people and above all strike a work/life balance. Studied at: Queen's University, Belfast. First job: Pickie Family Fun Park. grew up in a housing estate in Ballycastle, eldest What it taught me: Working at Pickie gave me a in a family of eight children. We went to the local great insight into dealing with the public. It taught Iprimary, I didn't do my 11-Plus and moved straight me that a positive attitude goes a long way and to the local comprehensive. I was placed in the how important it is to empathise with people. It bottom class on the basis of my postcode and not also taught me the value of patience. my grades and hated school until I completed my Family/status : Married with two children. GCSEs. We were in receipt of free meals and I had a Best advice anyone ever gave you: I was once told grant to get me through university. This is not a sob you should always believe in your own ability. I story, my upbringing was idyllic and each of these think this is true throughout many aspects of life, teaching profession as I had the opportunity to work in a private experiences and any difficulties I faced have made but particularly in the teaching profession.