News

Congratulations to our former pupils

Congratulations to our former pupils

“In some corner of a foreign field…”

Year 10 History Trip, 15th - 19th June, 2009, The revival of this very popular tour of the World War One Battlefields of Belgium and France was a memorable and thought provoking trip for sixty-three students and six members of Bangor Academy’s staff.

Canon Tyney Retires After Forty Years of Service on the Board of Governors

Get Voting for Bangor Academy's Short Film Competition Entry

We were one of only five lucky Northern Irish schools to work with Cinemagic to make a short film based on the theme of 'Vision'.

The initiative, sponsored by BT Vision and supported by Arts and Business, allowed each participating student a specific role during the filmmaking process such as storyboarding, scriptwriting, directing and acting. Our Sixth Formers and Mr Jackson collaborated, scripted and produced a short film in a day which can be viewed and voted on at www.cinemagic.org.uk.

The winning school will receive £500.00 prize money from BT Vision and all of the films will be screened during the 2009 Cinemagic Festival.

Please support Bangor Academy and register your vote before the June 18th deadline.

Young Apprentices Compete in Future Business Magnates Competition

Congratulations to the eight "Young Apprentices" who took part in the fifth challenge of the Future Business Magnates Competion. Our team of entrepreneurs travelled once again to Durham, with Mrs Hanvey and Mr Carse, to participate in the latest stage of the competition where they had to pit themselves against eleven other teams to solve the latest stiff business challenge. In this Apprentice-style schools' competition, the challenges all required the students to exploit their teamwork, problem solving and self management skills.

Our team won the Dragon's Den activity which involved pitching their business plan to a panel of business mentors. We are now placed third on the leader board and with one challenge remaining, we have a real chance of scooping the top spot.

Our team have really enjoyed meeting their partner team mates from Belmont Community School and are very grateful for the support they have received from business mentor, Bob Senior, from Utopian Leisure. He is a much more friendly advisor than Sir Alan's Nick or Margaret!

An excellent time was had by all.

Trampolining Trio Compete in Sweden

Congratulations to the three trampolining competitors who attended the International Championships in Sweden. it was a fantastic achievement to qualify and compete at international level.

Glen Willis Receives Award of Merit at North Down Sports Awards

Congratulations to Glenn Willis whose success on the track and field was recognised at the North Down Sports Awards 2008 at The Marine Court Hotel in April. We are also delighted that Scott Wilson and ex pupil Sarah Louise Winter were also nominated  for Young Sports Person of the Year. Both Glen and Sarah and received an Award of Merit  for their achievements in Athletics and Cross Country and Golf respectively. Glen also competes on the track and in the high jump and javelin, all areas in which he performed well last year.

In 2009, we've been following Glen Willis's Cross Country progress since he became North Down Champion back in February. Following a 2nd place in the Ulsters he qualified for the Irish Championships in Jordanstown on 7th March.

Glen found his first foray into all Ireland Cross Country gruelling but he held his own. He was running against the top Irish competitors in the Irish Championships at Jordanstown. The Year 10 student's 7th place means he is comfortably in the Irish top ten and he has been invited to join the Irish Development Squad.

Well done Glen!

We'll keep you up to date with the new seaon athletics results as they come in so watch this space.

Year 11 Top the League in both Football and Rugby

Congratulations to the Year 11 Football Team who  won the County Down U15 League final with a 4-3 score line against De La Salle. The victory came following  7 consecutive wins out of a total of 8 league matches. 

The U16 rugby team are also celebrating. They  achieved their second consecutive triumph in the U16 Ulster Championship Bowl on 24th April. The U16 squad sealed the Secondary School League victory with a 26-10 score against Devenish College, Enniskillen. Click on the title for the team photo.

Congratulations to all team members and their football and rugby coaches.

Other sporting successes in April include Ryan Crawford's U17 Youth Athletics 200m win and in Trampolining, Kerry Wooley has landed herself in top Northern Irish position at the recent All Ireland Trampolining Championships in Dublin. Click on the title above to read more about these achievements.

Junior Librarians Successfully Complete Their Training

Congratulations to all our Junior Librarians. The following have all completed their librarian training.

Cheryn Bowen               9C1

 Leah Hanlon                  9A1

 Colleen Magee               9B1

 Nathan McMahon           9A1

 Hamoonga Michelo        9C1

 Georgina Moore              9B3

 Ashleigh O’Sullivan        9B3

 Sarah Robinson             9A1

Year 8 Build on Friendships at Learning for Life and Work Event

Back in September, Young Enterprise came to school to host an event to encourage friendship through group activity.Year 8 pupils worked to design a new product; having fun and meeting new friends in the process. In April we hosted  the follow up event- "Moving On". Again Year 8  worked in groups to problem solve together, learning to strengthen relationships and work out differences of opinion in a constuctive way.

First Aid Certificates Awarded to Health and Social Care Students and Bangor Academy Staff

Congratulations to our Yr 13 OCR Health and Social Care students who will receive their First Aid certificates soon. They have successfully completed the course as part of the OCR qualification.

Congratulations also to those members of staff who received their First Aid certificates back in February. In total, 15 new staff first aiders are on site, some of whom are pictured left.

Year 8 Rugby Victory

The latest rugby result shows Year 8 are developing  a taste for tries. They tackled their latest opponents, Strangford College, with assurance. The match ended with an impressive 40-5 score line.

Year 13 English Literature Students become Writers in Residence

No mobile signal, no T.V. and cold quiche on your first night for dinner might not seem like an obvious recipe for a successful school trip, but this trip was just that.

Accompanied by Mrs Wylie and Ms Gillespie, fiftteen A-Level English students ventured to The John Osborne Arvon Centre in Shropshire to take part in a week long series of writing activities.

Everyone returned with sheafs of creative and personal musings and a renewed confidence and enthusiasm about their own writing.

We'll update you in full about all their creative capers in the next school newsletter.

Straight A Student Ashleigh Picks Up Outstanding Achievement Award

Ashleigh Fletcher received an Oustanding Achievement Award from SEELB's Chief Executive, Stanton Sloan, at a special ceremony in school. Ashleigh came first in Northern Ireland when she achieved the top score in her Health and Social Care A-Level. She has gone on to study Biology at Queen's University, Belfast.

This is the third consecutive year Bangor Academy has been able to celebrate a top A Level performance. Previously Mark Baillie came top in Applied ICT and Christine Sloane in Health and Social Care.

Also...

Summer 2008 exam certificates can now be collected from the school office. Please come in person as we need the candidate's signature to release them.

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Specialist Schools Event: Workshops for Creative Writing, Drama and Promoting a Passion for Reading.

Dave Cryer, a former teacher turned creative writing and drama buff, worked with three different groups at this Library and Specialist schools event.  He worked on creative writing with the Yr 13  AS English Literature group, ignited  a love for the library in a reading promotion workshop with Yr 9 and developed some drama pieces with the Year 11 GCSE English Literature class for their text , "Of Mice and Men". 

As one of the first Specialist Schools events attended by staff from our partner schools,  we were keen to share any useful activities. The feedback indicates this was a very successful event at which students and staff alike were inspired. Staff from Bangor Academy, St Columbanus and Glenlola will all be keen to adapt and use some of Dave's active learning stategies for other lessons back in their own classrooms.

Photos will be uploaded as soon as possible.

SHOW TIME!! Bangor Academy's Production of "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat".

This week our school production of "Joseph" finally hit the stage.  Following two matinee performances for  P7 pupils from our feeder primary schools, the cast played to packed houses on  Wednesday and Thursday evening.

It was a fabulous show and, as the cast received rousing standing ovations, it seemed our audiences agreed with us.  We'll all be humming the songs from the play for a long time to come!

Auditions are  now a distant memory, props have been returned to all our kind donors, the scenery dismantled and costumes have been stored away in the drama "dressing up "box. Even the camel costume has gone back to the shop. If you didn't manage to see the show, you missed a fantastic musical, but  all is not lost as Mr Jackson is working on a DVD. We'll let you know when it's ready and how to get a copy. 

This was Miss Gilliland and Miss Clarke's first, very successful, collaboration. They directed a whole school production that involved over one hundred students, more than fifty staff and three past pupils working together to create a thoroughly enjoyable stage show. It is certainly an experience that the students involved can take away as a very happy memory of Bangor Academy.

Annual Prize Distribution Evening with special guest, Lord Eames

 Always a landmark date in the calendar, the annual prize giving ceremony is an occasion to stop and reflect on the achievements of the past academic year. The highlight this year has to be that for the third successive year we can celebrate a 1st place in Northern Ireland A-Level study. This year the honour was achieved by Ashleigh Fletcher in Health and Social Care. Congratulations to Ashleigh and her teachers, Mrs McKinty and Mrs Corken. There were many more achievements to celebrate on the night with our honoured guests, Lord and Lady Eames.

Pictured left are Head Boy, Stephen Boles;Mr Hyndman;Lady Eames; Lord Eames;Canon Tyney ,Chair of the Board of Governors and Head Girl, Danielle McCausland).

Bangor Academy successfully bids for Specialist School Status.

  We are proud to announce that the Department of Education has awarded Bangor Academy and Sixth Form College Specialist School status in English, Drama and Journalism for the period September 2008 - August 2012.

Mr Hyndman said, "This is a great accolade for the school and is reflective of the work we are doing."

Being awarded Specialist Status means we have been recognised as a centre of excellence in our nominated subjects. We now qualify for extra funding, equipment and training; benefits that will help us develop and share our success both within and beyond our school.