Dalriads Accepted to Oxford and Cambridge

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Congratulations to our Year 14 pupils (pictured with Mr Skelton and Mrs Kelly, Head of Careers)  who have been offered places at Oxford and Cambridge universities for next year. Ben Webb and Eason Chan have been offered places at the University of Cambridge to study Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic Studies and Medicine respectively, and Emma Hasson has been offered a place at the University of Oxford to study Classics. Well done to all three, we are very proud of you and wish you luck with your future studies!

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Also pictured with Mr Skelton and Mrs Kelly are Darcy Winchborne and Sarah Hadden, Year 13 pupils who recently attended the Oxford University Law Open Day.

More success for Dalriada’s filmmakers

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Our Moving Image Arts classes attended the annual Moving Image Arts Showcase (the Oscars of MIA) at the Odyssey Cinema, Belfast on Thursday 23rd November. One of our pupils, Odhran Combe had his film shortlisted in the Best AS Film category. ‘The Meal Deal’ was then screened on the biggest cinema screen in Northern Ireland to a packed house. The film was very well received by the crowd and he was awarded 2nd place.

Well done, Odhran. You can see his film in full below.

Upcoming Important Dates for the Start of Term

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Thursday 24th August – (9am to 10.30am) GCSE results available from the John Armstrong Hall.
Careers Guidance Interviews as scheduled in B5 from 9.15am till 2.45pm
Year 11 GCSE Maths module results available from the Maths Department classrooms.
Friday 25th August – Staff Development Day for the Ballymoney Learning Community.
Monday 28th August – Bank Holiday School Closed.
Tuesday 29th August – Staff Development Day.
Wednesday 30th August (9am to 12.30pm) – Induction for the new Years 8, 13+14 only.
Thursday 31st August (9am to 12.30pm) – Induction for the new Years 9,10,11+12 only.
Friday 1st September: (9am to 3.30pm) All pupils all day.

Year 11 visit Chemistry at Work Exhibition

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Year 11 visit Chemistry at Work Exhibition 4On Wednesday 15 March 2017 forty of our Year 11 Chemistry students attended the Chemistry at Work exhibition organised by the Department of Pharmacy at University of Ulster, Coleraine campus. The Department is a relatively new school in the Faculty of Life and Health Sciences but has been ranked for the third year running as the top UK university for studying Pharmacy.

A very informative morning was spent finding out about how the Chemistry studied in the classroom is used in the real world. The pupils enjoyed 6 short presentations during the course of the morning with plenty of opportunity to ask questions and engage with the presenters about what their job involved. From chewing willow bark to extracting compounds from fox gloves the pupils were enlightened as to where many of our medicines originate and the time-frame it takes to develop a medicine. It is amazing to think of tiny Northern Ireland being home to so many of the large global pharmaceutical companies that we may have heard of. The pharmaceutical industry is ever-growing and is certainly an area to consider in the future for jobs. Thanks to UUC for organising the event and providing refreshments and also to the global pharmaceutical companies (Almac, Actavis and Randox) who gave presentations. Bradley Findlay, Peter McConaghie and Anna-Jayne Murphy participated in a race to package a cold cream and the best was scored by the Pharmacist and put forward to compete against the best in each of the other groups. Congratulations to Anna-Jayne who won the prize for the best Year 11 visit Chemistry at Work Exhibition 5packaging of a pharmaceutical cream out of all of the schools in attendance that morning. She received a white coat, a pair of safety glasses and a rather fancy spatula that was much envied by our technician! Sam Quinn and Bradley Finlay also got the opportunity to make their own bath bomb – hope you enjoyed the relaxing bath that evening boys! The morning concluded with a fantastic ‘Science of Bubbles’ Show performed by Scientific Sue with a number of our pupils acting as glamorous assistants in the interactive experiments which Sue performed.

RSC ‘Top of the Bench’ Competition

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RSC Top of the BenchOn Thursday 26 January 2017 a team of four pupils, Mark Crawford, Mark Kennedy, Juliet McInnes and Isobel Christie, travelled to Queens’ University to participate in the regional finals of the prestigious RSC ‘Top of the Bench’ Competition. Following a test paper demanding in-depth knowledge of safety and the chemical elements, the team completed a practical challenge in the laboratory and finally competed in a quiz round to conclude the competition. The team gave a great performance and had lots of fun but were unlucky not to progress to the UK finals. We wish Sullivan Upper every success as they go on to represent NI at the UK finals.

Let’s Talk Politics

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On the 14th October 2016, Mrs McCandless and 3 Year 12 girls travelled to the Roe Valley Arts and Cultural Centre to take part in the Causeway Coast and Glens “Let’s Talk Politics” event, hosted by BBC’s Mark Carruthers. This event included a panel of 9 local politicians from a range of parties: William McCandless (UUP), David Harding (Conservative), Boyd Douglas (TUV), Dermot Nicholl (SF), Aaron Callan (UUP), James McCorkell (DUP), Stephanie Quigley (SDLP), Ian Stevenson (DUP) and Barney Fitzpatrick (APNI). The day began with a brief introduction from each of the candidates, the young people in attendance participated in a variety of demonstrative polls. These involved a variety of political questions to give them a chance to anonymously voice their opinions. After a tea break, the politicians went table to table to answer any questions that we had about their parties’ beliefs and opi
Let’s Talk Politics 2nions. This gave us the opportunity to find out the parties opinions on the issues that matter to us. We had a pretty decent lunch, followed by a detour to Starbucks. When we returned (definitely not late) each table had posed a question to the panel. Topics such as same sex marriage, Brexit and the refugee crisis made an appearance, and each result in a heated debate much to the amusement of our three Dalriads. This ended the day, but we then took the opportunity to speak one on one with a few remaining politicians before returning to the school. We all feel as though this has inspired a newfound interest in local politics and really enjoyed the day.

PS: What an awesome tie. CMK

By Catherine McKee, Alicia Cooke & Megan Schofield

Earthquake Awareness and Management Workshop

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Earthquake Awareness and Management Workshop 3In December a very special guest from Christian Aid came into Dalriada and talked to Year 8 pupils about the fabulous work they do in earthquake zones and how to be safe if you ever experience one.

Christian Aid is a charity that helps people recover from earthquakes and they also help them prepare for earthquakes. This year alone Christian Aid people have helped millions of people in 39 countries. They go out and help people who have suffered from the earthquake and they give them food, cash, help and they sometimes build new houses.

To keep safe you must remember a few simple rules. If you are inside identify a safe place like under sturdy furniture, away from windows, bookcases and other heavy objects that might fall. Stay undercover and hold on to something until the shaking stops.

Earthquake Awareness and Management Workshop 1If you are outside move into the open away from buildings, trees and streetlights sit on the ground and cover your head and face with your hands and stay like that until the shaking stops. 

The Year 8 pupils also participated in fun activities that taught us about the importance of town planning and how sturdy the buildings need to be.

We got to plan and design our earthquake-proof buildings out of marshmallows and cocktail sticks…so tempting and it took a lot of restraint from Year 8 pupils not to eat the buildings!

By Éirinn Jones 

 

Are ye goin’ fur a dander?

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It’s time again for our yearly dander (hope the sun shines). It will take place on the afternoon of Wednesday 7th June and its purpose is to raise funds to replace some of our ageing ICT equipment. All our Year 8 – 10 pupils have a sponsorship form, it would be lovely if the whole school community could help fill them up.

The Dander this year has been sponsored by BIESTY’S BALLYMONEY. They have kindly donated a bottle of water and a piece of fruit for each pupil taking part.

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