Abaana Project

The week just past has been bookended by two expressions of community. The first was last Monday when we held a whole-school awards ceremony in the Clarke Hall. Day-to-day, it is impossible to have the whole school in one place, so our assemblies are varied: sectional (junior, middle, senior or a combination), year and house. This works well and allows us to tailor our messages, but an assembly when the whole school can join together has a particular value; all the more so, I guess, because it's special.

Anyway, the whole school was gathered to celebrate the talents and achievements of our boys in sport, music and the CCF. It was an expression of pride in ourselves and, yes, in the School as a whole. It is easy to be jealous of others' success, but so long as a boy has something in his life he knows he's good at, something which allows him to be proud of himself, then he can share comfortably in the applause for others.

It's also a celebration of our staff, whose commitment to the boys goes far beyond anything I could ask or for which the School could adequately pay. At the end of the assembly, I always point this out and ask the boys to acknowledge it , which they do, warmly and at great length. That in itself is a proper celebration of community; not 'them and us' - simply 'us'.

The second expression of our community came in the Sponsored Walk on Friday. This is one of the very few occasions when every member of the School, boys, teachers and support staff, can engage together with a single common purpose. I felt especially strongly this year that it was a common effort because the principal cause for which we were raising money was our ambitious Abaana project. This has been launched by Scott Baxter of Abaana who, over the last fortnight, has spoken about it  to our junior, middle and senior schools. I say it's ambitious; that may be an understatement: the target is a sum of £60,000 and our objective is to build a school, a proper, secure building to replace a wooden structure which is blown down in every storm, without walls, nearly without roof,  near Gulu in Northern Uganda.

Why this project? Why Uganda?

BGS will move into brand new premises in about seventeen months. Most of it is being built with public money, probably, in the end, something around £24 million pounds of it. That's good; a country needs to invest in its future and ensure that its young people are being properly prepared for assuming responsibility and authority in their turn. At the same time, it's a privilege and we should be thankful that even in these straitened times, the money to allow us to move is available and willingly provided. It is for us, therefore, a moral imperative that, somehow, in some way, we demonstrate an awareness of how fortunate and privileged we are by sharing in the joy of a new school. How do we do that? Why, by providing the means for those  without public subvention, without the comforts of western society, without even shoes on their feet and, above all, without access to proper sustained education, to build a school of their own, to build a future bfor themselves in which they have some measure of choice in how they will live their lives.
Why Uganda? Four years ago, we became involved with Abaana and, on the occasion of our sesquicentenary, raised £30,000 to help refurbish the primary school of Christ the King. A group of staff and pupils went out one summer and actually engaged in its construction. Abaana is, by international standards, a small charity, but is is very much a part of our Bangor community and the extent and quality of its work is astonishing.  Its focus is Uganda and since we have already, in a sense, got a stake in this country, it is appropriate that we secure and strengthen it.

I think that, being all together part of this fund raising project, a project of which we hope we shall be a part for many years, developing the link with the area and its people, we are giving thanks for this great blessing of a new school. Joy needs to be shared.

New Staff

September is, I think, my favourite time of the school year. We are all at our freshest and most enthusiastic as we meet new pupils, new teachers and sometimes new subjects. It is my eleventh year as Head and the thirty seventh of my career and as I write these numbers, I can scarcely believe them. The ten years I have been in post in BGS have been the fastest of my life and the most fulfilling of my career. I remember vividly my first day as a paid teacher and most particularly that sinking sense as I realised how consistently early I was going to have to get up in the morning. I am no slouch now; it gets easier as I get older, but I cannot match the self-discipline of some colleagues, one in particular, who come in to School well before 7.00am, even in the darkest depths of the winter.
So now is a singularly appropriate time to introduce our new staff. They are formidably gifted and among the most talented intakes I have met, of course in their pedagogic skills, but also, and in some ways more importantly, in their enthusiasm, attitudes, values and generally humane qualities which are what in the end truly define the great, the memorable, the influential  and inspirational teachers. So, in scrupulously alphabetical order, let me present our new colleagues.
David Creighton has been appointed for one year to the PE and Geography departments. An old boy of Campbell College, David comes from a distinguished teaching family and is a graduate of the University of Ulster in Sports Studies. He has wide experience of working in schools as a classroom assistant and as a highly regarded rugby coach. David began his time with us during the summer holiday when he accompanied one of the Scripture Union house parties to Moffat in Scotland.

Rachel Douglas has been appointed for a year to the Modern Languages Department to teach French and Spanish, covering for Schanelle Chapman, who is on a career break. A former pupil of Sullivan, she is a graduate of QUB and has extensive experience having taught in the Royal School, Dungannon, and in Our Lady and St Patrick’s College. Among her many accomplishments is music: she has a grade 7 in piano and a diploma in flute and I suspect she may play an important part in our musical life.

Janet Gray joins the RE department to cover Sarah Crawford’s maternity leave. A former pupil of Grosvenor Grammar School, and another new member of staff with teaching in her DNA, she graduated in Theology and Religious Studies from Glasgow University. After a PGCE at Strathclyde, her probationary year within the Scottish system was spent in Woodfarm High School. Returning home, she taught in Bloomfield and Strathearn. Let us hope that she will not find it too much of a gender culture shock adjusting to the all-boys classroom. She too started her BGS career at Moffat during the summer.

Another graduate of Glasgow University, also trained in Strathclyde, joins the English department in a permanent capacity. Hamish Matheson was educated at  the John the Baptist School, Woking, and taught for two years at the Oasis Academy School in Coulsdon, part of Greater London. There he was the co-ordinator of the Gifted and Talented programme, experience we shall, no doubt, be able to draw on. Apart from his enthusiasm for rugby, Hamish plays the bagpipes, which suggests that his contribution to our extra-curricular life may be wide and varied!

Katy Megaw joins the Modern Languages department for a year to teach French and Spanish in pace of Mary Sheeran, who, when her maternity leave is finished, will be joining the staff of BRA. Like Rachel, Katy is an old girl of Sullivan, a tribute to the quality of languages teaching there, and a graduate of QUB where she also did her PGCE. She has had much experience with young people, having worked with street children in South America, as a boarding mistress in Methody and as a youth fellowship leader. She comes to us with a wide range of interests, including sport, especially hockey, the Scripture Union and community action.

The already extensive Robinson franchise on the staff is extended by one in the person of another Stephen Robinson, who, somewhat confusingly, joins the first, and we thought unique, Stephen Robinson in the Maths department to cover Claire McGilton’s part of the job share with Sally Forbes. Stephen is a Grammarian and the third of our new staff with teaching as their birthright! He graduated from, and did his PGCE in, QUB. He will be able, in his short time with us, to contribute to the work of the Hockey Club.

Claire Taylor has been appointed permanently to the Geography department, replacing Jeff Shields, who has decided to make his home in New Zealand. A former pupil of Wellington College, Claire had a glittering academic career in QUB. With a PGCE from Ulster, she has had wide teaching experience in Sullivan Upper and Bangor Academy. She is a qualified hockey coach and is working towards her hill walking qualifications, which suggests that she may well have a part to play in our outdoor pursuits programme by way of the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Scheme or World Challenge.

While Jonathan Rea pursues his extensive musical interests on a career break, his capacious space on the conductor’s podium is filled by Andrew Thompson. Andrew is an Instonian and his first degree was in mathematics. Subsequently graduating from the Royal Welsh College of Music, his musical abilities are impressive, with expertise and qualifications in piano, saxophone and clarinet. He has taught in London and in the City of Belfast School of Music and has performed in a wide variety of ensembles and orchestras, not least the New Irish, in which Jonathan has a large interest.
I welcome them on behalf of the School as a whole, colleagues, boys, parents and governors, and wish them success, fulfilment and happiness during their time with us.