The opening of this school year has certainly been one of the most difficult I can remember. The impact of Amanda Chapman's death has been huge on everyone in the school community, but the full effect has not yet, I think, hit us. Term has begun and that brings with it all those events and procedures that are urgent and which preoccupy our time and our energies to the point where there is no time left over to reflect fully on the events of the summer. In assembly this morning, the reading came from Genesis Chapter 1, the part where God, in effect, creates time by separating day from night. In the prayer, written by Laura Henry, we focused upon the great gift of time. It reminded me that so much of our time is taken up with the urgent and the immediate, and precious little is dedicated to the really important.
The beginning of the year brings with it new staff, new pupils and, generally, new beginnings - new courses, new teachers, new friends. This year is a little different, because we are thinking hard at the same time about an ending. We embark on a new phase of the school's history in the move at Christmas to Gransha Road and in doing so, say goodbye to College Avenue, so I am acutely conscious that this is the last term on this site after 106 uninterrupted years. Ends and beginnings are linked; one leads to the other and hope and expectation is inextricably mingled with regret.
As I introduce the new staff, most at or reasonably near to the beginning of their careers, I am conscious that this will be the thirty eighth year of my teaching career; as I look back, it does not sem anything like as long as the number suggests. My first post was a permanent one, a privilege denied to most young beginning teachers in these difficult economic times. As I introduce these young men and women, I am simply aghast at the stark reality that few have had the experience of a permanent job in a school where they can put down roots and really establish their careers. All are young
teachers of real quality and it is our good fortune to have appointed them but there is something
wrong when such talent is not allowed the time and the circumstances in which to flourish. I shall
introduce our new staff in alphabetical order, save for two, to whom I shall come in time.
Philip Cartmill is a graduate of the universities of Glasgow and Southampton and he has been appointed to teach PE and Geography, taking over from Mr Creighton. He taught for a year in BRA and comes highly recommended. He will bring much needed expertise in rugby, cricket and athletics.
David Graham joins the History Department to cover Mark Robinson's career break. He is a graduate of QUB with a PGCE from Cumbria University. He has left a full-time post as Head of History at the Newcastle School for Boys to return home. He also has considerable expertise in rugby, which he is employing in the services of the 1st XV.
Natalie Kinley-McCurry has been appointed temporarily to the History and Politics departments. She is a graduate of QUB in History, with a MA in Irish History and a PGCE from Durham University. She taught for two years in Giggleswick School, a distinguished independent school in North Yorkshire, before returning home to NI. Since returning, she has taught in both Hunterhouse College and BRA. She is also a graduate in Law from the University of Ulster, so she brings with her an impressive range of academic skills.
Katherina Nicholl joins the Modern Foreign Languages department in a part-time and temporary
capacity to teach all three languages, French, German and Spanish. She is a graduate of the University of Heidelburg and has been teaching for the last year in Regent House School. She is the
wife of our Head of MFL and has taken over a rather fragmented timetable at very short notice.
Jonathan Rea has become the full-time Director of New Irish Arts after a year's career break, during which his post was temporarily taken over by Claire Buchanan. Claire will shortly be taking
maternity leave and standing in for her we are immensely fortunate to have the very talented Paul
O'Reilly. Paul is a graduate of Ulster and Manchester Metropolitan Universities and the Royal
Northern College of Music. He has acted as temporary Head of Music in St MacNissi's College, St
Michael's Lurgan and Shimna, where his maternity leave contract was extended to allow him to
complete his teaching of the A Level classes. As a student he was a member of both the Ulster Youth Orchestra and the national Youth Orchestra of Ireland; more recently, he has played in various ensembles throughout NI and in television broadcasts.
He is joined in the Music department by Claire Phillips, who, after graduating from the University of Cambridge, taught in Victoria College and Belfast High School and, last year taught in our sister
school, Glenlola Collegiate. Claire and Paul have a particularly difficult job as we look ahead not
only to all our signature events, but also to the vast amount of work involved in the move to a new
school building.
I wish all our new staff every possible happiness and fulfilment in their new
