We have received accounts from several recent former pupils describing their experiences in a variety of projects in the Third World. Marjorie McCook, who is studying at the University of Ulster, spent four weeks in Uganda. She describes the huge culture shock involved in dealing with living conditions in the Third World. During her time in Africa she took part in a variety of projects in schools and orphanages, working with the children and helping with building projects.

Lynda Jamison, who is in her final year at Stranmillis, spent August in Guatemala working with young adults at a Downs Syndrome Centre. Like Marjorie she was stunned by the living conditions in a country where 75% of the population live well below the poverty line.

Keith Bell, who is also at the University of Ulster, spent the summer in South Africa working in a centre outside Durban which caters for orphans who have been the victims of abuse. Most of the children suffered from Aids and although in theory Keith’s role was to teach, he became involved in all aspects of caring for some of the most deprived children on the planet.

Spirit of Enniskillen Successes

Successful applicants spend part of the summer in an area overseas which has suffered from conflict, studying other cultures and how they have set about solving the problems in their society. Places on the programme are keenly contested by pupils from most of the major schools in the country and it is quite remarkable that pupils from Ballycastle High School have been successful in each of the past ten years.

This year no fewer than five Ballycastle High School sixth formers were among the fifty who gained places, a record for any school in Northern Ireland. Each of them spent part of the summer in North America. Sarah McAllister went to Seattle, Libby Thompson to Vancouver, James Neill to Maine, Robert McConaghy to Vermont and Peter McLernon to Edmonton.

Top Science Communicators in the UK

In the Autumn of 2004 the young scientists of Ballycastle High School, having won the Northern Ireland competition, defeated the leading schools in England, Scotland and Wales to win the title of ‘Top Science Communicators in the United Kingdom’ at London’s Royal Institute. This stunning achievement led to Kellie McNeill, Judith Holmes, Heather Kane, Christopher Glass, Boyd Jamison and Philip Christie being invited in September to deliver the Faraday Lecture at the Royal Institute. Ballycastle High School is the only Northern Ireland school to have had such an honour.

Amazingly the next batch of young Ballycastle scientists repeated the success of their predecessors by winning the Northern Ireland heat of this year’s U.K. competition and they also travelled to the national final in London.

Under the guidance of their teachers Mrs C Stewart and Miss N Pollock, the Ballycastle High School pupils, Carla Glass, Ashley Stewart, Kirsty McCurdy, Ramona Curry, and Sam Poots presented their project, ‘Slurry Busting Nasty Nitrates’ to a team of judges at the Odyssey Arena in Belfast. The experiment involved the development of a water testing kit which would be suitable for farmers to use to ensure compliance with the Nitrates Directive, a new initiative from the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development designed to prevent the pollution of rivers and streams. The judges were extremely impressed by the scientific understanding, innovative powers and communication skills of the young Ballycastle High School scientists.

These successes confirm that the young scientists at Ballycastle High School have placed themselves at the forefront of practitioners throughout the United Kingdom, a situation which has led to their achievements being featured in both the Guardian Educational Supplement and the Times Educational Supplement.

Sixth Form visit to the South of France

Eighteen pupils and three teachers travelled to the South of France in October on a cultural and educational visit. As this was an exclusively sixth form trip there was no need to involve a tour company and the group travelled to France on a scheduled flight from Belfast International Airport and stayed in a business class hotel in Nice. Many of the famous sites of the Riviera were visited including Cannes, Monaco and Monte Carlo. There was even time for an afternoon on the beach at Villefranche.

Pupils were able to take full advantage of their language skills particularly in the evenings when the group divided to eat in restaurants of their choice, often in the old quarter of Nice. A surprising number of the inhabitants of North Antrim seem to have developed a taste for French cuisine as a result of their visit to the South of France.