School holds a special prize day for GCSE and A-Level pupils

Prinicpal Gerry Jones said he was overjoyed at the hard work and success of pupils so far during this school year.

“Each year we hold our Prize day for effort endeavour and achievement throughout the school at the end of June,” he said. “However we feel that the outstanding achievement of our GCSE and A level students warrants a separate celebration. This years’ results once again saw an almost unbelievable level of academic success for a school of this size and type.

“The purpose of this event is to present certificates from the examination boards, to celebrate land mark achievements in the lives of our young people together with staff and parents as a school community, to provide an opportunity for those students who have left us to return one last time to inspire our students taking exams in Sixth Form this year.”

The prize winners were as follows: Top GCSE Student - Pearce Nicholl; Mann Trophy for Top Student in Collaborative Course - Kirsty Adamson; SRC Awards for top Student - Hannah King; Top A Level Student - Ciara McGrath. The GCSE and A Level Trophies were sponsored by Bank of Ireland

Mr Jones said the past academic year had been a difficult one for many schools.

“The continuing uncertainty over the transfer arrangement and the pressure of economic recession on budgets and funding combined to have a considerable impact on the world of education,” he said. “Despite these additional burdens New-Bridge continued to maintain an outstanding level of success.

“The year began once again with a considerable oversubscription for pupil places in Year Eight and Sixth Form.

“Our ethos as an All Ability Integrated college is one which enables us to attract pupils from across our community and our reputation for academic excellence bears clear testament to fact that we are a good school which provides a quality educational experience for all our pupils.Our results in public examinations were also outstanding and we were delighted.

“Through collaboration within in the Banbridge Area Learning Community we increased the number of courses on offer at Key Stage Four and also at Sixth Form.

“We also welcomed increasing numbers of pupils from other schools who study a range of courses alongside our own pupils in New Bridge.

“This exciting development ensures that the needs of our pupils and the pupils of all schools in the Learning Community are being met and new Career pathways are opened up to meet local and national economic needs.

“These significant achievements would not be possible without the professionalism and commitment of all our staff both teaching and non-teaching. I would like to thank them for their tireless work and dedication to each individual pupil which makes our school a success.”

Guest speaker on the day was Ivan Arbuthnot who, for the past three years has been working with the Northern Ireland Council for Integrated Education as Entitlement Framework Development Officer.