Education

Titanic Exhibition To Show In Down County Museum

Titanic Honour & Glory, voted by The Times newspaper one of the top five exhibitions in the UK, is set to dock at Down County Museum as part of its Titanic centenary tour on the run up to the 100th anniversary of the tragedy. The exhibition, which will be open from Thursday 19 January until Sunday 15 April, has never been seen before in Ireland, and is sure to attract audiences from all over County Down and beyond. 2012 sees the centenary of the sinking of the Titanic during her maiden voyage from Southampton to New York.

Hamilton Helps Launch International Development Awards

STRANGFORD DUP MLA Simon Hamilton has joined fellow members of the Assembly’s All Party Group on International Development and pupils from St Joseph’s College in Belfast to help launch this year’s International Development Awards.

The All Party Group on International Development (APGID) have launched a website to invite nominations for the second International Development Awards Ceremony, which will take place in Stormont in March

Downpatrick Bad Romance Seminar Attended By Education Minister

THE South East Domestic Violence Partnership (SEDVP) in conjunction with the Down District Community Safety Partnership held the Bad Romance seminar in The St Patrick Centre in Downpatrick today (Wednesday 23rd November). The seminar explored the issue of abuse in young people's romantic relationships.

At the event, post-primary school pupils across the district were given recognition for participating in the healthy relationships poster competition which aimed to raise awareness of the domestic violence issue.

SERC Students ‘Have A Go’

SOUTH Eastern Regional College (SERC) gave students the opportunity to get hands-on experience in a range of disciplines at their recent ‘Have a Go’ event.

The event was part of WorldSkills Have a Go, a nationwide drive to create one million opportunities for young people to try a bite-sized taster of a new skill, trade or profession.

First Meeting For Youth District Policing Partnership

THE first Youth District Policing Partnership has taken place in St Mary’s High School, Downpatrick.

Pupils from the School Council worked together with the Police Service Northern Ireland (PSNI) and Down Policing Partnership Members to bring about the meeting which provided an opportunity for young people to discuss policing and community safety issues with local PSNI and Council officials.

Councillor Cadogan Enright Welcomes Court Victory Over Equal Access For Irish Speaking Pupils

DOWNPATRICK Councillor Cadogan Enright celebrated a successful end to a five year campaign last week to win local Irish speaking children equal access to education in line with all other educational sectors. Now Irish speaking students has equal access to transport to and from their schools.

Cllr Enright said, “As a campaigner for the full implementation of the Good Friday Agreement, I was particularly pleased that Judge Treacy ruled that the Agreement was not merely aspirational but was intended to have ‘practical consequences and legislative significance’. This case will be a landmark case not just for Irish language rights, but for the Peace Agreement as a whole”.

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Council Education Committee Looks Over School Survey

DOWN District Council Education Committee discussed the results from its recent survey of all primary schools located in the district. The survey asked the schools to identify areas which were having a negative impact on the delivery of education to their pupils.

Results show the major areas of concern and difficulty experienced by the primary schools were:

Insufficient school budgets and ongoing cuts in funding; poor state of existing buildings and accommodation; increased workload and decreasing number of staff; lack of stability in the curriculum and high level of new initiatives; restriction on admissions and total enrolment figures; and lack of good special needs provision.

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Students Kick-Off A Career In Media

A group of students from South Eastern Regional College (SERC) kicked-off their career in media last week at the UEFA U-17 Women’s European Championships.

The tournament, which was played at Irish Premier League grounds seen England, Israel, and Finland compete against hosts Northern Ireland in a round-robin series.

The students, who study an Extended Diploma in Creative Media at SERC’s Newcastle Campus, were approached by the IFA to provide coverage of the tournament, including filming matches, pitch-side reports and interviews and press photography.

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Downpatrick Naiscoíl Performs Well In School Inpsection

FOR the past 10 years the Náiscoil Dhún Pádraig has been providing pre-school education for children and it has continued to grow. This week it received a glowing accolade when the Department of Education inspectors made a snap inspection and it passed with flying colours.

Council Education Committee Enjoys SERC Presentation

MR Ken Webb, Principal and Chief Executive of SERC and Mr David Smith, Director of Learning and Customer Support of SERC, made a presentation to DDC's Education Committee.

At the presentation, they described the work they do in the SERC and explained how Down District Council could work in partnership with them. After the meeting, the Chair of the Education Committee, SDLP councillor Carmel O'Boyle said: "We were delighted to welcome Mr Webb and Mr Smith to our meeting and their presentation to us was useful, as it will inform future discussions in council about how we can improve our partnership arrangements with our local college.

"It is important young people are properly equipped with qualifications that will find them jobs in an economy which threatens to leave many without work, and without the hope of ever finding work. I know our local SERC is serving this community well and they are supporting young people in the right way at the moment. These are very challenging times, but the SERC has taken on this challenge and our committee members were most impressed by what they heard."

Ardglass Community Playgroup Enjoys New Facilities

ARDGLASS Community Playgroup, located at St Nicholas’ Primary School in Ardglass, celebrated it's completion of it's £150,000 project funded through People’s Millions and the South Eastern Education and Library Board. But, on the eve of the launch, heartless thieves broke into the new premises and stole a small sum of money.

First Minister Robinson Says Shared Education Is Way Forward

FIRST Minister Peter Robinson on a visit to Newcastle has underlined his support for cross-community education when he awarded graduation certificates to hundreds of primary pupils involved in a collaborative learning project.

Thirteen schools, from the Maintained, Controlled and Integrated sectors have joined the Sharing Languages-Sharing Cultures programme, run by Shimna Integrated College. Peter Robinson this week launched the Executive’s Programme for Government and described it as the strongest commitment there has ever been in Northern Ireland to moving towards greater sharing and integration in education.

Cumran Primary School Pupils Help NI Water Spread ‘Lag and Tag’ Message

CUMRAN Primary School recently joined forces with NI Water to help spread its vital Lag and Tag message for winter.

The tags are to highlight the need to begin preparations for winter. NI Water has produced the bright tag for customers to loop around the stop valve in their premises. This will ensure they are aware of the location of their stop valve and it will be easily identifiable in the event of a burst pipe.

SERC’s Passport To Workplace Safety

HEALTH and safety in the workplace has never been more important.

Figures taken from the Health and Safety Executive show that, in 2009/2010, 28.5 million working days were lost due to work-related ill health and workplace injury.

Recognising the importance of health and safety in the workplace SERC (South Eastern Regional College) has joined forces with business support experts Romatech (NI) Ltd to offer CCNSG Safety Passport training – the latest standard in industrial site safety training across Europe.

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Computing Students Make History At SERC Ballynahinch

THE new South Eastern Regional College (SERC) Ballynahinch campus situated on Church Street, has opened its doors to its first group of students.

A group of HNC Computing students have become the first students to study at the new, 795 metre square campus which represents an investment of over £2 million on education in Ballynahinch.

The campus marks the final phase of the redevelopment of SERC’s estate which has seen the construction of new campuses in Newcastle, Downpatrick, Lisburn, Newtownards and Ballynahinch.

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Hamilton Seeks Killyleagh Library Assurances

STRANGFORD DUP MLA Simon Hamilton has raised the future of Killyleagh Library in the Northern Ireland Assembly chamber with the Minister of Employment and Learning.

The South Eastern Regional College, which is accountable to the Department of Employment and Learning, owns the current library building in the village.

During Employment and Learning question time at Stormont, Simon Hamilton asked the Minister to assure Killyleagh Library that the College will not impede the use of it’s premises should Libraries NI ultimately decide that it wishes to remain there.

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Education

Councillor Cadogan Enright Welcomes Court Victory Over Equal Access For Irish Speaking Pupils

Council Education Committee Looks Over School Survey

Students Kick-Off A Career In Media

Council Education Committee Enjoys SERC Presentation

SERC’s Passport To Workplace Safety

Computing Students Make History At SERC Ballynahinch

Hamilton Seeks Killyleagh Library Assurances

NEWS IN BRIEF