Sullivan successfully participted in The Times Spelling Bee at the Waterfront Hall on Monday, 9 May 2011 and were placed 3rd in the first round. Jonathan Brattle was awarded a medal for being the ‘last man standing’. Congratulations to all pupils and loyal supporters, it was a very lively and enjoyable day.

Congratulations to Morag Stewart and Amy McIlroy. These Year 11 Home Economics pupils have recently had great success in 2 cookery competitions. On 29 March 2011 Morag came 1st in the Key Stage 4 section of the Dairy Council Young Cook of the Year. Amy travelled to Sligo on the 5 May 2011 for the final of the All Ireland Safe Food Competition. There were over 1000 entrants for this competition and Amy was delighted to be placed 1st overall, winning an Xbox and a voucher for a day at a Dublin Cookery School for herself as well as a range of appliances and vouchers for the Home Economics Department.

Congratulations to sixth-formers Adam Lyttle, Joshua McCance, Meghan Kirk, Meadhbh Keating-Fitzpatrick and Vanessa Goldstone on gaining Gold Medals in Speech and Drama Examinations run by the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts.

Sponsored reading in March 2011 raised the impressive sum of £1,576.55 which will go towards Clic Sargent Children’s Cancer Charity and Roald Dahl’s Marvellous Children’s Charity. Katherine McKee and Michael Good received a prize for their form class (8W) from Mr Peel.  Stephen Hodgson and Patrick Moorehad received prizes for the best individual contributions.

Well done to Charlie Roberts (8C) who won a Bronze Medal in the Under 15 Kata (Sequences) category at the Irish International Karate Open in Dublin in April 2011 Charlie also won Gold in the Kumite (Fighting) age 12 category making him the Irish Kumite Champion.

Author Alex Scarrow visited Sullivan recently for a very energetic and inter-active presentation to Years 9 and 10, which was thoroughly enjoyed by all.   Alex also accompanied a small group of Year 8 students with the librarians to the Finale of the NI Book Awards, where his book Time Riders won second place.

On the Friday 1 April 2011, a group of 22 Swedish students came to visit Sullivan Upper as part of their conflict studies field trip. All Lower 6th politics students greeted the group and began to show them around the school. After lunch we were paired off with a student and took them to go around our classes with us. For many of us, coincidentally, we had politics with Ms Morgan after lunch. This was an exciting opportunity for both the Swedish students and the politics students. The Swedes jumped at the chance to be able to learn more about the political culture of Northern Ireland and our perspective on the conflict our county had experienced. They were particularly fascinated by the amount of peace walls that were in our country, although they knew more about them than we did. It was also exciting for us to learn more about how the political process works in Sweden and their culture, which to our surprise was very socialist and liberal compared to here. They, on the other hand, were surprised that we had to wear uniforms which reminded them of Hogwarts. I feel that both groups took a lot away from this experience especially a little bit of the culture of both Northern Ireland and Sweden a like. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank Mr Armstrong for the large effort put in to arranging this and hope that next year’s Lower 6th have just as exciting experience as we had! Donnchadh Greene Secretary of the Politics Society

Congratulations to Christoper Cree on finishing in 4th place at the U14 National Tennis Championships in Cork on 3 April 2011. Ulster took 1st, 2nd and 4th positions out of 16.

SullivanUpperSchool celebrated the sporting and musical achievements of its pupils today in the annual awards ceremony.  Over 250 pupils received an award, ranging from achievement certificates to school colours to full representative honours.  The Guest of Honour was Mr Leslie Dewart (SportNI), a former Commonwealth Games Badminton player. Rowena Seaton-Kelly and Harry Speers received the Mark McBride Memorial Cup for Outstanding Contribution to Junior School Sport. Genevieve Price and Jamie Carr were awarded the RAF Cup for Outstanding Contribution to Senior School Sport.

Congratulations to Megan McQuillan (11E) who has been selected to participate in the U15 International Womens Football Match to be held in Ballymena on Wednesday, 6 April 2011. Megan has also been selected to play in WU15 Celtic Nations Cup 2011 in Cardiff, Wales from 11-15 April 2011.

On Friday 11 March 2011, the Politics Society of Sullivan Upper School welcomed the Lord Mayor of Belfast and member of the SDLP, Pat Convery. After a brief talk, the floor was opened to questions. However we found out that the Lord Mayor was not allowed to answer any political question while wearing the chain of office (which was solid gold) and so we first asked about issues to do with the role of the Lord Mayor. In answers, he revealed that the Lord Mayor’s post was not chosen by D’hondt but rather by the Council. Furthermore he told us that this system was due to change but that there was a dilemma in deciding what to it change to. He also told us what happened during the water crisis in December. We all got a scare when he disclosed that there was a room in Belfast, where people watched what was happening in the city, especially the young people, and had access to Facebook and Twitter accounts, Nonetheless he said this was very useful during the crisis as they could see which areas needed water most. He asserted that his staff turned out, even though it wasn’t their responsibility, to deliver water to the elderly. At this point, Mr Convery took the chain off and starting talking about the SDLP. During which, he informed us that collective responsibility was being undermined in government and that the current budget ‘isn’t fit for purpose’. He was very honest about the reasons for the decline in support in recent years, stating it was because people who join the party don’t want to be activists and that the SDLP didn’t seem ‘to be attractive to young people’. Nonetheless he did have one critic of Sinn Fein, which was that they didn’t see a way forward using ‘value-for-money’ which would be a necessity in the coming years. And with that, the meeting was adjourned and the Lord Mayor very kindly presented us with a small plaque acknowledging his visit.  I would like to thank all who were there and extend my gratitude to the committee members and Mr Armstrong, who played a key role in making the visit a success. Clare Coulter  Deputy Secretary of the Politics Society

On Friday 25 March 2011, Lady Herman, independent, was welcomed by the Politics Society of Sullivan Upper School. Lady Herman started by telling us about the elections of last year, in which her votes were weighed instead of counted. She said it was the first time the vote was counted through the night and that she thought Brown made the right decision by leaving when he did. Furthermore, she commented that it was hard to hold the coalition to account as they had no specific manifesto. Lady Herman feels this parliament is ‘unhappy’ and that Ed Miliband will have a lot to do a lot to show he deserves the leadership. She also thought, as opposition, they were never going to win against the government due to a majority in parliament. She seemed very concerned about the disconnect between the government and Northern Ireland. With that, the meeting was concluded and we all showed our appreciation by a round of applause. I, personally, would like to express gratitude to all who attended. Clare Coulter  Deputy Secretary of the Politics Society