Sullivan 1st XI met Methody 1st XI in the 3rd round of the Senior Schools’ cup. This match had been postponed from early December and consequently tensions and anticipations were high from both teams. Sullivan started strongly with good runs on the wings, decisive and accurate passing and various amounts of pressure in the circle. Katie McQuillan’s excellent lifted strike was well saved by the Methody keeper and Katie Moore’s effort just went wide of the right post. Slightly against the run of play Methody won a short corner and a first time strike left Sullivan keeper, Claire Lowry, pulling off a fine save. Despite some very skillful and speedy Methody forwards, the Sullivan defence coped very well with the ever increasing amount of pressure placed on them. After the break the Sullivan team came out strongly and from the restart, Katie McQuillan made a magnificent solo run from the half way line beating several Methody players on the way, which resulted in an excellent individual goal. Methody stepped up their game but good defensive play from the Sullivan ‘back 4’ kept them at bay behind the 23m line. Methody continued to push forward but loose balls were pounced upon by a nippy Sullivan midfield trio (Alex Roberts, Hannah Martin andJodieFalls) and Sullivan almost claimed a second goal when JodieFalls first time sweep was edged wide of the post by the Methody Keeper. However Methody continued to work hard and made some fine breaks down the left hand side, only to be intercepted or tackled by a Sullivan player. The match finished 1-0 and was a deserved victory by a hard working Sullivan side.

Congratulations to Ben McMechan who participated in the North Down Badminton Finals held in Ards Leisure Centre.

We are delighted that in the results just announced Chris Tapper has been awarded a Gold Medal, Connor Johnston a Bronze Medal and Esther Grieve a Highly Commended Certificate in the above competition. More details and pictures to follow.

Congratulations to Jemma Speers (10C) who has been selected for the Ulster School Elite Swimming training camp to be held in Tenerife in October 2011.

The 1st XI girls and U13 boys 6-a-side teams enjoyed great success at the Civil Service Play Ball Tournament on Sunday. Both teams played a total of 7 matches in their group and both made it to their respective finals where they had convincing wins. Congratulations to both teams. See photos below

Eight Sullivan pupils travelled to Newcastle in September to compete in a variety of sports for Northern Ireland in the UK Youth Games. These games bring together the best talent at U17 level from all over the UK. Katie Kirk and Cyndie McCullough took part in athletics, with Katie winning gold in the 300M. Irma Hendry, Kirsten Beggs, Chris Jordan and Victoria Duxbury all competed in fencing, while Matthew Allister and Katie McQuillan were part of the boys’ and girls’ hockey squads. The boys’ came runners-up and the girls were the overall winners, with impressive victories over England, Scotland and Wales.

The 1st XI boys travelled down to Dublin on 20 October 2010 for the All Ireland Schools Hockey Tournament. There were 16 schools taking part in the Tournament – 8 from Munster & Leinster and 8 from Ulster.  Sullivan were drawn in the same section as Campbell College, Bandon (Cork) and Wesley College (Dublin), one of the favourites to lift the title! The boys’ first match was against Campbell College and they got off to a great start with a 4-0 victory. Their second match was played on Thursday morning against Wesley College at Wesley and in front of a huge number of Wesley supporters. Sullivan started nervously and didn’t play particularly well in the first half but put in a much better performance in the second half. However, they still lost 5-2 to a very good Wesley team. In their final pool game on Thursday afternoon they faced Cork side Bandon and came away with a 4-1 victory. Both sides were showing signs of tiredness after having played 3 games in the space of 24 hours but still managed to play some very good hockey. Well done to the boys on finishing as runners-up in their section. Photos of the Tournament can be viewed in the Gallery at http://www.intouchhockey.com/

The Senior Girls’ Netball Team of Emily Graham (Captain), Caoimhe Rooney, Emma Douglas, Emma McGavock, Lucy Pollock, Ellen Thom, Brooke Burnside (Year 12) and Alex Roberts (Year 12) won the Senior Cup (Section B) at the Belfast League Finals on Friday, 4 February 2011 .  They defeated Grosvenor Grammar. The girls were 3-2 down at quarter time, 7-6 up at half-time, 11-7 up at three-quarter time and 19-9 up at full-time. Congratulations and well done to the team.

Congratulations to Christopher Cree (9P) and Amy Rothwell (8D) who competed recently in the National Tennis Matchplays in Dublin.   Christopher was placed 5th in Ireland and U14 level whilst Amy was 15th at U12 level.

To link to BBC news and TV coverage of Eva’s visit to Sullivan click here This year Eva Clarke, a Holocaust survivor, visited Sullivan Upper School to tell her amazing and unique story to the year tens who had been learning about the Holocaust in Religion.  We had also done Holocaust activities prior to the talk in History with a history teacher and a citizenship teacher. These activities helped to prepare us for hearing of the shocking things that happened to non-Aryans during Hitler’s reign.  We looked at pictures of people on their holidays or in a classroom or in their house with their parents.  You couldn’t tell whether these people were Jewish or what their nationality was.  The point of this exercise was to show us that they were all the same as us just with different beliefs, and to show us just how shocking the Holocaust really was.  The activity highlighted to us that the victims of the Holocaust did not deserve to be victims.  They did nothing wrong and yet they were punished.  The activity underlined this point to us and made the whole concept of the Holocaust more real and therefore more horrifying. Another one of the activities we did was to look at some of the laws that the Nazis passed to restrict the lives of the Jews, we then discussed how it would make us feel.  This helped us to try and understand how the Jewish people were made to feel by the Nazis.  The activities really gave us a  good background to what life as a Jew was like in Nazi Germany. Then it was time for Eva  Clarke to tell us what happened to her and her mother during the Second World War. Eva was a very skilled and eloquent storyteller which I suppose is due to her telling this story for ten years to different schools.  Eva went into great detail and was not afraid to tell it how it was even when it got a bit upsetting, this also surprised me as she knew exactly what was said to her mother even though she wasn’t there to hear it.  Eva’s mother was put through great hardship during the Holocaust and it was a miracle that she survived.  Eva Clarke was born only a couple of days before the death camps were liberated.  It was a wonder that she survived as well considering her mother had been starved and was very weak and very underweight. She was so underweight that no one noticed that she was pregnant. This talk about the Holocaust  was very useful for the year tens as it was very insightful into the way the Jews were treated and the horrible conditions they were made to live in.  It was amazing to hear the story and almost unbelievable that it was actually allowed to happen.  There were so many different times when Eva’s mother was close to being sent to her death but her strength saved her every time, and with a little help from her friends she was able to survive and put her death off a little longer.  It truly is amazing that she evaded death for so long. The pure fact that she was pregnant twice, sadly her first baby So Eva came to Sullivan to educate us on the horrific things the Jews were put through during the Holocaust and in doing so we have learnt a lot.  We have learnt of the horrendous conditions Jews were made to live in during the Holocaust.  We have learnt that we should remember and pay respect to all the millions of people who died during the Holocaust for what they believed and the way they lived their lives.  We learnt that no matter how bad things look we should always hope for the best and find comfort in the good things about the situation. Even though Eva’s mother was put through hideous things during her time in death and concentration camps she got her daughter Eva at the end of it. Daisy Barker Year 10 To link to BBC news TV coverage of Eva’s visit to Sullivan click here

Malachi O’Doherty the journalist, broadcaster and writer visited Sullivan on 13 September 2010 and spoke to Year 13 & 14 English and Politics students. He is a freelance print and broadcasting journalist and he gave a very interesting and enlightening talk on how he came to be involved in journalism and what his job entails now. He entertained us with many stories of his exploits including getting stuck in the disabled toilets on a ferry which prompted him to write for the Irish Times and also amused us with his tales of interviewing his favourite politician Ian Paisley!

Decathlon Belfast have selected Sullivan Upper pupil Katie Kirk to be part of the new Decathlon Dedicated Athlete programme – a deal which has provided Katie with training kit sponsorship and PR exposure surrounding her selection for the NI Commonwealth Games team. We will continue to support Katie in her training towards future Commonwealth and Olympic competition The press release is available to view at http://www.tinyurl.com/katiekirkDDA