Click on the link below to view our school’s contribution to the BBC School Report

Last month was a hugely successful one for the school’s basketball teams. 18 pupils travelled to New York and Orlando for ten days where they played 5 games and caught two NBA games. Click on the image below to find out more and view photographs from the trip.

Aquinas pupils headed into their Silver Award Qualifying Expedition.  A 3day, 2 night trek through the mountains.  They would camp wild and be totally self sufficient for the entire expedition. To find out more and view photographs from the expedition click the image below.

Seven Aquinas pupils from Year 13 have been selected from over 100 applicants to take part in the Belfast Saphara Team to India July 2010.  Eimear Devlin, John Doherty, Ben Lambon, Elizabeth Murphy, Ciara Power, Dermot Sharkey and Peter Stewart are all preparing for their trip. The students have been raising awareness within our school, click on the image below to find out more.

The Co Down Cross Country Championship were held on Tuesday 2nd February at Delamont Country Park.

Minor Boys Team winners – Christopher Kelly, Mikal Zoboroski, Ronan Quinn, Nicholas Kearney, Dairmuid Mc Nulty, Nathan Kelly, Kaelan power, Declan Mc Crory.

Minor Boy – Christopher Kelly came 6th out of over 100

Minor Girl – Laura Reid came 7th out of 100 girls! 

Intermediate Boys Team 3rd – Michael Robinson, Owen Lavery, Ryan Mc Kee, Kevin Dornan.

Intermediate Boy – Michael Robinson came 6th out of 100 boys!

Intermediate Girl – Ellen Gracey came 7th out of 100 girls! 

All of the above runners have qualifed for the Ulster Cross Country Championship on Wednesday 24th February at Mallusk Playing Fields. Good Luck.

Click on the image below to see some pictures.

Aquinas students will soon be going on a USA Basketball tour to NYC & Orlando. The team will be leaving on Friday 5 February, returning on Monday 15 February and playing 5 games and going to two NBA games.

The training and expedition will be carried out and supervised by The Outdoor Fox Company.To find out more click on the image below.

No adjective could ever fully sum up the Saphara 2009 India journey. “Amazing”is too bland; “unforgettable” simply states the obvious. But as the weeks since our return to NI fly by, one word that sticks in my mind is “awakening” – for that is what our indescribable experience in India proved to be, an awakening in all senses of the word. Click image image below to find our more.

Earlier in the year Aquinas took part in a French exchange with our partner school Lycée Maguerite de Flandres in Lille. It was an amazing experience and we all have some great memories from it. Click on the image below to find out more.

The Annual Carol Service in Aquinas was a magical event. Click on the image below to view photographs from the event.

 

The Knights of Columbanus in conjunction with Aquinas Diocesan Grammar School held a mock interview evening on 2 December 2009. Thirty three year fourteen students were interviewed by more than twenty professionals. The students all received written feedback. The students interviewed require an interview as part of the selection procedure for the course or college they have applied to. The areas covered included Medicine, Teaching, Nursing, Law, Engineering Art and Design and all those applying to Oxford or Cambridge. The evening was a great success for all pupils and interviewers commented on how impressed they were by the quality of Aquinas pupils.

The Year 8 boys came very close to achieving a famous victory against the Year 9’s on Wednesday. A brilliant first half performance saw the younger team lead with goals from Chris Kelly (2) and Brendan Stewart (1). The pace of the Year 8 attack led by Ryan Donaghy and Stewart was causing serious problems for the Year 9 defence. The Year 9 team came out fighting at the start of the second half and despite excellent defending from Michael Brown and Brogan MacAibhstin they managed to draw level. The last 10 minutes were extremely tight with Ruairi Shirlow somehow managing to keep out the Year 9 attack. The game finished 3-3 but all the Year 8’s should be proud of their performances. Best on the day were Brown, Kelly, Stewart, Morrison and Donaghy.
Year 8 Squad

McMeekin, Shirlow, Doherty, MacAibhstin, Brown, Curran, Morrison, Rylands, Bradley, Kelly, Madden, Armstrong, Donaghy, Stewart, McBrien, McSorley.

Thanks to the fabulous generosity of our students we have had a superb response to our annual Shoebox Appeal. The Charity prefects in Aquinas take their job very seriously and you can witness this by clicking on the image below

When the Aquinas Bar Mock Trial Team of 2009 was recruited from year 13 pupils in September it soon became clear it meant business! Click on the image below to find out more.

To view some photographs from the superb show click on the image below:

The Junior Celebration of Achievement was a tremendous success. To view pictures from the event and of all the winners click on the image below:

To mark the start of the Ulster Project bishop Farquhar celebrated mass with the families and young people going to America. Click on the image below to view pictures from the event.

During May, another 10 more year 13 & 14 students successfully completed the BSL Sign Language level 1 qualification.  This was the culmination of 20 months of weekly classes to learn introductory sign language, conversational sign language and sign language at home and in school.

This QCA endorsed qualification is administered by the Council for the Advancement of Communication with Deaf People [CACDP] and under the expert tuition of Ms Elizabeth McAghtery, herself a member of the Deaf Community.
Congratulations to all of the students who completed their BSL Level 1 qualification during 2008/09

The Sports day in Aquinas started exceptionally well and some images can be fround by clicking the image below:

But after break the weather broke, click on the image below to view pictures:

This summer seven of our Year13 students will be travelling to India, as part of the Saphara project.  While in India they will be spending a week working in a school with street/slum children and then they will then spend a second week working with children from hill villages. 

In order to raise much needed funds for both the Saphara project and for the school, we have organised an evening, for parents and friends in La Tasca restaurant, Victoria Square on the 30th April 2009.  The evening will include supper, sangria, entertainment and a ballot.  Tickets will cost £17.50 pp.  If you wish to purchase tickets, please contact  Dr P. Magill or Ms S. Maguire. 

Recently as part of our World Book Day celebrations, 5 budding writers from Year 8 took part in an E-book project with 4 other schools throughout Northern Ireland. The book was written over 5 days with each Year 8 team contributing a chapter per day of 300 words and then e-mailing it on to the next school.

 Click on the image below to read our E-Book. We hope you enjoy reading it, as much as we enjoyed writing it.

The annual Aquinas Spring Music Concert was a tremendous success. Click on the image below to view some pictures from the event.

Pi Day 2009 was a great success.  Not only was it a bundle of mathematical fun, but it also contributed £183.43 to Trócaire. Click on the image below to find out more.

The Aquinas Bar Mock Trial team set off to London, Friday 27 March to take part in the much coveted UK Final of the prestigious competition, in the impressive surroundings of The Old Bailey. Click on the image below to find out about their success.

Read an indepth report on this momentous victory by clicking the team below.

Click on the School crest below to read about the history of Gaelic footbal at Aquinas.

Aquinas U19s lost out in the final of the U19A plate final to 57-50 Colaiste Eanna in Dublin on Thursday.

After three final losses, Aquinas Grammar eventually achieve their goal. 

This is Aquinas Grammar’s 10th year in the Bro Nolan cup.  Aquinas beat a well – drilled Loreto College Coleraine team 1-10 to 1-8 in the final of the Bro Nolan cup on Friday 20th February  in the mid Ulster sports arena Cookstown.

Click the image below to read reports and view images from the match

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE JUNIOR BOYS TEAM

The Team placed 2nd in their section and will be running at the Ulster Cross Country Championships on Wednesday 25th February at Mallusk

Michael Robinson 2nd
Donal McKeever 11th
Owen Lavery 14th
Ryan Murray 38th
Nathan Kelly 100th

Congratulations to Katie McGrath Year 14 who came 4th in the Senior race. Katie has also gained a place in the Ulster finals at Mallusk.

Click the image below to view pictures from the day.

Aquinas U16 basketball team returned from the All-Ireland play-offs in Galway with their heads held high despite failing to qualify for the semi finals.

Four teams came together on Saturday in Calasanctius College, Oranmore on Saturday despite the harsh winter weather.  The host school proved much too strong for their visitors from Belfast, Killarney and Castleblayney and marched onward to the semi finals.

Click on the image below to read the full report.

At Christmas we try to help those in our local community.To catch a glimpse at just one of the initiatives within the school click the image below:

The Annual Shoebox Appeal was a great success in Aquinas. Click on the picture below to view the results of the appeal.

The video of the Darren Shan visit can now be viewed by clicking below.

Click on the links below to view the scenes from a DVD made by Jerome Quinn on our Year 8 Ulster Colleges C Blitz winners in June 2008.

  High quality

Year 13 organised and delivered a Study Skills morning in school last Friday, this was a fantastic day and the students who delivered the presentations were brilliant.

Click the link to view images and learn more.

Children at Aquinas Grammar School in Belfast are at the forefront of using information and communications technology (ICT) to enhance their work, and that’s official!

Click on the ICT Mark to find out more.

Congratulations to year 14 students Maeve Cowan and Aine McGowan who have successfully completed the final unit of the BSL Sign Language level 1 qualification.
This QCA endorsed qualification is administered by the Council for the Advancement of Communication with Deaf People [CACDP] and under the expert tuition of Ms Elizabeth McAughtery, herself a member of the Deaf Community, the students studied three units, introductory sign language, conversational sign language and sign language at home and in school to achieve this level.

On Thursday 16th October 2008, year 13 pupils that are participating in the Bar Mock Trial competition and year 12 GCSE LLW pupils visited the Belfast High Court, hoping to gain a greater understanding of court procedures and the Northern Ireland legal system. Many pupils gained the opportunity to observe barristers and judges and, perhaps for some, see where their future career paths take them. Click on the image below to find out more.

Davey Philips of the Belfast Giantscame to the school to speak with the Year 8 pupils about Healthy Eating, Exercise and what it’s like to be a Giant.To read more about the vist and view images  click the link below.

GCSE: 

1ST in Business Studies – Christina McCloskey
2nd in French – Jennifer Clarke
1st in German – Jennifer Clarke
3rd in German – Martin McBride
1st in Maths – Conn McGrath
2nd in Physics – Conn McGrath

A level Top Candidates
3rd in Art – Megan Quigley
1st in English Literature – Dermot Dignam
2nd in Spanish – Ronan Tansey

Click the image below to view the top GCSE candidates

This year we were absolutely ecstatic to secure a visit from the much-sought-after author Darren Shan.  Horror readers will know he is the bestselling writer of The Saga Of Darren Shan and The Demonata Series.  His books have been translated into twenty languages in twenty-eight different countries and have sold over 9,000,000 copies worldwide.

Click on the image below to find out more

Congratulations to the six teams who successfully completed their Silver Award qualifying expedition in September.  The qualifying expedition was the culmination of eight months of training and preparation by the pupils. 

Click on the image below to read more and view photographs from the expedition. 

Congratulations to Maeve Mc Quillan who has been selected, for the second year, onto the Northern Ireland under 17 netball squad.

Congratulations to the following girls who have been selected onto the under 15 regional development squad; Claire McVeigh, Rachel Goldsmith, Rachel Ferguson, Moya McQuillan, Orlaith Downey, Aoife Sheridan and Amy Mc Cormick

To view some pictures from the successful event click the image below: 

Thank you for all the votes for Aquinas on the ‘Join Our Team Website’. We will let you know the outcome as soon as it is confirmed.

Click on the picture below to view images from the afternoon.

This is the presentation ceremony for the STAMP (Asthma Awareness campaign) team who completed a one year course so that would be qualified to teach their peers about asthma.  There were four schools involved in the scheme Lagan college, Aquinas Grammar School, Wellington college and Newton Breda High School. Click on the image below to view larger.

Aquinas Grammar year 8 Gaelic football team won the Ulster Colleges year 8 Football blitz Bro J M Murphy Cup and their first ever Ulster Colleges title after 15 years of trying. 

Clicck on the image below to learn more about this momentous occasion.

This is a school based competition run by the Norwich Union.  The winner of the competition is the school with the highest number of votes placed by the extended school  community. Pass this site information to family and friends. Hopefully we will be lucky enough to win the money and use it tocontribute to upgrading Physical Education facilities.Click the link below to view details of our scheme

or click on the button to place a vote

Click on the image above for more details of the Visit.

Click on the picture to see the Pi Day story unfold

Ben Horner (Year 12) & Joe Burns (Year 13) have both been selected to play for Ireland in the U16 & U18 European Basketball Championships this summer.

They have been training with their 18 player squads since January 2007 and both made their 12 man panels that were announced last week.    

The U18 championships take place July 25 to August 4 in Hungary while the U16 championships take place 15-24 August in Bosnia.  Each team will play 9 games in the European Championships.

Ben is also flying to Birmingham on Saturday 3 May to play England with the U16 team.

The Austrian resort of Axamer Lizum (near Innsbruck) was the venue for 2008 Ski trip. Click on the image below to read more and view images from the trip.

 

Click on the image below to read all about our adventures…

Aquinas hosted its Senior Celebration of Achievement on 20th December. The evening was a terrific success. To view some pictures from the event click on the image below.

The 2007 edition of the Winter Nwsletter is available to view online or download now. Just click on the links below on your version of choice.

 Download

 View online

Aquinas secured a 2-11 to 2-10 win over a young talented St Joseph’s Crossmaglen
Team in their opening game in the Ulster Colleges Bro Nolan senior C competition at the college pitches in Armagh. 
During the game Aquinas shot 20 scoreable wides which nearly cost them victory.  A small Crossmaglen team who played a short, fast passing game caused Aquinas many problems.  However, with steady performances from Thomas Artherton, Dermot Dignam, Conal Mahon O’Neill and captain John Mckenna.  Aquinas steered to a narrow victory.

Aquinas 4-8 Edmund Rice 1-6
Aquinas Grammar faced a determined Edmund Rice team who caused Aquinas lots of problems with their physicality.  Not until the last 15 minutes did Aquinas finally get on top of Edmund Rice.
Conal Mahon O’Neil, Dermot Dignam Matthew Hollywood and John McKenna were very strong for Aquinas.  Star of the game was Darragh Brownlee who turned in a McCrory standard performance.

After this win Aquinas will meet either St Malachys, Belfast, Lumen Christi, Derry or Glen Road CBS in the semi-final.

Aquinas will be training on the county Down sand dunes over the Christmas period.  Good Luck lads.

There are two galleries from The Wizard Of Oz production online for you to view.

Gallery 1  or  Gallery 2

Year 8
1st - Katherine Nevin
Runner Up - Chris Madden McKee
Year 9
1st - Emma Bogues
Runner Up - Laoise Hunter Martin
Year 10
1st - Naomi Morris
Runner Up - Rachel Goldsmith
Front Cover
Amy McCormick - Year 10
Back Cover
Claire McKeough - Year 10

Follow the Yellow Brick Road to view the winning entries.

Mrs Press, Mrs Guiney and Miss Maguire attended a conference in Johannesburgas part of the Dreams and Teams programme which is run by the British Council and Youth Sport Trust. Click on the image below to find out more and to get a flavour of their visit.

For the latest Basketball News click on the basketball.

Read one pupils account of the French Exchange trip and view  some images from the galleries by clicking on the image below. 

The Aquinas Senior Gaelic team played in the Queen’s Invitational Sevens tournament on Friday 29th of September.Click on the image below to view some pictures from the day and to find out how the team got on.

Details of the first terms Sporting Extra Curricular Activities can be found by clicking here

To view some images from the latest Silver Award expedition click on the image below.

June 19th saw the successful completion of the British Sign Language unit 2 [conversational sign language] assessment. 

Under the expert tuition of their tutor Mrs. Elizabeth McAughtery, the year 13 & 14 students, Laura Dornan, Paddy Early, Aideen Giffen, Ciara Moore, Rachel O’Hare and Dervla McParland have now completed units 1 and 2 of the BSL level 1 sign language course.

Dear Parents

As you will know, there has been a great deal of media coverage recently about the rapid increase in abuse of the internet.  In order to support you, our parents, in this area we would like to invite you to an evening meeting in the school. The meeting on Wednesday 9th May will last from 7.30pm until approximately 9.15pm.

As well as covering this topic we have invited a guest speaker who will be talking about the use and abuse of alcohol among young people. 

The evening will be an informative one and there will be opportunities for questions and answers at the end of each of the two sessions.  We hope you will be able to attend as these are two areas which can be causes of concern for parents, educators and young people.

Yours sincerely

Mrs G. Gibson
Vice Principal

The Cook Islands U19 Rugby team took time out from the U19 World cup to visit Aquinas. During their visit the team met with members of the Aquinas squad and put on a display of their world famous Haka. To view images from the visit click on the image below or click on the icons below to view or save a video clip

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