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Celebrating Success | Swim Ulster Minors Championship

Celebrating Success | Swim Ulster Minors Championship

by | Dec 12, 2023 | Key Stage 3, Sports News, Year 8

Thanks and congratulations to our 4 Year 8 pupils who represented the school in swimming so admirably at The Swim Ulster Minors Championships. Mia Ruddy, Harry Davidson and Olivia Watt all outperformed their entry times and set new pbs individually. Particular congratulations to Alex Pokorna who also set new pbs and qualified to represent RSD at the Irish Minor Schools Championships in Dublin in March and narrowly missed the 50m back crawl final. Well done everyone!

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Learn Spark | Year 12

Learn Spark | Year 12

by | Dec 8, 2023 | General News, Key Stage 4

As the Year 12 Mock Examinations loom we invited Maria from Learn Spark in to work alongside Year 12 pupils to encourage and motivate them to not only put good effort into their revision but also to direct them to methods that are most effective and time efficient for them individually.
In this event they were challenged to think about ways to revise which are in tune with the complexities of GCSE. Year 12 were also asked to reflect on grades achieved in Year 11 modules, ‘what worked, what didn’t?’ and to make those experiences, negative or positive, count. Pupils were also asked to think about daily habits that could be significantly undermining good study habits. One of these was, of course, mobile phones. When pupils checked their screen time through ‘settings’ even they were alarmed at the amount of screen time per day they clocked up which amounted to 8 or 9 hours per day on average for some. Given that a fair proportion of the day is spent in class where they cannot access phones this is an incredible amount. Perhaps a moment for a Pause for Thought, both for parents and pupils?
Pupils were also given a QR code (in the booklet provided) with access to study schedules that can be used to plan each week and exam revision schedules. There are also links to over 20 blank resources that pupils can trial to break notes down in a manner that initiates and integrates learning at the same time. The idea is that pupils try a range and see which works best for them and in the variety of subjects that they study as they prepare for End of Topic Tests and work towards mock exams and CCEA units.
Hopefully the course (which was fully funded by RSD) has helped to set pupils on the correct track from the start of Year 11 so that they can work towards their best goals and indeed achieve them in the most positive manner. #BeYourBestSelf #perseverando
Thanks to Learn Spark for working alongside our pupils!

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A talk from Logos Ministries International

A talk from Logos Ministries International

by | Dec 7, 2023 | General News, RE, Sixth Form

It was a delight to welcome back past pupil Matthew Winning to RSD. As part of his work with LMI (Logos Ministries International). On 7th December, Matthew spoke to the Sixth Form pupils on the topics: Modern Day Persecution and Why does God Allow Suffering? The pupils found the sessions both informative and beneficial in their R.E. studies and would like to thank LMI for taking the time to share their knowledge and expertise with them.

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C S Lewis Trip

C S Lewis Trip

by | Dec 5, 2023 | General News, RE

Year 14 Re class headed off to Union College, Belfast where we had a couple of lectures in a great hall by many esteemed men including Stuart Horner, Curtis White and Jerry Root. The first lecture was by a PhD student, Ryan Shelton entitled ‘The Devil in the Digital Details’. This was a fascinating talk about the warning of the future digital dystopian that could lead Christians away from their faith. He proposed that this concept of the AI apocalypse was expressed through Milton, Lewis and Kingsnorth which offered a thought provoking idea of technology

Then we had a tea break and continued with C.S. Lewis inaugural lecture: ‘A Sign of the Times’. In this we were given an insight into C. S. Lewis first lecture at his post in Cambridge which was entitled ‘Medieval and Renaissance’. There was belief that this time period was the largest ever growth in art, science and really everything. But Lewis argues against this with a couple points. 1. Antiquity and dark ages but the dark ages ‘weren’t that dark’ . 2. The dark ages to Middle Ages were large but not as large as the 20th century leap. 3. The middle ages and end of 17th century in which science barely leaped. 4. Finally, the most crucial division and biggest period of growth; the modern day; we live in a bigger renaissance now. Here is why – change in political order, arts, and religious shapes.

Lunch was served for us, which was fantastic and we got to take a look around the famous Gamble Library where the Parliament of N.I. was once held. Here we found many books written by the apostolic fathers we study, for example Tertullian and Hippolytus. We had one more lecture in Union College on ‘Irish Myths and Legends in the Work of C.S. Lewis’ by Dr David Clare. This showed a beautiful insight to how great a influence the wonderful country of Ireland truly had on Lewis as a young boy.

Then we travelled to Queen’s library in which our group got to view the actual letters of C. S. Lewis written to various people which was fascinating and almost surreal. This just shown how the famous scholar is also just a homely Irish man but also a genius!

Following a quick tour around C.S. Lewis Square, Year 13 joined us at Little Wing for pizza and we shared a lovely meal before heading off to our final destination.

Last stop was Stranmillis College, Belfast where we listened to the last two lectures by two incredible men – both experts on C.S. Lewis – Professor Jerry Root spoke on the people who influenced the genius work of C.S. Lewis and Revd Dr Malcom Quite spoke on those who have been influenced in their work by C.. S. Lewis.This ended a very clear insight to academia, religious writing and the life of C. S. Lewis!

Thanks to Ben Cooper for writing this report

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Children in Need Day

Children in Need Day

by | Nov 30, 2023 | General News

To commemorate Children in Need, the Charities Committee ran an interactive ‘guess how many sweets are in the jar’ competition for a week, where all year groups competed for a jar of yummy goodies. This was a very competitive way to raise money for a charity who support young and disadvantaged children and the ultimate winner was Joel Clarke in Y10 with the closest guess to the number of sweets in the jar. On Friday a non-uniform day was also held where pupils donated £1 each to wear their own clothes. This was enjoyed by all pupils and raised our overall total to £603.66 which the Charities Committee cannot wait to donate to such a worthwhile cause.

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Stranmillis Panto Trip

Stranmillis Panto Trip

by | Nov 30, 2023 | General News

One of the highlights of the R.E year is the Christmas trip to the Stranmillis Panto and this year we were joined by the Dramatic Society’s Back Stage Crew. This year’s production was Peter Pan and what a treat it was! Packed with slapstick humour, bad jokes and swashbuckling antics, laughter abounded. Furthermore, the medley of quick-paced dance routines along with well-choreographed fight scenes had the audience happily clapping and singing along.

This year was especially enjoyed by the RSD pupils as past pupil Chloe Kelly was Musical Director and she was accompanied by past pupils Ellie Curry and Rebekah Needham in the orchestra. Needless to say, the music was spectacular and very professionally executed. Past pupil Aimee Johnston was also working hard as part of the backstage and even had her moment on stage in one of the dance scenes.

An excellent night once again and I’m quite sure we will be back again next year…Oh yes we will!

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CAFRE : Future in Food

CAFRE : Future in Food

by | Nov 24, 2023 | Careers, Food Technology

On Friday 17th November, 25 pupils in Years 12-14 participated in “CAFREs Futures in Food” Careers programme, RSD was paired with local food company Linden ABP. We started our morning in the food processing factory, hearing about opportunities in Linden Foods and heard about studying at CAFRE and Higher Level Apprenticeships from past pupil, Lewis Connelly. We toured the factory and were treated to yummy burgers for lunch. We then went to CAFRE Loughry College to continue our adventure. Pupils were issued a New Product Development task to design a Summer BBQ Burger, adding flavours not normally put together, pupils got stuck in, came up with some interesting flavour combinations and had a fabulous day creating while having lots of laughs. Thank you to @DiscoverCAFRE and @LindenABP for this wonderful opportunity and for opening up our minds to the vast career paths available through Food Industry. We had a great day!

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