Congratulations to Christopher Cree (10P) who won the Ulster Spring Provincial Tennis Matchplays and will now go on to represent Ulster in the National Spring Matchplays in Cobh, Cork from 23-25 March 2012.

ullivan Upper Physics Department Invade Europe (Well visit CERN!) The purpose of the trip was to visit the world renowned particle accelerator institute of Cern in Geneva. This was our inaugural visit which was largely organized by another member of the Physics Department Mrs C McCarey. Well the flight was fairly uneventful and just after 1pm local time we arrived in Geneva. There are many things you can say about the Swiss, but we were mightily impressed with the transport system so in no time at all we were walking through the sunny streets of Geneva following directions to the Youth Hostel. The youth hostel was clean and well run so after checking in we headed for th The rest of the afternoon was spent exploring the old part of the town, museums, street cafes for coffee and a pastry, cathedrals, more coffee houses, I sure you get the picture. The group met up again at 7pm and everyone was in high spirits exchanging stories of what they had done with their free time. The walk back to the hostel, once again was by the shore of Lake Geneva, was very pleasurable if a little cooler than in the afternoon. We sampled the delights of dinner in the youth hostel followed by a couple of hours of card games before we retired for the night. After breakfast we headed into town to catch the train to CERN, the train was scheduled to leave the platform at 9.42am and at 9.42 that is just what it did. The sun was shining brightly as we arrived at CERN, it had been shining all morning, so we reported to reception and were given just over an hour to visit the Microcosm e Our official tour started with a lecture by a recently retired researcher who gave use a very good talk on the background to the establishing of CERN, the work they are currently engaged in, and what the future may hold. We then did the short walk to the Atlas (one of the four detector sites on the large Hadron collider) control room. The detection system was explained in detail. The next part of the tour took us across the border into France where the complexity of build the LHC was explained and why one small leak in the coolant system took 13 months to fix and cost 30 million euros. It was a very enjoyable trip and I am very pleased and proud of the 17 pupils who were excellently behaved and very good company. Roll on next year. P Whittington

Rapid Response Engineering Challenge The three of us went to form base, first thing on Monday the 27 March 2012 then made our way to the Upper Floor of the Silver Robin. To kick off the Challenge we were introduced to the Civil Engineers and we got spilt into 7 teams of 5 or 6. For the first couple of hours we did some work which was fun, like creating your own campsite for people to live after a disaster. We then got to learn what a civil engineer does and how they help us. After break each team was given 12 marshmallows and 12 pieces of raw spaghetti. We were told NOT to eat them yet, though I can tell you that it was very tempting, and that we had to build a strong tower which could hold a small toy car with no more than what we had. Each teams got to work and with many trial and errors each team was finished all with sticky hands and fingers. The Engineers got out the toy car, and every one gathered around every tower, guessing if it would break and fall or stay up right. Most fell down but one team of girls made a small ramp last minute. Their team won the prize for the toy car being on their “tower” the longest but they defiantly didn’t win for their tower being the tallest. After lunch we were brought out to the Rose Garden and the groups split in half. Half of them were told to make a water proof tent while the half my team was in, had to make a pipe line that wasn’t to go over some things like mountains or swamps. We sent to work. After many times holding up the pipes, stealing more masking tape from the other teams and falling bamboo sticks we were finished. We called over Frasier, the leader who was making sure we went right and he got out the timer. Chloe and I lifted up the 10 litre bottle of water and poured it down the pipe-line. Most of it flowed into the bucket though some did splash out and we did it in good time. The teams got into their tents and waited. Richard grabbed a bucket of water and soaked the tent. Most people in the tents got wet but there were a few exceptions. We then switched over activities and we made the tent. When it was our turn and we didn’t get wet which was good as the buckets of water were all filled to the brim. We then went back inside of the Silver Robin and they asked us, if any of us wanted to be a Civil Engineer when we get older. A number of hands went up, including mine. Being a Civil Engineer sounds like a brilliant and fun job to do. I would really recommend the workshop for any Year 8’s wanting to do it next year. And the best bit of it…. You get the whole day off!! Emma Quinn 9s

On Sunday 11 March 2012, Conor Brown, Sophie Tapper, Brooke Burnside, Rebecca Allen, Mrs Sinead McKeown, Craig Noteman and Niall Fearon completed a sponsored abseil off the top of the Europa Hotel, Belfast.  The money raised from this and other fundraising events throughout the school year will fund their trip to India in July 2012 where they will be working for Saphara in schools in marginalised communities.

Congratulations to the boys who travelled to Galway for the Finals. Jonny Brattle came 20th in the Minor Boys Competition. Conall Kirk came 3rd in the Intermediate Boys Competition The Intermediate Boys Team came 2nd overall. TEAM Conal Kirk Year 12 Harry Speers Roger Dawson  Chris McClure Mark Francis  Stefan Losty Year 11 Alasdair Knox Charlie Quinn

Congratulations to the Girls Hockey team who participated in the U12 Grosvenor Hockey Tournament on Tuesday, 5 March 2012. TEAM Atlanta Fisher Janet Cunningham Rachel Gowdy Kate McCutcheon Orla Hayes Maggie Gillies Kathleen Smartt Eva Babbington Jenny Baker Laura McCaw Alice Burton Sophie Todd Emer McAvoy Erin Davidson In their section they beat Hunterhouse, Wellington and Wallace and lost to Ballymena. They beat Victoria College in the Semi-Final 5-4 on strokes. In the Final they drew 1-1 with Killicomaine JHS to share the Tournament.

The Sullivan Singers will be performing at the “Music for a Spring Evening” on Friday, 23 March 2012 at 7.30 pm in Holywood Parish Church. Tickets £10 including refreshments  available from 028 90423622 or Parish Office, 71 Church Road, Holywood     Monday-Friday from 10.00 am-1.00 pm. http://www.holywoodparishchurch.co.uk/

The girls won their section on Tuesday, 6 March 2012 with victories over Hunterhouse, Wellington and Wallace and went on to beat Victoria College in a very close semi-final which was decided by penalty strokes after a 0-0 draw.  The girls returned on Wednesday, 7 March 2012 to play in the final against Killicomaine Junior High School. This was a very exciting end to end match with Killicomaine scoring first, but the Sullivan team fought hard, right to the end, winning a penalty corner on the final whistle which Maggie Giiles tucked away neatly. The result meant the title was shared by the two schools.

Needs Images.

On Friday 2 March 2012, Peter Weir, North Down Borough Councillor and MLA, visited the Politics Society. He spoke about the importance of both ideology and deliver in politics. He said that in terms of moving politics forward in Northern Ireland there needs to be a level playing field. He spoke of the three levels of politics, the first level being resolving the grievances of individual constituents and how there has to be a degree of judgement on how to help. The second level is the constituency as a whole, citing the closure of Redburn Primary School in Holywood as a major concern in his constituency. The third level is Assembly level, and the last 5 years of stable governance. Mr Weir said that Northern Ireland needs to look to future at the same time as repairing the past. Mr Weir said that the top priority in Northern Ireland at this moment is the economy, and that there needs to be a rebalancing of the economy. According to Mr Weir, their needs to be considerable focus on getting jobs in Northern Ireland. He also said that whilst we need to attract big business, we mustn’t neglect our small businesses, citing a £50 million loans fund as a way of helping small business. Mr Weir also cited the brain drain that Northern Ireland experiences, and the detrimental effect this has on the economy. He said that studying in Northern Ireland needs to be made more viable by putting in place protection for those choosing to study in Northern Ireland. Cllr Weir said that health was another major issue in Northern Ireland, as Northern Ireland (along with the rest of the developed world) is facing an ageing population, and the strain this puts on our health service. Mr Weir said that there needs to be a restructuring of the health service in order to help or growing number of older people. He said that the health service needs to look at people’s lifestyles and try to avoid easily preventable illness from occurring. Mr Weir said that home care needs focus in order to prevent hospitalisation. He also said that in order for the resources to be spent effectively, there may be a need to close hospitals. He closed his speech by saying that the practice of politics is the combination of ideas and action. If you have no ideas and are purely focused on action, Mr Weir said, you are a reactionary technocrat – a politician looking only at the short term without much use. At the other end of the scale, Mr Weir explained, if you are a purely ideological politician, you have a lot of philosophy but little positive action. Peter Taggart 13F

On Wednesday 1 February 2012 we are delighted to host a recital/workshop by international, Belfastborn pianist Barry Douglas. He will be bringing with him to Sullivan, three other musicians who form part of the Camerata Ireland chamber orchestra and have been successful as Camerata Ireland Young Musicians.  The musicians are Jessie Grimes (clarinet), Aoife NiBhriain (violin) and Miriam Roycroft (cello). We are delighted that Sullivan Upper will host this event which will also be attended by some pupils from Priory Integrated College Holywood and St Columbanus College Bangor.

Congratulations to Conall Kirk of Year 12 who has been selected for the Northern Ireland Athletics Team to compete in the UK Games in the Olympic Stadium in London from 6-9 May 2012.