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.

Congratulations to all those who took part in the Ulster Cross Country Championships at Mallusk.         Jemma Speers finished in the top 20 in the Intermediate Girls competition         Jonathan Brattle came 6th in the Minor Boys and qualifies for the Irish Finals. The Intermediate Boys won their team event qualifying for the Irish Finals, with Conall Kirk, 3rd and Harry Speers, 14th. Inter Boys Team  Conall Kirk Harry Speers Roger Dawson Stefan Losty Alasdair Knox Charlie Quinn Chris McClure Martin Francis

On Friday 10 February 2012, forty Sullivan pupils all met at Spafield car park bright and early in the morning.  We had been counting the days and finally it was time to head off on our History/German trip to Berlin for five days.  There was great excitement and lots of chat onboard the bus en route to Dublin Airport.  The flight lasted about three hours and we were picked up by NST Travel and taken to our hotel.  The first thing that hit us was the freezing weather!!  We settled into our rooms, explored the hotel and after dinner which the hotel provided we were soon out on our travels to the Reichstag (German Government Buildings).  We needed to wrap up extremely warm for the -13 degrees temperature outside.  We took the Underground train and then walked past many sights of Berlin, including the Brandenburg Gate.  After a long day travelling we arrived back at the hotel to defrost over a mug of hot chocolate and game of cards and soon after headed to bed. The next morning, we were all up early for breakfast at 8 am and headed off on a guided coach tour of Berlin. We past many of the sites we had seen the previous evening and hopped off at the Brandenburg gate for photos of this former city gate and one of the most well-known landmarks of Berlin and Germany.  Our tour guide then left us on the coach as we were headed to Sachsenhausen Holocaust Memorial and former Concentration Camp.  This part of the trip was something I was not particularly looking forward to seeing but felt it was a must see insight into the fate of many of World War II victims.  There was an eerie silence throughout the huge camp and as we toured around with audio guides, I kept thinking back to the book we studied in second year, “The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas”.  The three hours we spent in this camp really brought home the horrors of the Nazi ideas and we were all moved by this all too real experience.  When we arrived back in Berlin we took a guided tour of the Gedachtniskirche Memorial Church.  This church is a striking building with it’s bombed out tower and it stands as a reminder of the 2nd World War.  Our tour guide Philip was extremely funny and had us all in fits of laughter.  We had a relaxing evening out at Café el Gelato where we had a chat over some large delicious ice-cream sundaes.  Exhausted after such a long and cold day, lights out seemed like a good idea at 11 pm. With another early morning start on Sunday, we knew the time was flying by and we only had a couple of days left.  After a good breakfast at the hotel we made our way on the train to the large station, Potsdamer Platz.  From here we walked along the Berlin Wall and stopped at Checkpoint Charlie for some photographs with the German soldier.  Further along the wall we reached our destination at the Jewish Museum.  Inside the Museum there were many memorial rooms all of which were symbolic to the holocaust.  We were given a few hours to wander around the exhibitions.  After a fast food lunch we went to see the Olympic Stadium which held the 1936 Olympic Games under Hitler’s regime.  This Stadium is massive, steeped in history and is still in use today.  In the VIP box we sat in the seats where Hitler would have watched the games. As the temperature had dropped more layers were put on for our evening activity of ten pin bowling.  Unfortunately I was not the winner, but my bowling skills provided some entertainment and lots of laughs. On Monday morning, we made our way to see the Berlin Bunkers, an underground world in which the German citizens lived during the air raids from the allies.  Unfortunately we were not allowed to take photographs in the bunkers.  That afternoon we visited the large department store, KaDeWe which is a large store similar to Harrods.  We then had some free time to explore the shops around Kurfurstendamn where the girls had some retail therapy judging by the number of shopping bags everyone was carrying. On our last evening we headed to Wonderpots Frozen Yogurt Café where we played Jenga, ate frozen yogurt and chatted about how sad it was that our trip was nearly over. The next morning we headed to the souvenir shops for those all important presents and a last few group photographs in the large Square at Alexander Platz before heading to Berlin Airport.  We touched down in Dublin Airport at teatime and headed home for Holywood.  As the coach pulled into Spafield we were all sad that our trip was over as we had all got along so well and really enjoyed spending five days in Berlin together. Berlin is a very interesting and moving place to visit.  It was a fantastic trip which I’m sure none of us will forget and we owe a massive thank you to all the teachers who came with us Mrs Black, Miss Connolly, Mr Ballantine, Mr Thom and especially Miss Orr for the time and effort they put in for organising such a fantastic trip.  We hope they enjoyed the trip just as much as we all did. Stephanie Craig  Year 12

In the Irish Schools Championships held on 12 February 2012, several Sullivan Upper swimmers travelled to Dublin to compete in the Irish Schools Championships held in the Aer Lingus pool In the Intermediates, James Doggart  finished a credible 5th in both the 100m backstroke and 200m. In the Senior events, Harry Speers  got a bronze in the 200m butterfly whilst the Sullivan Upper Relay (James Doggart, Roger Dawson, Harry Speers and Jordan Sloan) were Irish Senior School Champions in the medley relay and won silver in the freestyle relay. Congratulations to all the swimmers on this most recent success.

NORTH DOWN CROSS COUNTRY RESULTS 2012 The following individuals qualified for the Ulster cross country Competition: Niamh Murphy – Senior Girls and Jemma Speers – Inter Girls FOUR TEAMS QUALIFIED FOR THE ULSTERS: INTER BOYS: Came 1st with Conall winning and Harry and Roger coming 4th and 5th. Conall Kirk, Roger Dawson, Harry Speers, Stefan Losty, Alasdair Knox, Charlie Quinn, Mark Francis, Chris McClure JUNIOR GIRLS: Came 1st with Anna 5th and Sasha 8th. Anna Gregg, Sara Smyth, Sasha Cleere, Sarah Storeng, Ali Adams, Karis Fitch MINOR GIRLS (Yr8) CAME 2nd: Rachel Smyth, Alice Burton, Orla Hayes, Janet Cunningham, Laura McCaw, Nia McNally MINOR BOYS (YR9) CAME 2nd: Stewart McCaw, Jacob Robinson, Peter Speers, Jonny Brattle, Jules Storey, Stephen Hodgson

5 Sullivan pupils have been given conditional offers for Cambridge or Oxford Colleges: Wilson Hill, Tom McClelland, Adam Leach, Kirsten Beggs and Jill Luke

On 15 January 2012 Eva Clarke, a holocaust survivor was met by all of the year 10 pupils eager to hear her story. This is her fourth visit to Sullivan and she has spoken of her ordeal on many occasions so Eva has already developed excellent story telling skills. We hung on her every word in absolute silence as the story of her and her family’s experience of the holocaust unfolded, accompanied by a slide show that added to the atmosphere. We were fascinated to hear about the horrors of the concentration camps; Auschwitz, Mauthausen and Terezin. Each camp was a different experience and a different example of how cruel the Nazis were. Everyone was in awe of the strength, determination and will-power of Eva and Eva’s mother, Anka to survive their experience. After the tale, Eva took questions and gave detailed answers on many aspects of her story. Eva helped us understand this part of history from her first hand account, better than we could have ever done from secondary sources.  I think she helped us to realize that 5,933,900 dead is not just a statistic but a mass extermination of individuals. Thanks to Eva and the history teachers who made today possible. William Preston Year 10