Prize Day 2007
posted 20 Sept 2007

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Our annual prize day celebration took place on Wednesday 19th Sept.

Pupils from all years were awarded prizes for outstanding contribution to school life and exam achievements. The hall was full to capacity with staff, both past and present, parents and of course, the pupils.

A special word of thanks to Professor Sir George Bain for his words to pupils and staff - it was both entertaining and challenging. Thank you also to Helen Henry and all the Canteen staff for the excellent buffett afterwards.

Principals Speech (Abridged)

 It is my pleasure to have the opportunity to speak about the examination success achieved by students of this school because once again they have brought great credit to themselves, their family and the school.

 There is much for us all to celebrate at GCSE and Advanced Level.

The Advanced level pass rate was an excellent 99.8% and there were outstanding performances by students across all subjects. 49% of all grades achieved were ‘A’ Grades. 81% of the examinations were passed at one of the top two grades A and B and 91% of the passes at the top three grades.

 Top pupils were Timothy Ferry and Steven Knox with 5 A grades.

Andrew Causey, Christine Causey, Jan Crooks, Matthew Hanna, Alex Henry, Ruth McGarvey, Jeremy McKeown, Ashley Morgan and Joanne Wensley all obtained four A grades.

 Our pupils continue to access high demand courses at prestigious universities. Timothy Ferry will read Veterinary Medicine in Glasgow. Steven Knox will read Engineering at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. Alison Moffett will join Steven at Corpus Christi, Cambridge to read History.

 Of the 70 pupils who took 3 or more A Levels, 69 are progressing to Further Education. We are very proud of our sixth form pupils who continue to demonstrate their ability to access the most competitive courses at the most prestigious university departments.

 Some of our Lower Sixth have excelled at AS Level with outstanding performances by Harry Acheson, Natalie Catherwood, Russell Donaldson, Robert Harkness, Rachel Knox, Rupert Rutledge who all obtained 4 A grades. While David Buchannan, Deborah Lamont and Chee Yan Shek all obtained 3 ‘A’ grades.

 In GCSE we have once again outstanding performances with an overall pass rate of 99% with no less than 80% of all grades at A to C. This is well above the national average and is excellent given the wide range of pupils sitting the examinations.

 For the first time in the school’s history we have 5 pupils who obtained 10 A Stars in GCSE namely Gavin Donaldson, Robin Johnston, Rosemary Prekop, Stephen Sloan and Alana Workman.

In fact 32% of all grades achieved at GCSE were A or A Star .

 Congratulating our top students is always important; however their success is just the tip of an iceberg, which includes very many more hard working students achieving excellent examination results at all levels. The school celebrates their success.

It is also very appropriate on this occasion to register our thanks to you the parents for your encouragement and support and of course to all the teaching staff who as always played a major role in this success.

 The school takes its social responsibility very seriously to try to help those less well off than ourselves through charitable giving.

 We began with our annual coffee morning hosted by 6 th year in aid of Macmillan Nursing. Then in November a group of year 12 pupils decided to put on a Fashion Show for Children in Need and their hard work paid off when the Lunch Time show was a sell out and they raised over £600. In February years, 8 & 9 took part in a sponsored walk for Action MS and raised over £5000. Finally in late June the staff held a Pink Party to show our support for a member of our school community. The end of term event raised £1000 for the Ulster Cancer Foundation.

 The School Mini Company this year was a great success. Organized by the Year 13 Business Studies class and their teachers the company called themselves Vibranz and sold a variety of Halloween and Christmas products. The company then presented 2 cheques of £330 each to the branch of the Alzheimers Society in Mid Ulster and the Burkina Project in Africa.

 In Mathematics a team from year 13 entered the Mathematiques Sans Frontieres competition. This competition is enjoyed by thousands of pupils throughout the European Community. The questions not only help to develop problem-solving skills but also encourage group collaboration.

The team from Cookstown High School deserve praise for their whole class group endeavour and for being awarded the runners up plaque for the SELB.

 In January six upper sixth students travelled to Dublin to take part in the Irish Science Olympiad. The team consisted of Alex Henry and Jeremy McKeown for Biology, Ashley Morgan and Rebecca Spence for Chemistry and Timothy Ferry and Steven Knox for Physics. All our students gained a finalist certificate with 3 winning bronze medals, one in each science.

 In March the school hosted a Cambridge Taster Event. 200 pupils from all over Northern Ireland travelled to Cookstown. The event was organized in conjunction with Corpus Christi and aimed to give academically able students a taste of what it might be like to study at the University.

 The school council have had another busy year. The council set up various committees including the environment committee who worked with the energy team mentioned earlier. The uniform committee played a very important role in surveying pupils and giving them a voice in possible changes to the school uniform.

 Our annual school production last December was ‘She Stoops to Conquer’ and it was a great success. The costumes and scenery would not have looked out of place on a West End stage. In December the school will perform the Wizard of Oz, in the Burnavon, and with preparations well under way I have no doubt that the pupils and staff will produce yet another first class production.

Once again Cookstown High School has had a very successful sporting year.

In particular, I believe it would be true to say that the school’s netball teams have just had their most successful season in the history of the school.

 All 5 Netball Teams won their respective PSNI Leagues and Tournaments.

 Our Minor Team reached the semi final of the Schools Cup losing narrowly to the all Ireland champions.

 Two of our teams reached Northern Ireland Schools finals with the Junior Girls winning the Junior Plate and the senior team finishing runners up in the Senior Cup Final to Wallace High School.

Individually there were also excellent personal achievements including Lisa Bowman, Kyla Bowman and Gail Brown who were selected for the Northern Ireland Under 19 Squad. The Bowman sisters were then selected for the Under 19 European Championship and Kyla was also selected for the Under 17 Squad for the European Championship in Malta where Northern Ireland finished runners up.

Lisa and Kyla then went on to represent the full Northern Irish Senior Team in the European Championships and then in August they were both selected to represent the full senior squad for a 6 nations tournament in Singapore.

 A further 16 girls achieved selection onto SELB Netball Squads at Under 14, Under 15 and Under 17 age groups.

 In Girls Hockey our Under 13 Team shared the Bann Trophy.

The Under 14’s reached the quarter finals of the Schools Cup. The 2 nd eleven won their section of the McDowell Cup and

the first eleven reached the third round of the School’s Cup.

All three teams finished runners up in their respective West of Ulster Leagues.

 In Girls hockey there were also individual achievements with Paula Black chosen to play for the Ulster under 18 B Team. Jessica Richardson and Megan Sloan were selected to attend an Ulster under 16 Training Camp and Rachel Campbell was invited to attend Ulster Under 18 Training in the summer.

Cookstown High School continues to provide rugby to pupils at all age groups.

Our Under 16 Squad, captained by Ryan Hill, reached the final of the Ulster High School Bowl in February and during the summer Ryan was selected for the Ulster Youth Under 18 Rugby Squad. I would like at this point to congratulate one of our PE Staff, Mr Richard Kerr, who had the honour of officiating at the IRB Under 19 World Cup held in Northern Ireland in April.

 This past year was a very successful for our Soccer Teams; in particular the Year 9 Soccer Team who continued their unbeaten league run from first year and secured the Coleraine and District Council Title for the second year in succession.

 The Boy’s Hockey season started with the boys qualifing for the All Ireland Championships. In the McCullough Cup the boys again lost in the Semi Finals.

In the Burney Cup the boys reached the final, however they didn’t perform to their full potential and lost 3-2 to Banbridge Academy. Despite a lack of success as a team there was a great deal of individual success with Jonathan Ames, Mark Crooks and Alastair Thom being selected for the Ulster under 16 squad and then Mark and Alastair were named on the Irish Under 16 Squad. Alastair was also named as Captain of the Irish Under 16 Squad.

 At Under 18 level, David Ames, David Best, Stephen Sloan and Stuart Smyth were all selected for the Ulster and Irish Teams.

Colin Donaldson and Timothy Smyth were selected for the Ulster Under 21 Squad and then in the summer Colin and David Ames were chosen to play for the full Irish Development Squad against Portugal.

 However, without doubt the boys hockey team of the year was the Under 13 Team who won the Bannister Bowl for the first time in the school’s history. In the final the boys defeated Friends School Lisburn 4-2 having defeated Banbridge Academy 5-1 in the semi Final.

Our athletes had a busy season. During the winter our Cross Country team took part in the Lakeside cross country competition where the intermediate boys finished in fifth place. In the summer term the year 9 girls’ athletics team for reached the Ulster Final and thirty one athletes finished in the top three places in the E District Championship and in doing so qualified for the Ulster Schools Athletic Championship.

We had three gold medallists and Ulster Champions; Lorraine Burns in the Minor Girls Shot, Ryan Hill in the Intermediate Boys Discus and David Atkinson in the Intermediate Boys Javelin.

 We are immensely proud of the young people of this school.