Three Visitors

It was great to see Katie Dalton back with us for a couple of days. Katie has returned to live in England and is capitalising on her excellent GCSE results from Shimna as she follows through with her A level courses at her new school. On her last day, Neil McKay and Sean Smith called in to tell us how they are getting on with their plumbing course and placements. All three look great, and it was great to catch up with their news.

Rebecca and Paul Take Over

Today's the day that Old Scholars Rebecca Murphy and Paul Swail take over the running of our Duke of Edinburgh's'President's Award group. In the year of Naebh Dunn collects Gold, it's great to see things turn full circle.

for Fear of Leaving Anyone Out

The formal is the best event of the year for catching up with the gossip, and this year there were so many people their with stories to tell that I would be too scared of leaving anyone out if I started naming names. There is an amazing range of careers and lives and families and children going on out there. Clare Murphy is working hard on our new Webalumnus site, which will be linked into our main website. It is a really sophisticated site for keeping everyone who ever went to Shimna in touch with us and with everyone else who went there. More news as soon as it's ready. I really hope that we keep up the tradition of the formals of staying in touch with everyone, whatever they decide to do in life.

Ryan Loves Liverpool

Ryan O'Hare is loving his course in Business Studies and Computing at Liverpool Hope. I am mad with envy. I had one year of postgraduate work at university in Liverpool, and loved it too.

Sean's Joinery Success

Sean Delaney called up to pay for his formal tickets, looking healthy and happy, and more than half way through his training as a joiner.

Laura joins Iberia

Hot off the press comes news that Laura O'Hare has just secured a job for herself with Iberia airline, teaching languages to their staff. It sounds like a fantastic opportunity. Free flights for relatives? friends? ex-teachers?

Rebecca Back from Texas

Rebecca Cunnningham paid a state visit this week to meet our A level biology students to tell them about her fantastic year of study in Texas. She returns to Queen's University this year to complete her degree in biomedical science. Potential plans include returning to Texas, which she loved, to work for a PhD. It was great to see her, and her infectious enthusiasm will inspire our current crop of A level biology students.