New-Bridge Integrated College
20th Anniversary ‘Open Week’
PAST PRESENT FUTURE
See gallery for photos!
A Week-long celebration of the 20th Anniversary of New-Bridge Integrated College took place from Monday 28 September to Friday 2 October. A specially created exhibition of archive material was created and displayed in the College throughout the week.
Mr Paul Clark, UTV, officially launched our celebration and cut the ribbon during his visit on Monday 28 September 2015. Mr Clark opened the College in 1995 and returned in 1999 to open our new accommodation on the upper site.
Friends of New-Bridge held a treasure hunt on Monday evening, 28 September for our new year 8 intake. The pupils and parents viewed the exhibition prior to the treasure hunt. The parents of our two of our pupils who joined us in Year 8 were pupils themselves in 1995 so it really is a case of celebrating, past, present and future.
The exhibition was open from 10am to 2pm from Monday to Friday and we were delighted to welcome a host of past pupils, community groups and prospective pupils who visited throughout the week. The exhibition consisted of;
20 Penguin stands, one for each year with a collage of archive photographs and images spanning 20 years.
Table top displays of archive info and publicity pictures for each year.
Laptop displays of film footage
A Display of New-Bridge graduates
Friends of New-Bridge Integrated College stand
Carson Prize winners for Integration – work, displays and framed certificates
Memorabilia forwarded from past pupils, governors and those involved in the earlier years.
A non uniform ‘Colour Day’ took place on Thursday 1 October and we welcomed a very special visitor, Aslan the Dulux dog, to the College that day. A group of Year 10 students had entered the ‘Dulux Welcoming Schools competition and were ‘highly commended’ for their completion entry.
Senior Prize Night took place on Thursday evening, 1 October. We were delighted to welcome Mrs Noreen Campbell, Chief Executive Officer, NICIE ( Northern Ireland Council for Integrated Education). This year saw our best ever GCSE results in the history of the College which greatly enhanced our celebration.
On Friday afternoon we enjoyed a whole school celebration to close our ‘Open Week’. We were joined by many of our first cohort of Year 8 pupils from 1995, past and present founding teaching and non teaching staff, governors, representatives from the education board, NICIE, IEF, local community and the Minister for Education, Mr John O’Dowd. Mr Peter Agnew, first Principal, was unfortunately unable to be present but thanks to modern day technology, he spoke to guests via video link. Speeches were given by Mrs Anderson, Principal, Mr Jones, former Principal, Mrs Connolly, founding chairperson, Hilary Copeland, former Head girl and alumni representative, Mrs Ann O’Loughlin, founding teacher and the Minister for Education, John O’Dowd.
