Mr Paul Clark, UTV, made a nostalgic return visit to New-Bridge Integrated College to mark the occasion of our 20th Anniversary.
Mr Clark began his visit by officially opening our 20th Anniversary exhibition created for our ‘Open Week’ 28th September to 2 October 2015. He took time to view the archive material and plans for the future and met with staff and governors prior to addressing a full school assembly.
During the assembly Mr Clark told pupils it was his determination to succeed in life that encouraged him to undertake the necessary course to go down the route of journalism. He told pupils ‘ Do not let anyone tell you that you cannot achieve, I am proof that you can’.
Mr Clark spoke about his work as a UNICEF Ambassador where he has witnessed countries so poor, they do not have the educational excellence we are fortunate to enjoy and can at times take for granted. As part of his role, he has visited disadvantaged countries and has witnessed parents attend school on Saturday mornings with their children to avail of the education they missed out themselves, an experience he found very humbling to witness.
Mr Clark finished with some sound advice to students and told them ‘It is not the celebrities in life that you will remember as these will come and go, accolades will be forgotten and awards will tarnish, the people you will remember are the teachers who touched your lives, those who helped you in life and the lasting friendships that you form in school and keep though life’.