Icing on the Cake
‘Learning from Each Other’ – since 1994
Shimna was founded to provide an education which would be Integrated, academically excellent, all-ability, student centred and parent friendly, and those are the terms on which we evaluated how our school was developing. Along the way, we made use of award schemes to triangulate our self-assessments, and sometimes awards just came our way!
The first of our awards celebrating Integration was the Frank Kerr Award. The Award was established in memory of Frank Kerr, Newry postal worker who was murdered just months after Shimna had opened on the first day of the IRA ceasefire in 1994. The first recipients of the Award were the parents who founded Shimna. Subsequent recipients have been Mo Mowlam MP and Senator George Mitchell. Another early award was the Baha’i Award for the Elimination of Prejudice, which was particularly welcome, coming from a local community beyond our two traditional Northern Ireland communities. The award which marked our continuing journey as an Integrating school was the Excellence in Integrated Education Award, which comprises a dynamic process of addressing every aspect of Integration in consultation with students, staff, parents and governors. We were particularly proud to win our EIEA alongside All Children’s Integrated Primary School.
It is a truism and also true that parents in Northern Ireland want an Integrated education for their children, but only if that education is also an excellent education. As the years progressed, we amassed evidence that our model of Integration produces academic excellence. Our students have come first in Northern Ireland in A level mathematics, in GCSE German, third in the UK in A level German; our students topped the GCSE attainment tables for the South Eastern Board in our first year of public examinations, and our grades have only continued to improve ever since. However, our aim has always been for academic excellence for all our students in an all-ability school, and we are equally proud of the awards we have garnered which reflect the effort and attainment of everyone: in English, our students have won the Collodi Foundation European Prize for Poetry and two awards for inspired learning from the Pushkin Trust; our students of Irish have won the Father O’Mhuirigh Cup; in sport we have our IFA School Quality Mark; we have won Dermot Curran Awards both for Business and Enterprise and for Culture and Citizenship; our drama, art and moving image arts students have won Carson bursaries and the overall Carson Award.
Our students regularly achieve the highest awards in the UK Mathematics Challenge and the Science Olympiads. Shannon won Equine Studies Student of the Year, and Chimene and Jamie both won awards as trop trainee with Hugh J. O’Boyle. Aidan won an All Ireland JP McManus scholarship for his outstanding results at A level.
In 2006, Shimna became one of the first twelve Specialist Schools in Northern Ireland. Shimna was the first school in Northern Ireland with a specialism in languages and, significantly, in the international dimension, which opened up the inclusion of achievement across the curriculum.
We developed our Specialist work to achieve the International School Award across three successive three year cycles, featuring work across all our subject departments, and including our sixteen feeder primary partner schools. Our continued commitment to the role of languages in inspiring academic achievement across all abilities has been rewarded with PASCH Schule status, bringing outstanding work experience and sporting opportunities for our students, a class set of iPads and robotics equipment and training for our students and staff. We were presented with a crystal trophy from Dissolving Boundaries for our work in partnership with Holy Family School for the Deaf, Cabra.
Academic excellence in an all-ability context means outstanding staff, and our succession of awards proves it; Kevin Lambe won Northern Ireland Principal of the Year; Chris Skillen won a Farmington Scholarship; Noreen Doran won a Fulbright Scholarship; Alan McDonnell won a distinction in the Teacher of the Year awards; Grace Susay won NICIE Teacher of the Year; Alicia Rooney won NICIE Support Staff member of the Year; Joan McAllister won a distinction in the Classroom Assistant of the Year awards; Ian McMillan won Down District Council Teacher of the Year; John McCloskey won the Association for Citizenship UK Teacher of the Year Award.
And of course excellent staff work with the support of excellence in governance, and our chair of governors Billy Burnison won the NICIE Governor of the Year Award.
Student centredness has been at the core of the school, and individual and collective awards have vindicated our approach. An example of individual achievement was Jonathan Redmond’s Deutsche Bank Spotlight Award and a number of our students have achieved Diana Awards, for example Michael McConkey whose award was presented by Chief Constable Hugh Orde and Baroness May Blood. Collectively, our students also won a wholeschool Diana Anti-Bullying Award and a Diana Award for Volunteering. Maya Ballentine won a Diana Legacy Award, one of only twenty presented to young people across the world for their activism and achievement. Shannon Havern won a Signature Award for Sign Language.
Our students, particularly those in our Amnesty group, received the Marsh Award for Student Activism. The central role played by our Student Council was rewarded with a Westminster Speaker’s School Council Award. Three of our students have been elected to the UK Youth Parliament, Ryan Cairns and Lauren Sloan represented South Down and Natasha Manganaro represented the Strangford constituency. The commitment of all our students to the democratic process was recognised with a Sliver Democracy Award.
Shimna was founded by parents within our local community and the contribution of parents has never wavered. Shimna has achieved Investors in People status three times across three year cycles. The process involves continuous and detailed reflection and self-evaluation of every aspect of how the school is run, and parent feedback has been crucial on every occasion. Our Specialist Schools programme across the community led to Shimna becoming the first school in Northern Ireland to be presented with a TES Award for Outstanding Community Partnership.
Shimna opened in Murlough House, part of the Murlough National Nature Reserve, and our students and staff brought their environmental inspiration with them to the Lawnfield site. Students, staff, parents, governors and community partners have contributed to tree planting for which we have received the Woodland Trust Green School Gold Award. Our students’ commitment to litter picking won an Adopt a Spot Award, and the work of our horticulture students won the full set of Royal Horticultural Society awards right up to the Five Star Award. All our environmental work came together to win us the Eco School Silver Award.
The spirit of an Integrated, academically excellent, all-ability, student centred and parent led ethos has also been reflected in our commitment in the many other aspects of school life. One example has been our commitment to Fair Trade. Shimna has achieved the FairAware, the FairActive and the FairAchiever Awards, which are won through participation across all departments of the school, and through involvement with parents and the community.
A particular contribution of parents in the early days, starting with Audrey Briggs, and continued by RoseMarie Cunningham and Ellen McVea, was in supporting our homework club and evening study. The success of our study support led to Shimna being awarded an Education Extra Award in five consecutive years and a Prince’s Trust Study Support Award.
Awards are wonderful to receive, both the ones the whole community pulled together to achieve and the ones for which we were nominated by others. But they will always be the extras, the icing on the cake. The real reward is the ethos that has been built together by students, staff, parents and governors. Ethos is a dynamic and pro-active process which never ends, and which powers the life of the school, keeping it Integrated, academically excellent, all-ability, student centred and parent friendly.
