Belfast Boys Model School

Mr. Keith's opening lines.... "Why should you choose this school? When you are deciding where your son should go, what exactly are you looking for? I have 3 sons and if I ask myself that question – I suppose I would come up with: good teaching and discipline, excellent facilities, academic success, a wide variety of sports and activities, it should be a caring school, one in which my son will be safe and above all happy. I feel that this school provides all of these and many more."

He continues "You may be aware of falling school rolls and how they are leading to closures and amalgamations. This school is very stable. We have just celebrated our 150th anniversary with a gala dinner at the Europa Hotel and in a short time, we will be opening a brand new school on this site which will mean we will be around for, at least, another 50 years but more of that later.

Quality Teaching
We are fortunate in having 72 dedicated, well qualified and committed teaching staff whose quality has been repeatedly demonstrated in the results achieved, in the breadth of extra curricular activities undertaken and in their concern for the boys as individuals.

The Model has a long tradition of academic success and all boys who leave the school do so with externally validated certification, irrespective of their ability. Here all boys are of equal significance and entitled to the same quality of curriculum, resource provision and teacher effort. The vast majority of our boys sit and achieve success in the G.C.S.E. examination.

A/S & Advanced LEVEL
Most boys return to school after Year 12 to study advanced courses. We run a consortium with the Girls' Model to enable tremendous breadth of choice, offering as many as 27 different subjects at Advanced level. We achieve tremendous success at this level. Many of our boys proceed to University where they achieve doctorates and honours degrees. We have very close links with the University of Ulster and Queens which ensures a smooth transition from school to University.

The school takes great pride in the opportunities given to pupils to achieve success, pleasure and recognition through extra curricular activities. A wide variety of clubs and societies run outside normal school hours to cater for an extensive range of interests. The Academic Year 2007/2008 was again one of tremendous success in terms of pupil achievement.

SOCCER
Soccer is probably the strongest sport in the school and we are recognised as one of the top soccer schools in the country. The school teams are invariably successful – U16 team were the Belfast Cup winners and U13 team won the Belfast League.
07/08 saw a number of individual honours. Belfast Schools selected Jamie Mitchell - at U13 level - whilst the U16s were represented by William Crossett, Marcus Kane, Ross Cowan and Gareth Sheridan. Kirk Millar played for Belfast Schools U18.

JUDO
Mark Bennett is currently Runner up in Northern Ireland Schools, has been the Lisburn Cup winner for the last two years and the Northern Ireland U14 Champion.

Rugby
We are the only non-grammar school ever to win the Ulster School’s Cup.

Cricket
We are the only non grammar school to produce an Irish Schools Cricket Captain - David Menaul.

Skiing
Every year boys learn to ski on the dry slopes and follow this up with a ski trip to Europe or America. This year the boys will be visiting the French Alps.

ARCHERY
Nathan Lemon was the U18 Field British Longbow Champion, NI Indoor, Outdoor and Field Champion, and U16 Champion for the last 3 years. He holds at least 7 NI Records and 7 British Records.

BOXING
3 pupils have been very successful. Ross Irvine – Runner up in Co Antrim Championships. T J Waite – Co Antrim Champion/Ulster Champion and All Ireland Runner up. Derek Potter – Co Antrim Champion/Ulster Champion and All Ireland Champion – America.

It is not all about Sport – in total we have THIRTY CLUBS AND SOCIETIES. Every year we add new clubs to our list last year we formed a Pet Club which has been the most phenomenal success – boys have gone horse riding, and we have had falcons, owls, bats and reptiles brought into school.

MUSIC and DRAMA
We have African drummers, a samba band, a rock band, boys are taught to play drums, brass instruments, flutes and DJing We also have a very committed Drama group within the school, who will be putting on a production of ‘Oliver’ in January.

The school achieved the prestigious INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL AWARD for its work in Europe and further afield. Boys have visited Lithuania, Poland, Germany, Latvia, Holland, Hungary, Belgium France, South Africa, China, America, Finland, Denmark, Bulgaria, Italy and Israel.

In my whole time at school the farthest I travelled was in a rugby trip to Dublin. We offer our boys incredible opportunities, not only to visit places but to meet and discuss with very influential people. One of our pupils met United Nations General Secretary Coife Annan, Nelson Mandella, spoke at the Northern Ireland Assembly, the Welsh Assembly, the United Nations and to the parliament in Switzerland on the rights of young people. These are the types of opportunities we offer you son. I’d like to show you a recent opportunity where our boys worked as journalists and interviewed two local politicians in what turned out to be a momentous week.

EDUCATION FOR MUTUAL UNDERSTANDING
Each year boys participate in projects and trips with many other schools in the province and further afield. Last year probably the most exciting adventure was an all expenses paid trip for our boys to take part in a hurling competition in America. They visited New York, Washington and Philadelphia, returning home as the Inter continental Hurling Champions.

Full Service Extended Schools
In 2006 we were chosen to pilot a new programme in partnership with the Belfast Model School for Girls. The intention is to offer more services and opportunities for pupils, their families and all members of the community. This Full Service School programme offers activities before, during and after school, as well as throughout the holiday periods, with the overall aim that all our pupils have access to the support and guidance needed to reach their full potential. If you would like any further information on this, Mr Smith, our coordinator, is available in the Dining Centre.

Relationships - We pride ourselves on being a caring school which works closely with parents. When your son has been accepted into the school, you will be invited in to find out exactly what he will be studying and what will be expected of him. Your son will be under the guidance of a form teacher and two important people - The Counsellor – Mrs Glenn - who will care for your son’s welfare and deal with any problems he may experience and Mr Bridges - the Head of Junior School, maintains discipline, monitors progress, attendance and punctuality and has overall responsibility for academic standards. They will be working extremely hard to ensure that the transition from primary to secondary is as smooth and enjoyable as possible.

I believe Belfast Boys’ Model School offers quality teaching and learning, a disciplined environment and the opportunity to achieve success in the academic and sporting field. We have caring relationships and high quality facilities and resources.

We are fortunate that we are about to have a brand new school, built on this site at a cost of around £25 million. This should provide your sons with the best and most modern facilities available, unequalled by any other school in the United Kingdom. Recently we had a Stone Laying Ceremony conducted by former pupil Sir Nigel Hamilton ex Head of NI Civil Service in charge of 62,000 people.

Your son will only have this educational opportunity once in his lifetime. For this reason, in the Belfast Boys’ Model, we provide our pupils with the highest quality facilities, resources, relationships and teaching.

Check out the photos in the Gallery.