In support of Stranmillis University College’s Eco Campus initiative, the College’s Estates team were recently involved in planting 24 new oak and beech trees around the campus as part of the College’s felling and restocking programme to improve the health, structure and diversity of campus woodland.
The Gardening Team maintain the campus grounds to a very high standard and we all look forward to watching and helping these trees grow over the coming years.
Pictured from left to right are Niall Kielt, Gerard Lamb, Philip Gallagher and Michael Gray from the team.
Peter Weil facilitates an unforgettable night in the Drama Theatre, Thursday 18th December 2019 with Gary Lightbody and friends. The latest in our An Audience with … series, Gary was joined on stage by his former teacher, Mark McKee, who Gary describes as one of the big influences on his career, who ‘introduced’ him to Seamus Heaney and Van Morrison; John D‘Arcy from the Lightbody Foundation and Charlotte Dryden from The Oh Yeah Centre, two of the charities Gary set up and supports; and young rising star, 14 year old Conor Marcus, an Oh Yeah protege who made it to the semi-finals of The Voice Kids.
Peter and Gary discussed Gary’s interest and commitment to education and transforming the lives of young people. An inspiring and enlightening evening was topped by captivating performances by Gary and Conor, including Gary performing ‘I think of home’ which was inspired by Seamus Heaney’s writing. And after two hours on stage answering questions, Gary didn’t disappoint his fans, staying on for another hour and half, meeting and talking to fans who had come from as far as Australia, Dublin, London and Birmingham to hear him speak!
Year 1 Primary BEd students whose Area of Specialism is WAU Geography/History have been spending some time out and about looking at outdoor learning activities.
The focus of their specialism module is outdoor learning/ learning outside the classroom (LOtC); rather than do all of this inside a Central Building classroom, it was important to see and do some of this outside!
As well as taking part in activities on our wonderful College campus with P5 pupils from Stranmillis Primary School involving an ‘Autumn Walk’ and then a ‘Winter Walk’ and three visits to the school for classroom follow-up work (previously reported in Web News), the students have had two very different trips out to see primary school outdoor learning in action.
Clandeboye Estate in Bangor is the base for the HQ of the Northern Ireland Forest School Association (NIFSA), and the students and lecturer Dr Richard Greenwood were invited to take part in a Forest School activity morning with P1 and P2 pupils from Silverstream Primary School in Carrickfergus, their classroom assistants and their teachers, both former Stran students, Claire Cranston and Jancis Logue.
Ably led by Forest School leader Richard McMeekin and his colleagues, the pupils enthusiastically took part in pretending to be birds finding ‘worms’ (small lengths of different colours of wool) to learn about good colours for camouflage; they then worked in groups to make little animal shelters from the natural materials in Clandeboye’s wonderful Forest School area. Finally, after some free play time in the forest, marshmallows were toasted (some got rather burnt!) over a campfire and sandwiched between chocolate digestives to make ‘smores’. Thanks to Richard M and Brian Poots from NIFSA at Clandeyoye, and also thanks to Silverstream PS staff and pupils for allowing us to join in their fun and see the great learning which was going on!
In the same week the Year 1 students went to Lough View Integrated PS in the Castlereagh Hills to see the wonderful outdoor learning work that goes on there. We were warmly welcomed by principal Mr Sean Spillane and shown round the various outdoor learning areas and activities by teachers Sara Cartwright and Claire Beckett and pupils Isla and Killian. The teachers’ enthusiasm for all things outdoor learning shone through as they walked us round play areas with willow shelters, a pond, allotments, a nature trail and a poly-tunnel where lots of plants are grown and sold, all with spectacular views over Belfast, even on a murky November afternoon! Killian and Isla spoke enthusiastically and knowledgeably about all of these outdoor activities, the things that can be done there and the plants and animals that inhabit them. The students were greatly impressed! We also got to listen in on a ‘Nature Detectives’ activity, led by Mr Stevenson, a teacher who recently retired but comes back in to lead this club! The wonderful outdoor learning provision at Lough View is largely down to his hard work and leadership over many years.
The students laughed and agreed heartily when it was suggested that they would all love to do their School Based Work at Lough View!!
To see some photos of Lough View’s outdoor learning areas, go to:
Top: Forest School fun; Bottom: Lough View IPS teachers Sara Cartwright and Claire Beckett with P6 pupils Isla and Killian.
Top: Year 1 Geog/Hist students exploring the campus; bottom: with Silverstream PS P1 and 2 pupils doing ‘Forest School’ on Clandeboye Estate.
As part of the Stranmillis Eco Campus Initiative a group of the committee members recently visited the RiverRidge waste processing centre in Portadown.
The centre processes some of the general waste from the Stranmillis campus along with the waste of a number of other clients including local councils. The dry mixed recyclable waste generated on campus is taken to the RiverRidge facility in Garvagh.
During an informative tour the committee were shown the processes through which metals and other materials such as plastics and cardboard with recycle value were removed from the waste with the residual material being shredded and blended to make industrial fuel, known as ‘refuse-derived fuel (RDF). The RDF is used in a gasification power station in Belfast which supplies electricity to the Bombardier aerospace factory. The ash which is produced after the fuel has been burnt can be used as aggregate for road works.
Food waste from the Stranmillis kitchens is currently collected separately, also by RiverRidge and composted, while the College’s garden waste is composted here on campus.
The combination of the waste recycling and RDF generation means that currently no waste from Stranmillis goes to landfill!
Nul, Nolla, Null, Noll? In recognition of our current International Students, these words are Danish, Finish, German and Spanish for Zero!
Danielle Hanna from the Academic Office has completed a professional qualification through distance learning.
She started the qualification in January of this year and completed all ten modules by October. The areas covered included records management, written communication and software. She has been awarded a ‘Diploma of Executive Secretarial’ from the International Career Institute and achieved outstanding results across the board. The skills acquired will be very beneficial to her in her current role within the College.
From left: Dr William Kitchen, Dr Noel Purdy, Denise Elliott, Dr Benda McKay-Redmond, Dr Barbara McConnell
Five members of Stranmillis staff attended the 17th annual SCoTENS conference held on 17-18 October 2019 in the beautiful surroundings of the Slieve Russell Hotel, Ballyconnell, County Cavan.
This year’s theme was “Leadership Across Boundaries: Challenges for Educators and Teacher Educators”, a theme which resonated with delegates given the pressures and challenges resulting from the widening diversity of student needs, increasing accountability, performance management, reducing budgets and a prescriptive policy context.
Almost 100 delegates attended from all over the island of Ireland, and were welcomed by Dr Noel Purdy (Stranmillis University College – northern co-chair) and by Mr Ian McKenna, International Cooperation Section, Department of Education and Skills (funding department) who commended the outstanding work of SCoTENS.
There were two outstanding keynote addresses: by Professor Marilyn Cochran-Smith, Cawthorne Professor of Teacher Education for Urban Schools, Boston College; and by Professor Paul Miller, Head of the School of Education and Professor of Educational Leadership and Social Justice, University of Greenwich.
This year for the first time there were also research presentations following a ‘call for papers’. This attracted a wide range of insightful presentations by researchers from north and south of the border, leading to stimulating questions and discussions.
The conference also featured the third annual doctoral roundtable where ten doctoral students were given an opportunity to present their ongoing research work and receive informal feedback from their peers and SCoTENS committee members.
On Thursday evening Professor Cochran-Smith launched a newly published book on ‘Teacher Preparation in Northern Ireland: History, Policy and Future Directions’ authored by Dr Sean Farren (UU), Professor Linda Clarke (UU) and Dr Teresa O’Doherty (Marino Institute of Education). This was followed by the presentation of this year’s John Coolahan Award by Professor Miller to Lorraine Harbison (DCU) and Shauna McGill (UU) for their seed funded report on ‘Universal Design for Learning as a Context for Embedding technology in Primary School Mathematics’. At the close of the conference dinner, Mr Andy Pollak, founding Director of the Centre for Cross Border Studies, launched the 2018 SCoTENS Annual Report.
The final session of the conference was a Panel Discussion chaired by Dr Conor Galvin featuring both keynote speakers as well as invited guests: Sam Gallaher (Chief Executive of the GTCNI), Dr Margaret O’Donovan (UCC), Lady Rosemary Salisbury (Freelance Educational and Commercial Training Consultant) and Dr Joe Moynihan (UCC).
In his closing remarks, Dr Noel Purdy (northern co-chair) paid tribute to outgoing southern co-chair Prof Kathy Hall (UCC) and thanked her for her dedication, professionalism and commitment during her three years in office. He announced that the incoming southern co-chair would be Dr Maria Campbell, St Angela’s College, Sligo.
For further information about the conference including photos and recordings of the main sessions, please go to the SCoTENS website www.scotens.org
To read more about the removal of funding to SCoTENS by the northern government departments, please see the BBC news article https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-50144561
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In support of Stranmillis University College’s Eco Campus initiative, the College’s Estates team were recently involved in planting 24 new oak and beech trees around the campus as part of the College’s felling and restocking programme to improve the health, structure and diversity of campus woodland. 
Year 1 Primary BEd students whose Area of Specialism is WAU Geography/History have been spending some time out and about looking at outdoor learning activities.
the students and lecturer Dr Richard Greenwood were invited to take part in a Forest School activity morning with P1 and P2 pupils from Silverstream Primary School in Carrickfergus, their classroom assistants and their teachers, both former Stran students, Claire Cranston and Jancis Logue.
