Category: Stranmillis News

Stranmillis student Samuel Curry is off to study in the USA this month.

He will be among 54 students from across Northern Ireland on British Council’s prestigious Study USA programme, which enables students to study business or STEM subjects for a year in American colleges, across 34 States, helping to develop their career prospects when they return to Northern Ireland.

The 20-year-old is a former student of Rainey Endowed Grammar School in Magherafelt. Instead of entering Year 3 of his BEd degree in Teacher Education (Primary) at Stranmillis, Sam will spend his year at the University of Indianapolis.

Sam is excited to be part of the programme. He said: “I decided to take part in Study USA as the skills and leadership qualities acquired from studying business will help develop desirable managerial and leadership qualities, which I can then put to good use in schools in years to come. I am most excited about meeting new people, learning about a different culture and getting involved in a local church. I just cannot wait to get started.”

The British Council, which is the UK’s international organisation for educational opportunities and cultural relations, manages Study USA on behalf of the Department for the Economy. Since its formation in 1994, the initiative has sent over 2000 students from Northern Ireland to all four corners of the United States where they have successfully completed a year studying.

Also speaking about the programme was Jonathan Stewart, Director, British Council Northern Ireland, who said: “I am confident that the students departing for the US this year will be great ambassadors for Northern Ireland and will help to further important long-term links and connections between the two countries. Through Study USA, students will have the opportunity to not only enhance their employability skills but also develop intercultural skills, which will help them to prepare to work in a global economy. We wish them every success, and trust that new connections and friendships will be developed in the year ahead.”

Study USA is just one of many international opportunities available through British Council Northern Ireland. For more information visit http://nireland.britishcouncil.org , email opportunity@britishcouncil.org or follow on Twitter BCouncil_NI or Facebook.

Applications for Study USA 2020/21 will open in late Autumn.

This year we were delighted again to welcome three sixth form students from Tor Bank Special School to Stranmillis. Each Tuesday morning Kirsty, Lewis and Reuben gained valuable skills and made many friends, accompanied and supported by Mrs Mary Hull from Tor Bank.

Kirsty worked with Kate and Yvonne serving customers in Betty’s coffee shop; Lewis helped deliver the mail and arrange classroom furniture as part of the portering team with Darren, William and James; and Reuben became part of the gardening team working closely with Niall.

All three students really enjoyed their time working at Stranmillis and quickly became part of the Stran community. Several members of College staff were delighted to be able to attend the school’s end of year leaving celebration.

Dr Noel Purdy, who arranges the work experience each year, commented, “Again this year we would like to thank our three wonderful students from Tor Bank – Kirsty, Lewis and Reuben – for all their hard work. We greatly value our partnership with Tor Bank and wish them every success in the future.”

Andrea Magee graduated in 2011 with a BEd (Primary) degree. Below she looks back at her time at Stran, she explains how her teaching career has taken her from Belfast to Finland and to Switzerland, and she flags up an up-coming conference in Athens.

‘I always wanted to be a teacher – when I was very young I used to line up my teddy bears and ‘teach’ them on my toy blackboard! I used to tell them to be quiet! I loved school as a child and I loved learning, so it seemed like a natural progression for me to become a teacher, and I was over the moon when I got into Stranmillis.

Little did I know at the time that my goal to become a teacher wasn’t ‘achieved’ as such – the journey had only just begun. To become a teacher is a never-ending journey. As I remember being told at Stranmillis, as teachers we are the ultimate role models as lifelong learners. In order to enable learning to take place, we need to lead by example and remain open and curious to new learning opportunities ourselves.

My favourite memories from Stranmillis were those courses and modules which I chose for myself, through which I felt fundamental joy as a learner. I rarely thought of myself as a teacher when I was training at Stranmillis, but now I see how it shaped me to become the teacher and learner that I am today.

Stranmillis opened unimaginable doors that ended up shaping my career in ways I could never have dreamed of! During my third year, I spent an Erasmus exchange semester in Turku, Finland, with the help of the wonderful staff from the College’s International Office. It was a requirement to write a blog at the time, detailing my personal and professional development. II found this a lot of hard work, but in the end I found it so rewarding and fulfilling to have that blog to look back on that I’ve written several other blogs since!

That Erasmus semester completely changed my life. After graduating from Stranmillis, I returned to Finland where I studied for my Master’s in ‘Learning, Learning Environments and Educational Systems’. I met my now husband during my exchange; he is Swiss, and that’s what eventually led me to move to Switzerland, where I now teach. I teach in a bilingual international school in Zug, Switzerland. The children in my 2nd Grade class are 7-8 years old, and I also have the role of ‘Support Intervention Coordinator, through which I support children from 1st to 6th grade (aged 6-12).

In my spare time, I have recently co-founded a non-profit organization with other educator friends working abroad called ‘Embrace Joy in Education’ (emJoy education). We organise events through which we aim to bring teachers together and create a community of support and inspiration that will lead to joyful learning for all.

I host a monthly meet-up in Switzerland called the ‘edupat exchange’, when teachers and anyone passionate about education can meet, discuss and exchange ideas at the local library. We also have emJoy seminars in Helsinki and our biggest event coming up is a conference in Athens in October called the ‘Joyful Festival of Education’.

Staff from the BA (Hons) Early Childhood Studies [ECS] degree at Stranmillis held a farewell tea party for their final year tutorial group students who are about to graduate in July.

The tea party marked the end of their three years of full-time study; both staff and students enjoyed the opportunity to chat, reminisce and hear about future plans for the following year from the students.

In Year 1, ECS students at Stranmillis are allocated a Professional Development [PDP] tutor and are assigned to a tutor group for the duration of their course. They get the opportunity to meet in these small groups on four occasions each year to discuss their professional development. This PDP Tutor also visits and monitors them throughout their extensive placement activities, supporting their development as Level VI graduate practitioners. PDP tutors encourage the members of their tutor group to undertake the University College’s extensive programme of ‘degree enhancement’ activities which broaden and extend their knowledge and skills, over and above their degree content. The process ensures that graduating cohorts are ready for the next stage in their careers as they engage in postgraduate study, or enter the world of work in early childhood education and care.

The ECS team wish the ‘Class of 2019’ all the very best in their future careers and hope they will keep in contact with Stranmillis as they explore where their ECS degree will take them!