Belfast Model
School for Girls

Once again we are lucky enough to have teamed up with the Holiday Inn, Belfast, to support our Leisure, Travel and Tourism courses. We have built on the success of last year's link and now have a 'buddy system' of mentoring in place to support our girls as they carry out their studies.

Looking forward to the next trip!

Recently, seven senior girls were invited to the Hotel to see for themselves the quality of the customer service provision offered by the staff at the Holiday Inn....and without a doubt, we were all very impressed!

The Holiday Inn's customer focused service left us speechless as we heard that if you don't happen to like your pillow, you can have it replaced - from a choice of seven types! Not to mention the breakfasts after your good night's sleep....WOW!

Rosie McCartney and Kerry Braik from the Hotel's Human Resources Department have proved to be two very good people to know. Not only are they a wealth of knowledge about the Holiday Inn, their customer service standards, the staff incentives and career development but they also have access to 'friends and family' discounts - perhaps we'll have our next visit to the Holiday Inn, New York!

We are very grateful to the Holiday Inn for providing such great support for our pupils and we are looking forward to strengthening our collaboration throughout the year.

It seems that the new-look GMS website is attracting attention from far and wide and now seems like a good time to bring onboard an online facility for past pupils to keep in touch.

The website will be used to feature the profile of a past pupil every month and if you remember a friend or if you would like your profile to be featured, you can get in touch via the Website Coordinator at lynnmckeever@emailgms.org

Ruth 2007

Our first feature is Ruth McAllister (now Ruth Reynard PhD). Ruth contacted us all the way from Illinois, USA where she is Director of Faculty at the Career Education Corporation. Ruth attended the Model from 1971-76 and was Elizabeth House Captain before she left to complete her A-Levels at the College of Business Studies. Ruth then went to QUB to study for her BA before emigrating from Belfast to Canada with her husband and children. She completed her graduate studies at the University of Toronto before moving on to the US.

Ruth would love to reconnect with some of the girls she met at school so if you remember Ruth, contact us and we will put you in touch!

Not only have the exam results for this year once again brought smiles to the faces of pupils, parents and teachers but an extraordinary amount of cheesy grins were noticed among Year 14 pupils who achieved one of the highest accolades the school has encountered in any one exam series.

Three Year 14 pupils, Nicola McTaggart, Robyn Beattie and Lynsey Harrison scored marks so high in their final ICT exams that they were placed among the top five pupils in the UK. With 1622 school pupils entered for the exams from schools across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, the Model girls have shown an outstanding aptitude for the subject and well deserve the recognition they have received.

Whilst all our achievers deserve thunderous applause, a few stand out as deserving a special mention. Stacey Dillon achieved the highest grades across all her A-Level subjects and Robyn Beattie, Lynsey Harrison, Amy Harvey and Gina Walker also achieved three Grade Bs or above.

So as the new academic year starts, the Belfast Model School for Girls is looking forward to yet another successful round of exams. Pupils can be assured that the high quality of the teaching and innovative learning methods offered at the Model will provide them with every opportunity to achieve their very, very best!

Congratulations to science teacher Mr Mercer and his lovely wife on the birth of their first child, a baby girl they have named Charis Sophia.

Sophia was born yesterday, Thursday 6 September, at 11:56am weighing a healthy 7pounds 7ounces. Mother and baby are doing very well.

We would like to wish Mr Mercer, his wife and baby Charis all the best as they start their journey as a family.

The first week in July the Developmental Mentoring Project ran a week of summer activities for year 10 and 11 students to make new friends and try new things. This included visits to the Belfast Activity Centre for outdoor teambuilding activities, and arts & crafts at Paint me, Glaze me.

Thank you to YESIP who fund this project and who made this great week possible!