Successful year remembered
CRAIGAVON Senior High's principal, David Mehaffey, welcomed former pupils back to the school after another successful year at prize day.
Special guests included chairman of the Southern Education and Library Board, Mrs Donnell and the board’s chief executive Mrs McClenaghan.
Acting director of the Southern Regional College, Wilbert McKee was welcomed to the occasion. Miss Marion Matchett who is the chief inspector of the Northern Ireland education and training inspectorate, was also a guest.
Mr Mehaffey said: “There is a great sense of cohesion among the schools in the Craigavon area and a desire on the part of everyone to work together for the benefit of the young people.
He went on: “First of all I want to thank everyone who has contributed to the organisation of prize day, for an enormous amount of hard work goes into preparing for an event such as this.
“I would also like to thank the staff in general for the support that they have given me throughout the year, particularly in the summer when things were difficult.
“The teachers and support staff in Craigavon Senior High School are caring and dedicated and they do a tremendous job in circumstances that are increasingly demanding.
“It is a privilege to work with them and I would like to publicly acknowledge all their efforts.”
A school’s Prize Day report provides the Principal with an opportunity to reflect on the key events of the previous school year.
Mr Mehaffey said: “Any such reflection on the last year in Craigavon Senior High School must, of necessity, begin at the end, with the tragic deaths last May and June of three of our Year 11 pupils.
Mr Mehaffey said: “I hesitate to talk about these events from a school perspective because I don’t wish to give the impression the distress experienced by the school community is on a level with the pain and loss suffered by the families themselves.
“The deaths of Wayne Brown, James Topley and Lee Walker marked the lowest point of my professional life.
“The loss of any one of these young men would have been tragedy enough.
“The loss of all three was devastating.
“And the impact of that loss was intensified by a number of additional factors that we could never have anticipated.
He continued: “As well as being caught up in what could only be described as community hysteria we also found ourselves in the full glare of the media spotlight at local, national and international level.
“All of this occurred at a time when our teachers and Year 12 pupils were trying to cope with the annual GCSE examinations.”
He went on: “That we came through the experience is a tribute to the quality of our staff and to their pastoral strengths in the face of such adversity.
“It is also a tribute to the resilience of our young people, but we did have outside support, and I want to use this platform to acknowledge the help that we received from our own school based counsellor and from the Southern Board’s critical incident response team.
“Working alongside key members of our own pastoral team they brought a calm professionalism that helped to stabilise a very volatile situation and they provided reassurance when it was most needed.
“To them, and to those members of our own staff who bore the brunt of the pressure, my heartfelt thanks.”
He said: “I want to tender to the bereaved families the sympathy of everyone at Craigavon Senior High School and the hope that they will find strength and comfort as they try to come to terms with their loss.”
Last year over 350 pupils entered 2,298 examinations with 97 per cent of them receiving a passing grade, 58 per cent of them grades A* to C.
Mr Mehaffey concluded: “All in all these are interesting times in education.
“As we grapple with the various challenges that are to come I hope that we will continue to enjoy the support of the community and all those involved with the school.”
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Weather for Lurgan
Friday 10 February 2012
Today
Light rain
Temperature: 6 C to 7 C
Wind Speed: 16 mph
Wind direction: South east
Tomorrow
Light rain
Temperature: 5 C to 8 C
Wind Speed: 10 mph
Wind direction: South
