Drumglass High School Senior Prize Giving

Mrs Shilliday, Acting Principal, welcomed parents, guardians, family, friends, teachers, pupils, guest speaker Mr Andrew Milne and especially to last year’s Senior pupils who sat public examinations at Drumglass High School.  She continued “It is such a privilege to stand before you as Acting Principal and to join you in celebrating the success achieved by our senior pupils in External Examinations and other achievements during the academic year 2010 and 2011.

There is a German proverb that states “to aim is not enough, you must hit!” Well our results at Drumglass High School clearly show that the pupils here know how to hit the target.  Let me give you some of the statistics of which we are so proud: Almost 60% of our year 14 group left with 3 or more A levels, almost 70% achieved 2 or more A Levels and this enabled many of them to continue their education in various further and higher institutions such as South West College, Southern Regional College, Queen’s University Belfast, University of Ulster, CAFRE and Glasgow Caledonian.  Last year 69 pupils sat GCSE exams in year 12 and 60% achieved 7 or more grades A*-C, 76% achieved 5 or more GCSEs grades A*-c, 97% achieved 5 or more GCSEs Grades A*-G and 100% achieved at least one GCSE grade.

Lee Lacocca said “Apply Yourself.  Get all the education you can, ….” The staff at Drumglass High School work extremely hard with all of our pupils to enable them not only to develop academically but also to grow and develop into mature young men and women.  They aim to develop all the skills and qualities in each individual so that when they leave Drumglass High School, they will be able to lead happy, healthy and fulfilled lives.” 

“Most of our leavers have gone on to secure places in either Sixth Form here at Drumglass High School or in other schools or at our local colleges of Further and Higher Education depending on the individual pupil’s interests and career aspirations.  However, even with the exceptional success achieved a few leavers have yet to find places in either education or employment and I believe that this is a reflection of the difficult economic situation we all find ourselves at the present time.  It must be acknowledged that the unemployment levels for young people are increasing and that many young people are having to take part time work just to enable themselves to get a foothold in an increasingly competitive job market.  However, this situation will not last forever and all our young pupils must not be downhearted, they need to prepare themselves for the next step in their lives and careers and be ready to face whatever challenges come their way and education is a valuable commodity and a passport to a brighter future.

We will be giving trophies and awards for a wide range of skills, subjects and attainments.  It is an opportunity for us all to recognise and celebrate the success of our pupils and all the hard work which has gone on by the pupils, their teachers and their families during the stressful time before and during the examinations.  We have a plethora of wonderfully talented young people in our school and their talents have been developed in a wide range of subjects and through musical and sporting events.  However, one of the highlights of last year was the multicultural day hosted here and organised by Mrs McKillion and the EAL team in conjunction with the Dungannon Borough Council.  This event displayed the wide range of interests and cultures living and flourishing in the Dungannon area.  It was great to see and acknowledge how other cultures, food, dance, music and language are enriching and impacting on our local community and our school.

Christopher Morley said “there are three ingredients in the good life: learning, earning and yearning.” Learning is now a lifelong venture, we all learn every day and we need to challenge ourselves in our personal and professional lives to learn new skills and even to gain new qualifications in order to stay up-to-date and competitive.  We all need to earn money in order to have the material things that we all need. Finally we all have yearnings – yearnings to travel, to try new things and to seek out new adventures.”

Mr McConnell, the head of Year 12, spoke of the efforts of numerous pupils and their development as young maturing adults throughout their school careers, praising not only their academic performances, but exemplifying the contributions that they have each made in the school community.

The Guest Speaker,  Andrew Milne of SPC Manager of Semperian, Falkirk, outlined the pathway to his current position, as Landlord of Drumglass High School.  During his school years, Andrew availed of guidance from his school’s Careers Advice Service, undertaking an apprenticeship at the age of 17 in the Construction Industry.  It was through this apprenticeship with a construction company, Andrew started on the path to becoming a chartered surveyor.

Andrew continued “I was lucky enough to be taken on as a Trainee Quantity Surveyor; I didn’t actually know what that was when I went for the interview but they said they would pay me, put me through a part time degree and give me a company car when I completed the course. I must admit I didn’t really concentrate on the parts about hard work and application, I just heard “free car.” However after what seemed like an eternity I graduated and went on to my Chartered exams, my employer did indeed provide the car and even paid me, I had entered the world of grown up working”

Andrew further stated “it’s worth taking time to plan out a career path and set some goals for yourself”, exemplifying the work and career pathways of pupils in Drumglass High School.

Having reflected on his own career, Andrew eventually got involved in facilities management, which is essentially looking after buildings and the services which go with them. In his own words, “My job now is really as a kind of corporate landlord and I work for a company which funds, builds, maintains and operates schools and hospitals, hence how I come to stand before you today. Drumglass High school is one of those schools which was funded by the private sector under the Private Finance Initiative and is leased back to the public sector.

Andrew stated

“One of the interesting things for me with this role is that it didn’t exist when I left school. At that time the political drive to implement a new way of funding public projects hadn’t been instigated. Its old news now and indeed is being replaced by other initiatives, however its interesting to consider that many pupils of this school will find themselves working in areas that aren’t yet evident. As an example when I was at school pupils with decent grades were generally streamed into language classes whereas those struggling in these areas were sent to computing class. Nowadays that would seem crazy as we have a huge IT industry and those of us that can order a beer in France are probably employed by the kids which went on to become dot com millionaires. So keep an eye on the future.”

Continuing in a dulcet Scottish tone, “It’s a great privilege to have been asked to present this year’s prizes and usually a speaker is asked to give an inspirational speech to motivate pupils to go on to greater achievements. I’m not going to do that, instead I’m going to thank you for inspiring me to work harder to make sure you have a decent facility to be educated in. I see a lot of schools and believe this is a first class environment, your teachers are working hard for you and its worth considering that friendships and lessons learned here will stay with you for life.

For those of you receiving prizes today well done and congratulations, you’re parents are very proud of you, trust me!”

In closing Andrew stated “In my opinion if you don’t try things you’ll never know if you’re any good at them, so try your hardest at everything and take advantage of all the opportunities your school days have to offer, don’t be too quick to give up!”