Huge congratulations to Mrs Montgomery and Miss Keays who were worthy recipients of awards at the Families First Education Awards Ceremony last Friday evening in the Titanic Centre. We are very proud of all the hard-working staff in our College, and it's very special when parents and others acknowledge these efforts.

The Technology Department took a group of 23 Year 10 and Year 11 pupils to the CITB NI Construction Careers Bootcamp on Tuesday 4^th June 2024.

The trip offered an opportunity to delve deeper into the world of construction careers. Pupils explored the diverse roles and pathways within the industry and engaged in hands-on construction job sampling activities in Joinery, Brickwork, Painting & Decorating and Wall & Floor Tiling.

OPEN EVENING

Your students and your wider school community would be very welcome to come and view our facilities, meet our tutors and chat to support services teams at the SERC Open Evening on Thursday 6 June. 

We'd be delighted to see you between 5pm and 8pm at our Bangor, Downpatrick, Lisburn and Newtownards Campuses, where you can explore our full range of full-time and part-time courses. 

Many of these courses may be of interest to parents who are looking for part-time opportunities to gain qualifications, progress their career or develop a hobby, so please share the information with your parent body if you can. 

Prospective applicants can find out more and register their interest here

All schools have been contacted recently by the National Crime Agency and Education Authority Child Protection Support Services, and encouraged to share with parents some information around the rise in reporting of financially motivated sexual extortion within the UK (a type of online blackmail often known in the media as ‘sextortion’). This type of crime involves an adult threatening to release nude or semi-nude images and/or videos of a young person, unless they meet a financial demand. Anyone, of any age or gender, can be targets, however a large portion of cases in the UK have involved male victims aged 14-18.

Parents/Guardians are encouraged to have frequent and open conversations with your child about staying safe online and the importance of using privacy settings on their accounts to restrict who can contact them.

If you are made aware this is happening to your child, the advice is:

• Don’t pay as there is no guarantee that this will stop the threats;
• Stop all communication and block the contact;
• Avoid deleting anything that could be used as evidence; and
• Report to the police by calling 101, or 999 if there is an immediate risk of harm to your child.

The following resources may be helpful:

https://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/parents/articles/a-parents-guide-to-privacy-settings

https://onlinesafetyhub.safeguardingni.org/sharing-nudes-and-semi-nudes

https://www.ceop.police.uk/Safety-Centre