One of the buzzwords in school at the moment is careers. Our Year 11 pupils recently had the benefit of a special series of careers events planned for all day one Friday in June. 

The school welcomed visitors from the worlds of business, hospitality and even the Armed Services! Naval Officer Nigel Kane provided some very enjoyable team building activities.

Lots of advice was passed on by those in the know. This emphasis on the future is especially important in the current economic climate, with job prospects remaining on the challenging side. Let’s just say that our pupils can never get enough advice, help and support from those inside and outside school about their future careers.

Our thanks go to our visitors for the day, with personnel and topics including:

Bombardier

Knex

The World of Work

Engineering

The Bayview Hotel

The NI Fire & Rescue Service

Land Administration

Hairdressing

The Royal Navy

Food Technology

Two very lucky groups were treated to a comprehensive tour of the Bayview Hotel in Portballintrae. The sea view from their best rooms is stunning. Our prospective workers in the local hospitality industry were left in no doubt as to the opportunities and challenges that exist in the hotel world. 

They are pictured here with owner (and former pupil) Trevor Kane. Now there’s a success story to inspire any budding entrepreneur!

 

 

 

    

On Wednesday 9 March Dunluce School Science Department was delighted to welcome the Royal Navy STEM Presentation Team.  Warrant Officer Nigel Kane, accompanied by his team of three naval personnel, engaged the Year 10 group with a series of exciting challenges in Science, Engineering and Mathematics as well as Communication and Teamwork tasks.  These consisted of working out the logistics of re-supplying a hurricane-stricken island with food and water by helicopter with the team, having made its calculations and decisions, actually “flying” in the supplies by Radio Controlled Helicopter!  The teams were shown a working model of the gas turbine engine which powers modern naval ships.  They then had to design and construct a replacement turbine to make the engine more fuel efficient, before fitting their actual turbine to the engine and measuring its effect.  Pupils had then to find out facts about modern ships and helicopters then learn Morse Code to “flash” the information to the opposing teams in a simulation of how to communicate secretly and efficiently over long distances.

This was a wonderful experience for the pupils, giving them a chance to see how the hard work they do in the classroom actually transfers to real life situations and the pupils gained valuable experience and leadership skills.  

Dunluce School is very grateful to the Royal Navy for bringing this project to the school.

STEM, or the Science Technology Education and Mathematics initiative is a major new Government programme which will help fund schools to provide the acquisition of skills in these areas to provide a skilled and motivated workforce for the increasingly technological world in which we live.