The twentieth West Belfast Partnership Board (WBPB) Easter School took place in St Mary’s University College from the 3rd to the 6th of April. Attending this year were almost 240 pupils, divided into twenty class groups from eleven schools, including an Irish-medium school and an integrated school. There were twenty fully qualified teachers and twenty-eight classroom assistants (including twenty-two student teachers from St Mary’s) working with the pupils. The Easter School offers additional support to Year 12 pupils at risk of not achieving the required Grade C in their GCSE mathematics and English language examinations in the summer.


Schools involved included St Dominic’s, St Louise’s, Corpus Christi, St Rose’s, St Genevieve’s, De La Salle, Christian Brothers’ School (CBS) St Mary’s Glen Road, Colaiste Feirste and Malone College.


Pupils attended classes in the College each day from 10:00 am to 3:00 pm. A thirty-minute lunch break included a hot meal and a soft drink. The classes mixed genders and combined schools, dividing students into classes by the particular examination board or the topic or theme being taught. Pupils were selected using the following criteria:

• They must be year 12 pupils who are borderline Grade C or below.
• They must attend a school or be a resident in the West Belfast Constituency.
• They have experienced barriers to their learning.
• They have had satisfactory attendance at school.

Each pupil’s regular class teacher had indicated the student’s particular areas of weakness in mathematics and/or English, so the support provided could be targeted and could be more effective. There were also opportunities on days three and four to explore examination preparation strategies and study techniques. Pupils wore casual clothes instead of school uniforms, and the atmosphere generally was more informal than in the normal school environment.


The following student ambassadors from St Mary’s worked at the 2018 school: Seaan Clancy, Sinead Logue, Seanan Hurley, Aisling Johnston, Niamh Bunting, Michael Warwick, Paula O’Neill, Catherine McColgan, Ruairi Hegarty, Claire Sheilds, Niamh Kelly, Clodagh Martin, Bronagh McGilligan, Cliona McCluskey, Eimear Donaghy, Ruairi Geehan, Maria Bateson, Rory Donnan, Caoimhe Wright, Brona MacOscar, Emmett Maginn, Aoife Jackson and graduate teachers Kathyrn Boyd and Naoimi King taught classes in Maths and English.


Ciara Quinn wrote about the Easter School at St Mary’s in the Andersonstown News.