Famine Friday!
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On Friday 2nd June Foyle College Junior School students participated in Famine Friday! This event saw some students voluntarily giving up a meal or two during the weekend. The purpose of this event was to have empathy with young people in Africa who very often go without food on a daily basis. We were delighted to welcome Father Miningi from Tanzania to give a talk in assembly to the students. He informed them of the hardship faced by people their age in Tanzania.
Children very often have chores to do before school, like fetching water, so are often up at 5.30 am. Once they have finished their chores they may run to school, which starts at 7.30am. rarely would the family have enough food to give them breakfast at home. In school they are entitled to a meal at school twice a week (if the school can supply the meal). In times of famine, they may return home to a very small, or no dinner at all. Every second 3.6 children die in the world due to hunger and hunger kills more people every year than TB, Malaria and AIDS combined. The event was a total success and the students raised more than £500.
Protégés of Peace Lawrenceville School
Protégés of Peace: The Northern Ireland Scholarship at the Lawrenceville School
Mr Allen congratulates Sophie, Year 14, who has been awarded one of two places on the prestigious Protégés of Peace Scholarship to America.
The Scholarship's mission is to enable two students from Northern Ireland to spend a year living and learning in the highly diverse and opportunity-rich environment of the Lawrenceville School, in Lawrenceville, New Jersey, USA.
Founded in 1999, the Scholarship has sent high-achievers who show great promise, leadership, and interest in study abroad, across to Lawrenceville where they have gained unique experiences living and learning amongst other young people from across the US and the world.
Previous Scholarship recipient Jack Taylor, class of 2015, looks back his time in Lawrenceville with ‘the fondest of memories’…no doubt Sophie will have the same positive experience!
WW2 Spitfire
Johnny McNee (Aviation Historian) also employed Alastair Ruffell’s GPR expertise to help him accurately locate the remains of a WW2 Spitfire aircraft (P8074) in a peat bog at Moneydarragh – Donegal. The Spitfire would have been travelling at 200-300km/hr, weighed a few tonnes and would have Profiven through the peat in Moneydarragh like a knife through butter! The engine of the spitfire is housed in the Tower Museum. Bud Wolfe (pilot of the Spitfire when it crashed) had an interesting career.
He was arrested – interned – sent to the Curragh in the Free State, escaped, captured again, beaten up, escaped again and flew for the rest of WW2. He also fought in Korea and Vietnam and was an instructor in the Vietnam war with over 70 kills to his name! Prof Ruffell referred to him as the ‘first Top Gun’. On 13th May 2017 invited us to be part of the history of another Spitfire, R6992! A number of junior and senior school students part of a multidisciplinary team involved in the excavation of Spitfire R6992 which crashed into a field on 20th September 1942 in Fingullar, Monaghan. F/Lt Gordon Hayter Proctor was the pilot at the time of the crash. He survived the crash and flew as part of the 1402 Met Flight based at RAF Aldergrove. Below is a report of the day by Grace McNee, daughter of Mr Jonny McNee, Senior Panning Officer DCSDC.
Scifest 17
Yr8 pupils enjoyed a range of STEM based workshops at Scifest yesterday at St Mary’s College. Our Yr10 team came home with the Maths and Science trophy and also the Seagate Science Award for their project ‘Scoop on Stroop’ which they presented - Well done!