A welcome from the Headmaster
Welcome to our school website. I hope that you will take the time to navigate it and find out something of what makes us the School we are.
We have reached a watershed in our history. Three years ago, we celebrated our sesquicentenary, the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of our foundation in 1856, with a series of memorable events, including a concert in the Waterfront Hall, a civic service, a historical exhibition in the North Down Museum, a sports weekend and a number of dinners. Most importantly, in a desire to give something back in thanksgiving for all the privileges we have experienced, we raised over £30,000 and sent out a party of boys and staff to rebuild a primary school in Uganda. The project was undertaken in association with a local Bangor charity, Abaana. Taken as a whole, it was a time when we could look back and celebrate all those remarkable people, pupils, teachers, governors and, in the broadest sense, servants of the School, who made BGS what it has become. We celebrated and gave thanks that throughout our history, we have served the needs of the boys of Bangor, valuing their uniqueness and enabling them to develop themselves intellectually, personally, imaginatively and spiritually.
For 105 of those years, the School has had its home on College Avenue in the centre of Bangor, the Dutch gable design of the Crosby Building a familiar landmark for the whole town. I find it sad to report that the site is too small and the buildings inadequate to support the learning needs of a community of over a thousand boys and, in Connor House, girls. And so it is that we now look forward to a new School, a brand new building on the Gransha Road, a building which will truly be 'state of the art', a building fit for the needs of the twenty first century. We have been working towards this goal since 2002 and I regret to say that, because of cuts in public funding which have come about through the global economic downturn, the project has again been delayed. We hope that the construction phase will now begin in 2011 with a move to the new building in 2013. Fuller details about the development will be found on our 'New School Build' page.
This is a time of deep uncertainty in the educational world with the abolition of the old Transfer Tests. BGS has joined the Association for Quality Education and is using their 'common entrance assessment' as the primary means of determining the Year 8 intake in 2010 (If you are interested in finding out more about AQE and the proposed 'Common Entrance Assessments,' go directly from here to the AQE website at http://www.aqe.org.uk.). The School is unhappy that it has been forced down this route, but, in order to maintain its ethos and sustain its academic traditions, it feels it has had no choice.
The tests themselves are now behind us. I was impressed by the cheerfulness and resilience of the children whose co-operation and hard work reflected very well upon their primary schools. The results will be published this coming Saturday 6 February 2010 and we shall then enter, all of us together, schools, parents and children, a difficult and exacting period as we begin the admissions process, which will last until the end of May. Only when that is complete can we say that this new departure is a success. It was apparent at our Open Evening, held on January 21, that there are many parents who remain unsure about how the process is operated and its timescale. If you are a a parent and would like advice, please do not hesitate to contact the School and I can speak to you on the telephone or arrange an appointment.
The School's re-written Admissions Criteria for the 2010 Year 8 intake are available on the website via the front page or its Admissions page, which you will find listed on the left hand menu bar. Also available are the arrangements for applications citing Special Circumstances or Special Provision and the rationale which helped to determine the Board's final choice of criteria.
Stephen Connolly