Over 250 pupils from local schools attended the annual West Belfast Partnership Board (WBPB) Easter School at St Mary’s University College. This involves four days of tuition in English and Mathematics at GCSE level for pupils who are at risk of not achieving a pass grade. St Mary’s provides an excellent venue for the Easter School, and the College’s Widening Access Officer, Susan Morgan, works with the WBPB staff over the four days.  The College is delighted to note that pupils from across the local communities participated in the Easter School this year.

The Easter School is an important component in St Mary’s mission to support young people to achieve their full potential and to aspire to higher education.

The Easter School is a partnership of several institutions:

The West Belfast Partnership Board, which organises and manages the programme;

The schools, which identify their students and provide detailed information on which areas of the syllabus individual students are finding difficult;

St Mary’s University College, which supplies the accommodation, catering and teaching support; and

The Department of Education, which funds the programme.

The environment and ethos of the Easter School is one of relaxed, but focused, learning. Student, teacher and school feedback reinforces the opinion that this change of learning environment and additional support often provides the encouragement students require to keep on studying at a time when their predicted grades may discourage them.


During the Easter School, over 200 young people benefit from intensive tuition, and the programme is indebted to the hard-working team of teachers and classroom assistants. This year, twelve of St Mary’s BEd post-primary Maths and BEd post-primary English students worked as classroom assistants on the project. They found the work both rewarding and challenging.