Integrated Ethos

We opened our doors on 1st September 2022 as Integrated College Glengormley having gone through a transformation process which began in January 2020.  We find ourselves at the beginning of a very exciting journey and look forward to intentionally educating pupils together, within an integrated ethos of diversity, inclusion and understanding.  Our desire to integrate our pupils will prepare young people for the diverse world that we live within and equip pupils with the knowledge, skills and understanding to make a positive contribution within their communities and beyond.

We strive to provide pupils with learning opportunities within and beyond the classroom to develop a greater understanding of diversity and to have opportunities to learn, explore and experience our integrated ethos.

All staff have benefitted from extensive training, support and guidance from the Education Authority (EA), Integrated Education Fund (IEF) and Northern Ireland Council for Integrated Education (NICIE).

We have developed close links with Community Relations in Schools (CRIS) and are hugely grateful for the ongoing support that CRIS provide to us as a school community.

Our Art club are hugely committed to producing art work representing integrated education themes and we have been hugely supported by Connswater Homes to fund a visiting ceramicist to lead our pupils within the after-school Art club to produce 2 exceptional pieces of art, produced from clay, led by our pupils to showcase who we as a school are and what integrated education means – you will see our integrated art pieces in our school reception and foyer – they are amazing and we are so proud of our pupils creations.

Currently our Art club are working on a piece of art which will be installed at our newly refurbished MUGA sports facilities.  We cannot wait to see this unveiled and again thank Connswater Homes and the Shared Housing project for their invaluable financial support in helping our pupils come together and financially fund such a worthwhile project, which will be a visual representation of who we are and what we aspire to do, as an integrated school.

We are intentional in giving pupils opportunities to explore integrated education themes and we do this across all subject areas to ensure our pupils have the opportunity to explore diversity, inclusion and key issues across the curriculum, this provides pupils with opportunities for discussion across key issues to allow pupils to have a greater understanding and foster an ethos of respect and mutual understanding.

During the month of March, we promote the theme of Integrated Education month of “What does Integrated Education mean to me?” – This is an amazing way to allow our pupils to share their thoughts, feelings on integrated education and there are lots of ways that this can be done.

Pupils are invited to participate in odd socks day to reinforce the idea that individually that we are all unique and to celebrate our uniqueness while donating to the IEF while wearing crazy socks.

Pupils during March are invited to participate in lots of competitions including our Pupil Planner competition and submit entries for the prestigious Carson Awards again exploring the theme of “What does Integrated Education mean to me?”.

Lots of our subject departments have looked at ways to explore the theme during March within their subject areas.  Examples include the Technology and Design department exploring different job opportunities within the construction industry and exploring how to bust the bias, the Home Economics department looked at world foods, the RE department looked at religious festivals around the world.

We began our celebrations on 1st March 2024 at our ‘abc’ event which sought to bring together young people from a range of primary and post primary schools to address bias and challenge bias. Deputy Mayor of Antrim and Newtownabbey Rosie Kinnear officially opened the event and we are very grateful for her support in promoting bias busting.

Alongside representatives from ICG student council, we welcomed pupils and from a range of schools including Ballyhenry Primary School, Carnmoney Primary School, Forthill Integrated College, Glengormley Integrated Primary School, Lagan Integrated College, Mallusk Integrated Primary School, Newbridge Integrated College, Priory Integrated College, Sion Mills Primary School alongside a number of special invited guests including a huge supporter of Integrated Education within Northern Ireland.

Zunaira Raika, Year 11 gave an inspiring speech representing ICG and Student Council, wowing the audience describing personal experiences of bias whilst empowering the audience to not only address bias but challenge it, to break the cycle of bias.

We are delighted to have welcomed so many pupils to ICG to take part in ‘abc’ event and be empowered and pledge to become bias busters as part of the theme of Integrated Education month 2024.  This event attracted a whole host of visitors including integrated education supporters including Connswater Homes, EA, Beyond Skin, IEF, NICIE and Carl Frampton, a past pupil.  It was fantastic to have support from so many schools and visitors in taking the address bias, challenge bias theme forward to bring about positive change.

Huge thanks to Gerard Hughes, CRIS who facilitated the event supported by Laura Largey, NICIE.  This event was financially supported by Connswater Homes and the Shared Housing project and we as a school community would like to express our ongoing gratitude to Tammy Rountree through Connswater Hoems for their ongoing support. 

In October 2023 Integrated College Glengormley hosted the prestigious Carson Awards as well as submitting our first ever entry as an integrated school which resulted in an award at the Carson Awards, with Key Stage 3 pupils winning an innovation award for their winning designs as part of the pupil planner front cover design.  Darcie Beattie was placed first and Lexi Armstrong, Lexi Creagmile, Lucy Crosbie and Jessica Cluney received runner up awards for their creative front cover designs.  The theme of the front cover design was “what does integrated education mean to me”.  The pupils wholeheartedly embraced this design challenge whilst promoting our integrated ethos.  We are so proud of the girls and their outstanding achievements.

In May 2024 we have submitted 4 entries for the Carson Awards including our annual Pupil Planner design competition, Key Stage 3 Integrated Education Poems, Culture and Diversity Club integration video and the Year 8 connect class Integration video.

The History Department, PE department, Media Studies department and Art department have all been very fortunate to successfully be awarded a grant through the Integrated Education Fund (IEF) grant applications.  Through this generous funding our pupils have had the opportunity to visit places of historical interest, participate in a more diverse and inclusive range of sports, purchase new equipment and resources within the Art and Media Studies departments to further enhance our pupil experiences, whilst exploring integrated education and themes specific to a range of subject areas.  These learning experience enrich our pupil experiences and we are truly grateful to IEF for their ongoing financial support.

ICG are delighted to have received funding from the IEF as part of the IEF Trust programme grant application to find a range of activities including educational visits within the RE department, workshops for all of our new Year 8 pupils exploring identity within an integrated ethos, as well as resources for our art department in exploring a more diverse and inclusive range of learning activities for all of our pupils.

We are committed as a school community to not only recognising diversity but to celebrate diversity to not only ensure a sense of inclusion but to foster a feeling of belonging.  We aspire to celebrate diversity on a day to day basis through regular assemblies and ongoing discussions to help educate our pupils about world religions and key issues across the globe.

Our annual diversity celebrations in June are an outstanding opportunity for us as a school community to work closely with Beyond Skin to provide a range of learning experiences for our pupils and staff to learn about different cultural backgrounds and religions.  This includes visiting speakers, food tasting, art activities as well as participating in different sports and dance activities.

We truly believe that we learn from others and what better way to learn than to celebrate the diversity within our school community, we we learn from each other and embrace our differences while celebrating our uniqueness.