Parents & Pupils
Mr Curry UK 13th Careers Champion
Mr Curry is Senior Teacher for Curriculum & Careers at St Patrick’s College and was nominated for the 13th UK Careers Champion Award for his leadership in Careers across the school. He is a National Careers Week Ambassador in Northern Ireland and has led careers workshops during National Careers Week each year to provide students with an insight into potential career pathways and prospects.
He is passionate about offering students opportunities to develop their skills and experience outside the classroom, and has coordinated a range of extra-curricular activities which give students a taste of different careers. He also leads the Young Enterprise programmes across the school.
He has built partnerships with a huge range of businesses and agencies to ensure the best possible CEIAG experience for pupils. As a result of his work, he was awarded STEM Teacher of the Year by the Royal Society in May 2019, and St Patrick’s won the TES UK Entrepreneurial School of the Tear 2020.
Principal of St Patrick’s, Catherine McHugh, said “Ryan is a dynamic, forward thinking and enthusiastic leader. He inspires, enables and supports pupils to live out our school motto: Together Inspiring Generations. Ryan has worked on behalf of our students and school community to build links with business and industry, supporting student applications for jobs and UCAS, organising workshops and ensuring that goals become realities. He is committed to ensuring students are ready as an emerging workforce to take up posts and professions as part of the 4th industrial skills revolution workers. He has created an impressive range of links with local business, industry and community partners to provide access to work experiences and collaborative learning and development opportunities as well as.
Mr Curry has been instrumental in building partnerships with local engineering firms in this area. There are significant opportunities within this industry in mid-ulster. He established a learning project for a group of Engineering students to design a Bus Shelter for the College grounds. The pupils had to work in partnership with a representative from Mallaghan’s Engineering to Design the Shelter, situate, select materials and cost it. This theme project based task enabled a significant number of students to get real career experience from this in school project. He has worked with Edge Innovate in enabling an Engineering focus for Key Stage 4 students. He has led National Careers week workshops with 53 speakers from a range of professions, companies and job roles attended by 242 students who gained an insight into the world of work and the skills necessary to be relevant for the workforce of tomorrow.
Mr Curry has led a Royal Society funded STEM Project. Our Yr 10 students are currently working in a cross curricular capacity to design and create a solar lamp that can be used by children in an unplanned settlement in the Parish of St Teresa’s in the city of Lusaka, Zambia. The subject leaders of science and technology have worked in partnership with Science and Technology Ambassadors to design the solar light so that these children who are supported to attend a local school in Lusaka, but in this city only 20% of the population have access to electricity, so this project has the capacity to make a significant impact in this developing country. This project encourages collaboration, creative thinking and problem solving in small groups.
Mr Curry is responsible for the after school Primary Links STEAM project with 5 local primary schools and a local Special School. He co-ordinates the staff and students who offer 6 week blocks of STEAM taster activities across the school year.
He is indeed a worthy holder of the title UK 13th Careers Champion.”