Prize Day

16th October 2026

We recently celebrated the achievements of our students at our annual Senior Prize Day, recognising outstanding academic success and the contribution students have made across school life.

We were delighted to welcome back distinguished former pupil, Belinda Brown, as guest speaker. Belinda attended St Louis from 1993–2000 and has gone on to enjoy an impressive international career as a Chartered Global Management Accountant and award-recognised finance and transformation leader, holding senior roles with organisations including Diageo, L’Oréal and Sephora. Today she works as a fractional CFO, executive coach and strategic advisor, and is a Trustee of the National Football Trust and a member of Queen’s University Foundation Board.

Following St Louis, Belinda studied Finance at Queen’s University Belfast. Returning to her former school, Belinda reflected on the enduring connections within the St Louis community and the people who had influenced her own journey.

Her address focused on the people, values and sense of belonging that have remained with her since her own time at St Louis.

Belinda highlighted the remarkable continuity within the school community, noting that Principal Mrs Jacqui O’Neill had been a teacher when she was a pupil, while former classmate Mrs McCarry is now a senior teacher and Sister Luana continues to support the school.

For Belinda, these enduring relationships illustrate something fundamental about the school.

“People don’t ever really leave St Louis. They just move to a different seat,” she said, linking this lifelong connection to the school motto, Ut Sint Unum – That they may be one.

Belinda also spoke candidly about her own background, recalling that she grew up in Antrim and Ahoghill in a working-class household.

“I was just a wee County Antrim girl with decent grades and a lot to say for myself,” she said.

She recalled arriving at Queen’s University and feeling intimidated by the students around her, before realising:

“We 'were' some of the brightest young people in the country.”

Four years later she graduated with a First, followed by a Distinction in her Master's. Reflecting on her St Louis education, she told students:

“St Louis hadn’t just prepared us to keep up. It had prepared us to hold our own with anybody. Anywhere.”

EXCELLENCE, ENDEAVOUR AND EMPOWERMENT

Mrs O’Neill told our students that while schools inevitably change, the values at the heart of St Louis endure.

“That continuity is one of our greatest strengths,” she said, challenging students to think about not only what they will achieve, but who they will become.

“Our vision is Excellence, Endeavour and Empowerment,” Mrs O’Neill said. “We seek to empower our students so that they leave us as confident, well-rounded young men and women.”

She highlighted another exceptional year of academic achievement, with 98.2% of students achieving three or more A–C grades at A Level*, 63% of grades at A* or A and 88% at A*–B. Seventy-five students are leaving with three or more A grades, while one student achieved five A* grades.

At GCSE, 98% of pupils achieved seven or more GCSEs at A–C, including English and Mathematics*, with 81% at A*–B. Sixty-nine students achieved seven or more straight A grades, including one student who achieved ten A* grades.

These results build on the academic success recognised by the Belfast Telegraph, when St Louis was identified as the highest-performing school in Northern Ireland for A Level outcomes in 2025. Mrs O’Neill noted that the school's students had surpassed even those outcomes in 2026.

Mrs O’Neill also emphasised that excellence at St Louis extends beyond examination results, with achievements in pastoral care, mental health, environmental responsibility and educational practice.

“Excellence does not happen by accident,” Mrs O’Neill told the audience. “Behind every success story is endeavour.”

She paid tribute to the early mornings, late evenings, revision sessions, practices, rehearsals and determination that lie behind students’ achievements, alongside the school's commitment to ensuring that no one is left behind.

A MESSAGE FOR LIFE

Belinda's final message to our students looked beyond careers and academic success.

She reminded the prize winners that, when they leave St Louis, they will scatter to Belfast, Dublin, London and further afield – but that their St Louis connections will remain.

“Years from now, you'll find yourselves in a room somewhere and realise the person across the table also went to St Louis,” she said.

“And when it does, you'll probably try to sing the school song together. You'll remember nearly all the words. And when you get to the high notes… you'll discover that nobody, in the entire history of this school, has ever reached them.”

Reflecting on former classmates who are no longer with them, Belinda said the school song had taken on a new meaning with time, particularly the words:

“United as one let us stand by each other, determined to further the name of our school”

Her final advice was simple and heartfelt:

“Be proud of today. Be kind to each other. Tell the people who matter that they matter.”

She encouraged students to keep the habits that had brought them to Prize Day and, when they enter “those big rooms”, to remember where they came from.

“It isn't something to hide. It's your edge. Your USP. Your superpower.”

Her message provided a fitting conclusion to an afternoon celebrating achievement, friendship and the enduring bond between St Louis and its students.

As Belinda reminded us all, people never really leave St Louis – they simply move to a different seat.