Lurgan College is a selective age 14-18
grammar schoolA grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and some other English-speaking countries, originally schools teaching classical languages but more recently academically-oriented types of secondary school.The original purpose of...
situated in the town of
LurganLurgan , is a town in County Armagh, Northern Ireland. Lurgan is situated in the Craigavon Borough Council area, to the south of Lough Neagh...
,
County ArmaghCounty Armagh is one of the traditional counties of Ireland. It is located within the province of Ulster and is part of Northern Ireland. It was named after the town of Armagh....
,
Northern IrelandNorthern Ireland is a part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and it is situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...
.
As befitted a growing industrial town, Lurgan had a strong educational establishment from the mid 19th Century. The opening of the Model School in 1863 had been the culmination of a period of sustained growth in the Primary Sector. However, the town had no soundly established secondary school, which must have been regarded as a serious short-coming in a middle-class interest.
Lurgan College
 |
|
| Address |
College Walk
Lurgan
BT66 6JW
|
| Phone |
(+ 44 28) 38 32 20 83 |
| Email |
info@lurgancollege.lurgan.ni.sch.uk |
| Location |
LurganLurgan , is a town in County Armagh, Northern Ireland. Lurgan is situated in the Craigavon Borough Council area, to the south of Lough Neagh...
, Northern IrelandNorthern Ireland is a part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and it is situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...
, UK |
| Head Teacher |
Mr T.D. Robinson |
| School type |
Contolled 14-18 Grammar |
| School Colours |
Navy, Red, White, Grey. |
| School Board |
SELB |
| Enrollment |
420 students |
| Founded |
1873 by Samuel Watts Esq. |
| Motto |
Meliora Sequor |
Lurgan College is a selective age 14-18
grammar schoolA grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and some other English-speaking countries, originally schools teaching classical languages but more recently academically-oriented types of secondary school.The original purpose of...
situated in the town of
LurganLurgan , is a town in County Armagh, Northern Ireland. Lurgan is situated in the Craigavon Borough Council area, to the south of Lough Neagh...
,
County ArmaghCounty Armagh is one of the traditional counties of Ireland. It is located within the province of Ulster and is part of Northern Ireland. It was named after the town of Armagh....
,
Northern IrelandNorthern Ireland is a part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and it is situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...
.
History
As befitted a growing industrial town, Lurgan had a strong educational establishment from the mid 19th Century. The opening of the Model School in 1863 had been the culmination of a period of sustained growth in the Primary Sector. However, the town had no soundly established secondary school, which must have been regarded as a serious short-coming in a middle-class interest. One of the town's leading citizens at the time, Samuel Watts, joint owner of one of the breweries, provided in his will for the endowment of such a school, which was to provide an English, Classical and Agricultural education for boys.
Watts died in February 1850, and the endowment, when it was established, amounted to some £9000. This was to be invested, and the accrued interest used to build the School. It was not until December 1872 that the Trustees considered they had sufficient money to proceed. The School commenced business in a house in Market Street during March 1873, the first Headmaster being Mr. E. Vaughan Boulger, of Dublin. The School buildings themselves, constructed on a site in the townland of Brownlowsderry, were not completed until August 1873, and were officially opened in October of that year.
Boulger left Lurgan in December 1875, to be replaced by Mr. W. T. Kirkpatrick from R.B.A.I. in Belfast. Under Kirkpatrick the school prospered academically and numerically, although not financially. On Kirkpatrick's retirement in 1899, Mr. James Cowan, of Manchester G.S. took over the principalship. Under Cowan, the school faced problems of declining numbers, although he was responsible for the introduction of Science teaching in 1905. Another major development was the admission of girls in 1918. Cowan retired in 1922, leaving a school of under thirty pupils.
The new Headmaster was Mr. V. M. Harper, from Campbell College. He presided over a major expansion in the school. Two major building projects (in 1925 and 1929) coupled with an amalgamation with the Lurgan High School for Girls (1925) transformed the College from a struggling thirty pupil school to a thriving one hundred and fifty pupil establishment. The 1947 Education Act further increased enrolments and led to an increasing dependence on temporary buildings. In 1952 Harper retired, to be replaced by his vice-principal, Mr. J. Trewsdale. Under Mr. Trewsdale the school ceased to be an independent, endowed school, (the endowments were then inadequate for the needs of the College) and became a County Grammar School. A series of building programmes beginning in 1955 and lasting until 1969 saw the provision of a modern suite of buildings well equipped to meet the needs of the area.
In 1960 the new city of Craigavon was developing and with it a radical reform of education provision in the area. The
Dickson PlanThe Dickson Plan is a school transfer system implemented in North County Armagh in Northern Ireland. It is a two tier system in which the majority of pupils in the Craigavon Borough Council Area and parts of Armagh City and District Council Area attend Junior High Schools for 3 years before...
introduced a modified two-tier system, based on the Leicestershire Plan. The College became a Senior High School under this scheme. Mr. Trewsdale retired in 1978 and was replaced by Mr. N. Eccles from Campbell College. The school suffered, in common with most other schools in Ulster, from a sharp decline in numbers in the early 80's but this has been reversed in recent years, the present population being 418.
Mr Eccles retired in 1988 and was replaced by Mr W. D. Johnston, the second old boy of Royal School Dungannon to become Headmaster of Lurgan College. The Johnston era was characterised by an increase in pupil and staff numbers and a steady improvement in pupil performance in public examinations. The rise in pupil numbers in the senior school, however, was not reflected unfortunately in the Preparatory Department which closed in 2004. In his years as Headmaster Mr Johnston skillfully oversaw the introduction of GCSEs, Curriculum 2000 (changes in sixth form curriculum), Classroom 2000 (ICT provision) and the Local Management of Schools programme which delegated to the school overall responsibility for the spending of its own budget. Working with his Board of Governors, Mr Johnston played a significant role in planning and bringing to fruition the impressive renovation of the school's reception area which was officially opened in March 2005. His retirement in 2005 coincided with the decision of Mr Cyril Johnston, Chairman of the Board of Governors, to retire from the Board after 35 years of sterling service to the school.
Mr Johnston was succeeded by a third Royal School Dungannon old boy, Mr T. D. Robinson, who had previously been Vice Principal at Banbridge Academy.
Today
Under the previous Headmaster, Mr W.D. Johnston, the school was characterised by an increase in pupil and staff numbers and a steady improvement in pupil performance in public examinations; there were also extensive improvements to the school buildings. Mr Johnston retired in 2005, and was succeeded by Mr T.D. Robinson who faces the challenges of steering the school through the changes to the educational system announced in the Bain Report of 2006.
The school currently enrolls just over 400 pupils. Pupils are required to sit their GCSE examinations in their second year at the school. The school also offers a limited number of places for pupils to return to the school after their second year to sit their AS Level and A2 Level (commonly referred to as A-levels) examinations. The current headmaster of the school is Mr T Robinson, who began his career at the school in September 2005.
The school continues to rank within the top 20 Northern Irish secondary level schools in the Sunday Times Parent Power Survey.
The school has received the necessary funding to proceed with plans to erect a new building, replacing all of the current accommodation except for the listed 1873 portion. Work is to commence in March 2009.
Notable alumni
Albert Lewis,
C. S. LewisClive Staples Lewis , commonly referred to as C. S. Lewis and known to his friends and family as Jack, was an Irish-born British novelist, academic, medievalist, literary critic, essayist, lay theologian and Christian apologist...
' father attended the school from 1877-79 under Headmaster W.T. Kirkpatrick. Albert later became Kirkpatrick's solicitor. When Kirkpatrick retired and began to privately tutor pupils he taught both of Albert's sons, first Warnie Lewis whom he prepared for the Royal Military College at Sandhurst, and later C.S. Lewis himself.
Dame Jocelyn Bell BurnellDame Susan Jocelyn Bell Burnell, DBE, FRS, FRAS , known as Jocelyn Bell Burnell, is a British astrophysicist who, as a postgraduate student, discovered the first radio pulsars with her thesis supervisor Antony Hewish, for which Hewish shared the Nobel Prize in Physics with Martin Ryle.The paper...
, DBE, FRS FRAS, Ph.D (born as Susan Jocelyn Bell, 15 July 1943) is an astrophysicist, who, as a postgraduate student, discovered the first radio pulsars with her thesis advisor
Antony HewishAntony Hewish is a British radio astronomer who won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1974 for his work on the development of radio aperture synthesis and its role in the discovery of pulsars...
, for which he (but not she) won a Nobel Prize. Some feel Bell Burnell's contribution was deliberately understated. She attended Lurgan College Preparatory Department from 1948-56 and returned to Lurgan College in 2007 while filming the BBC bio-doc 'Northern Star' and then again later that same year as the guest of honour at the school's speech day and prize-giving ceremony.
Staff
ART & DESIGN
Jane Barbour
BIOLOGY
Dr Nicola McKee
Tracy Carberry
R. Fisher
BUSINESS & ICT
Alan Reavie
Geoffrey Caldwell
Mrs Ward
CHEMISTRY
John Finlay
Tracy Carberry
ENGLISH
Heather McDowell
Valerie Phoenix
Anne Knox
GEOGRAPHY
David Bell
Alistair Hamill
Robert Uprichard
HEALTH & SOCIAL CARE
Anne Knox
HISTORY & POLITICS
Finbar Lappin
Robert Uprichard
Brian Hanna
HOME ECONOMICS
Ruth Sinton
LEARNING FOR LIFE AND WORK
Robert Uprichard
MATHEMATICS
Brian Faith
R. Fisher
Miss Hunter
MODERN LANGUAGES
Gloria Matchett
Wayne Buttery
Alison Buttery
MUSIC
Joanne Abraham
PHYSICAL EDUCATION
Brian Hanna
Anne Knox
Mrs Hinds
PHYSICS
Jill Jenks
Melanie Fox
David Patterson
RELIGIOUS STUDIES
Derek Irvine
Brian Hanna
Joanne Abraham
Melanie Fox
Mrs Hinds
TECHNOLOGY
David Patterson
Clubs & Societies
The School boasts a large number of Clubs and Societies:
- A.C.F.(Army Cadets Force),
- Art,
- Chess club - Founded by Steven Archer & Stuart McKeown
- Community Service,
- Computer,
- Debating,
- Drama,
- Duke of Edinburgh's Award,
- First Aid,
- Geographical,
- Historical,
- Modern Languages,
- Public Speaking,
- Rugby club - 1st XV, 2nd XV and medallion XV
- Boys Hockey Club
- Scripture Union, and
- Skiing.
- Environmental Club (Founded by Mark Knox and Steven Johnston)