Foyle College
Foyle College | |
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University of Ulster, Old Boy's Association, Old Girl's Association, Staff & Parents. | |
Website | sch |
Foyle College is a
History
Foyle College and Londonderry High School have been providing education for young people in the Derry area and further afield for more than 400 years. In October 2007, the school celebrated its 390th anniversary with a plaque commemorating headmasters of the school since 1617. The school then celebrated their 400th anniversary, in 2017, with a service in St Columb's Cathedral on the official anniversary date of 3 March. a commemorative concert in Derry's Guildhall was held, a special dinner also took place. A proposed plaque is to be unveiled and many artifacts from Foyle College's past were exhibited in the Siege Museum, on Society Street, from April 2017 to October 2017. Many more commemorative events also took place throughout the course of 2017.
Foyle College
Londonderry School Act 1808 | |
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Act of Parliament | |
Londonderry School Act 1809 | |
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Act of Parliament | |
Foyle College Act 1874 | |
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Act of Parliament | |
Dates | |
Royal assent | 7 August 1874 |
Foyle College traces its origins to 1617 and the establishment of the Free Grammar School at Society Street within the
The school received no endowment from that company or from
The old school within the city walls eventually outlived its usefulness, and in 1814 came the move to the newly erected and well-proportioned
Foyle College Act 1896 | |
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Act of Parliament | |
Dates | |
Royal assent | 20 July 1896 |
Other legislation | |
Repealed by | Foyle and Londonderry College Act 1976 |
Status: Repealed | |
Text of statute as originally enacted |
For 30 years, from 1868, Foyle College had to compete with a vigorous rival in the
Foyle then had the use of the buildings at Lawrence Hill and Academy Road. Following the
Londonderry High School
Like Foyle College, Londonderry High School owed its existence to the merging of two independent institutions. The first of these, the Ladies' Collegiate School, was set up in 1877 by the Misses McKillip - pioneers in the movement for higher education for women in Ireland. Their vision and drive resulted in the starting of a school at 11 Queen Street. Two further moves saw the renamed Victoria High School located in Crawford Square, where boarding and day pupils were accommodated. The nearby Northlands School of Housewifery (1908) was associated with Victoria High School.
At the top of Lawrence Hill, Miss J. Kerr had opened St. Lurach's College circa 1900 - this school also took boarders. Strand House School (1860) closed during the
Foyle and Londonderry College Act 1976 | |
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Act of Parliament | |
Long title | An Act to provide for the amalgamation of Foyle College and Londonderry High School; and for other purposes. |
Citation | 1976 c. xviii |
Dates | |
Royal assent | 22 July 1976 |
Other legislation | |
Repeals/revokes |
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Status: Current legislation | |
Text of statute as originally enacted |
The new buildings were opened by
Present
Following a relocation to a new £24 million single campus, the school now sits on the Limavady Road at the site of the former US Naval Communications Station.[4] This means for the first time in 50 years, all the pupils in Foyle College are on one site. As a grammar school it admits pupils based on academic selection. The school joined the Association for Quality Education (AQE) which requires prospective pupils to take the AQE Common Entrance exam in order to be admitted to the college from 2010.[5] In 2010 the results of pupils who sat the AQE entrance exam were published. Of successful applicants to Foyle College, only 11 out of the 126 who were admitted into Year 8 achieved the top grade Q1, but 40 pupils who received the lowest grade Q4 were admitted.[6]
In 2011, a re-brand of the school was carried out by the schools governors to reputedly reflect popular usage in the city of Derry, where the school is almost universally known as Foyle College.[7] However, although the school's name and crest was re-branded, the college's legal name will continue to be Foyle and Londonderry College.[8][9]
Deep-seated objections with regard to the school's name change have been made to the local press by members of the Londonderry High School Old Girls Association. They claim the change of the college's name amounts to a jettisoning of the link from the former all-girls school, Londonderry High School, and that the name change has been taken by the governors without any real consultation with them.[10]
All the core subjects, as well as a number of options, are offered up until the end of Key Stage 3. Pupils then sit
The school is officially non-denominational.[11][12][13]
Houses
Pupils are assigned to one of four houses in the first year. Houses are primarily for Sports Day and inter-house sports tournaments. The school tie has stripes which indicate which house a pupil belongs to. The houses are as follows:
- Lawrence - Named in honour of notable alumnus Viceroy of India(blue stripes).
- Duncreggan - Representing Duncreggan House, where the Senior School was located before the move to Limavady Road, i.e. the site of the pre-amalgamation Londonderry High School (red stripes).
- Springham - Named in honour of the founder of the Free Grammar School, Mathias Springham (yellow stripes).
- Northlands - The area where the Junior School was located i.e. the site of the pre-amalgamation Foyle College (green stripes).
Pupils who only have white stripes in their ties have received colours awards from the school for participation in extracurricular activities such as
Facilities
The main school building features a variety of classrooms for Modern Foreign Languages, Mathematics, English, History, Geography, Business Studies and Religious Education, in addition to specialist rooms for Technology and Design, Information Technology, Home Economics, Biology, Physics, Chemistry, Art, Drama, and Music. The PE department houses an all-weather hockey pitch, 4 grass rugby pitches, a gravel athletics area, an indoor sports hall and gym, in addition to 6 changing rooms with showers.
The school also has 2 hot food counters, and 3 "Grab N Go" quick food counters.
Extracurricular
Sport
The most popular sports in the school include
Cricket is the main summer sport. In 2003 FALC won the Ulster Bank Schools' Cup defeating local rivals Strabane Grammar by two wickets. The Headmaster has popularised the sport of fencing within the school, producing UK and Irish champions. [citation needed]
Football is another sport that has been recently made available for pupils in Foyle, with three teams competing in the annual Northern Ireland School's Cup competition, at U14, U16 and U18 level.
Music
The choir compete at the annual Sainbury's School Choir of the Year. The musicals are every two years with the break years being filled with non-musicals such as A Midsummer Night's Dream. Past musicals have included Annie, Oliver, The Mikado, Bugsy Malone, Me and My Girl, Calamity Jane, We Will Rock You, Hairspray and most recently Footloose.[14]
Notable pupils
- British Ambassador to Austria
- Eva Birthistle, actress (Ae Fond Kiss); moved to Derry at the age of 14.[15]
- Amanda Burton, actress
- Northern Ireland Civil Rights Movement, and co-founder of the Social Democratic and Labour Party(SDLP)
- Mark Daley, Irish-American broadcaster
- George Farquhar, Irish dramatist
- William Percy French, songwriter
- Ken Goodall, former rugby union international
- W.M. Gorman, Irish economist
- James Gwyn, Brevet Major General in the Union Army
- Neil Hannon, musician from art-pop band "The Divine Comedy" (attended Preparatory Department)
- British India
- Viceroy of India(1864–1869)
- Rugby Unionplayer
- Stanley Mitchell, first-class cricketer and former president of the Irish Cricket Union
- George Fletcher Moore, prominent early settler in Western Australia
- Johan Thoning Owesen, Irish-Norwegian shipowner and philanthropist
- QC, former Minister of Home Affairs(1969 - 1970), politician, barrister and judge
- (1921–1922)
- The Apprentice
- Claude Wilton, lawyer and civil rights activist[16]
See also
References
- ^ "Foyle College set to rebrand". Londonderry Sentinel.
- ^ "Foyle and Londonderry College Act 1976". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard).
- ^ "New crest unveiled as Foyle College reverts to its old name". Derry Journal.
- ^ "HRH The Princess Royal opens £24million Foyle College". Education. 7 February 2019. Retrieved 30 January 2023.
- ^ "All city grammar schools to test". BBC News. Retrieved 3 March 2017.
- ^ "Revealed - Northern Ireland grammar school entrance test lottery". Belfast Telegraph. Retrieved 3 March 2017.
- ^ "Foyle College set to rebrand". Londonderry Sentinel.
- ^ "Foyle College set to rebrand". Londonderry Sentinel.
- ^ "Campaign against college name change". Londonderry Sentinel. Retrieved 3 March 2017.
- ^ "Campaign against college name change". Londonderry Sentinel. Retrieved 3 March 2017.
- ^ "Foyle & Londonderry College, Londonderry, Londonderry, Independent Schools". Isc.co.uk. Archived from the original on 21 April 2013. Retrieved 26 February 2011.
- ^ "Clooney Regeneration masterplan" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 April 2011. Retrieved 26 February 2011.
- ^ "New crest unveiled as Foyle College reverts to its old name". Derry Journal. Retrieved 3 March 2017.
- ^ "Foyle College". www.facebook.com. Retrieved 30 January 2023.
- ^ Published on Wed Jan 28 14:40:31 GMT 2009. "A new stage for Ivan's sounds". Derry Journal. Retrieved 26 February 2011.
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: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ [1] Archived 8 April 2005 at the Wayback Machine
External links
- Foyle and Londonderry College Official Website
- Profile on the ISC website [Archive]
- Profile on HMC website [Archive]