Foyle College is a
co-educational
Mixed-sex education, also known as mixed-gender education, co-education, or coeducation (abbreviated to co-ed or coed), is a system of education where males and females are educated together. Whereas single-sex education was more common up to ...
non-denominational voluntary
grammar school
A grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and other English-speaking countries, originally a Latin school, school teaching Latin, but more recently an academically oriented Se ...
in
Derry
Derry, officially Londonderry, is the second-largest City status in the United Kingdom, city in Northern Ireland, and the fifth-largest on the island of Ireland. Located in County Londonderry, the city now covers both banks of the River Fo ...
, Northern Ireland. The school's legal name is Foyle and Londonderry College. In 1976, two local schools, Foyle College and Londonderry High School, merged under the Foyle and Londonderry College Act 1976 (c. xviii) to form Foyle and Londonderry College. In 2011, the Board of Governors re-branded the school as 'Foyle College' and updated the school's crest.
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
St Columb's Cathedral in the walled city of Derry, Northern Ireland, is the cathedral church and episcopal see of the Church of Ireland's Diocese of Derry and Raphoe. It is also the parish church of Templemore. It is dedicated to Saint Columba ...
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
Foyle College traces its origins to 1617 and the establishment of the Free Grammar School at Society Street within the
city walls
A defensive wall is a fortification usually used to protect a city, town or other settlement from potential aggressors. The walls can range from simple palisades or earthworks to extensive military fortifications such as curtain walls with to ...
of
Derry
Derry, officially Londonderry, is the second-largest City status in the United Kingdom, city in Northern Ireland, and the fifth-largest on the island of Ireland. Located in County Londonderry, the city now covers both banks of the River Fo ...
by Mathias Springham of the
Merchant Taylors' Company
The Worshipful Company of Merchant Taylors is one of the 111 livery companies of the City of London.
The Company, originally known as the ''Guild and Fraternity of St John the Baptist in the City of London'', was founded prior to 1300, first in ...
of
London
London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
. The original building had the following Latin inscription over the main doorway: 'Mathias Springham, A.R. ad honorem dei et bonarum, literarum propogationem, hanc scholam fundavit anno salutis, M.D.C.XVII'. The Free School was built to "the honour of God and the spreading of good literature".
The school received no endowment from that company or from
The Honourable The Irish Society
The Honourable The Irish SocietyIn full, the "Society of the Governor and Assistants, London, of the New Plantation in Ulster, within the Realm of Ireland". is a consortium of livery companies of the City of London established during the Plantati ...
(the body charged with the plantation of the
County of Londonderry in the 17th century). There followed an ongoing dispute between the Irish Society and the
Church of Ireland
The Church of Ireland (, ; , ) is a Christian church in Ireland, and an autonomy, autonomous province of the Anglican Communion. It is organised on an all-Ireland basis and is the Christianity in Ireland, second-largest Christian church on the ...
Bishop of Derry
The Bishop of Derry is an episcopal title which takes its name after the monastic settlement originally founded at Daire Calgach and later known as Daire Colm Cille, Anglicised as Derry. In the Catholic Church it remains a separate title, but in ...
as to who had the authority to appoint the headmaster. The former because one of its representatives had founded the school and the latter because it held the school to be one of the diocesan grammar schools provided for by statute. This was only resolved in the early 19th century by an
act of Parliament, the (
48 Geo. 3. c. 77).
The old school within the city walls eventually outlived its usefulness, and in 1814 came the move to the newly erected and well-proportioned
Georgian building set on a height above the Strand outside the city walls, designed by the architect,
John Bowden (who had also designed the Courthouse in Derry,
St George's Church, High Street, Belfast, and
St Stephen's Church the Pepper Canister Church'on Mount Street on
Dublin
Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...
's
Southside). The school took the name 'Foyle College' in 1814. The story goes that one of the boarders,
George Fletcher Moore
George Fletcher Moore (10 December 1798 – 30 December 1886) was a prominent early settler in colonial Western Australia, and "one fthe key figures in early Western Australia's ruling elite" (Cameron, 2000). He conducted a number of exploring ...
, proposed to the other pupils "to christen the new school, Foyle College" which was seconded and carried with repeated "acclamations".
For 30 years, from 1868, Foyle College had to compete with a vigorous rival in the
Londonderry Academical Institution. This school, established by a body of influential local merchants, moved in 1871 from East Wall to a new site in Academy Road.
The Honourable The Irish Society
The Honourable The Irish SocietyIn full, the "Society of the Governor and Assistants, London, of the New Plantation in Ulster, within the Realm of Ireland". is a consortium of livery companies of the City of London established during the Plantati ...
, which contributed to the funds of both schools, proposed a scheme of amalgamation, and negotiations finally resulted in the passing of the (
59 & 60 Vict. c. cxxxi), the united school retaining the name and with it claiming the traditions of the older school.
Foyle then had the use of the buildings at Lawrence Hill and Academy Road. Following the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, and as a consequence of the many changes brought about by the
Education Act (Northern Ireland) 1947, the governors acquired a site at Springtown on Northland Road, overlooking the school playing‑fields, to build a new school. This was opened on 2 May 1968 by
The Duke of Kent
Duke of Kent is a title that has been created several times in the peerages of peerage of Great Britain, Great Britain and the peerage of the United Kingdom, United Kingdom, most recently as a Royal dukedoms in the United Kingdom, royal dukedom ...
.
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
First World War
World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
and the girls mostly went to Victoria or St. Lurach's. In 1922 Victoria High School and St. Lurach's amalgamated to form Londonderry High School. By 1928 Duncreggan, formerly the home of the late William Tillie, Lord Lieutenant of the City of Londonderry, had been purchased and the boarders were transferred there from St. Lurach's. In the immediate post-war period there was an ever-growing need for increased educational facilities. The high point of an ambitious and forward-looking programme was undoubtedly the opening of the new £150,000 building extensions between Duncreggan House and Dunseverick.
The new buildings were opened by
Her Grace
His Grace and Her Grace are English Style (manner of address), styles of address used with high-ranking personages, and was the style for English monarchs until Henry VIII (r. 1509–1547), and for Scottish monarchs until the Act of Union (1707), ...
The Duchess of Abercorn in May 1962, and on the same day the then Permanent Secretary to the Ministry of Education announced that a new block would be erected to house the Preparatory Department, and this followed in 1964. In 1974 the girls joined the boys of Foyle College Preparatory Department which moved into these premises in 1974, and so anticipated the later amalgamation under the Foyle and Londonderry College Act 1976 (c. xviii), resulting in the first co-educational grammar school in Derry. The Preparatory Department closed in 2003.
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. This means for the first time in 50 years, all the pupils in Foyle College are on one site. As a
grammar school
A grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and other English-speaking countries, originally a Latin school, school teaching Latin, but more recently an academically oriented Se ...
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. 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.
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''. However, although the school's name and crest was re-branded, the college's legal name will continue to be ''Foyle and Londonderry College''.
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.
All the core subjects, as well as a number of options, are offered up until the end of Key Stage 3. Pupils then sit
GCSE
The General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) is an academic qualification in a range of subjects taken in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, having been introduced in September 1986 and its first exams taken in 1988. State schools ...
s. With suitable grades, they have the option to study
AS and A2 levels in the Sixth Form.
The school is officially non-denominational.
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
The 1st Baron Lawrence, a
Viceroy of India
The governor-general of India (1833 to 1950, from 1858 to 1947 the viceroy and governor-general of India, commonly shortened to viceroy of India) was the representative of the monarch of the United Kingdom in their capacity as the Emperor of ...
(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
rugby,
hockey
''Hockey'' is a family of List of stick sports, stick sports where two opposing teams use hockey sticks to propel a ball or disk into a goal. There are many types of hockey, and the individual sports vary in rules, numbers of players, apparel, ...
, music etc. The sports and music ties have symbols relevant to the activity for which the colours tie has been awarded, e.g. music is represented by stylised
treble clefs.
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
rugby union
Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...
(which has seen three tours to Australia and the
South Pacific
The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...
) and hockey (which toured to
Barcelona
Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...
in 2006). The rugby team (as Foyle College) has twice won the
Ulster Schools Cup; in 1915 beating
The Royal School, Armagh
The Royal School, Armagh is a co-educational voluntary grammar school, founded in the 17th century, in the city of Armagh in Northern Ireland. It has a boarding department with an international intake. It is a member of the Headmasters' and He ...
, and in 1900 beating
Methodist College, Belfast. It has been a runner up on three occasions. Foyle and Londonderry College's most recent rugby silverware was won in the 2007-2008 season; FALC defeated
Cambridge House at
Ravenhill to win the Ulster Schools Bowl to win this competition for the second time in three years after beating
Limavady Grammar in the 2005-2006 season again at Ravenhill. In hockey, the school has won the Ulster Cup twice, most recently in 2009 after beating Ballymena Academy 1–0, and reached the final on two other occasions. They won the Plate in 2006, and again in 2007.
Cricket
Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...
is the main summer sport. In 2003 FALC won the
Ulster Bank
Ulster Bank is one of the traditional Big Four Irish clearing banks. The Ulster Bank Group was subdivided into two separate legal entities: National Westminster Bank Plc, trading as Ulster Bank (registered in England and Wales and operating i ...
Schools' Cup defeating local rivals
Strabane Grammar by two wickets. The Headmaster has popularised the sport of
fencing
Fencing is a combat sport that features sword fighting. It consists of three primary disciplines: Foil (fencing), foil, épée, and Sabre (fencing), sabre (also spelled ''saber''), each with its own blade and set of rules. Most competitive fe ...
within the school, producing UK and Irish champions.
Football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...
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
''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' is a Comedy (drama), comedy play written by William Shakespeare in about 1595 or 1596. The play is set in Athens, and consists of several subplots that revolve around the marriage of Theseus and Hippolyta. One s ...
''. Past musicals have included ''
Annie'', ''
Oliver'', ''
The Mikado
''The Mikado; or, The Town of Titipu'' is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert, their ninth of fourteen Gilbert and Sullivan, operatic collaborations. It opened on 14 March 1885, in London, whe ...
'', ''
Bugsy Malone
''Bugsy Malone'' is a 1976 gangster musical comedy film written and directed by Alan Parker (in his feature film directorial debut). A co-production of United States and United Kingdom, it features an ensemble cast, comprising only child actor ...
'', ''
Me and My Girl
''Me and My Girl'' is a musical with music by Noel Gay and its original book and lyrics by Douglas Furber and L. Arthur Rose. The story, set in the late 1930s, tells of an unapologetically unrefined Cockney gentleman named Bill Snibson, wh ...
'', ''
Calamity Jane
Martha Jane Canary (May 1, 1856 – August 1, 1903), better known as Calamity Jane, was an American American frontier, frontierswoman, Exhibition shooting, sharpshooter, sex worker, and storyteller. In addition to many exploits, she was known f ...
'', ''
We Will Rock You
"We Will Rock You" is a song by the British rock band Queen from their 1977 album '' News of the World'', written by guitarist Brian May. ''Rolling Stone'' ranked it number 330 of " The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time" in 2004, and the RIAA it p ...
'', ''
Hairspray
Hairspray may refer to:
* Hair spray, a personal grooming product that keeps hair protected from humidity and wind
* Hairspray (1988 film), ''Hairspray'' (1988 film), a film by John Waters
** Hairspray (1988 soundtrack), ''Hairspray'' (1988 soundt ...
'' and most recently
''Footloose''.
Notable pupils
*
Sir Michael Alexander, a former British Ambassador to
NATO
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental Transnationalism, transnational military alliance of 32 Member states of NATO, member s ...
and a former
British Ambassador to Austria
*
Eva Birthistle, actress (''
Ae Fond Kiss''); moved to
Derry
Derry, officially Londonderry, is the second-largest City status in the United Kingdom, city in Northern Ireland, and the fifth-largest on the island of Ireland. Located in County Londonderry, the city now covers both banks of the River Fo ...
at the age of 14.
*
Amanda Burton, actress
*
Ivan Cooper, politician, leading member of the
Northern Ireland Civil Rights Movement
The Northern Ireland civil rights movement dates to the early 1960s, when a number of initiatives emerged in Northern Ireland which challenged the inequality and discrimination against ethnic Irish Catholics that was perpetrated by the Ulster Pr ...
, and co-founder of the
Social Democratic and Labour Party
The Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP; ) is a social democratic and Irish nationalist political party in Northern Ireland. The SDLP currently has eight members in the Northern Ireland Assembly ( MLAs) and two members of Parliament (M ...
(SDLP)
*
Mark Daley, Irish-American broadcaster
*
George Farquhar
George Farquhar (1677The explanation for the dual birth year appears in Louis A. Strauss, ed., A Discourse Upon Comedy, The Recruiting Officer, and The Beaux' Stratagem by George Farquhar' (Boston: D.C. Heath & Co., 1914), p. v. Strauss notes t ...
, Irish dramatist
*
William Percy French, songwriter
*
Ken Goodall
Ken Goodall is a rugby player (23 February 1947 – 17 August 2006) an Irish rugby union and rugby league player. He was an Irish international and British Lions player and vice principal at Faughan Valley High School, which is now part of ...
, former
rugby union
Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...
international
*
W.M. Gorman, Irish economist
*
James Gwyn,
Brevet Major General in the
Union Army
*
Neil Hannon
Edward Neil Anthony Hannon (born 7 November 1970) is a singer and songwriter from Northern Ireland. He is the founder and frontman of the chamber pop group the Divine Comedy, and is the band's only constant member since its inception in 1989. H ...
, musician from art-pop band "The Divine Comedy" (attended Preparatory Department)
*
Brigadier-General Sir Henry Lawrence, soldier/statesman in
British India
The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance in South Asia. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one form or another ...
*
The Rt Hon. The 1st Baron Lawrence,
P.C.,
Viceroy of India
The governor-general of India (1833 to 1950, from 1858 to 1947 the viceroy and governor-general of India, commonly shortened to viceroy of India) was the representative of the monarch of the United Kingdom in their capacity as the Emperor of ...
(1864–1869)
*
Seamus Mallon
Seamus Frederick Mallon ( ; 17 August 1936 – 24 January 2020) was an Irish politician who served as deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland from 1998 to 2001 and Deputy Leader of the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) from 1979 to ...
, current
Rugby Union
Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...
player
*
Stanley Mitchell, first-class cricketer and former president of the
Irish Cricket Union
*
George Fletcher Moore
George Fletcher Moore (10 December 1798 – 30 December 1886) was a prominent early settler in colonial Western Australia, and "one fthe key figures in early Western Australia's ruling elite" (Cameron, 2000). He conducted a number of exploring ...
, prominent early settler in Western Australia
*
Johan Thoning Owesen, Irish-Norwegian shipowner and philanthropist
*
The Rt Hon. Sir Robert Porter,
PC (NI),
QC, former
Minister of Home Affairs
An interior minister (sometimes called a minister of internal affairs or minister of home affairs) is a cabinet official position that is responsible for internal affairs, such as public security, civil registration and identification, emergency ...
(1969 - 1970), politician, barrister and judge
*
The Rt Hon. Sir John Ross
Sir John Ross (24 June 1777 – 30 August 1856) was a Scottish Royal Navy officer and polar explorer. He was the uncle of Sir James Clark Ross, who explored the Arctic with him, and later led expeditions to Antarctica.
Biography
Ear ...
, 1st
Bt,
P.C. (I.),
K.C., last
Lord Chancellor of Ireland
The Lord High Chancellor of Ireland, commonly known as the Lord Chancellor of Ireland, was the highest ranking judicial office in Ireland until the establishment of the Irish Free State in 1922. From 1721 until the end of 1800, it was also the hi ...
(1921–1922)
*
Leah Totton, cosmetic doctor who gained fame as the winner of the
9th series of the
BBC One
BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's oldest and flagship channel, and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television b ...
television programme, ''
The Apprentice''
*
Claude Wilton, lawyer and civil rights activist
See also
*List of the oldest schools in the United Kingdom
This list of the oldest schools in the United Kingdom contains extant schools in the United Kingdom established prior to 1800. The dates refer to the foundation or the earliest documented contemporary reference to the school. In many cases the date ...
References
External links
Foyle and Londonderry College Official Website
Profile
on the ISC website rchivebr>Profile
on HMC website rchive
{{authority control
Grammar schools in Derry (city)
Secondary schools in Derry (city)
Derry (city)
Member schools of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference
1617 establishments in Ireland
Educational institutions established in the 1610s