Hunterhouse College is a cross-community all-girls' grammar school based in

Finaghy Finaghy ( or ; ) is an electoral ward in the Balmoral district of Belfast City Council, Northern Ireland. It is based on the townland of Ballyfinaghy (). There has been a small community living in the area since the 17th century, and it has bee ...

Belfast Belfast (, , , ; from ) is the capital city and principal port of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan and connected to the open sea through Belfast Lough and the North Channel (Great Britain and Ireland), North Channel ...

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...

. It was formed from the amalgamation of two local schools – ''Ashleigh House School'' and ''Princess Gardens School'' in 1987. As the headmistresses from both schools had the surname "Hunter" at the time of the merger, and an original headmistress was Anna Hunter, the combined school took the name "Hunterhouse College". Hunterhouse now has its first ever headmaster. Mr Andrew Gibson has been the Principal since September 2008 and was previously Vice-Principal at Grosvenor Grammar. In 2012 Hunterhouse celebrated its 25 Anniversary year including a concert at the Ulster Hall, Belfast, which past Hunterians, Princess Gardens and Ashleigh House pupils attended. From 1966 to 1975, Jean Crawford Cochrane was the headmistress of Ashleigh House. The popular comedy series Derry Girls is filmed here.

Controversies

In November 2014, after a parent of a pupil complained, the school apologised for a worksheet which presented the traditional

Christian A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...

view of

homosexuality Homosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or Human sexual activity, sexual behavior between people of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexu ...

as sinful according to 1 Corinthians 6:9–11 in the

New Testament The New Testament (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus, as well as events relating to Christianity in the 1st century, first-century Christianit ...

References

Teachers

Grammar schools in Belfast Grammar schools in County Antrim Girls' schools in Northern Ireland {{NorthernIreland-school-stub