St Patrick's College ( Irish: ''Coláiste Phádraig Droichead na Banna'') is a Catholic maintained secondary school located in

Banbridge Banbridge ( ) is a town in County Down, Northern Ireland. It lies on the River Bann and the A1 road and is named after a bridge built over the Bann in 1712. It is in the civil parish of Seapatrick and the historic barony of Iveagh Upper ...

County Down County Down () is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the traditional thirty-two counties of Ireland. It covers an area of and has a population of 552,261. It borders County Antrim to the ...

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 ...

History

The foundation stone for St. Patrick's Intermediate School was laid on 1 May 1957 by Bishop O'Doherty and the school received its first pupils in September 1958. Its name was changed to St. Patrick's High School in 1972 as a result of the raising of the school-leaving age. It was again changed to St. Patrick's College to reflect the increased numbers of students staying on to complete their GCSE A-Levels.

Facilities

In October 2020, a full-size 3G GAA pitch with floodlights and changing rooms was added to the school's sporting facilities. This was funded by a grant of £1.5 million from several agencies including Peace4Youth, the

Armagh, Banbridge and Craigavon District Council Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon Borough Council is a local authority that was established on 1 April 2015. It replaced Armagh City and District Council, Banbridge District Council and Craigavon Borough Council. The first elections to the ...

and

Sport Northern Ireland Sport Northern Ireland, officially the Sports Council for Northern Ireland, is the regional government sports council (funding body) for Northern Ireland. Its head office is based, near Barnett Demesne, at the "House of Sport" on Upper Malone ...

Academics

The full range of subjects is offered. At GCSE A-level, students can choose from geography, art, biology, technology and design, English literature, psychology, drama and theatre studies, software systems and development, chemistry, agriculture, history, journalism, physics, government and politics, and religious studies. They can also take a BTEC Level 3 National Diploma in information technology, engineering, childcare, performing arts, public services, media and sport. The college has been previously named best performing non-selective school in County Down. It has also been listed as among the top ten non-grammar schools in Northern Ireland.

Shared education

The college works in partnership with the neighbouring Banbridge High School to offer a number of shared activities as part of the curriculum. It is also part of the Banbridge Area Learning Community co-ordinated by the

Southern Regional College Southern Regional College (SRC) is a further and higher education college in the southern area of Northern Ireland in the United Kingdom. It was formed in 2007 following a merger of the Further Education colleges of Armagh College, Newry and K ...

Extra-curricular

The college offers the opportunity to participate in various sporting activities including swimming, netball,

Gaelic football Gaelic football (; short name '')'', commonly known as simply Gaelic, GAA, or football, is an Irish team sport. A form of football, it is played between two teams of 15 players on a rectangular grass pitch. The objective of the sport is to score ...

(boys and girls),

camogie Camogie ( ; ) is an Irish stick-and-ball team sport played by women. Camogie is played by 100,000 women in Ireland and worldwide, largely among Irish communities. A variant of the game "hurling" (which is played by men only), it is organised ...

hurling Hurling (, ') is an outdoor Team sport, team game of ancient Gaelic culture, Gaelic Irish origin, played by men and women. One of Ireland's native Gaelic games, it shares a number of features with Gaelic football, such as the field and goa ...

, rugby, basketball, dance,and athletics. The college has an active music programme including opportunities for singing and musical instruments.

Awards

In 2020, the college was awarded Intermediate level of the

British Council The British Council is a British organisation specialising in international cultural and educational opportunities. It works in over 100 countries: promoting a wider knowledge of the United Kingdom and the English language (and the Welsh lang ...

's International School Award in recognition of its work to bring the world into the classroom.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Patrick's College, Banbridge 1958 establishments in Northern Ireland Educational institutions established in 1958 Secondary schools in County Down Catholic secondary schools in Northern Ireland Banbridge