Strangford College, also known as Strangford Integrated College, is a school in
Carrowdore
Carrowdore () is a small village on the Ards Peninsula in County Down, Northern Ireland. It is situated in the townland of Ballyrawer, the civil parish of Donaghadee and the historic barony of Ards Lower. It lies within the Ards and North Down ...
,
Newtownards
Newtownards (; ) is a town in County Down, Northern Ireland. It lies at the most northern tip of Strangford Lough, 10 miles (16 km) east of Belfast, on the Ards Peninsula. It is in the Civil parishes in Ireland, civil parish of Newtow ...
,
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 ...
. It is an
integrated co-educational secondary school with a
grammar
In linguistics, grammar is the set of rules for how a natural language is structured, as demonstrated by its speakers or writers. Grammar rules may concern the use of clauses, phrases, and words. The term may also refer to the study of such rul ...
stream with 834 students (2024/25). Mrs Clare Foster is the school's current principal.
Context
Integrated Education
Integrated education in Northern Ireland refers to the bringing together of children, parents and teachers from both Roman Catholic and Protestant traditions in childhood education: the aim being to provide a balanced education, while allowing the ...
is a Northern Ireland phenomenon, where traditionally schools were sectarian, either Catholic or Protestant. On parental request, a school could apply to 'transition' to become
grant-maintained and offer 30% of the school places to students from the minority community.
Lagan College
Lagan College is a grant maintained integrated secondary school in Belfast, Northern Ireland. It holds a total of around 1475 students (as of 2024) It was formed in 1981 as the first integrated school in Northern Ireland and contains students o ...
was the first integrated school to open in 1981.
As of 2025, students at Strangford College were 39% Protestant, 19% Roman Catholic and 42% other.
History
Strangford College opened 1 September 1997, with 64 students and 7 staff. It was awarded grant-maintained status in September 1999.
A new build was approved by the Department of Education in April 2016 and a contractor appointed in 2021.
In 2021, the college applied to raise its official enrolment number from 670 to 760; the minister at first refused the request,
but on appeal, reversed his decision. This allows the college to accept 130 year 8 students a year.
The college applied unsuccessfully in 2019 to use
transfer tests to select the 35% of pupils it admits to the grammar stream in Year 8.
It reapplied in January 2022.
See also
*
Education in Northern Ireland
The education system in Northern Ireland differs from elsewhere in the United Kingdom (although it is relatively similar to Wales), but is similar to the Republic of Ireland in sharing in the development of the ''National school (Ireland), nat ...
*
List of integrated schools in Northern Ireland
Integrated schools are part of integrated education within Northern Ireland, aimed at bringing children together from both sides of the main religious communities through education.
Integrated schools can be Controlled Integrated or Grant Mainta ...
*
List of secondary schools in Northern Ireland
This is a list of secondary schools in Northern Ireland, according to the Department of Education (Northern Ireland).
__NOTOC__
See also
* List of Irish medium nurseries in Northern Ireland
* List of Irish medium primary schools in Northern ...
References
External links
Strangford CollegeStrangford College Prospectus 2020/2021
{{Education in Northern Ireland
Integrated schools in County Down
Secondary schools in County Down