Foyle and Londonderry College
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| Address | Duncreggan Road Londonderry BT48 0AW |
| Telephone | (+44 28) 712 69321 |
| Fax | (+44 28) 712 69425 |
| Headmaster | W.J. Magill |
| School type | Voluntary Grammar |
| School Board | WELB |
| Location | Derry, Northern Ireland, UK |
| Enrollment | 960 students |
| School colour(s) | Maroon, Blue, White |
| Motto | ' |
Foyle and Londonderry College (or FALC) is a co-educational voluntary grammar school in the city of Derry, Northern Ireland. The school is also a member of the Independent Schools Council of the United Kingdom. The current headmaster is Jack Magill. There is a total student body of around 960 with a teaching strength of 57.
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[edit] Current
FALC is a split site school. The two campuses are; the Junior School (ages 11-14) located in Springtown, and the Senior School (ages 14-18) located in Duncreggan.
As a Grammar School it admits pupils based on academic selection. All the core subjects as well as a number of options are offered up until the end of Key Stage 3 in Springtown. Pupils then transfer to the Senior School at Duncreggan and sit GCSEs. With good grades, pupils have the option to study AS and A2 levels in the Sixth Form.
The official religious affiliation of the school is inter-denominational. However, it is notable for being the only predominantly Protestant secondary school on the Roman Catholic side of the city. It is anticipated that the school will move to a new location on the Limavady Road in the Waterside area of the city before 2010.
The current Head Boy and Head Girl are Kaine Lynch and Mari Brennan.
[edit] 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 a coloured diagonal stripes which indicates the pupil's house.
Lawrence (Blue)
Duncreggan (Red)
Springham (Yellow)
Northlands (Green)
[edit] Buildings & amenities
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The Junior and Senior Schools are both well equipped, enabling staff to adopt the most effective teaching methods. In the Senior School there are nine science laboratories plus two computer suites, a technology suite, art and design suite, music suite, home economics room, business studies suite including computer room, study hall, library, upper Sixth social centre, lower Sixth social centre, sports hall and twenty-two general classrooms. Drama and musical performances take place in the assembly hall.
In the Junior School the library, two information technology suites and technology Suite are well established while the science laboratories have been completely refurbished. Home economics, art and music rooms have been renovated. There are fourteen general classrooms, a fully equipped gymnasium and assembly hall.
Serving the 30 acres of school grounds are two pavilions at Springtown where there are rugby pitches, cricket pitches, tennis courts and an all‑weather hockey and athletics ground. The Senior School has a hockey pitch and tennis courts.
[edit] History
Foyle College and Londonderry High School, (now Foyle and Londonderry College), have been providing education for young people in the Londonderry area and further afield for over 375 years.
[edit] Foyle College
Foyle College traces its origins to 1617 and the establishment of the Free Grammar School at Society Street within the city walls of Derry by Mathias Springham of the Merchant Taylors' Company of London. 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 Honorable The Irish Society (the body charged with the plantation of the County of Londonderry in the 17th century). There followed an on-going dispute between the Irish Society and the Church of Ireland Bishop of Derry 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 Act of Parliament.
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 Londonderry, St George's Church, High Street, Belfast and St Stephen's Church ('the peppercanister church'), Mount Street, Dublin. The school took the name 'Foyle College' in 1814. The story goes that one of the boarders, George Fletcher Moore, 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, which contributed to the funds of both schools, proposed a scheme of amalgamation, and negotiations finally resulted in the passing of the Foyle College Act in 1896, 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, and as a consequence of the many changes brought about by the 1947 Education Act, 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 His Royal Highness the Duke of Kent.
[edit] 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 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, H.M.L., 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 Dunseveric. The new buildings were opened by Her Grace 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.
Eventually 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 of 1976, resulting in the first co-educational Grammar School in Derry.
The school Preparatory Department closed in 2003.
[edit] Extra-curricular
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The most popular sports in the school include rugby (which has seen 2 tours to Australia and South Pacific) and hockey (which will tour to Barcelona in 2006). The school (as Foyle College) has twice won the Ulster Schools Cup; in 1915 beating Royal School Armagh and in 1900 beating Methodist College Belfast. It has also been a runner up on three occasions. Foyle and Londonderry College's most recent rugby silverware was won in the 2005/06 season; FALC defeated Limavady Grammar School at Ravenhill to win the Ulster Schools Bowl.
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.
The school has a well earned reputation for musical excellence. The choir compete at the annual Sainbury's School Choir of the Year and never fail to do well. FALC's musical productions are always a highlight for pupils, parents and staff as months of preparation pay off. Past shows have included Annie, Calamity Jane, The Mikado, Bugsy Malone and most recently Me and My Girl.
FALC has a thriving Combined Cadet Force (CCF).
[edit] Distinguished former pupils
George Farquhar - the Restoration dramatist
John Lawrence, 1st Baron Lawrence - Viceroy of India (1864-1869)
William Percy French - the songwriter and author of 'The Mountains of Mourne'
Neil Hannon - from art-pop band The Divine Comedy. (attended Preparatory Department)
John Ross (Judge) - the last Lord Chancellor of Ireland (1921-1922)
Amanda Burton - of TV's Silent Witness Fame
Andrew Simpson - up and coming star of movies such as Song for a Raggy Boy & Notes on a Scandal
Noel Henderson - rugby International with Ireland and the Lions in the 1950s
Seamus Mallon - former Ulster Rugby player now with Northampton Saints
Eva Birthistle - TV actress most famous for Ae Fond Kiss who was born in Bray but moved to Derry when she was 14.
