Saint Patrick's Grammar School, Armagh

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A painting of the school created by The Edden Gallery, Armagh.

St. Patrick's Grammar School, Armagh, is an Irish Catholic boys voluntary English-medium grammar school in the city of Armagh, Northern Ireland.

The present-day school was officially opened on Thursday 27 October 1988 by the late Cardinal Tomas O' Fiaich, the then Chairman of the Board of Governors, and was the result of the amalgamation of two of Northern Ireland's oldest grammar schools, Christian Brothers' Grammar School (CBS) and St. Patrick's College, both of which had illustrious traditions stretching back as far as the 1830's.

1 History
2 Innovations
3 Academic achievements
4 Incidents
5 External links
6 References

[edit] History

[edit] St. Patrick's College

St. Patrick's College, Armagh, had been established as a junior seminary on Armagh's Sandy Hill by Archbishop Crolly and was under the direction of diocesan priests until 1861, when the Vincentian Order was invited to take charge of the school. The Vincentians continued their apostolate in Armagh until the amalgamation.

[edit] Christian Brothers' Grammar School

The Irish Christian Brothers arrived in Armagh in 1851 at the invitation of Archbishop Cullen, who was later to be Ireland's first Cardinal. Within a few years the Christian Brothers acquired the Greenpark site and primary and secondary schools were established. Christian Brothers' Grammar School, Greenpark, built up a strong academic and sporting tradition.

When the Vincentian Order signified their intention to withdraw from Armagh, the late Cardinal Tomas O' Fiaich requested the Irish Christian Brothers to become joint trustees of the new amalgamated school. The work in education started by Archbishop Crolly in 1838 was to continue on Sandy Hill. Cardinal O' Fiaich was succeeded as Chairman of the Board of Governors by Cardinal Daly in 1991 and by Archbishop Brady in 1997.

[edit] Problems

While it can be said that much has been done in recent years to imporve the school, it's reputation has to this date never been exposed as the fraud it is. There have been many incidents within the school which have been covered up, with the problem of drug taking on school property not being investigated properly. The drugs of choice of current students are Ecstasy, cocaine and Cannabis resin. It is to be hoped that the staff work hard to stamp out these problems within the school.

[edit] Strategic development plan

A number of years ago, the school made an announcement entitled "Preparing the Way: Developing for the 21st Century", which set out its plans for a new music and technology block for the school, and massive investment in classroom technology such as interactive whiteboards, and new sports facilities. All, except the sporting plans (which were temporarily put on hold due to a lack of funding) have now been put into place.

The sports development, however, is now back online with the help of the largest sum of public money to be awarded to a grammar school in Northern Ireland for a considerable amount of time. With the £380 million school building programme, announced in 2006 by Angela Evans Smith, St. Patrick's are to receive the largest sum - £18.2 million - for refurbishment and development.

[edit] Innovations

In recent years, St. Patrick’s has introduced many new concepts. In 2003, the schools finance department launched a cashless card system, used for buying stationary and food in the school, which was intended to reduce queing times and bullying.

Furthermore, in 2005, the school was among the first in Northern Ireland to host Class Room 2000 (C2K) technologies, and now every classroom contains an interactive whiteboard, a data projector, with television and DVD capabilities, and a PC, complete with access to the Internet, e-mail and educational software.

[edit] Academic achievements

St. Patrick's students have consistently achieved exemplar public examination results for many years, with pupils often attaining recognition for top grades across Northern Ireland.

Since Gerry Cullen began teaching Economics at St. Patrick's, pupils of the school have on four occasions managed to attain the best GCSE scores in the subject in Northern Ireland, along with a second and third at GCSE, a first, third and sixth at A-Level, and a litany of other related awards. Similar things can be said for many of the other departments of the school, including Mathematics and Art.

In 2005, 100% of leaving upper sixth form students attained a place at university.

During the Summer 2006 exam season students at St. Patrick's achieved exemplary results in their GCSE and A-Level subjects, making the school one of the top schools in the Southern Education and Library Board.