Orangefield High School
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Orangefield High School is a secondary school in East Belfast, Northern Ireland. Formerly Orangefield Boys School and Orangefield Girls School, it is now coeducational.
Notable alumni of the Boys' School include Van Morrison, Brian Keenan, David Ervine, Gerald Dawe, Walter Ellis and Ronnie Bunting.[1]
Orangefield High has hosted recent Formals with Castle High School. Images from these formals can be found on Castle High's website at castlehigh.ik.org.
Orangefield High School educates students from year 8 to year 15. This means that the school has a Lower and Upper Sixth. The school offers a wide range of subjects from compulsory such as English, Mathematics, Science that are required through years 8-12. The school also offers other subjects such as technology and design, home economics, information computer technology, media, music, geography, history, business studies, physical education and religious education. The school currently has an estimated 350+ pupils attending the school of different ethnic origins and races. Although the school is predominately of the Protestant community, they also accept pupils from other countries such as South Africa, Denmark & Poland. There are about 30-40 members of staff.
The school's main competitor for pupils is local Ashfield Girls and Ashfield Boys.
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[edit] History
Orangefield has had a long history with the local Protestant community, with many local celebrities and international icons having been educated at the school. The most famous former student is Van Morrison.[2]Morrison wrote a song entitled "Orangefield" and included it on his album Avalon Sunset. He also referred to his school days in Orangefield in the songs "Got To Go Back" and "On Hyndford Street". John Malone was the headmaster in the 1960's.
[edit] Location
Some of the older school buildings are still in use today, although the original boys school building is now unused. The new buildings added throughout the years have brought together the girls and boys schools with additional add ons such a dedicated science wing built in 1991 and a reception area added on to the school building. The school shares the area with other local schools, Grosvenor Grammar School and Orangefield Primary and was built in an area away from the local area of Orby in the corner, creating a very quiet and wildlife friendly school.
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[edit] School Houses (Boys)
There were 4 school houses during the period to 1974 (linked to local businesses with respective colours) - Davidson (red), Hughes (blue), Musgrave (green) and Bryson ?? (yellow). The Musgrave company then went bankrupt and another business was recruited to take over which became o`neill house
[edit] Integration of sexes
During 1972 to 1974, a couple of girls from 6th & Upper 6th Girls school shared classes with the Boys school and lessons were undertaken in what was known as the 'new' block.
