| The Wallace High School | |
|---|---|
| Location | |
| Lisburn, Northern Ireland |
|
| Information | |
| Established | 1880 |
| Website | www.wallacehigh.org |
The Wallace High School is a co-educational voluntary grammar school situated in Lisburn, Northern Ireland.
It was founded in 1880 by a bequest from the estate of Sir Richard Wallace, local landowner and Unionist MP, as the Lisburn Intermediate and University School on a site fronting the Antrim Road. A board of trustees took charge in 1900 to oversee the development of the growing school and, when they renamed it in 1942 in memory of its founder, they adopted the word Esperance as the school's motto from the Wallace coat of arms.
The post-war years witnessed rapid growth in pupil numbers and consequent accommodation provision. Land was purchased at Clonevin Park, initially for playing fields, and when the Antrim Road site proved inadequate, the decision was taken to build a new school in these extensive grounds.
Pupils and staff moved to the new building in 1976, and a programme of continuing development has ensured that the school still provides well resourced teaching areas and excellent sports facilities for some 1160 pupils in the grammar school and 200 in the preparatory department.
Contents |
Junior School
In Year 8 all pupils study art, drama, English, French, games, geography, history, home economics, information technology, mathematics, music, physical education, religious education, science, technology and tutorial. In Year 9, a choice is made between German and Spanish as a second foreign language.
GCSE
In addition to mathematics, English, English literature, Double Award Science and ICT, pupils must choose four more subjects from additional mathematics, art, business studies, French, geography, German, history, home economics, journalism, music, physical education, religious education, Spanish and technology.
A level
Pupils generally study 4 subjects during their AS year and 3 for A2, although each year a small number of pupils continue with 4 subjects in their Upper Sixth year.
Subjects that can be studied for A level include art, biology, business studies, chemistry, English literature, further mathematics, French, geography, German, history, home economics, information technology, mathematics, moving image arts, music, physical education, physics, politics, Spanish and technology.
The house system plays an important role in school life. Each pupil is assigned to a school house when they enter Year 8 and their school tie will bear the stripe corresponding to the colour of their house. A pupil will be assigned to the same house as an older sibling who has attended the school. The house system fosters a sense of community within the school, achieved through house assemblies and inter-house competitions in sport and other extra-curricular activities including art, technology, photography and the annual House Quiz. The House Cups are presented to the male and female house which has accumulated the most points through these competitions at the end of each academic year.
A teacher is in charge of each house and is assisted by a team of pupils. House prefects are selected from Upper Sixth pupils including a Captain, Vice Captain and a prefect for each year group. In addition, a representative from each year from Year 8 - 13 is selected to assist with the running of house competitions.
Boys' houses
Barbour (Red) Conway (Green) Hamilton (Yellow)
Girls' houses
Hanna (Red) Gracey (Green) Seymour (Yellow)
Wallace High School is noted for men's hockey with wins in the Burney Cup, McCullough Cup and a single win in the All Ireland Championship in 1987-88. In 2011 the hockey girls created history by reaching the final of the Ulster Senior Schoolgirls' Cup for the first time, only to lose on penalties.[1]
It has recently enjoyed strong performances in the Ulster Rugby Schools Cup, reaching the final in 1989, 1994, 2003, and 2007. Also in rugby, they won the second's Cup in 2007, defeating Campbell College 9-5 in the final, they also won the third's cup, beating Methodist College Belfast in the final and shared the Medallion Sheild with Campbell College in 2010.
Wallace rank as a top team in both boys and girls cricket. The boys have won the schools cup twice since 2000. Wallace also has regular sporting success in badminton and netball.
TV
Politics
Sports
The Wallace High School Preparatory Department operates on the same grounds as the Grammar School. There are seven classes running from primary 1 to primary 7. Religious Studies, Music, Art, Journalism, Athletics and Technology are taught as well as core subjects. The current head of department is Mrs N Watson who took over from Mr R Hall in January 2008.
The Wallace High School was proudly awarded funding this year by the European Union and British Council to partake in the multinational Comenius Partnerships Project, alongside Ole Vig School, Norway and Johannes-Kepler, Germany.
The Comenius (Active Tourist) Project acknowledges that young people use a vast range of mobile devices from mobile phones through to music players and PDA's, but instead of banning them from school, the project exploits the enormous educational and communicational potential of these devices. Using a variety of GPS, Google Earth, WIFI and VLE's, each school will make local audio and visual tourist guides, covering a range of topics from history through to shopping to be included in a handheld PDA for tourists in the local area to use.
Throughout the duration of the project pupils from Wallace, Norway and Germany will collaborate with their European counterparts through occasional video conferences and on a regular bases via email and telephone. Wallace High School pupils wil also have the opporunity to travel to the partner schools, with some pupils traveling to Norway in October 2009, and Germany in 2010.