St Patrick's Grammar School, Armagh

St Patrick's Grammar School Scoil Ghramadaí Naomh Pádraig
Address
Cathedral Road Armagh, Co. Armagh, BT617QZ Northern Ireland
Information
Type	Voluntary Grammar School
Motto	Fratres in Unum
Religious affiliation(s)	Roman Catholic
Established	1838 (Present School 1989)
Chairman of Board of Governors	Cardinal S. Brady
Principal	Rev. Kevin Donaghy
Staff	100+
Gender	All-Male
Age	11 to 18+
Enrollment	1000+
Colour(s)	Red, Green
Website	School Website

St Patrick's Grammar School (Irish: Scoil Ghramadaí Naomh Pádraig), Armagh, is a Roman Catholic boys' voluntary 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 Tomás Ó 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 1830s. The school once again went through an expansion in 2014-2015, this time with the closure of St. Brigid's High School. Enrolment at St. Patrick's was expanded to 1250 to facilitate the closure and £3 Million site renovations began in late October 2015 to enhance facilities. The current Chairman of the Board of Governors is the Most Rev. Cardinal Dr Seán P. Brady, J.C.D., D.D. The school's current Leadership Team consists of Principal, the Rev. K. Donaghy, Vice-Principals Mr J. Herron and Mrs A. Quinn and Extended Leadership Team, Mr D. McAlary (Head of Sixth Form), Mrs J.A. Denver (Head of KS4) and Mrs R.A. Slane (Head of KS3). The school is situated in the vicinity of St Patrick's Roman Catholic Cathedral.

History of St. Patrick's

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.

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 Cardinal Brady in 1997.

Site renovation

The school was awarded £3 million for site renovation in October 2013 to include an extension to the school canteen and school meals kitchen, new home economics classrooms, an extension to facilitate a relocated staffroom and refurbishment of classrooms, PE departments and general schools buildings as well as permission for 4 mobile classrooms. The contract was awarded to GEDA construction and they began work on site in October 2015.

Life at St. Patrick's

Languages

At St. Patrick's all students from years 8-10 study languages and most student will go on to study languages at GCSE and A-level. There are three languages offered at St. Patrick's,

• Irish
• French
• Spanish

In years 8-9 all students study French and Irish, with the top ability students also studying Spanish as a third language in Year 10. Students will have up to two hours a week for each language. At GCSE, most students go on to study at least one language with some students availing of the opportunity to take more than one. Also, at A-level some students choose to continue studying a language further. These students usually have eight classes per week, alongside 2 conversation classes with the school's language assistants. Every language at St. Patrick's has a fluent language assistant. Students who speak a first language other than English are often entered for a GCSE in their first language in order to maximise the number of GCSEs they achieve.

Extra-curricular activities

St Patrick's actively encourages student creation of and participation in extra-curricular activities. Some long-standing extra-curricular societies of the school include: the debating society, St. Vincent De Paul and groups of the music department.

Extra-curricular groups in the music department include the school orchestra, steel band, traditional group, and choir, each of which has a day allocated for practice for one hour after school. The dept. is also taking part in the new 'Soundstart Project.' Every year 8 and year 9 class are part of this. For one class every week they learn an orchestral instrument from all sections of the orchestra, as well as African drums. They are taken by professional tutors, assuring that every pupil can leave year 9 able to play an instrument and read music. The various music groups play an annual Spring concert in the Market Place Theatre, along all the groups from Soundstart. The main music groups also undertake in touring around the country. The steel band has performed in places as prestigious as the Waterfront Hall as well as playing on radio shows. The band has participated in competitions in Jamaica and Spain. The orchestra and traditional group have also toured in Spain. The choir sings regularly in mass services and competitions.

• Sports Department

A large number of sports also attract student interest, including basketball, cross-country running, gaelic football, golf, handball, hurling, squash and swimming. The school hosts an annual sports day towards the end of each academic year. At the turn of the millennium St. Patrick's won the MacRory cup. In 2007 and 2012 the school reached the semi-final stage of the MacRory Cup. In 1934, 1936, 1938, 1943, 1950–1952, 1957, 1967, 1994 and 1997 the school reached the final of the gaelic football competition. The school held the cup after achieving victory in the following years: 1923 - 1929, 1931, 1944–1947 and 1953. The school was also the first winner of the All-Ireland Colleges competition the Hogan Cup.

Excursions

It has been traditional for first year students to attend a residential retreat (typically Killowen, Carlingford or Todd's Leap) at the beginning of their academic life at St. Patrick's. At the end of a student's seven years at St. Patrick's they are invited to attend a religious retreat and the school's annual formal.

The school's language department has, for a long time, developed links with many European countries to facilitate exchange programs. The school's Irish department promotes Gaeltachts to the many Irish language students throughout KS3, GCSE and A Level.

Lots of sporting excursions have come about throughout the school's history owing to their continuing sporting success. In the past the Physical Education department took a select group of students to Canada.

School Aid Romania (SAR)

School Aid Romania was set up in 1990 with two main aims: to assist children in need in Romania and to bring together pupils from different schools and different communities in Northern Ireland. In pursuit of its aims, School Aid Romania's objectives are to contribute to the development of community relations and mutual understanding between young people in Northern Ireland and to secure, by joint ventures, material assistance to relieve poverty and improve the well-being of young people in Romania. The current staff who accompany students to Romania are Mrs U. Lennon and Mr N. King.

St. Patrick's Grammar has been involved in SAR since 1993 and currently travels to Brasov with Cookstown High School. The school has hosted a number of visitors from schools, hospitals, orphanages and the Inspectorate in Brasov. The SAR group in St. Patrick's has also arranged for physiotherapists and teachers of special needs to travel to Brasov and work with children in Timis.

Amalgamation with St Brigid's

It was announced in March 2014 that St. Patrick's was to merge with St Brigid's High School Armagh as the Armagh school was set for closure. This allowed all Catholic boys will attend St. Patrick's, which from September 2014 no longer used academic selection. St. Patrick's is now an all-ability school which accepts all young boys from Armagh and surrounding areas regardless of academic ability. This is to provide students with the best possible education and increase opportunities to study a range of subjects at GCSE to met the qualification reforms for Northern Ireland.

Innovations

In recent years, St. Patrick's has been among the first schools in the United Kingdom and Ireland to pioneer many new technologies.

In 2003 the school's finance department launched a cashless card system which facilitates the purchasing of food and water from the school cafeterias and assorted resources from the onsite stationery shop. The primary intention of such an innovation was to reduce queuing times. From September 2008 the system has been further enhanced so that students no longer require cashless cards but simply a fingerprint to access their money. The system was also integrated with Library software to enable students to borrow books without the need for a library card.

Furthermore, in 2004, the school was among the first in Northern Ireland to boast Class Room 2000 (C2K) technologies with every classroom containing an interactive Promethean whiteboard, a data projector (with television and DVD capabilities) and a networked computer with access to the Internet, e-mail and assorted educational software and resources.

Academic achievements

Students of St. Patrick's have consistently achieved exemplary public examination results with pupils often attaining recognition for achieving top grades in Northern Ireland and the United Kingdom. Pupils of Mr. Gerard Cullen (Head of Business Studies & Economics) have on four occasions managed to attain the best GCSE score 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 achievements propagate to many of the other departments of the school.

During the Summer 2006 exam season students at St. Patrick's achieved exemplary results in their GCSE and A-Level subjects, making it the top all boys grammar school in Northern Ireland and fifth overall.

Summer 2008 heralded further academic splendour for St. Patrick's with twenty-seven of its students attaining straight As in three or more A-Levels. Five students actually achieved four grade As, whilst one student attained five.

Notable former pupils

See also: Category:People educated at St. Patrick's Grammar School, Armagh

• Cormac McAnallen - Tyrone Gaelic footballer
• Oisin McConville - Armagh Gaelic footballer
• Charlie Vernon - Armagh Gaelic footballer
• Joe Brolly - Derry Gaelic footballer, journalist, Barrister
• Rónán Clarke - Armagh Gaelic footballer
• Sean Cavanagh - Tyrone Gaelic footballer
• Colm Cavanagh - Tyrone Gaelic footballer
• Alexander Blane - MP for South Armagh, 1885–92
• Seamus Mallon - Former and first ever Deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland
• Cillian Vallely - Traditional Irish musician
• Niall Vallely - Traditional Irish musician
• John Montague - Poet
• Paul Muldoon - Poet
• Seamus McGarvey - Cinematographer
• Patrick Magee - Actor