Carrickfergus College was a

secondary school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' secondary education, lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) ...

Carrickfergus Carrickfergus ( , meaning " Fergus' rock") is a large town in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It sits on the north shore of Belfast Lough, from Belfast. The town had a population of 27,998 at the 2011 Census. It is County Antrim's oldest t ...

County Antrim County Antrim (named after the town of Antrim, ) is one of six counties of Northern Ireland and one of the thirty-two counties of Ireland. Adjoined to the north-east shore of Lough Neagh, the county covers an area of and has a population o ...

, Northern Ireland. The college was opened in 1959 and has over 750 students and 52 teachers. It is within the

North Eastern Education and Library Board Education in Northern Ireland differs from education systems elsewhere in the United Kingdom (although it is relatively similar to Wales), but is similar to the Republic of Ireland in sharing in the development of the ''national school'' syste ...

History

Carrickfergus College was previously known as ''Carrickfergus High School''. It is locally (and colloquially) known simply as "Carrick College". In May 2007 the school became one of 25 specialist secondary and grammar schools in Northern Ireland. Its specialty is Business and Enterprise. As a specialist school they received additional funding of about £400,000 for the next four years. During the school year 2009/2010, Carrickfergus College celebrated its 50th anniversary. In 2010 the school began offering GCSE Ancient History. In 2011, the College achieved its highest ever GCSE pass rate for pupils achieving 5+ GCSE grades A* - C of 72%, above the Northern Ireland average for similar schools of 67%. This was a considerable increase from the previous year's 42%. In 2012 GCSE grades were 66.4% achieving 5+ grades at A* - C grade or equivalent. In 2013 GCSE results increased to a pass rate of 68.4% for pupils gaining 5+ GCSEs at grades A* - C. In 2013, a planned amalgamation of Carrickfergus College with Ulidia College and Downshire School was shelved. In 2015, a pupil from the school had achieved the highest mark in GCSE Ancient History from the previous school year in Northern Ireland. Carrickfergus College merged with

Downshire School Downshire Community School was a co-educational, 11-18 secondary school in Carrickfergus, County Antrim, Northern Ireland, situated on Downshire Road. Downshire is a Specialist School in Business Studies and Enterprise with Sport. The school o ...

and they became Carrickfergus Academy.

Carrickfergus Learning Community (CLC)

Carrickfergus College is currently involved in a new curricular scheme called the Carrickfergus Learning Community (CLC), along with Carrickfergus Grammar School, Downshire, and Ulidia Integrated College. Students wishing to access these courses must have met the school criteria for returning to their own school to complete sixth form studies and meet the entry requirements for the individual subject they wish to study.

House system

The school has set up a house system similar to Carrickfergus Grammar with houses Castle, Fergus, Knockagh and Thornfield.

Podcast

In October 2012 after a visit from local CityBeat DJ Stephen Clements, Carrickfergus College launched a

podcast A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. For example, an episodic series of digital audio or video files that a user can download to a personal device to listen to at a time of their choosing ...

feature on their school website. Updated monthly, the podcast highlights pupils of the school reporting on important events throughout the year. In December 2012 the podcasts were made available for download on

iTunes iTunes () is a software program that acts as a media player, media library, mobile device management utility, and the client app for the iTunes Store. Developed by Apple Inc., it is used to purchase, play, download, and organize digital mul ...

References

External links

Carrickfergus College Website
Secondary schools in County Antrim Educational institutions established in 1959 1959 establishments in Northern Ireland Specialist colleges in Northern Ireland Defunct schools in Northern Ireland {{NorthernIreland-school-stub