St Patrick's College ( Irish: ''Coláiste Phádraig Droichead na Banna'') is a Catholic maintained secondary school located in Banbridge,

County Down County Down () is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the traditional thirty-two counties of Ireland. It covers an area of and has a population of 531,665. It borders County Antrim to the ...

, Northern Ireland.

History

The foundation stone for St. Patrick's Intermediate School was laid on 1 May 1957 by Bishop O'Doherty and the school received its first pupils in September 1958. Its name was changed to St. Patrick's High School in 1972 as a result of the raising of the school-leaving age. It was again changed to St. Patrick's College to reflect the increased numbers of students staying on to complete their GCSE A-Levels.

Facilities

In October 2020, a full-size 3G GAA pitch with floodlights and changing rooms wasadded to the school's sporting facilities. This was funded by a grant of £1.5 million from several agencies including Peace4Youth, the Armagh, Banbridge and Craigavon District Council and

Sport Northern Ireland Sport Northern Ireland ( ir, Spórt Thuaisceart Éireann) is the regional government sports council (funding body) for Northern Ireland. History It was established under the Recreation and Youth Service (Northern Ireland) Order 1973 as the Spor ...

Academics

The full range of subjects is offered. At GCSE A-level, students can choose from geography, art, biology, technology and design, English literature, psychology, drama and theatre studies, software systems and development, chemistry, agriculture, history, journalism, physics, government and politics, and religious studies. They can also take a BTEC Level 3 National Diploma in information technology, engineering, childcare, performing arts, public services, media and sport. The college has been previously named best performing non-selective school in County Down. It has also been listed as among the top ten non-grammar schools in Northern Ireland.

Shared education

The college works in partnership with the neighbouring

Banbridge High School Banbridge High School is a controlled secondary school located in Banbridge, County Down, Northern Ireland. It is within the Southern Education and Library Board area. The school was opened in 1958 with an initial enrolment of 4200 pupils. A ...

to offer a number of shared activities as part of the curriculum. It is also part of the Banbridge Area Learning Community co-ordinated by the Southern Regional College.

Extra-curricular

The college offers the opportunity to participate in various sporting activities including swimming, netball,

Gaelic football Gaelic football ( ga, Peil Ghaelach; short name '), commonly known as simply Gaelic, GAA or Football is an Irish team sport. It is played between two teams of 15 players on a rectangular grass pitch. The objective of the sport is to score by kic ...

(boys and girls),

camogie Camogie ( ; ga, camógaíocht ) is an Irish stick-and-ball team sport played by women. Camogie is played by 100,000 women in Ireland and worldwide, largely among Irish communities. A variant of the game of hurling (which is played by men onl ...

hurling Hurling ( ga, iománaíocht, ') is an outdoor team game of ancient Gaelic Irish origin, played by men. One of Ireland's native Gaelic games, it shares a number of features with Gaelic football, such as the field and goals, the number of p ...

, rugby, basketball, dance,and athletics. The college has an active music programme including opportunities for singing and musical instruments.

Awards

In 2020, the college was awarded Intermediate level of the British Council's International School Award in recognition of its work to bring the world into the classroom.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Patrick's College, Banbridge 1958 establishments in Northern Ireland Educational institutions established in 1958 Secondary schools in County Down Catholic secondary schools in Northern Ireland Banbridge