St. Mary's Grammar School is a

grammar school A grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and other English-speaking countries, originally a Latin school, school teaching Latin, but more recently an academically oriented Se ...

Magherafelt Magherafelt ( ; , ) is a town and Civil parishes in Ireland, civil parish in County Londonderry, Northern Ireland. It had a population of 9,071 at the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 census. It is the biggest town in the south of the county an ...

County Londonderry County Londonderry (Ulster Scots dialects, Ulster-Scots: ''Coontie Lunnonderrie''), also known as County Derry (), is one of the six Counties of Northern Ireland, counties of Northern Ireland, one of the thirty-two Counties of Ireland, count ...

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...

History

St. Mary's was founded in 1927 by the Sisters of the Holy Family of Bordeaux. Ten girls were enrolled in the first year under the principalship of Sister Tracey. The school grew throughout the 1940s under the principalship of Sister Marie Therese Harte. With the school's continued academic success, the need for more accommodation became urgent and in 1954 the first extension was built. September 1978 marked a significant milestone in the history of the school: 37 boys were enrolled in St. Mary's along with 587 girls. In 1984, new accommodation was again required. Under the leadership of the then principal Sister Immaculata O'Connor, the Friends of St. Mary's was formed with the purpose of raising funds to finance the building programme. The £6 million extension was formally opened by Cardinal Daly on 8 December 1994. It includes a large sports hall, fitness suite, science block, technology block, drama/lecture theatre, careers suite, Sixth Form study area and general purpose classrooms. Tennis courts, grass and all-weather pitches complement the indoor sports facilities. In 2003, the school trustees completed a further phase of the development programme when Cafe Bordeaux and a new classroom extension were opened. Today, St. Mary's Grammar School has over eleven hundred pupils on roll, with an equal ratio of boys and girls and serves three counties: Londonderry, Antrim and Tyrone. September 2004 marked another beginning in the school's history with the appointment of its first male Principal, Mr D A Lambon. In September 2011, Deirdre Gillespie was appointed principal. In September 2022, Paul McClean was appointed new principal, taking over from acting principal Frank Dunlop, who filled in for Mrs Gillespie.

Principals

Academics

St Mary's Grammar School has historically been placed among the top grammar schools in Northern Ireland in the

Belfast Telegraph The ''Belfast Telegraph'' is a daily newspaper published in Belfast, Northern Ireland, by Independent News & Media, which also publishes the Irish Independent, the Sunday Independent and various other newspapers and magazines in Ireland. Its e ...

's League Table. In 2012 it was ranked first in Northern Ireland for its A-Level performance with 95% of entrants being awarded three A*-C grades. This was followed by

Lumen Christi College, Derry Lumen Christi College is a co-educational Catholic grammar school in Bishop Street, Derry, Northern Ireland. The school was founded in September 1997 and is located at the site of the old St Columb's College. Academics The college offers the fu ...

(92%). In 2018 it was ranked joint 1st for its GCSE performance with 100% of its entrants receiving five or more GCSEs at grades A* to C, including the core subjects English and Maths. In 2019 it was ranked 7th out of 159 secondary schools in its A-Level performance with 91.1% of its entrants in the 2017/18 exams being awarded three A*-C grades.

Sports

The school is involved in many sporting activities including girls and boys football team, highly successful camogie teams. It achieved All-Ireland

Camogie Camogie ( ; ) 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 "hurling" (which is played by men only), it is organised ...

success in 2007. On 17 March 2017 St Mary's won the

MacRory Cup The MacRory Cup is an inter-college (school) Gaelic football tournament in Ulster at senior "A" grade. The MacLarnon Cup is the competition for schools at senior 'B' grade. Players must be under nineteen at the start of the tournament. The winn ...

for the first time in their history beating St Colman's College, Newry on a score line of 0–19 to 0–13 in Athletic Grounds, Armagh. On 19 March 2018 St Mary's were defeated in the MacRory Cup by St Ronan's College Lurgan, 1-09 to 1–07. St Ronan's won the title for the first time in the school's history. St Ronan's will go on to represent Ulster in the

Hogan Cup The Hogan Cup (), also known as the All-Ireland Post Primary Schools Senior A Football Championship, is the top level Gaelic football championship for secondary schools (sometimes referred to as colleges) in Ireland. The competition itself is re ...

against the other respective provincial schools winners.

F1 in Schools

Team Hurricane from St Mary's Grammar School won the 11 – 14's National Finals in 2005. They then returned the following year and won the 11–14 age group and the overall winners trophy. Two other separate teams, one being Team Blade, won the Northern Ireland championships in 2007, The other, Team F1 Falcon, won the national 16–18 age group in the same year.

Societies

The Saint Mary's Geographic Society (Geography club) is currently run by geography teacher A. Stevenson with help from fellow teacher S. Rasdale and head of department U. McNeill. The club is for years 8–10 however senior students (years 11–14) are welcome to come to help the teachers with the organisation of the club and its many projects. French clubs, geography club, science club and many more. Club Mhuire is the

Irish Language Irish (Standard Irish: ), also known as Irish Gaelic or simply Gaelic ( ), is a Celtic language of the Indo-European language family. It is a member of the Goidelic languages of the Insular Celtic sub branch of the family and is indigenous ...

Society. Organised by 6th form pupils, it provides opportunities for students to interact, and partake in activities, through the medium of Irish. They meet at lunch time each week, and activities include quizzes, bingo, and teaching students how to make St Brigid's Crosses (Crosóg Bríghde). There are also themed events at Halloween and Christmas. Student who excel in the various activities get to win prizes which are always linked to the Irish Language, such as

Gael Linn Gael Linn () is a non-profit and non-governmental organisation focused on the promotion of the Irish language and the arts. The organisation's funding includes government and lottery sources. History Gael Linn was founded in May 1953, followin ...

Foras na Gaeilge (, " Irish Institute"; ) is a public body responsible for the promotion of the Irish language throughout the island of Ireland, including both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. It was set up on 2 December 1999, assuming the rol ...

merchandise Merchandising is any practice which contributes to the sale of Product (business), products ("merch" colloquially) to a retail consumer. At a retail in-store level, merchandising refers to displaying products that are for sale in a creative w ...

. It was founded in 2006 with the help of Dr. O'Neill and Miss Harte, two of the school's Irish teachers. It is now facilitated by Mr Mac Feilimí and Mrs MacTomais.

Notable alumni

Deirdre Madden Deirdre Madden (born 20 August 1960) is a novelist from Northern Ireland. Career Madden was born in Toome, County Antrim and was educated at St Mary's Grammar School in Magherafelt. She proceeded to Trinity College, Dublin (BA) and then to th ...

(born 1960, writer *

Orla Chennaoui Orla Chennaoui () (born 13 November 1978) is a Northern Irish television journalist and former all-Ireland triple jump champion. Chennaoui was born in Draperstown, County Londonderry in Northern Ireland. After completing a degree in Law and Fre ...

(born 1979) - journalist and TV presenter * Jim Eastwood, one of the final four contestants in the 7th UK series of

The Apprentice An apprentice is someone who is in training for a trade, profession. The Apprentice or Apprentice may also refer to: Television * ''The Apprentice'' (American TV series), the original reality television series * ''The Apprentice'' (franchise), ...

* Emma Kearney (born 1981),

Emmerdale ''Emmerdale'' (known as ''Emmerdale Farm'' until 1989) is a British television soap opera that is broadcast on ITV (TV network), ITV. The show is set in Emmerdale (known as Beckindale until 1994), a List of fictional towns and villages, fict ...

and

Coronation Street ''Coronation Street'' (colloquially referred to as ''Corrie'') is a British television soap opera created by ITV Granada, Granada Television and shown on ITV (TV network), ITV since 9 December 1960. The programme centres on a cobbled, terraced ...

actress * Elinor Lawless - actress * Conor McCluskey - gaelic football player * Eoin McEvoy - gaelic football player

References

External links

St. Mary's Grammar School, Magherafelt
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Mary's Grammar School Irish-language education Student language societies Catholic secondary schools in Northern Ireland Grammar schools in County Londonderry Secondary schools in County Londonderry Educational institutions established in 1927 1927 establishments in Northern Ireland Magherafelt