Why was Lagan College founded?
Lagan College was founded in 1981 as a religious response to the challenge of community conflict and a religiously divided school system in Northern Ireland. Since 1974 the All Children together Movement (ACT) had been lobbying the Churches and the Government to take the initiative in educating Protestant and Catholic children together. Religious segregation of school children was almost complete. Practically all Catholic children attended catholic schools. State schools were de facto Protestant. ACT argued that one of the most powerful responses which Christians could give to the charge that the fighting was about religion would be for Protestants and Catholics to educate their children together in the same schools.

By 1981 there had been virtually no initiatives from either the Churches or government in the direction of integration at school level. A small group of parents with children at the age of transfer from primary to secondary school decided to take the initiative. With the support of ACT they called a public meeting in February 1981 and founded a new school in September. They called the new school Lagan College after the river which flows through Belfast. It opened in temporary premises at Ardnavally Activity Centre beside the river Lagan in South Belfast, thanks to the hospitality of the Scout Movement.



On the first day there were 28 pupils, the Principal, Mrs. Sheila Greenfield, one full-time teacher and five part-time teachers. The college became homeless that Christmas but was able to move in time for the start of the Easter term to a redundant primary school at Castlereagh on a hill-top overlooking Belfast from the South-east for September.

How was the college developed?

From September until Hallowe’en in 1983/4 the new first year pupils, thanks to the hospitality of the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum, were taught in the Manor House at Cultra until a new building was ready. For the first three years, the College, which aimed to serve the whole community – rich and poor alike – received no Government funding. Parents of pupils contributed what they could afford towards the costs.

Over £500,000 had to be raised, so an appeal for benefactions by private individuals and charitable trusts locally and around the world was launched to bring the College to the point where it could develop into an economically viable institution. Maintained status was granted in 1984. This meant 100% of running costs were met by the Department of Education and the College governors were responsible for 15% of capital expenditure.

From 1985 to 1987, again because of accommodation difficulties, the 98 new First Year pupils were taught several miles away from Castlereagh in the Balmoral area of South Belfast in premises shared with the newly opened Forge Integrated Primary School. A permanent home for the College was eventually found not far from Castlereagh at Lisnabreeny, this time thanks to the hospitality of the National trust. The first temporary buildings were opened at Lisnabreeny in September 1987. The travelling between the two, continued until September 1991 when the first phase of the permanent school building was opened.

Following new legislation in 1989 concerned with the development of integrated education the then Minister, Dr Brian Mawhinney, the College became a Grant-Maintained Integrated School in 1991. This means that 100% of the costs, recurrent and capital, are now funded directly by the Department of Education for Northern Ireland.

As of September 2006, there are over 1100 pupils on the Lisnabreeny site with more than 80 teachers. The first third of the permanent school building is open. Approval for the completion of the permanent buildings was given in 2002 under the Department’s Private Finance Initiative at a cost of £11.1 million. It is anticipated that the building programme will begin in 2008.

It is a source of great encouragement that the initiative to found new integrated schools continues to spread throughout Northern Ireland.Today, there are 62 schools throughout Northern Ireland educating almost 18,000 pupils. The growth in numbers from a base of nil in 1981 has been rapid and it is hoped to extend the number of places available over the next 10 years to 35,000, which would represent 10% of the population.