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School History
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 January 2010, there are
1229
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
has been sought
under the Department’s
Private Finance Initiative at a cost of £30 million.
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