Banbridge Academy

Banbridge Academy is a grammar school located in Banbridge, Northern Ireland. The school was founded in 1786.

The current Principal is Mr Raymond Pollock, who was previously a Vice Principal at Friends' School, Lisburn. The current Vice Principals are Mr Ferguson Cosgrove, Mr David McFarland and the recently appointed Miss Heather Robinson who replaced Mrs McKay who retired in 2007.

Enrollment stands at over 1320 pupils and the School has around 90 teachers.

Head Boy - Alexander Cupples (2008).Head Girl -Poppy De Courcy Wheeler (2008).

It began in the building now known as Dunbar nursery near Banbridge Leisure Centre but soon moved to its current site, Edenderry House on the Lurgan Road, in 1950. A major redevelopment in the late 1990s has provided a new building, while retaining much of magnificent original House frontage, whose interiors and facade is listed. The School building now has a glass atrium and dedicated technology suite and science block. The school boasts a sports hall, a gym which serves as an assembly hall, and a large amount of land serving as playing fields (including 2 newly relayed (Sep. 08) high quality rugby pitches) for hockey, rugby union, cricket, football and netball, together with five tennis courts. Banbridge Academy is one of the strongest schools in boys' hockey having won numerous Burney and McCullough Cups over the years. In 2006 they were crowned Irish schools champions and came 2nd in the European schools competition in Dan Haag. The school's [http://www.banbridgeacademy.org.uk/cms/ website] was created by its own ICT Department, using the popular Joomla, an open source content management system (CMS). Early construction is underway to build a new canteen and an additional school block; temporary prefabricated classrooms were brought onsite in order to facilitate construction, which makes slow but steady prgress. Notable Alumni

Tyrone Howe - British Lions rugby superstar.

Eugene Magee - Irish International Hockey player. 57 caps (February 08)