Rainey Endowed School

Rainey Endowed School, known colloquially as "The Rainey", is a voluntary grammar school in Magherafelt, County Londonderry, Northern Ireland. The school was founded in 1707 and currently has an enrolment of approximately 750 pupils.

Rainey Endowed seeks to serve the community by being a good school. Its primary focus is the academic achievement of its pupils. It is held in the highest esteem within County Londonderry and within Northern Ireland itself. It is one of the highest academically achieving schools in the Province. The school borders three counties and draws its students from each of County Londonderry, County Antrim and County Tyrone. It offers the Northern Ireland curricula up to the age of 16 and a range of AS and A2 courses at post 16.

History

Establishment

Rainey Endowed School was founded by Hugh Rainey, an iron smelter and wealthy merchant in the Magherafelt district . He was an elder in the Presbyterian Congregation of Castledawson, which at that time included Magherafelt. As a result of a vow made to God for his protection and favour he, by his will dated 11 April 1707, devoted one half of his estate to fund a charity school for 24 boys: "sons of parents who were of good report and reduced to poverty". After three years instruction the boys were to be given a suit of clothes, £2.50 for an apprentice fee.

In his Will, Hugh Rainey wrote "that what I have left may not only be for a generation or two, but that it may be for many not yet born ", and so 'The Rainey' was founded.

Development

Hugh Rainey died in 1707 and the task of building the school fell to his only child, Elizabeth, and her husband. The school was built on land leased from the Salters' Company, and is still on that site today.

In 1863 negotiations with the Salters' Company resulted in the development of a new building. On 21 January 1863 the Lord Chancellor of Ireland, confirmed a new scheme of management. In 1864 the Salters' Company built a teacher's residence and a single schoolroom in Rainey Street Magherafelt. Girls were permitted into the school at the end of the 19th Century.

The school motto, taken from the Salters Company, is "Sal Sapit Omnia", translated as "Salt savours all ".

Alumni

* Wendy Houvenaghel (nee McClean), cyclist and former RAF dentist

External links

* [http://www.raineyendowed.com Rainey Endowed School]
* [http://www.podcastschool.net Podcastschool.net]