Lagan College

Lagan College is an integrated secondary school in Belfast, Northern Ireland. It was formed in 1981 as the first integrated school in Northern Ireland and contains students of mainly Roman Catholic and Protestant faiths, however students from other faiths also attend the school.

The school is currently situated on National Trust land, overlooking Belfast. It is named after the River Lagan, which flows though the city. Today the school contains 1,235 pupils and over 100 teachers, and remains one of Northern Ireland's most oversubscribed post-primary schools.

History

Lagan College was founded as a response to the conflict in the community and to the religiously divided school system in Northern Ireland. Most Catholic children attended Catholic-maintained schools, while Protestant school children mainly attended state schools.

Since 1974 the All Children Together (ACT) movement had been lobbying against the segregation in schools in Northern Ireland, however even by 1981 there had been virtually no initiatives from either the churches or the government in the direction of integration. Consequently 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 founded the school in September 1981 in temporary premises at Ardnavally Activity Centre beside the River Lagan in South Belfast.

On the first day the school contained 28 pupils and seven staff members, including the Principal,...
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