Dickson Plan

Last updated

The Dickson Plan is a school transfer system implemented in North County Armagh in Northern Ireland.

It is a two tier system in which many pupils in Craigavon and surrounding areas, such as Portadown and Tandragee, attend Junior High Schools during KS3 before transferring to Senior High Schools to complete their compulsory education during KS4. [1] [2]

Junior High Schools in the Dickson Plan are not academically selective. At age 14, students may transfer to a Grammar school, or to a non-selective secondary school. Pupils can transfers to schools that implement the Dickson Plan as well as schools which follow the more common 11–16 or 11–18 approach.

The Dickson Plan wasn't affected by the 2008 education reforms which removed academic selection in the rest of Northern Ireland.

In the early 2010s, Education Minister John O'Dowd intended to abolish the Dickson Plan, by amalgamating the Junior and Senior Highs, with the decision being approved by the Southern Education and Library Board. [3] Overwhelming parental support for the Dickson plan, with more than 80% of local parents supporting the system, led to these plans being scrapped. [4]

In 2015, three Catholic schools (St Paul's Junior High, St Mary's Junior High and St Michael's Grammar) within the Lurgan area opted out of the Dickson plan and amalgamated to form a new school, St Ronan's College. It is a non-selective co-educational comprehensive school which will cater for up to 1,750+ pupils. A new building has been under construction since 2021, and is due to open in 2025. In the meantime, St Ronan's will operate from the three sites of the original schools. [5] [6]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Grammar school</span> Type of school in the United Kingdom and some other countries

A grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and other English-speaking countries, originally a school teaching Latin, but more recently an academically oriented secondary school.

Lurgan is a town in County Armagh, Northern Ireland, near the southern shore of Lough Neagh and roughly 18 miles (29 km) southwest of Belfast. The town is linked to Belfast by both the M1 motorway and the Belfast–Dublin railway line. Lurgan had a population of about 28,634 at the 2021 UK census, and falls within the Armagh, Banbridge and Craigavon district. For certain purposes, Lurgan is treated as part of the "Craigavon Urban Area", along with neighbouring Craigavon and Portadown.

The eleven-plus (11+) is a standardised examination administered to some students in England and Northern Ireland in their last year of primary education, which governs admission to grammar schools and other secondary schools which use academic selection. The name derives from the age group for secondary entry: 11–12 years.

The Tripartite System was the arrangement of state-funded secondary education between 1945 and the 1970s in England and Wales, and from 1947 to 2009 in Northern Ireland. It was an administrative implementation of the Education Act 1944 and the Education Act 1947.

The education system in Northern Ireland differs from elsewhere in the United Kingdom, but is similar to the Republic of Ireland in sharing in the development of the national school system and serving a similar society with a relatively rural population. A child's age on 1 July determines the point of entry into the relevant stage of education in the region, whereas the relevant date in England and Wales is 1 September.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Comprehensive school</span> Type of school

A comprehensive school is a secondary school for pupils aged 11–16 or 11–18, that does not select its intake on the basis of academic achievement or aptitude, in contrast to a selective school system where admission is restricted on the basis of selection criteria, usually academic performance. The term is commonly used in relation to England and Wales, where comprehensive schools were introduced as state schools on an experimental basis in the 1940s and became more widespread from 1965.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Campbell College</span> School in Belfast, Northern Ireland

Campbell College located in Belfast, Northern Ireland and founded in 1894 comprises a preparatory school department and a senior Northern Ireland 'Voluntary Grammar' school, the latter meaning, in terms of provision of education, a government funded, selective school.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Foyle College</span> Grammar school in Derry, County Londonderry, Northern Ireland

Foyle College is a co-educational non-denominational voluntary grammar school in Derry, Northern Ireland. The school's legal name is Foyle and Londonderry College. In 1976, two local schools, Foyle College and Londonderry High School, merged under the Foyle and Londonderry College Act 1976 to form Foyle and Londonderry College. In 2011, the Board of Governors re-branded the school as 'Foyle College' and updated the school's crest.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Secondary modern school</span> Type of secondary school in the UK

A secondary modern school is a type of secondary school that existed throughout England, Wales and Northern Ireland from 1944 until the 1970s under the Tripartite System. Schools of this type continue in Northern Ireland, where they are usually referred to as secondary schools, and in areas of England, such as Buckinghamshire, Lincolnshire and Wirral,.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christian Brothers Grammar School, Omagh</span> Boys–only grammar school in Omagh, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland

The Christian Brothers Grammar School, Omagh is an 11–18 boys grammar school in Omagh, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. It is the largest grammar school in Omagh. It is under the trusteeship of the Edmund Rice Schools Trust (NI). On January 14, 1861, the school officially opened, with 121 boys presenting themselves for admission.

St Patrick's Grammar School, Armagh, is a Roman Catholic boys' non-selective voluntary grammar school in the city of Armagh, Northern Ireland. The present-day school was officially opened on Thursday, 27 October, 1988, by the late Cardinal Tomás Ó Fiaich, the then Chairman of the Board of Governors, and was the result of the amalgamation of two of Northern Ireland's oldest grammar schools, Christian Brothers' Grammar School and St. Patrick's College, both of which had traditions stretching back as far as the 1830s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Portadown College</span> Grammar school in Portadown, County Armagh, Northern Ireland

Portadown College is an academically selective, co-educational post-14 grammar school in Portadown, County Armagh, Northern Ireland.

Broomhedge is a small village in County Antrim, Northern Ireland, near Lisburn, approximately 12 miles (19 km) southwest of Belfast. It lies within the Lisburn and Castlereagh City Council area, and the Maghaberry electoral ward.

St Michael's Grammar School was a Roman Catholic grammar school in Lurgan, County Armagh, Northern Ireland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">St. Fintan's High School</span> Secondary school for boys, Dublin, Ireland

St. Fintans High School is an all-boys Roman Catholic voluntary-aided secondary school located between Sutton and Baldoyle, Dublin, Ireland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Killicomaine Junior High School</span> Secondary school in Portadown, Armagh, Northern Ireland

Killicomaine Junior High School is a controlled school in Portadown, Northern Ireland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Craigavon Senior High School</span> Secondary school in Craigavon, County Armagh, Northern Ireland

Craigavon Senior High School was established as a separate controlled school on 1 September 1995. Its primary function is to provide education at Key Stage 4 for those 14- to 16-year-old pupils who transfer from the junior high schools in Lurgan, Portadown and Tandragee. It is the only school in Northern Ireland that solely caters for pupils at Key Stage 4.

St Patrick's High School is a Roman Catholic non-selective, mixed secondary school in Keady, County Armagh, Northern Ireland that was founded in 1970 by the De La Salle Brothers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Comprehensive school (England and Wales)</span> Term for a non-selective secondary school in England and Wales

A comprehensive school, or simply a comprehensive, typically describes a secondary school for pupils aged approximately 11–16 or 11–18, that does not select its intake on the basis of academic achievement or aptitude, in contrast to a selective school system where admission is restricted on the basis of selection criteria, usually academic performance. In England and Wales comprehensive schools were introduced as state schools on an experimental basis in the 1940s and became more widespread from 1965. They may be part of a local education authority or be a self governing academy or part of a multi-academy trust.

St Ronan's College is a voluntary grammar school located in Lurgan, County Armagh, Northern Ireland.

References

  1. ↑ Southern Education and Library Board - Post Primary Education
  2. ↑ Northern Ireland Education Authority - Post-Primary (11-16+ years)
  3. ↑ "Dickson Plan: Row as board approves merger proposal". BBC News. 26 June 2013. Retrieved 24 August 2024.
  4. ↑ "Dickson Plan: Board scraps plan to merge schools". BBC News. 13 February 2014. Retrieved 24 August 2024.
  5. ↑ Principals happy Dickson Plan has survived Ruane's reforms
  6. ↑ "New school build for St Ronan's College". Education. 15 May 2023. Retrieved 24 August 2024.


This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.