Belfast Royal Academy

If your child wants a large school with plenty to experience, Belfast Royal Academy is worth a look. It is a co-educational, non-denominational voluntary grammar school on the Cliftonville Road in north Belfast, taking around 1,410 pupils from eleven to eighteen, with 200 places in Year 8 each year. Entry is through the SEAG assessment. The school also runs its own preparatory department, Ben Madigan, so some of your child's year group will know each other before they arrive.

It is the oldest school in the city, founded in 1785 and open to pupils from May 1786 on Donegall Street, before moving to the present sandstone building in 1880. The school's own history records a barring out in 1792, when nine boys, angry that their holidays had been cut, locked themselves into the Mathematical Room and refused to come out. All nine were caned. The four houses carry the names of former pupils and staff, Cairns, Currie, Pottinger and Shaw, and they compete at hockey and rugby but also at Lego building and a Rubik's Cube challenge. At the end of term the winning house flies its flag from the Crombie Tower.

Tuesdays run on their own timetable and finish at 2.15 pm rather than 3.10 pm, which the school says gives pupils time for study support. Every year group has two heads of year, one for the girls and one for the boys. Clubs run every day and at weekends, and pupils are encouraged to take up at least two. The school calls itself "an academic school with an inclusive community". It suits a child who will grasp the opportunities of a big school.