Bloomfield Collegiate

Bloomfield Collegiate is a controlled grammar school for girls in the Ballyhackamore part of east Belfast. It is non-denominational and takes girls from eleven to eighteen, welcoming 110 into Year 8 each year. It is a smaller school than most of the Belfast grammars, which is the point for many families who choose it. Entry is at Year 8 through the SEAG assessment.

The school was founded in 1905 and moved to the present Astoria Gardens site in the early 1960s, onto ground that had been a plant nursery. Dorothy Andrews became the first head girl in 1934 and wore a silver badge shaped like the school crest, and every head girl since has worn one. The four houses are Clarke, Curran, Spencer and Walker, named, in the school's own phrase, after former headmistresses and benefactors. Two of them were heads. Clarke taught French and German until she retired in 1934, and Spencer was the daughter of the school housekeeper. Each house has four captains with their own areas, arts, communication, music and sport, and the year includes house drama, a swimming gala, a talent show and a teachers' obstacle race.

The timetable runs on a two-week cycle, six periods of fifty-five minutes, and on the Friday of every second week the last period goes to staff training and the girls finish an hour early at half past two. New Year 8 pupils come in for a morning on their own before the rest of the school returns. Once they are in, form teachers in Years 8 and 9 work alongside sixth form mentors who are assigned to junior classes. The school also runs its own army cadet force, which is unusual for a girls' school.