Christian Brothers' Grammar School

Christian Brothers' Grammar School in Omagh is a Catholic boys' grammar school on the Kevlin Road, taking around 950 boys from eleven to eighteen. It is worth knowing before you prepare that not all of its Year 8 places go on the SEAG assessment. A quarter of the intake is filled on non-academic grounds, so a strong score matters for three places in four, and a boy who does not sit the test is not out of the running.

The school opened on 14 January 1861 with 121 boys, under the patronage of St Columba. The building it started in is still standing in Omagh and is now the Drumragh Parish Pastoral Centre. It moved to the Kevlin Road site in 1967 and has been there since, though not for much longer: it is one of the schools due to move to the new Strule Shared Education Campus being built in the town. Gaelic football is what the school is known for outside Omagh. It won the Hogan Cup, the All-Ireland schools title, in 2023 and again in 2024, back to back at Croke Park.

The school starts courting boys unusually early. It runs a camp called Campa na mBráithre for Primary 7 boys in October and a second one for Primary 6 boys in March, two full years before a boy would start, with sessions in technology, performing arts and modern languages. Inside, the pastoral structure runs on year groups and form classes rather than houses, and form teachers see their class every morning. The school calls its pupils Brothers Boys and says it wants them to leave as caring, confident young men with a strong sense of justice.