Down High School

Down High School is a co-educational controlled grammar school in Downpatrick, taking children from eleven to eighteen. If you looked at it a couple of years ago, look again, because it is not in the same place. In June 2025 it left the Mount Crescent site it had occupied for ninety-two years and moved into a new building on the Strangford Road, which opened formally in June 2026. Entry is at Year 8 through the SEAG assessment.

The school opened in 1933 with ninety-six pupils, on the site of the old county gaol, and its crest is based on the supposed badge of John de Courcy, the Norman knight who took Downpatrick in 1177. There are five houses, each with a colour tied to a piece of County Down: Down in purple for the hill where the cathedral stands, Mourne in green, Strangford in white for the water at the Narrows, Lecale in blue and Rathkeltair in red. Every pupil is allocated to a house on their arrival.

The new school building has no bell. Short excerpts of classical music signal the change between lessons instead, which the school says is meant to keep the day calm, and there is quiet music in the corridors and two multi-sensory rooms where a child can go to settle. Getting the building up took longer than planned. A famine graveyard was found on the site, and one of the largest archaeological digs of its kind in Northern Ireland had to finish before construction could start. The opening ceremony closed with a service remembering the people whose remains were found. The site sits in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, and swift nesting boxes are built into the walls.