Foyle College

Foyle College is a co-educational voluntary grammar school in Derry. It's non-denominational, takes children from eleven to eighteen and has around 900 pupils. It is one of the oldest schools in Ireland. Entry is at Year 8 through the SEAG assessment.

It was founded in 1617 by Mathias Springham of the Merchant Taylors' Company of London, inside the city walls, and the founding inscription gives its purpose as the honour of God and the spreading of good literature. The centuries since are a chain of moves and mergers. It took the Foyle College name in 1814, absorbed Londonderry Academical Institution in 1896, and in 1976 merged with Londonderry High School, itself formed in 1922 out of several of the city's girls' schools. That merger left the school running on two sites for the best part of fifty years. It came back together on one campus on the Limavady Road in 2018, on ground that had been a United States naval communications station, and the campus is named Springham after the founder.

Two of the four houses are named after buildings the school used to occupy, Duncreggan and Northlands, with Springham after the founder and Lawrence after a former pupil who became Viceroy of India. Each has a stripe on the school tie. The day starts at five past nine, later than most, and the last period ends at twenty-five past three, six fifty-minute lessons on a two-week timetable. Ten bus routes serve the school and late buses run at half four on four nights a week for anyone staying on. Older pupils are trained as mentors under a scheme the school calls Foyle Guardians.