Methodist College Belfast

Methodist College Belfast, known to everyone as Methody, is a co-educational voluntary grammar school at the foot of the Malone Road, and it is one of the biggest schools in Northern Ireland. It runs from age three, through two preparatory departments, all the way to the upper sixth. Pupils are called Collegians from the day they arrive, whatever age that is. Entry at Year 8 is through the SEAG assessment.

The fifteen acres were bought in 1865 when they were on the very edge of the city. The foundation stone was laid that August by Sir William McArthur, a Londonderry businessman who later became Lord Mayor of London and left money for the girls' boarding hall that still carries his name and is a listed building. The school opened on 18 August 1868 with 141 pupils as the New Wesleyan College. The part worth knowing is what happened next: within its third month a proposal that young ladies be educated on equal terms with the boys was accepted, so Methody has been co-educational since 1868, not since some later reform.

The house system is new. Six houses were reintroduced in 2025, Downey, Fullerton, McArthur, Neill, Ritchie and Wesley, and they run from Prep 1 right through to upper sixth, so a five year old and an eighteen year old share one. Each house logo carries the Maltese cross from the school crest, on the school's own reasoning that pupils compete against each other but are all Collegians. Junior School alone has over 750 pupils in around sixty tutor groups, and a child stays with their tutor group for core lessons, splitting off only for art, drama and food.