St. Columb's College

St Columb's College is a Catholic grammar school for boys on the Buncrana Road in Derry, on forty acres at Pennyburn, with around 1,500 pupils. It calls itself Derry's oldest Catholic grammar school, founded in 1879, and claims something no other school in Ireland can: two Nobel laureates among its former pupils, John Hume and Seamus Heaney. Entry is at Year 8 through the SEAG assessment.

New boys meet the place before term starts. The school runs a two-day summer scheme at the beginning of the summer holidays, with sport alongside taster lessons in drama, science, technology, art, home economics and music, so a boy has been inside the building and met staff before his first day. Peer mentors are senior pupils who apply for the job, are selected and trained, and each one is then paired with a single Year 8 form class and stays attached to it for the whole year.

The practical detail most families notice is the buses. The school draws from Limavady, Dungiven and Strabane, the morning buses leave at ten to nine once all the country buses are in, and there is a late bus at a quarter to five for boys staying on for clubs. For the first while, Year 8 are let out of class early so they can learn the bus bays and find the right one. Inside, the day runs from a quarter past nine to twenty-five past three on ten short periods, with lunch split into two sittings so half the school eats while the other half is in class. There is also a nurture room, the Iona Room, running since 2019.