St. Louis Grammar School (NI, Co Down)

St Louis Grammar School in Kilkeel is a co-educational Catholic school on the Newry Road, with over 700 pupils, and it is worth reading its admissions arrangement before you prepare. Only forty per cent of the Year 8 places, fifty-two out of a hundred and thirty, are decided on the SEAG assessment. Places go first to children from the Lower and Upper Mourne area, and that area is defined by parish boundaries rather than by distance, so a child qualifies either by living there or by going to primary school there.

The school was founded in 1922 by the Sisters of St Louis and describes itself as a cornerstone of the Mourne area for over a century. It now calls itself a specialist school in technology and computing, and trusteeship has passed from the order to a diocesan educational trust. A new school building is in planning, with the application submitted in September 2025.

From September 2026 the school runs what it calls a gate to gate phone rule. Every pupil buys a signal-blocking pouch, phones go into it locked on arrival, form tutors check at registration, and there are magnetic unlocking stations at the exits and at the bus bay at three o'clock, which tells you how many children here go home by bus. The day runs from nine to twenty past three, and the school is specific that three late arrivals earns a lunchtime detention. New pupils are met by three sets of older ones: Year 14 mentors, anti-bullying mentors and bus mentors, with a transition afternoon in June and registration with the form teacher in August before term starts.