Wallace High School

The Wallace High School is a co-educational, non-denominational voluntary grammar school in a residential part of Lisburn, with around 1,160 pupils and a preparatory department of about 200 more. It takes 170 into Year 8 each year, drawn from more than thirty primary schools. It was founded in 1880 out of a bequest from the estate of Sir Richard Wallace, a local landowner and MP, and was called the Lisburn Intermediate and University School until 1942, when the trustees renamed it after him. Entry is at Year 8 through the SEAG assessment.

The motto came from the same place as the name. When the trustees renamed the school in 1942 they took the word Esperance, meaning hope, from the Wallace coat of arms. There are six houses, Gracey and Conway in green, Hanna and Barbour in red, Seymour and Hamilton in yellow, and a pupil's house is shown by the colour of the stripe in the tie. The school moved from the Antrim Road to its present grounds at Clonevin Park in 1976, and the blue astroturf pitch laid in 2014 is known to everyone as the smurf turf.

Settling Year 8 in is a programme that runs from June of P7 through to the Christmas holidays. It opens with an intake day in June, then two half-day inductions in August, an evening for parents, an off-site adventure day built around team games, one-to-one pastoral interviews with the form teacher in October, the house quiz, a Year 8 concert that the whole year group performs in, and a movie night at the end of term. Sixth form mentors work with each Year 8 class at a weekly extended assembly. On the first day, Year 8 has the building to itself for a half day.