Thornhill College is a Roman Catholic girls' grammar school

Grammar school

A grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and some other English-speaking countries, originally a school teaching classical languages but more recently an academically-oriented secondary school.The original purpose of mediaeval...

 in Derry

Derry

Derry or Londonderry is the second-biggest city in Northern Ireland and the fourth-biggest city on the island of Ireland. The name Derry is an anglicisation of the Irish name Doire or Doire Cholmcille meaning "oak-wood of Colmcille"...

, Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...

. It was founded by the Sisters of Mercy

Sisters of Mercy

The Religious Order of the Sisters of Mercy is an order of Catholic women founded by Catherine McAuley in Dublin, Ireland, in 1831. , the order has about 10,000 members worldwide, organized into a number of independent congregations....

 in 1886 and moved to Culmore in 1932. It moved into its new building in 2003. It has a student population of approximately 1500 and a staff of 100 teachers. Miss Hamilton replaced Mrs. Kelly in 2010 as the school principal.

Catherine McAuley said: "Let us rejoice when good is done, no matter by whom it is accomplished". The school strives in the words McAuley, founder of the Sisters of Mercy, "to fit young women for Earth without unfitting them for Heaven".

Motto

The school motto is the latin phrase "Adveniat Regnum Tuum", which translates as " Thy Kingdom come".

Thornhill College is an all girls Roman Catholic College.
It is listed in the top 10 schools of Northern Ireland

Specialist School

In 2009 Thornhill College became a Specialist School in Mathematics and Physics.

The Specialist Schools Programme helps schools, in partnership with private sector sponsors and supported by additional Government funding, to establish distinctive identities through their chosen specialisms and achieve their targets to raise standards.

Notable former pupils

• Dana Rosemary Scallon
  Dana Rosemary Scallon
  Dana Rosemary Scallon , known in her singing career simply as Dana, is an Irish singer and former Member of the European Parliament ....
  
   - singer and former MEP,
• Nadine Coyle
  Nadine Coyle
  Nadine Coyle is an Irish singer, songwriter, actress, and model who rose to fame in the early 2000s as a member of the band Six before becoming a member of successful girl-group Girls Aloud. The group amassed a joint fortune of £25 million by May 2009...
  
   - member of girlband Girls Aloud
  Girls Aloud
  Girls Aloud are a British and Irish pop girl group based in London. They were created through the ITV1 talent show Popstars The Rivals in 2002. The group consists of Cheryl Cole , Nadine Coyle, Sarah Harding, Nicola Roberts and Kimberley Walsh. They are signed to Fascination Records, a Polydor...
  
  
• Roma Downey
  Roma Downey
  Roma Downey is an actress, singer, and producer, from Derry, Northern Ireland. She is best known as Tess's angel/employee, Monica, the main character of the TV series Touched by an Angel. She is also the wife of television producer, Mark Burnett.-Early life:Downey was born and raised in Derry...
  
   - actress

Debating

Thornhill College has a Senior Debating Society, established in 1954. The team reached final of the Northern Ireland Schools Debating Competition

Northern Ireland Schools Debating Competition

The Northern Ireland Schools Debating Competition is an annual competition involving schools from across Northern Ireland. It was founded in 1993 by Fionnuala Jay-O'Boyle CBE during her time as Chairman of the Belfast Civic Trust. The final of the competition is held every year in the Senate...

 in 2004 and 2007, and is known throughout the school for wearing the gold stripe around the lapel of the debating blazer. Thornhill has had two teams in the semi-finals of this competition who debated against each other on 30 March 2007 in Belfast. The debating society has come to the fore in extra-curricular activities in the last number of years. The society meets regularly to debate topical subjects and research up and coming competitions. The school also has an established Junior Debating Society who meet every Tuesday after school as part of the homework

Homework

Homework, or homework assignment, refers to tasks assigned to students by their teachers to be completed outside of class. Common homework assignments may include a quantity or period of reading to be performed, writing or typing to be completed, problems to be solved, a school project to be built...

 club.

Statue

The school has recently erected a statue on the "teardrop" at the front of the school. Many pupils helped Mr E. Mc Ateer with the design. The piece was constructed by Maurice Harron. The final sculpture was officially unveiled early Autumn 2008 with a special celebration.

Academic performance

A grammar school with a high level of academic achievements including high results at KS3 and GCSE with a few girls coming top in N. Ireland. AS and A Levels are taken every year by a high number of Students.

External links

• Thornhill College official web site