by Marianne Flood
PAST PUPILS of Foyle College gathered at the school at the weekend for one last trip down memory lane before its moves to a new site on the Limavady Road in January.
The state of the art new campus will mean Foyle pupils will be educated on one site for the first time in 40 years.
The junior school on the Springtown Road, which housed years 8 to 10, has been bought by the Department of Education.
Negotiations are currently taking place for the sale of the senior school on Duncreggan Road to Ulster University.
William Lynn, President of the Former Pupils’ Association, said the past pupils’ event was quite emotional.
“We had lots of people who wanted one last look around and there was a big age range, from people who were here in the 1940s to pupils who only left in the last couple of years.
“I suppose it is bittersweet in a way. It’s great to get a new building because the old buildings were past their sell-by date and it was costing a fortune for their upkeep.
“It was also getting very difficult for the staff to move up and down the road between the schools because the traffic was just getting worse and worse. But of course it’s the end of an era too.”
Foyle College was founded within the city walls 400 years ago and moved to Lawrence Hill 50 years later, before amalgamating with the Londonderry High School in 1976 when it became Foyle and Londonderry College.
This is the first time the school has been located in the Waterside.
Sadness
“It will be sad to leave the city side,” said Mr Lynn, who also taught at the school.
“There have been some very happy times but there were also some very difficult times during the Troubles where numbers dropped because parents weren’t prepared to send their children into the town.
“Ever since the end of the Troubles the school has expanded and it has a very mixed community now. It’s very integrated and that has come about naturally.
“We did look at the city side for the new school but the problem was you are not in your community. Most of our pupils get bussed in from the Waterside, Eglinton and Donemana and it creates problems when you are doing sports and events outside of school hours.”
Staff are hard at work packing up for the move.
“There’s a lot of clearing up to do,” explained Mr Lynn.
“Everything is being packed up box by box and transferred to the new school.”
“A lot of the books in the library that are now obsolete and have been donated to charity.
“Some of the more valuable things have been auctioned off, but there are still a lot of desks and chairs the school are willing to sell on for a low price to anyone willing to transport them away.”
Work is almost complete at the new campus on the Limavady Road and the pupils will be starting there between January 8 and 10 after an extended Christmas break.
See photographs P34-35
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