Banbridge Academy - Extracurricular Activities

Extracurricular Activities

Banbridge Academy is one of the strongest schools in boys' hockey in Ireland, having won numerous Burney and McCullough Cups over the years. In 2006 they were crowned Irish schools champions and came 2nd in the European schools competition in Dan Haag.

The school gives pupils the opportunity to take part in a number of sports including badminton, cricket, football, hockey, netball and rugby

The school has a strong musical interest, with four choirs (Chamber choir, Girls Choir, Junior Boys Choir and Junior Choir) and two orchestras (Junior Orchestra and Senior Orchestra). The school has an annual theatrical production in November/December, Christmas carol concert and Spring concert.

There are a number of other extracurricular activities, including Bridge Club, Craft Club, Young Enterprise and Junior and Senior Scripture Unions.

All internal school competitions are based around the House system. Every pupil is randomly assigned a House in Year 8 (if they have older siblings in the school they will be assigned to the same house as their sibling), and when they participate in any activities during their time in the school, points are awarded to their House. The Houses are named after notable local figures, and are:

• Dunbar (Hugh Dunbar, local Linen merchant),
• Waddell (Helen Waddell, scholar and writer who spent her last years living with her sister Meg at Kilmacrew House, near Banbridge),
• McWilliam (F. E. McWilliam, surrealist sculptor),
• Crozier (Captain Francis Crozier, British naval officer and Arctic explorer, born in Banbridge in 1796.).
• gryffindor (captain mcconical)

Each House is represented by a colour and an animal; Dunbar (red) is represented by a dragon, Waddell (green) a duck, McWilliam (yellow) a lion and Crozier (blue) a polar bear. Points are added to an overall scoreboard and pupils keep track of house activities via House assemblies and the House blog .