Christian Brothers Grammar School, Omagh

Christian Brothers Grammar School, Omagh
Location
Omagh, County Tyrone Northern Ireland
Coordinates	54.598°N 7.302°W / 54.598; -7.302
Information
Principal	Mr. P Brannigan
Number of students	c. 982
Religious order	Christian Brothers
Website	cbsomagh.org

The Christian Brothers Grammar School Omagh (known locally as CBS Omagh, Omagh CBS, the Brothers and, to a lesser extent, CBGS Omagh) is a single sex (boys) grammar school in Omagh, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. It is the largest school in Omagh District Council, having 982 pupils in 2011.^{[citation needed]}

CBS

The catchment of the school is boys within the area of Omagh District Council, generally about a 32-kilometre (20 mi) radius. Traditionally all of the students have been Catholics, and as such, prepared to learn about the Catholic faith upon enrolling in the school. In more recent years more students attending the school come from mixed racial and/or religious backgrounds.^{[citation needed]}

Focus

The school's focus is on academic excellence, offering compulsory subjects of English Literature, English Language, Science (with the disciplines of Biology, Physics and Chemistry), and Mathematics until GCSE. The School also focuses on the teachings of the Catholic faith, making Religious Studies compulsory at GCSE, and as a subsidiary weekly lesson during A Level years. For 'A' Levels, the school also offers a mix of liberal arts and academic subjects, as well as more vocational subjects. In the present school year the GCSE syllabus has changed to include 2 compulsory Sciences at Triple Award Science Level. The school offers over 20 Advanced Level Subjects and around 15 GCSE subjects in the current year.

Success

Academically, the school usually has 90+% of the pupils pass five or more GCSE grades A-C.^{[citation needed]} The school competes with the Loreto Convent Omagh (Catholic girls grammar school), and the Omagh Academy (State-run grammar school) in these statistics.

Sporting Achievement

The school has a rich heritage of sporting achievement, particularly in Gaelic football. They won the MacRory Cup (the highest level for Ulster schools) in 2005 and 2007, and the Hogan Cup in 2007. and many other under-age level competitions for example Omagh CBS won the Rannafast Cup in 2009

Extracurricular Activity

The pupils are involved in quite a wide variety of extracurricular activity linked to the school. The Young Enterprise team has been progressed far in the regional and national competitions in the last few years. The school is actively involved in the Pope John Paul 2 award, an award promoting Roman Catholic values in the modern world through community and church work. It has had several successful participants in the BBC Hard Spell competition. The pupils produce their own weekly newsletter and annual magazine which are then published and distributed or sold. The pupils are also involved in immersion projects, currently, as of 21 October 2007, in Bolivia. Other activities take place within the music department. These include batin' drums, choir and music lessons which allow students to learn how to play numerous instruments including; Guitar, Piano, Drums, Trumpet, Flute and Clarinet. This year the school competed in the Times Spelling Bee Competition and did extremely well. There is also a lot of Extra-Curricular clubs for example Art and Design, ICT, Drama, GAA and lots lots more. The pupils also have a very poor Junior and Senior Choir as well as a Traditional Irish Music Group.

Notable former pupils

See also: Category:People educated at Christian Brothers Grammar School, Omagh

Among the alumni of the school are many past and present members of the Tyrone Gaelic football Team, such as Stephen O'Neill and Joe McMahon, the current manager, Mickey Harte, former BBC NI sports presenter, Jerome Quinn, World Economic Forum representative and company CEO Aaron McCormack. National swimmer and Olympic diver Liam Mallon currently attends.

External links

• Official website