Craigavon Senior High School

Craigavon Senior High School was established as a separate controlled school on 1 September 1995. Its primary function is to provide education at Key Stage 4 for those 14- to 16-year-old pupils who transfer from the junior high schools in Lurgan, Portadown and Tandragee. The school is unique in Northern Ireland in that it is the only school that caters exclusively for pupils at Key Stage 4.

Craigavon Senior High School operates as a single school on two sites sharing its Lurgan and Portadown campuses with the Upper Bann Institute of Further and Higher Education. It has its own Board of Governors, Principal and teaching staff and is uniquely placed to offer pupils the benefits of a traditional school ethos that is complemented by its links with Further Education.

By providing a vocational pathway from junior high school through to Further Education that parallels the academic pathway provided by the Senior high Schools (Grammar) it forms an integral part of the Craigavon two-tier system of education.

The Craigavon system, which originated in 1969, was the brainchild of Mr W J (Jack) Dickson OBE, the then Director of Education for County Armagh.

Modelled on a Leicestershire scheme it allows children to transfer from primary to all ability junior high schools at age 11. Selection at the end of Key Stage 3 (14+) enables pupils to follow an academic route or a vocational route based on a combination of Junior High School work and career preferences.