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Banbridge High School is a secondary school located in Banbridge, County Down, Northern Ireland. It is within the Southern Education and Library Board area.

The school was opened in 1957 with an initial enrolment of 438 pupils with 12 staff. Today the school has a total enrolment of 690 pupils and 48 staff (at July 2006). A new building was officially opened by the Duchess of Kent in March 1997. The current principal is Andrew Bell. Mr Bell joined as Principal in 2009.

In 2012 the Education and Training Inspectorate for Northern Ireland concluded that the GCSE results for Banbridge High School were 'inadequate', as compared to similar schools in Northern Ireland. The report also revealed that Banbridge High “has an increasing and substantial projected budget deficit over the next three years which needs to be addressed as a matter of urgency”. This report is available at www.etini.gov.uk/.../inspection-letter-banbridge-high-school.pdf or at www.etini.gov.uk/index/inspection-​reports/inspection.

The 'Banbridge Leader' local newspaper website carried a reply from Principal, Mr Andrew Bell - see below for the full press release :

High School responds to Inspection report

Published on Tuesday 29 May 2012 09:00

This report appeared on the 'Banbridge Leader' website, but was removed prior to publication of the paper version on sale to the general public. No reason has been given.

The Chairperson of the Board of Governors at Banbridge High School is Mrs Margaret Mayne. She is the daughter of a past headmaster of nearby Loughbrickland school, and was raised with her brothers and sister within the schoolhouse.

The Board of Governors also includes local Banbridge Councillors Mr Junior McCrum, DUP, and Mr I Burns, UUP. Mr McCrum is a former pupil and also a Banbridge Council representative on the Southern Education and Library Board ( SELB ). He is currently the Chairperson of Banbridge District Council, as of June 2012.

The ex-Chairman of Banbridge Council, the UUP’s John Hanna, was removed from the Board of Governors recently ( Banbridge Leader, Monday 18th June 2012 ). The reason for removal was recorded as “non-attendance".

The Reverend Andrew Watson, from Scarva Street Presbyterian Church of Ireland, Banbridge, is also on the Board of Governors.

A regular visitor and speaker at school assemblies is local Upper Bann MP, Mr David Simpson. He is a DUP member,Free Presbyterian and has strong links to the Northern Ireland 'Caleb Foundation'. The Caleb Foundation is a political lobbying group founded in 1998. There are no women members in the Caleb Foundation. There are no known members with any scientific qualifications of any note. They believe in a literal word of the Bible, despite the overwhelming evidence that the earth is over 3 BILLION years old. Mainstream Christianity accepts the age of the earth.

The main aims of the Caleb Foundation is the introduction of the 6,000 year old 'young earth', creationist agenda into Northern Ireland education and public museums, for example at the new Giant's Causeway visitors centre. This is despite the fact that there are trees, still growing,beyond this age.