School Principal

Founded in 1785, we are the oldest school in Belfast City. Originally situated near St. Anne’s Cathedral, in what is now Academy Street, the School moved to the Cliftonville Road in 1880, when the main Crombie building was erected. In 1888 the School was granted permission by Queen Victoria to style itself Belfast Royal Academy.

We are a voluntary, co-educational day grammar school listed among the Public Schools of the United Kingdom. Our management is vested in a Board of Governors on which parents and teachers are represented, along with Governors elected by Members of the Academy and nominees of the Department of Education. Our present budget is in excess of £10.7 million pounds. Our parents pay an annual capital fee of £140 and are invited to make an additional voluntary contribution £350 per academic year.

“Our vision is to ensure that all our pupils are given every opportunity and the support they need to fulfil their potential in school and life”

The current school enrolment is 1,454 pupils. Our admissions are over-subscribed each year, with just 200 place available in Year 8.

The present Principal is in membership of the Headmasters’ and Headmistresses’ Conference (HMC). We are an active member of the North Belfast Area Learning Community and have a long-standing and well-developed shared education partnership with St Malachy’s College.

We are currently in the early design stages of a £4million capital project that will see the replacement of the school’s gymnasium with a modern multi-use space and the provision of additional geography, history and physics classrooms. In September we will open a newly fitted out bookable computer suite with 30 places.

Almost all the rest of the classrooms are in up-to-date accommodation and include fifteen science laboratories, (refurbished within the last 20 years) eight computer suites, an art and design suite, a purpose-built technology block, a classroom block for English and Drama and a Mathematics block. There is a large sixth form study and recreation centre. The school remains at the forefront of information technology, with 48 interactive whiteboards and high specification computer equipment and projectors throughout the school in addition to new ‘Cleverboard’ technology in the new Classroom blocks and multi-purpose suite.

There is a 25-metre indoor heated swimming pool, sports hall and strength and conditioning suite at the main site. Extensive playing fields are situated at the Castle Grounds and at Roughfort, including high quality rugby, cricket and athletics facilities, as well as a floodlit sand-dressed astro-turf hockey pitch.

We pride ourselves on the breadth of our curriculum with 25 subjects on offer for GCSE and 29 subjects for A-level.

Academic standards are at the level expected in a leading grammar school in Northern Ireland. More than 99% of sixth form leavers go on to further or higher education and there is a strong tradition of entry to the ancient universities at Oxford and Cambridge.

The School has a highly developed and much valued extra-curricular life. There are over seventy-two different activities in the extra-curricular programme. The principal games are rugby, hockey, football, cricket, cross-country running, swimming, athletics, tennis and badminton. There are several choirs and instrumental groups, an Irish traditional group, jazz band, swing band, concert band and a full orchestra. School organisations and societies include a Junior and Senior Dramatic Society, a Community Service Group and the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Scheme, in which almost 100 pupils are involved. Charity and giving forms an integral part of our daily school life.

Although not formally designated an “Integrated" school, we are widely regarded as one of the most integrated and diverse educational communities in Northern Ireland and we celebrate our diversity.

The most recent inspection report by the Educational and Training Inspectorate was published in December 2025.

The senior management structure of the School currently includes a Deputy Principal, a Head of Finance and Corporate Services, two Vice-Principals, three Senior Teachers and three Key Stage Leaders.