The History of Our School
Some parents from Banbridge came together in 1986 to discuss the building of a new Integrated Primary School in Banbridge. They held meetings in their homes to discuss their idea of starting of a new Integrated Primary School. Mrs Maureen Jamison was one of the parents who wanted children from all religious backgrounds to be educated together. The photograph below shows the Parent founders of Bridge Integrated Primary School.
Mrs Maureen Jamison held a meeting in Banbridge Leisure Centre in 1986. She was amazed at the large turn out of people. Many people were very interested in starting an Integrated Primary School. She said, We chose the name Bridge that night. The name Bridge was very suitable as it echoed our town name. It also was very meaningful, as Bridge was a name that would bring together different communities.
Bridge Integrated Primary School opened its doors to 75 pupils in 1987 in Daisy Hill House, on 7th September . The site is now used for residential homes and named Daisy Hill Court .
Bridge Primary School is operating from a new purpose built school at Ballygowan Road, which opened in 1997. It has over 400 pupils and 40 members of staff, both teaching and non-teaching.
As an integrated school we always seek to promote an awareness of and respect for the religious beliefs and the cultural traditions of others.
Each pupil is valued and encouraged to do their best in school and most importantly, to be happy and value their time at Bridge.
Bridge Primary is an integrated, co-educational, all-ability, Christian primary school, maintained by the Department of Education for Northern Ireland.
INTEGRATED EDUCATION: As an integrated school we seek to promote an awareness of and a respect for the religious beliefs and the cultural traditions of others.
As an all-ability Primary School, Bridge makes provision for some pupils with Special Needs.
We celebrate Integrated Education Month during March each year. This is a chance for the ideals of Integrated Education to be promoted within the wider community.
We have a teacher representative who attends the Integrated Teachers' Commitee at NICIE. A meeting is held every two months to discuss issues to advance integration within our schools, thus maintaining links with other Integrated schools at primary and secondary level. Fresh ideas and good teaching practice are shared, along with themes for involvement with the community at large.
The Principal is a member of APTIS the Association of Principal Teachers in Integrated Schools and the Vice Principal is an active participant of the VP Forum for NICIE.
