The Royal School, Dungannon

The Royal Charter to establish a free school in County Tyrone was laid down by King James I in 1608 and the Royal School Dungannon came into being in 1614. Tradition plays a significant part in the life of the School, whether it is in the classroom, where an academic curriculum predominates, or on the sports field, where a Corinthian spirit is valued every bit as much as the will and skill to win. But we are also a school which looks to the future and is not frightened of modernity. The stunning new Campus takes its inspiration in style from the School’s earliest building on its current site, the Old Grey Mother built in 1789, but in its facilities it is a school for the 21st century.

Classrooms are large and well resourced. There are specialist teaching facilities in Information & Communication Technology, Design & Technology, Food Technology and Science, and sporting facilities such as a modern sports hall and a floodlit astro-turf pitch to compliment rugby and hockey pitches and tennis courts. RSD has its own sense of community and parental support for and family loyalty to the School is a cornerstone of that community. The School has a broad Christian ethos and this provides a moral compass for our work but no denomination is favoured and all pupils, from whatever background, are warmly welcomed. Increasingly, we are also playing a role within our broader community. The School has strong links with local sporting clubs, churches and business organisations and as part of the Dungannon and Cookstown Area Learning Community we are collaborating with other schools to ensure the best provision for all pupils in the area. On the international stage, we have strong links with the Dilworth School in New Zealand, and a strong boarding community from Asia, especially Hong Kong. We are proud of our academic achievements and our sporting successes and as a Voluntary Grammar and Boarding School we aim to build upon those successes in the future. But our greatest achievement remains the personal development of our pupils as they work towards such successes: not only in sport but also through participation in the Duke of Edinburgh award, a wide variety of musical ensembles, drama productions (both plays and musicals), the Scripture Union, our Debating Society, the Charities Committee and much more besides.

RSD pupils seek success with humility knowing that success can only be achieved by having the resilience and perseverance to face failure along the way. Our School motto, Perseverando, might best be thought of as achieving excellence through perseverance. To that we might also add that at RSD we seek to achieve excellence with integrity, for the spirit of the school is the spirit of educating the whole person. With those thoughts in mind, we look forward to the next 400 years with real confidence.