Lumen Christi College, Derry

Lumen Christi College is a co-educational Catholic grammar school in Derry, Northern Ireland. The school was founded in September 1997 and is located at the site of the old St Columb's College. The school is made up of just over 840 students and 50 teachers.ControversyIn April 2008, both Dr Séamus Hegarty (Roman Catholic Bishop of Derry and a senior trustee of the college) and Caitríona Ruane, the Minister for Education, along with the Irish National Teachers' Organisation (I.N.T.O.) trade union, criticised the Board of Governors of Lumen Christi College for announcing their intention to continue academic selection after the abolition of the 11-plus examination.The school's then-principal, Patrick O'Doherty, responded that the school intended to go ahead with its testing plans, and that the education minister had no legal authority to stop them. Regarding accusations in 2012 of Sinn Féin infiltrating Catholic schools, by placing Sinn Féin activists as school governors, Alliance Party MLA Trevor Lunn said, "In the context of Lumen Christi as a highly successful grammar school which has taken a public stance on the question of academic selection, in defiance of the minister's instruction and indeed the view of the Catholic Church, it is hard to see these appointments as anything other than a means of infiltration of the school's board of governors, with the aim of influencing the stance taken by the present board."