Derry principal to take up key role at new Strule campus in Omagh

The principal of a school at the centre of a row over funding for a football pitch in Derry is to take up a key position at the proposed Strule education campus in Omagh.

The campus, the largest education project ever undertaken in the North, will bring together an estimated 4,000 pupils from six schools on the one site.

The BBC is reporting that Michael Allen, principal of of Lisneal College in Derry, has accepted the post of education adviser for the Strule project.

In a letter, Mr Allen, who was appointed a MBE for services to education last year and who was named head teacher of the year in 2021, told Lisneal parents he would be taking up his new role in “the coming weeks”.

The post is a secondment to the Department of Education (DE) for three years, with the possibility of a fourth year, and was publicly advertised in October 2024.

There has been a lot of focus on Lisneal College in recent weeks after the Belfast Telegraph revealed the school has received £710,000 for a new football pitch, without having applied for the funding.

Outlining the vision for the Strule campus, the DE said the schools will ‘work together to provide a shared curriculum and a wide range of extra-curricular activities’.

A shared sports centre will be one of the key elements of the campus, which is scheduled to open in September 2028.

The schools involved in the project are: Arvalee School and Resource Centre; Christian Brothers Grammar School; Loreto Grammar School; Omagh Academy Grammar School; Omagh High School; and Sacred Heart College.

The Strule campus is being built on a 125-acre site close to the centre of Omagh.