Loreto Grammar - The Most Admired Schools Award

Loreto Grammar – The Most Admired Schools Award

11th June 2026 by Website Editor

Loreto Grammar School Omagh is proud to be featured in an esteemed educational magazine, listed as one of the Most Admired Schools. Read the full feature length piece below prefaced by an excerpt from the forward of the magazine.

“There is a moment in every great school that has nothing to do with test scores or trophy cabinets. It happens in
a corridor when a student finds the courage to try something new. It lives in the quiet discipline of a morning
classroom, in the patience of a teacher who refuses to leave a single student behind, and in the conversations
that follow students home long after the final bell rings. These moments are invisible to inspection reports. But
they are the truest measure of a school’s worth. They are precisely what we went looking for when we
assembled this year’s list, and they are the beating heart of “The Most Admired Schools of 2026.”
Of all the stories in these pages, none carries more history, more heart, or more quiet determination than that of
our cover feature. Loreto Grammar School in Omagh, Northern Ireland, marks 170 years of educating young
women with faith, scholarship, and a fierce belief in human potential. What began in 1855, when Sr Felicitas
Murray and five Loreto Sisters arrived by stagecoach from Dublin, has grown into a thriving community of
nearly 890 pupils, guided by a principal, Susan Cullinan, who believes that excellence is not a destination but a
deeply personal journey. The school’s mission, “Making Young Dreams Possible,” is not simply printed on a
wall. It is lived in every classroom, every pastoral meeting, every choir rehearsal, and every quiet act of
encouragement that helps a young woman believe in herself. With the upcoming move to the Strule Shared
Education Campus, Loreto Grammar looks ahead while honouring the values its founders carried on that
stagecoach journey more than a century and a half ago.”