Dr Anne Murray
On Saturday 21st June 2014 staff, parents and governors of Oakgrove Integrated Primary and Nursery School and representatives from the Foyle Trust for Integrated Education joined together to celebrate their recent achievement of the prestigious “Excellence in Integrated Education Award”. As part of the celebrations they formally acknowledged and thanked Dr Anne Murray (retiring Principal) for her tireless commitment to, and endless achievements for, Integrated Education.
As a founder member of Foyle Trust for Integrated Education and founding principal of Oakgrove Integrated Primary School and Nursery, Dr Murray has devoted 25 years to successfully promoting and developing Integrated Education in the North West. She resigned from a permanent teaching post in Greenhaw Primary School, Derry, to lead the foundation of a Primary School which had no pupils, buildings or funding. As a result Oakgrove Integrated Primary School was officially opened in September 1991. Dr Murray then inspired the Foyle Trust to open Oakgrove Integrated College in 1992 and Oakgrove Integrated Nursery in 1999.
Oakgrove Integrated Primary and Nursery School ‘Celebrates Diversity and Learning Together for Life’. Today the School and Nursery have over 450 pupils and a staff of 45 teachers and classroom assistants. All staff participate in regular conflict resolution and integration training. This has prepared them to support pupils across the communities. In Oakgrove Dr Murray has created a vibrant, happy, hard-working and successful community of people drawn from all parts of our divided society. Her visionary leadership draws the best from everyone who enters her orbit.
Under her leadership, Oakgrove Integrated Primary School achieved the “European Foundation for Quality Model Excellence Award” (2010 and was the first school in Northern Ireland to achieve level 2 of the “UNICEF, Rights Respecting School Award” (2011). Oakgrove also achieved the “International Schools Award” and “Investors in People Award”. The most recent award presented to the school was the prestigious “Excellence in Integrated Education Award” (2014). Under the inspirational leadership of Dr Murray, the School and Nursery have developed and grown and are now seen as a model of excellent practice in integrated and inclusive education. To quote from the University of Ulster citation: “Dr Murray has successfully set up a model for inclusive, child-centred education which has impacted on all schools in Northern Ireland.”
Dr Murray’s dedication to Integrated Education was recognised when she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Ulster in 1998 “in recognition of her decades of selfless commitment and drive to build a better society in Northern Ireland”. Dr Murray has a strong vision for Integrated Education which is lived out in her school, within her own community, throughout Northern Ireland, and beyond. All who come in contact with Dr Murray are swept up in her enthusiasm and passion for her vision of a better society.
