Academic Selection
As with many grammar schools in Northern Ireland academic selection is at the heart of admission to Portadown College. Entry to Portadown College is defined by a system called the Dickson Plan whereby internal entry exams are set to students within each of its feeder schools.
The Dickson Plan is in some regard an analogue of the 11+ but although given students sit internal entrance exams at 14 it is not a direct replacement. From the scrapping of the 11+ in Northern Ireland, some people are suggesting that the Dickson Plan emerges as a clear ‘model’ to replace the now obsolete 11+, albeit for students at the age of 11.
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