The Integrated Education Fund (IEF) remains extremely disappointed with the decisions made by the Education Minister to reject the democratic wishes of the overwhelming majority parents at both Bangor Academy and Sixth Form College and Rathmore Primary School in Bangor to become Integrated schools.
The Minister of Education’s decision to refuse Integrated status for Bangor Academy and Sixth Form College and Rathmore Primary School ‘would not be in line with the Department’s duty to encourage and facilitate integrated education particularly when this is considered to be a sustainable school which is seeking to Transform’. These are not the words of Integrated Education campaigners but the Area Planning and Policy Team of the Department of Education.
The Integrated Education Fund (IEF) remains extremely disappointed with the decisions made by the Education Minister to reject the democratic wishes of the overwhelming majority parents at both Bangor Academy and Sixth Form College and Rathmore Primary School in Bangor to become Integrated schools.
These two schools would have been joining Bangor Central Integrated Primary School and Bangor Integrated Nursery School in offering Integrated school places in their area. Both schools were confident that they could over time work to attract reasonable numbers of the Catholic community to join their schools.
It is the IEF’s view that the decisions taken by the Minister in relation to the two schools appear designed more to hinder the growth of Integrated Education rather than support it, as it places further obstacles to prevent a school from transforming to Integrated status.
The reason given for these decisions is based on the current number of Catholic pupils enrolled in each school and the Minister’s prediction about the potential number of Catholic pupils who will attend the schools if Integrated in the future. The Minister states, ‘I would anticipate that Integrated status for Bangor Academy is unlikely to have more than a marginal impact on the number of Catholic children attending the school.’ His rationale negates the fact that if the schools were approved to be Integrated then they would be much better placed to attract more pupils from the Catholic community. After all, that is the experience of the overwhelming majority of schools post Transformation approval.
Transformation has always been a journey and an ongoing process, it is does not happen overnight. The Minister has made this decision to deny these schools the opportunity to start this journey.
These decisions also go against the current policy of the Department of Education regarding transforming schools. Their own ‘Integration Works’ guidance states clearly that, “The Department recognises…. challenges for individual schools, dependent on the demographics of the local area and also due to the increasing number of pupils designating as ‘other’ or no religion. The Department will provide advice and support to schools with particularly low numbers from the minority community.”
Moreover, the decision also conflicts with the Department of Education’s most recent Strategy and Action Plan for Integrated Education (Section 10 Report) presented to the NI Assembly in April this year. The Department’s Section 10 Report clearly identifies the need for more Integrated Education places at post primary level in the Ards and North Down Council area than are currently available. It states that the Department would seek to address oversubscription of post primary Integrated provision through a ‘Call for Transformation.’ To plan to call for more schools to transform to become Integrated, whilst denying Integrated status for Bangor Academy, seems illogical and surely calls into question the seriousness and integrity of such a Strategy.
Therefore, there is clear inconsistency between the current Department of Education policy and strategy, and the decisions which the Minister has taken with regard to Bangor Academy and Sixth Form College and Rathmore Primary School.
It is also worth noting that these decisions go against the opinion of other major educational stakeholders including the Education Authority, the Controlled Schools Support Council and the Council for Integrated Education.
The IEF want to acknowledge the significant amount of time, energy and commitment both schools, their parents and the wider school communities have already dedicated to the Transformation process. The IEF does not want any of this hard work to be lost going forward and we are committed to supporting both schools to help them consider next steps and future actions.
