Strangford College makes another bid to use transfer test results

An integrated school in County Down is making a second bid to use transfer test results to admit some pupils.

The Department of Education (DE) had previously turned down a plan by Strangford College to select 35% of pupils using transfer tests.

But the school has re-submitted the proposal due to what it said was "compelling new evidence".

The all-ability post-primary school in Carrowdore opened in 1997 and has about 800 pupils.

Its pupil numbers have grown significantly in recent years and it is often heavily oversubscribed.

About 45% of its pupils are from a Protestant background, 25% from a Catholic background and the remainder from "other" backgrounds.

The school's governors want to introduce "partial selection" for 45 Year 8 pupils into a "grammar pathway" from 2023.

The remaining 85 of the 130 Year 8 pupils the school takes each year would continue to be admitted using other criteria.

A detailed case for change document from the school published by the Education Authority (EA) said the move would meet "parental demand in the Ards and North Down area for all ability education, including access to grammar education at an integrated college".

The school also said that surveys of governors, staff, parents and pupils indicated support for the move.

In their renewed bid, the school quoted the former education minister Peter Weir speaking in an assembly debate on academic selection in April 2021.

Mr Weir said that the school's previous attempt to use transfer test results was "turned down by the permanent secretary".

"I am very happy to see bilateral education," he said.

"Where a bilateral choice is made, that is perfectly people's right."

As Stormont was suspended in 2019, the permanent secretary at the Department of Education had decided to reject Strangford College's previous proposal at that time.

A decision on the plan would normally have been made by the minister if Stormont had been sitting.

"The Board of Governors consider this response to be compelling new evidence that had a minister been in post this development proposal would have been approved in July 2019 and this constitutes part of the premise on which the proposal is being resubmitted," the school's case for change said.

The school also said using academic selection to admit some pupils and other criteria for others "offers a potential solution to the current divisive education system which impacts on children's self-esteem, mental health and well-being which has been well publicised".

Strangford College already admits 35% of its Year 8 pupils to an "informal grammar pathway".

They use evidence of academic ability for this, including primary reports and other tests, but not necessarily results from the transfer tests.

However, they now plan to admit 35% of their Year 8 pupils based solely on the results of AQE or Post-Primary Transfer Consortium (PPTC) tests.

This is similar to the system used in two other integrated schools - Lagan College in Belfast and Slemish College in Ballymena.

Lagan College, though, decided not to use transfer tests to admit pupils for 2021 and 2022 due to disruption caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

A common transfer test backed by the vast majority of grammar schools is set to replace the current separate tests in 2023.

In its proposal, Strangford College said it would use the results of a "single test" if it was being held by then.

The final decision on whether to approve Strangford College's renewed bid to use transfer test results to select some pupils will be made by the education minister.

But with an assembly election due in a few months, the decision may not fall to the current minister Michelle McIlveen.