AMONG THE proposals being made to save St Mary’s High School, Brollagh, from closure are the prospect of an integrated school, a satellite school or a combination of an integrated school with students from across the border.
These were among the ideas floated at a public meeting attended by over 150 local people on the future of St Mary’s Brollagh.
The meeting was called amid intense local anger at planned closure of the school, which has been in operation since 1963.
Parents council chairman Seamus Kelm told the meeting this was the third time, since 2008, that the school, which achieved 100 per cent A*-C 5 GCES in 2017, was facing closure. The average for a grammar school is 96 per cent and 72 per cent for a secondary school.
St Mary’s has been in the top ten performing schools in Northern Ireland for the past three years.
Retired former Vice Principal of Brollagh Tommy Gallagher asked the meeting to consider the merits of a ‘Satellite School’.
The former MLA argued that if Brollagh was linked to a bigger school in Enniskillen the question of the current financial situation would be shared with that other school.
It would also be a way of keeping education in the area and teachers could be shared between both schools and more resources would be available to Brollagh.
A spokesman for the Parents Action Group told the Herald, “We were very pleased with the number of people who attended the public meeting. We wanted to inform people of the different options that are available to the area, and we had voting sheets to gather opinion. It seemed that the majority of people were very interested in exploring the integrated option.”
The Parents Action Group also urged members of the public to support the school by sending objections to the closure to the CCMS by November 20 to Area Planning and Policy Team, Department of Education, Rathgael House, Balloo Road, Bangor, Co Down, BT19 7PR.
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