Parents and Pupils Stage Demonstration at Department of Education headquarters Against Downpatrick School Merger

Q Radio

A group of over 200 parents and pupils from St. Patrick’s Grammar School Downpatrick have staged a demonstration at the Department of Education headquarters in Bangor as their fight to halt the amalgamation of the school with two others in the area continues. 

Parents, pupils and teachers from the Red High today repeated their call to Mark Browne, Permanent Secretary of the Department of Education, to cease plans for the amalgamation with De La Salle High School and St. Mary’s High School in the town, which is due to take place in September 2024. 

The school’s parents’ association, the Red High PFA, has long been opposed to the merger, which was green lit by former caretaker Education Minister Michelle McIlveen MLA in October 2022. The PFA represents over 500 parents in the Downpatrick area. 

Today, the group gathered outside the Department of Education building at Rathgael House in Bangor, with chants of “Caretaker Minister Did Not Care” and “Those Consulted Not Affected, Those Affected Not Consulted” ringing out in staunch opposition to the amalgamation and the lack of financial planning behind it.  

The PFA says the approval of a merger to create a 1600 pupil, co-educational 11–19 year-old voluntary grammar school in Downpatrick followed an “entirely flawed” decision making process, in which over 85% (106 of 120) schools who opposed it at consultation stage were ignored, alongside almost 90% (539 out of 601) of responses submitted in a personal capacity. 

The parent of a primary school pupil in the area, who believes their child’s future will be impacted by the amalgamation, has submitted an application for a Judicial Review on the grounds of procedural unfairness, claiming that the former caretaker Minister took the decision without regard for the consultation responses, or the adverse impact it will have on educational outcomes in the area. 

Travelling to Bangor to call once again on the Permanent Secretary to halt the “outrageous and irresponsible” merger, the pupils and parents of the Red High repeated their reasons for opposition. 

These include a lack of capacity within the proposed new school to offer spaces to local primary school children; an absence of plans or ring-fenced funding to merge the three schools in one campus; exclusion of pupils from rural areas that would traditionally feed into St. Patrick’s and an expected drop in SEN provision.

Parents and pupils of St. Patrick’s Grammar School Downpatrick stage a protest outside the Department of Education headquarters at Rathgael House, Bangor against the planned merger of the school with De La Salle High School and St. Mary’s High School. The group called on Permanent Secretary of the Department of Education Mark Browne to halt the merger.