A LEGAL challenge to the Education Minister's decision to press ahead with an amalgamation between two Enniskillen grammar schools this September has failed.

Mr Justice Colton, sitting this morning in the High Court in Belfast, refused an application challenging John O'Dowd’s decision to approve proposals to discontinue Portora Royal School and Collegiate Grammar School in Enniskillen and establish a new grammar school initially on a spilt-site campus and then in a new-build school.

The application to seek leave for a judicial review of the decision had been brought by a Year 10 student at the Collegiate Grammar.

In his judgement, Mr Justice Colton said it was “inevitable” that the closure of such schools would have a huge emotional impact on all those associated with them.