MEMBERS of Brookeborough Shared Education Partnership have been giving evidence in Stormont on a proposal that they believe will make a difference to children in Fermanagh.

The idea to create one building on a shared campus site, with classrooms that both schools will occupy, has already received high praise from both the first and deputy first ministers. And now those behind the plan have impressed the education committee, too.

Hazel Gardiner, the principal of Brookeborough Controlled Primary School and Dermot Finlay, the principal of St. Mary’s Primary School, were asked to brief members of the committee as part of its investigation into shared and integrated education.

Ms. Gardiner said: “Today we stand on the threshold of a shared campus for our children and the community. If Brookeborough can do that, other divided communities can do it also.” The principal told the committee that both schools have been working together long before the phrase ‘shared education’ was coined.

“All those activities continued through challenging times. I was a young teacher in the school in 1987 when the then principal lost his mother in law and father in law in the Remembrance Day bombing. Both schools in Brookeborough have had parents, pupils and children who suffered and were personally affected. Even since then, when politically sensitive issues are reported in the media, it has the potential to affect the dynamic of the partnership, but the commitment and strength of our partnership has enabled us to overcome those challenges,” she said.

And in particular, through funding and support from the Fermanagh Trust, the children in Brookeborough have enjoyed shared lessons across the curriculum over the last six years.

“One of the difference between the old community relations programmes and the Fermanagh Trust shared education programme is that all children are spending regular — indeed, weekly — time in each other’s schools from P1 to P7, working and playing together.

“Through shared education, we also learn about each other’s cultures, and we have shared performances and activities. Our schools were involved in Project St. Patrick in Enniskillen. Over the past few years, we have jointly entered choral speaking in the Fermanagh Feis, winning on one occasion. The children have played rugby together, and, at one of the Project St. Patrick parades in Enniskillen, they performed Scottish and Irish dancing at the same time,” she said.

Teachers at both schools have hosted joint training and through the Fermanagh Trust programme, there has been training in good practice, partnership-building and the Rural Respecting Difference programme.

During his contribution to the inquiry, Mr. Dermot Finlay told the committee: “The richness of our shared past and the proposal for a shared campus has developed naturally over the years owing to the high level of sharing between the two schools over four decades.” Mr. Finlay stated his belief that the Brookeborough shared campus “has immense potential to enhance and develop a shared future for the local community”.

“The proposal for the shared campus was a community-based decision to sustain primary education in Brookeborough for both sections of the community. It is, as the Minister of Education asked for, a bottom-up, local solution that meets local needs.” He added: “The campus has the support of all political parties on Fermanagh District Council, and, at a recent meeting in February 2015 with the first minister, the deputy first minister and Arlene Foster, we received a tremendously positive and enthusiastic response to our proposal for the shared campus. The deputy first minister, during Question Time at the start of March, described the Brookeborough initiative and our leadership as inspirational.” Mr. Finlay said the project “will widen and deepen within the shared campus” and stated: “Shared campuses are about building united communities, and that is what we want to do.” Education Committee Chairperson, Miss Michelle McIlveen replied: “For you, the only barrier at this stage to moving forward with the project is financial.” “Absolutely,” responded Mr. Finlay. “If the Department of Education says yes to us in June, there should be no problem at all. I am sure that it will.” The business case was submitted to the Department of Education on January 30 this year and an outcome is expected before the end of June.

In concluding his remarks to the committee, Mr. Finlay said he has seen “tremendous change” in Brookeborough.

“I am there just over 10 years. There was no pharmacy when I first came. Little restaurants and cafes have opened up. The two schools are an integral part of the village. They are pivotal. If you take those two schools out of the village, you rip the heart out of it.

“Parents say that they are very happy with Brookeborough controlled schools and with St Mary’s; they want the two schools to carry on, and the shared campus allows for that sustainability. It is about what you have all commented on today: mutual respect and understanding. It is about being able to say, ‘I am this, and I am quite proud of it. You are that, and you are proud of that’. The old adage from the 1970s is, ‘I’m OK; you’re OK’. It is about living together, the two schools existing on a site and sharing and increasing that sharing for the benefit of the children… it is about the education and social benefits of the children and about building a united community,” he said.