Dear Madam, - It is sad to think that the Collegiate Grammar School will soon have to go to the High Court, Belfast seeking a Judicial Review on the decision to close their school. This may well have been avoided if a political party had made the right decision and allowed the Collegiate matter to be referred to the Executive at Stormont as a matter of public importance. Regrettably their failure automatically scuppered the opportunity to save both schools. This betrayal along with local politicians putting the boot into the Collegiate has done immense damage to their campaign.http://www.niassembly.gov.uk/globalassets/documents/raise/deposited-papers/2015/dp1378.pdf While some may see this new school as a new beginning, I see it as the destruction of my old school, Portora Royal as well as the Collegiate Grammar. The destruction of one school to save another is a disgraceful act of treachery by those who initiated this merger in the first instance. I further suspect that this is only the beginning of school closures and if the Education Minister is successful in this process, then many other schools in the Controlled and CCMS system in Fermanagh and South Tyrone will follow.

Let us not forget that this is an effort by Collegiate Grammar to save both Portora and the Collegiate from inevitable destruction. Being a parent of a son who was educated at Portora and two girls who received an equally excellent education at the Collegiate, I wish Collegiate Grammar every success in this court case and God willing, they will be successful in this matter.

In the meantime I would encourage the public, from all sections of the community, to lend support to the Collegiate Grammar over the next few weeks wishing them well in the hearing.

Yours sincerely Alex Elliott TUV Fermanagh