Dear Madam - In Mr Morton’s letter published in your paper last week he tries to allay the fears of correspondents to the press by seeking to reassure them that the reduction in numbers to the proposed new amalgamated voluntary grammar school will not disadvantage the grammar school intake or the needs of all the young people in the county.

To support his argument Mr Morton compares the actual enrolments of Devenish College, Collegiate Grammar School and Portora Royal School. In so doing he neglects to recognise that there are more pupils transferring from the controlled primary schools in Fermanagh each year to post-primary schools than the intake in the three schools he mentions. If he looks at the WELB figures for pupils transferring to post-primary schools this year he will find that there are 260 pupils in the controlled primary sector. The intake of both Portora and the Collegiate is capped at 70 pupils each and Devenish can enrol 120 pupils. If one totals these enrolment numbers for the three schools the number is also 260. It is clear therefore from these figures that the grammar schools are not expanding at the expense of the secondary sector in County Fermanagh. It needs to be stated clearly that the grammar school intake has remained stable for years now due to the cap imposed by the Department of Education. Furthermore parental choice in the non-grammar sector has seen pupils opting for other schools within Fermanagh and indeed beyond Fermanagh, resulting in a smaller proportion of pupils going to Devenish College, the one non-selective controlled school now left in County Fermanagh after the closure of three non—selective schools in the controlled sector over the past number of years. Closing the Collegiate and reducing the overall number of grammar school places in County Fermanagh will not address this reality. Mr Morton also neglects to take account of the fact that pupils from the SELB Area, from other parts of County Tyrone, from Catholic Maintained Primary schools and the Integrated Primary School all opt for the Collegiate as a first preference each year because they value highly the school’s ethos and the experiences it offer. As a result the Collegiate is heavily oversubscribed from within Fermanagh and beyond and each year we turn away girls who could easily benefit from the type of education we offer. Why then should we as a school and as a community accept the closure of the Collegiate, the most heavily oversubscribed school in County Fermanagh last year: a school with a clear vision and sense of identity and enjoying community confidence? And for what purpose? For the promise of a grammar school with a reduced number of places available to both girls and boys trying to build its identity and community confidence as it copes with the heavy demands of a split site? I think not. The Collegiate has a much more confident and inclusive vision for the future which allows the development of both the Collegiate and Portora as strong grammar schools alongside the consolidation of Devenish College as a strong vocational option with all three schools serving pupils from within their traditional catchment areas and beyond due to the quality of their provision. At the recent WELB consultation meeting with parents in the Collegiate, the model of three schools each with 600 pupils gained strong support. Such a model takes account of the current realities including the numbers, it builds on current strengths and it also leaves room for further development in our sector should the future situation demand it We believe that this solution, rooted in present reality yet allowing for a confident vision for the future will serve not only to allay the justified fears of the community regarding the current WELB proposals: it will also provide us with a positive way forward. We urge both the WELB and the Fermanagh Protestant Board of Education to join us in finding this positive way forward.

Florence brunt