When you start your journey at secondary school, you expect to be there for the long haul, whether that is five years or seven.

You don't expect or indeed need the threat of closure hanging over the school as you complete your studies.

But this is exactly what has been looming over the students of St. Mary's High School, Brollagh since 2008 as it faces the fourth attempt by the Council for Catholic Maintained Schools (CCMS) to close the school in 2020.

The community has rallied and are as determined as ever to keep the rural school open.

For Year Eight students Taidgh O'Brien and Caoimhe Walsh, who are in their first year in the school, the prospect of possibly having to start at a new school and the amount of travelling that they will have to do is not something they want to remotely consider.

Caoimhe, from Belleek, would more have went to Mount Lourdes if Brollagh was closed, but she is loving her time at the St. Mary's and wants it to continue.

"It has been amazing. Everyone has been really welcoming and I have got on really well.

"Everyone loves it that goes there and wants it to stay open and it's vital that we have a school that is close to us that we can all get to easily.

"If the school had to close I would have to get up really early to get the bus and I wouldn’t have much time for anything in the evening because I would always be very tired."

Taidgh sees first hand the difference in the travel time between his home in Garrison and Brollagh and between Garrison and Enniskillen.

His brother is a student at St. Michael's College and gets his bus at 7.15am and is not home until after 5pm.

Taidgh gets his bus at 9am and is back at home by 4pm.

He had the chance to go to St. Michael's but instead chose to go to St. Mary's.

"I don’t support that they are trying to close it because what right have they in doing it?" asked Taidgh.

"It’s a really good school and I hope that it doesn’t close because it would really change my whole education."

Taidgh described the school as like a "small community where you can always rely on someone" and he doesn't believe there would be the same feeling if he had to go to another school.

Siobhan O'Brien, Taidgh's mother says her son is extremely happy with the choice he made.

"You get equally as good of grades in St. Mary's as St. Michael's. It would be an awful pity if it closes. It will have an awful impact on the whole community."

Paul Keogh has one son currently at the school with another hoping to attend in 2020 if the closure fails to materialise.

Originally from London, he says one of the things that attracted him and his family to the area was the close proximity of a local school.

He says if his children have to go to school in Enniskillen their quality of life would be heavily impacted with the amount of travelling required to get to and from school.

"It is mainly travel, it’s the length of distance. He would have be on a bus at 7.15am and be at home around 5.05pm. That just makes after school activities fairly impossible..

"My little boy doesn’t want to go anywhere else. He went to the open night with my older son and he fell in love with the school.

"It’s a quaint school and its got a lot of charm to it. Yes we don’t have the same educational opportunities but we're prepared to be educated within small school setting which has got fantastic grades and it is working for our kids and long may it continue."

For now fight goes on for students, teachers and parents to keep the school open.

And for Caoimhe she is confident that all the effort being put in to keep the fight open will not be in vain.

"I think that the people will pull through and make sure Brollagh will stay open," she added.

One thing is for certain, the fight will continue right to the end.