'Transfer test system is brutal and must change'

Most primary school pupils will not return to the classroom until Monday 11 January

A County Down school principals' group has called for the "brutal and archaic system" of transfer tests to change.

The Newtownards and Comber Primary Principals Association made the comments in a letter to Education Minister Peter Weir.

The first transfer test, used by many grammar schools to select pupils, is due to take place on Saturday.

Deputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill has said the "transfer tests should not proceed".

She also tweeted that Mr Weir "needs to act now and provide clarity at tomorrow's Executive".

The principals said they were in "the eye of another avoidable, disorganised storm" over school reopening.

A number of Belfast nursery school principals have also questioned whether it is safe for them to open on Monday.

On Thursday 31 December Mr Weir announced a staggered return to school for pupils during the month of January.

Most primary school pupils will not return to the classroom until Monday 11 January.

'It is just not acceptable'

Mark Regan and Stephen McConnell both have sons in primary seven who are due to take the transfer test this weekend.

Mr Regan said it was "confusing" that his son was not able to attend his own school on Friday, but it would be "safe" for him to attend a different school on Saturday for the transfer test.

"I just can't square that circle," he told BBC NI's Good Morning Ulster.

"It is confusing, it is not fair, the stress on these children, thousands of them, it is just not acceptable."

He said Education Minister Peter Weir needed to make a decision today (Monday) on whether the test "should be cancelled" and "avoid another week of stress for these children".

Mr McConnell said his son wanted to do the test.

"He knows the amount of effort he has put in and we don't want to see that effort going to waste," he added.

"With the pandemic and the health situation at the minute the kids should be safe, I would prefer they were able to sit it (the test) in their own primary schools and I know it is late but that is the ideal situation.

"The main problem is that everything is last-minute, six days away from the test happening and we still don't know."

In their letter to Mr Weir, which has been seen by BBC News NI, the primary principals said they represented "the unheard voices of thousands of pupils and families across the wider Newtownards and Comber area".

"We write as a cross-community group of school principals and constituents with collective feelings of confusion, frustration, exhaustion and, quite frankly, bewilderment at the events of recent days," they said.

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The principals' letter said that a long-term solution was needed to transfer tests before 2022.

"There is no escaping the fact that transfer tests exist as a fundamental part of the primary programme in most schools and to take any other position is to treat us and the public like fools," the letter said.

"The Department of Education should have addressed the transfer saga as a matter of urgency since it was dismantled 11 years ago but its failure to do so means our pupils are now footing the bill with their mental health.

"We accept that the window to find a solution to selective post-primary transfer tests closed some time ago but in the interests of the mental health of our pupils and their families, and the overall primary school experience, a long-term solution must now be sought in advance of 2022.

"Surely this brutal and archaic system isn't the best we can do for our children?"

Some schools had offered to bring P7 pupils back to class from Monday 4 January

The principals also said that they had been left confused by Department of Education guidance which had initially said that schools could offer face-to-face teaching to pupils facing exams.

This had led to some schools offering to bring P7 pupils back to class from Monday 4 January.

"Not only did this pitch schools against one another but it placed principals in an impossible position of having to choose between public health and pupil education," the letter said.

However, Mr Weir subsequently clarified on social media that primary schools were not to bring back P7 pupils about to sit the transfer tests early.

'Shambolic'

The principals were also critical of what they said was "shambolic" decision-making on schools, and said long-term planning was needed.

"Here we are again, in the eye of another avoidable, disorganised storm," they said.

"We all accept that we are in a fluid situation so this pattern of single-minded positioning followed by last-minute U-turns and ad-hoc announcements simply can't go on.

"Pragmatic planning in the interests of pupils and their parents must replace politicking as a matter of urgency."

Nursery schools are due to reopen to all pupils on Monday 4 January

Meanwhile, the North and South Belfast Nursery Schools Principals Group have also written to Mr Weir to express "extreme concerns" about reopening.

Nursery schools are due to reopen to all pupils on Monday 4 January.

But the group, which represents the heads of 16 Belfast nursery schools, said that "distancing young children from staff and each other is neither possible nor appropriate" in nursery schools.

They asked Mr Weir a number of questions about how safe it was to reopen their schools as planned, and why they were being treated differently from primary and post-primary schools in reopening.

"We urge you to apply the same safety measures around delayed opening for primary school to all nurseries and preschools, thus enabling them to offer the same essential care for key workers and vulnerable children, to minimise contact and the spread of the virus," the principals said.