St Mary's Grammar scraps academic selection for 2022

A west Belfast grammar school has become the first to abandon academic selection for 2022.

In a statement to BBC News NI, the governors of St Mary's Christian Brothers Grammar School said they would not take part in transfer tests this autumn.

The governors said this was due to the "unprecedented mental and emotional stresses" faced by Primary 6 children.

St Mary's is an all-boys grammar on Belfast's Glen Road.

It has more than 1,100 pupils and admits about 180 young people every year.

In previous years, it has used the transfer tests run by the Post-Primary Transfer Consortium (PPTC) to select pupils.

The separate tests run by the PPTC and AQE were cancelled in 2021 due to disruption caused by the Covid pandemic.

That has meant the vast majority of more than 60 grammar schools are using non-academic criteria to select pupils for September 2021.

St Mary's has become the first grammar school to decide not to use transfer tests for a second year.

Following a decision by the NI Executive on Tuesday, Primary 6 children are due to return to school on Monday, 22 March.

However, those children have only been taught in school for about four months in the past year.

'Unforgiving pandemic'

In a statement to BBC News NI, the board of governors of St Mary's Grammar said the school had continued to offer its "traditional high standard of teaching" during the "unforgiving pandemic".

"For a significant number of years, the school has been oversubscribed and has utilised an academic selection criterion in allocating places available for its Year 8 intake," they continued.

"However, in the light of the current unprecedented mental and emotional stresses on both pupils and parents, the board of governors wish to focus on the health and well-being of the current Primary 6 cohort.

"Due to the current challenges faced by these young people, the board of governors have decided it will not take part in the PPTC transfer tests and will not use an academic selection criterion for 2022/23 school year."

The governors said the school would use other entrance criteria for 2022, which would be "published in due course".

BBC News NI previously revealed that PPTC had asked schools to consider whether to use verbal reasoning tests to decide which pupils to admit in 2022.

More than 30 - mainly Catholic - grammars have been asked to consider what PPTC called a "radical change" to the tests this autumn, instead of tests in English and Maths.

However, St Mary's has now decided to scrap academic selection for 2022 instead.