Lagan College rules out academic selection for 2022

Lagan College in Belfast has become the second school in NI to abandon academic selection for 2022 admissions.

The school said it was doing so "due to the continued impact of Covid-19 on all children this year".

Last week St Mary's Christian Brothers in west Belfast became the first NI school to say it would not take part in transfer tests in the autumn.

The governors said this was due to the "unprecedented mental and emotional stresses" faced by P6 children.

In its statement published on its website on Thursday, Lagan College said: "In response to the learning disruption that the P6 children have experienced, we will not use any form of academic selection as part of the P7 transfer process in 2022.

"Our school will also not act as a GL assessment centre.

"We sincerely apologise for any concern that this may cause to P6 families.

"However, we believe that this is the right decision for Lagan College to take and that this in keeping with our integrated, inclusive and all ability ethos."

It said the wellbeing of children "remains at the heart of our decision making".

In previous years the school had used academic selection to admit 35% of Year 8 pupils.

Lagan College is an integrated school, established in 1984 in south Belfast.

It now has about 1,300 pupils and 150 staff.

The separate tests run by the the Post Primary Transfer Consortium (PPTC) and the Association for Quality Education (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.

Following a decision by the NI Executive on Tuesday, P6 children returned to school on Monday, 22 March.

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