Londonderry: St Columb's and Thornhill scrap 2022 academic selection

Two Catholic grammar schools in Londonderry have become the latest to abandon academic selection for 2022.

Thornhill College and St Columb's follow St Mary's Christian Brothers and Lagan College, both in Belfast, in scrapping the tests for a year.

In a joint statement, the governors said that young people had "faced a year of unprecedented challenge".

They added that there was "no guarantee" that disruption might not continue into their first school term.

Thornhill College was one of 12 grammar schools that took a decision in 2020 not to use the test for one year due to disruption caused by Covid-19.

Previously, both schools had used the GL Assessment test run by the Post-Primary Transfer Consortium (PPTC) to select pupils.

Thornhill College has about 1,500 pupils and admits 200 Year Eight girls every year

Thornhill College is a girls' grammar school while St Columb's is a boys grammar, with both having about 1,500 pupils.

Thornhill's past pupils include the writer of Derry Girls, Lisa McGee, who set the hit series in a fictionalised version of the school.

St Columb's past pupils include Seamus Heaney, John Hume and Martin O'Neill.

Both schools admit about 200 new pupils every year.

'Exceptional circumstances'

In a joint statement published on both school websites on Friday, the board of governors and principals of both schools said they wanted to "provide a degree of certainty" to those young people who would wish to enrol.

They said young people have faced "unprecedented challenges" which has "undoubtedly had a significant impact on mental and emotional well-being".

"In response to these exceptional circumstances, and with a desire to provide a degree of certainty to those young people who would wish to attend our schools, the boards of governors and principals of both schools have agreed that they will not use academic criteria for admission to year eight in September 2022.

"We believe that this is the right decision for our schools and local communities."

Colum Eastwood says young people are "under immense pressure at the minute"

Foyle MP Colum Eastwood welcomed the decision by the two schools to suspend academic selection for the 2022 school year.

"Young people are under immense pressure at the minute and there is no justifiable reason to make that worse.

"The lack of proper schooling will disadvantage pupils, particularly from low-income families who cannot afford private tutoring," the SDLP leader said.

"Our schools are showing strong leadership," he added.

Following a decision by the NI Executive on Tuesday, P6 children were among those returning to school on Monday, 22 March.

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