Craigavon Senior High School: Lurgan campus to close in 2023

Since opening in 1995, Craigavon Senior High School has operated on a 'split site'

The Lurgan campus of Craigavon Senior High School (CSHS) is to close despite opposition from the local council.

The Department of Education's permanent secretary Dr Mark Browne approved an Education Authority (EA) plan for the school to operate in Portadown only.

The 650-pupil school for 14-16 year-old pupils currently operates with one campus in Lurgan, and a larger one in Portadown five miles away.

The Lurgan campus is set to close in September 2023.

Lurgan Ulster Unionist councillor Louise McKinstry said she was "shocked and saddened" at the "decision of an unelected civil servant".

But in a letter to parents the school welcomed Dr Browne's decision, made in the absence of an education minister.

Around 160 of the CSHS's pupils are currently in Lurgan, with the rest in Portadown.

The plan has been long running and controversial.

All pupils would attend the Portadown campus of the school under Education Authority proposals

What's the background to the decision?

A number of controlled schools in the Craigavon area operate under the Dickson plan.

At age 11, pupils go to an all-ability junior high school. At 14 they transfer to CSHS, which is non-selective, or one of two local grammar schools, Lurgan College and Portadown College.

In 2016, the Education Authority identified a number of security, and health and safety issues for pupils and staff at the Lurgan campus of CSHS.

The school also had a budget deficit of over £2m in 2020.

The authority made an attempt to close the Lurgan site in 2019 and again in 2022.

But, on both occasions, consultations showed a majority of respondents were against the plan.

That included Armagh, Banbridge and Craigavon Council.

• Council objects to closure of Lurgan school campus

• Lurgan campus of school to be closed

After an independent review commissioned by its cross-party education working group, the council said there was "very strong community objection" to the move.

The review was carried out in 2021 by Dr Noel Purdy and Dr Jonathan Harris from the Centre for Research in Educational Underachievement at Stranmillis University College.

It said the closure of CSHS Lurgan campus "would likely exacerbate socio-economic deprivation in the area".

It also stated that pupils should have the option to stay in a non-selective school in Lurgan after age 14 rather than have to travel to Portadown.

As a result, it recommended that Lurgan Junior High School - which pupils currently leave at age 14 - should become a school for pupils up to the age of 16.

Plans to come

But the department of education's permanent secretary has now decided to approve the Education Authority's proposal to close the Lurgan campus of CSHS and for it to operate in Portadown alone.

In a letter to parents, the school said it welcomed the decision.

"In August 2022, the academic success of the pupils reached an all-time high with 87% of all pupils achieving grades A*-C," the letter said.

"During this time the school has also become heavily oversubscribed, intake in September 2022 has been the largest since the school's inception in 1995.

"This decision will allow Craigavon Senior High School to continue this journey of continuous success and development by taking the next steps towards a much-needed sixth-form provision."

"As you can appreciate the decision has only been received by the school, planning will commence in the weeks and months to follow."

Lurgan children 'failed'

But Ms McKinstry said she was "shocked and saddened" by the move.

"Successive education ministers have failed the children of Lurgan in the controlled sector by not making a decision earlier," she said.

"A consultation run by the EA overwhelmingly rejected this proposal and yet we are expected to accept the decision of an unelected civil servant to close the educational pathway for non-selected controlled pupils in a town the size of Lurgan."

The UUP leader and assembly member Doug Beattie also criticised the decision, and said the community had sought a solution which kept children in Lurgan.

"This will be a bitter blow to some of the most educationally vulnerable in Lurgan and shows a real lack of vision on the part of the department," he said.

The Education Authority has said they will seek to build a new Craigavon Senior High School "on a location to be determined".

But that will decision will depend on funding and departmental approval, so is unlikely to happen in the near future.