Downpatrick: Protest over merger of St Patrick's, St Mary's High and De La Salle

Parents, teachers and pupils of a Downpatrick grammar school have staged a demonstration outside the Department of Education over its plan to merge with two other schools in the area.

The proposal would merge St Patrick's Grammar with non-selective schools St Mary's High and De La Salle.

It was green-lighted by former Education Minister Michelle McIlveen last year.

The long-running proposal has had both strong support and opposition.

In a previous consultation carried out by the Education Authority (EA), 106 out of 120 responses were opposed to the plan.

But the Bishop of Derry, Donal McKeown, who is also chair of the Council for Catholic Maintained Schools (CCMS), has previously defended the merger.

The new school would be a 1,600 pupil voluntary grammar school.

Ross Douglas, a student at the school said the proposal was "ill-thought"

Ross Douglas, a student at St Patricks Grammar School said the decision to merge the schools was "ill-thought" and "unjust".

"I think to do this would be quite reckless for the children of Downpatrick," he said.

The pupil expressed concern that the three schools would be on split sites and because of this there would be "no sense of community".

Eighteen-year-old Louis Sheridan said the protest was "to show the strength of feeling not only in our school, but in the surrounding area".

He added: "There is a massive cohort in my school who were not consulted and yet will be affected."

Local parent Sheila Reynolds expressed her concern

Sheila Reynolds, a local parent who has a daughter in primary school said she was concerned over the size of the school with 1,600 pupils attending.

"There's going to be no community, the teachers aren't going to know the children, the children aren't going to know the teachers," she said.

"It needs to be smaller, smaller schools work better."

Another parent said the new school would be on a split site.

"It doesn't look like there's going to be any funding available any time soon to bring the three school buildings together at any point in time," she said.

"You're going to have 1,600 children split all round the place, all round Downpatrick and it's just not any sort of proper school environment."

A Department of Education spokesperson said: "The decisions to approve these proposals were taken by former education minister, Michelle McIlveen, on 10 October 2022.

"Development proposals are subject to rigorous and extensive analysis of relevant data and decisions are taken in the educational interests of children.

"Once decisions are taken on development proposals they are required to be implemented. It is not within the power of the department or the permanent secretary to reverse decisions."