Two County Tyrone controlled primary schools apply for integrated status

The Education Authority has confirmed it has received formal proposals to transform from both Gillygooley Primary School, near Omagh, and Sion Mills Primary, near Strabane.

Omagh UUP Councillor Alan Rainey suggested a drop in the unionist population could be a factor in Gillygooley PS having to seek integrated status.

Mr Rainey said the attempt to convert to integrated status was a last ditch attempt to save Gillygooley, which has suffered dropping enrolment numbers.

He suggested a drop in the local unionist population could be a factor in the dropping enrolment numbers.

“Following on from Wednesday one would be expected to believe that,” he said, in reference to census figures released this week which showed a drop in the number of people identifying as Protestant across NI.

“Maybe now there is a tendency for smaller families over a period as well,” he said of unionists in his district. He also suggested migration of unionists to England for university could be a factor.

The 31 schools converting to integrated over the past 40 years have with only one exception been state controlled.

But Paul Caskey, Head of Campaign at the Integrated Education Fund, said there was growing interest from schools across all sectors in converting to integrated status, which he said was a positive move for community relations.

“Schools which intentionally seek to have pupils, teachers, staff and governors that represent all sections of our community, irrespective of their religious and cultural tradition, arguably contribute to a more inclusive, integrated system,” he said.

Castlederg UUP Alderman Derek Hussey said that Sion Mills Primary School “has effectively always been an integrated school since its inception” and that it was “a logical step” for it to become integrated.

He noted the Sion Mills community very much “very works together as a community regardless of individual religions or political identifies”.

However he sees the rise of Irish medium language schools across NI as divisive. .

“If children are being placed in that situation were their parents are saying, ‘I want you to go to an Irish language school’ that is less likely to have Protestant students so there is that element of division, undoubtedly,” he said.

Comhairle na Gaelscolaíochta (CnaG), the representative body for Irish-medium education in Northern Ireland declined to comment on the issue.