Parents fight to retain Portaferry college

Parents fight to retain Portaferry college

21 March 2018

A campaign to save St Columba’s College in Portaferry will begin tonight.

Portaferry parents have pledged to unite against a proposal to close the rural college as part of the rationalisation of Catholic secondary education in the Downpatrick area.

The school was dealt a major blow last Thursday evening when education officials announced it was earmarked for closure as part of plans to merge four secondary schools into a single school in Downpatrick.

News that the college was at risk was delivered by officials from the Council for Catholic Maintained Schools to the 

shock of staff and parents of the 178-pupil school, who have battled in recent years to secure its future. 

Parents were hopeful the college, which has struggled financially due to its dwindling enrolment, would be given a new lease of life through a formal shared campus arrangement with Glastry College.

Hopes were further raised when the application was endorsed by the Education Authority and Council for Catholic Maintained Schools before being passed for approval to a specialist Education and Training Inspectorate Assessment Panel.

But the scheme was suddenly shelved in January because of concerns about limited support.

Parents have now indicated they will fight to revive the shared campus scheme to secure accessible secondary provision for their children.

One mother said the shared campus, which she said was widely supported, must now be re-examined.

“I don’t want to see St Columba’s College shut, but this previous proposal is far better than the one they are offering now,” she said.

“It meant kids were still local, schools kept their identities on a shared a campus. This new proposal is ridiculous, trying to ferry another 200 or more kids across water everyday on an already packed boat.”

Another mum agreed that a shared campus with Glastry College must be pursued.

“I don’t want to see St Columba’s College close, I feel the shared campus route was the better proposal that everyone seemed to be behind,” she said.

“The two schools already work closely together and it would mean 200 extra kids wouldn’t be sent on a boat which is already full to capacity with no shelter in times of bad weather, not to mention packed with cars, or bussed up the road at silly o’clock to attend school.”

Another parent questioned how children would be accommodated on the “packed ferry” if they needed to travel to Downpatrick. 

She asked: “Are they just going to herd our children on like cattle and, when the small space they have for shelter is full, will they pack them between cars like sardines?”

Portaferry councillor Joe Boyle said he understood parents’ concern about the problems they would face accessing Catholic education if St Columba’s closed. He said politicians’ inability to agree a way forward for devolved government was to blame.

“This is a geographically isolated area, which would require students to travel a considerable distance by road or to use a congested ferry service, which will be interrupted during bad weather,” he said.

“The closure of St Columba’s College would not be healthy for the wider community, not healthy for the local economy and not healthy for the sustainability of strong local communities.”

Portaferry Regeneration chairman John Dumigan expressed his dismay about the proposal, which, he said, placed an unfair expectation on Portaferry children to travel to Downpatrick.

“I think there was an expectation that something would happen to St Columba’s, but the proposal to close is a shock. There are serious problems to address,” he said.

“With fog and storms, the ferry service is unreliable and may not run all the time.

“The school’s closure would be a big concern to Portaferry Regeneration, taking money out of the economy and the associated loss of jobs would be a huge blow.”