Saintfield schools having to turn away 100 children

Saintfield schools having to turn away 100 children

2 May 2018

DOZENS of children are being turned away from Saintfield schools due to a soaring demand for places, principals have warned.

Seventy three children unsuccessfully applied to attend Saintfield High School in September 2016 and 2017, while seven children were denied P1 entry to Academy Primary School and 15 potential new-starts were turned away from its feeder nursery school.

Meanwhile, “countless families” who have moved to the area have been unable to find places for their older children.

Principals in the controlled sector, who are struggling to cope with demand, have said the situation is likely to worsen due to the continued growth of the village, which is becoming increasingly popular with families because of its proximity to Belfast.

The Education Authority has now agreed to consider an increase in admissions to Academy Primary School by March next year in a bid to address the problem.

The increase will be consulted upon as part of the authority’s recently published action plan for 2018-2019 with a decision expected by March next year.

Academy principal Mr Stephen Moore confirmed he is seeking to increase the school’s enrolment to 420 by permitting 30 children per class, rather than 28.

He said he believed the current limit on numbers discriminated against Saintfield children as other schools were allowed larger enrolments.

He said the demand was evident as the school had almost doubled in size since the mid-1990s and its enrolment had significantly spiked over the past five years, growing from 354 children in 2012 to 402 today.

If the consultation is approved, Mr Moore said he would be allowed to take 420 children, which “would ease pressure”.

He said new development in the village was “tightening the catchment circle” and revealed that parents who moved into the area with older children were often shocked to learn they could not join their local primary.

“The demand is becoming more localised. This is a growing problem for Saintfield,” he said. “It is difficult to turn away children who are from the village, yet that is what I have to do every year.

“We have turned away countless families who move into the area and pressure will continue to increase as people move here. Our application for more places is about relieving pressure without jeopardising other schools.”

Saintfield High School principal Sarah-Lucy Hynds said there was a long-term problem with oversubion at the school, which had received 98 applications for 68 places in September last year and 111 applications for 68 places the year before.

She said the school would like to seek a solution similar to Academy PS, but was restricted by the confined nature of the site.

“Oversubscription is not a one-off or something that has been happening for one or two years,” she said. “It has been a consistent issue since I came to the school.”

“It is difficult to turn away local families and families that go to our feeder primary schools. We would like to seek a solution as we are aware of the growth in the area and if Academy take more pupils it will mean more will be looking to come to us after primary.

“We are seeking to address this as we want to continue our high standards while accepting as many local families as we can.

“It is wonderful that people want to come here, but our numbers are capped at 68 as we are on a confined site.”