The Drelincourt School – founded in Armagh almost 300 years ago – is being earmarked for closure.
The school, at Ballinahone Avenue, next to the Folly River, could cease operating at the end of the current school year in 2025.
At the same time, consideration could be given to using the building for special educational needs provision, if the closure is proceeded with.
A pre-publication consultation is currently underway, highlighted by the Education Authority.
The Drelincourt caters for children from Years 1 to 3 and, as a maintained school, is affiliated to the Church of Ireland.
After Year 3, children would transfer to other schools in the area. Previous efforts and appeals by the school to allow children to remain for an extra year – a move which might had improved enrolment numbers – had proved unsuccessful.
The intention now, therefore, is that “the Drelincourt School will discontinue with effect from 31 August 2025, or as soon as possible thereafter”.
Meetings to discuss the future of the Drelincourt were held with the Board of Governors, staff and parents back in February.
In all, 24 responses were received.
Parents highlighted the “convenient location” of the school and its “success in teaching newcomer children”.
Governors and staff also expressed opposition to the proposed closure, having considered all the options put forward. While “understanding” issues relating to the “sustainability” of the Drelincourt, they had “overwhelmingly appealed” that it be converted to a school to cater for special educational needs.
According to the consultation documents, the Drelincourt was established in 1738 and is one of the “oldest surviving endowments of the Church of Ireland in Armagh”.
The consultation papers state: “The enrolment in the school has fluctuated over recent years and stands currently at nine children; this includes just under 80% of children whose first language is other than English for whom the education provided at Drelincourt has been very successful.”
It states that the “number of pupils attending the school in recent years has been below the school enrolment number”, which is currently approved at 58.
In 2018/19, the number attending stood at 28. This dropped in the subsequent four years to 19, 17 and 6, before increasing to 12 last year (2022/23), and decreasing again to the current nine.
The rationale behind the proposal explains that the Drelincourt has been operating for a number of years below enrolment allocations.
And it adds: “While the staff continue to work professionally to provide a quality educational experience for the children, most of whom in recent years have been from newcomer families, it is recognised that the challenges of operating the school and providing for the children within an increasingly strained resource context is a challenge in the current climate.
“Given the need to provide equitable access to necessary resources for the education of the children and seeking to have regard to responsible use of public finance, it is the Board of Governors who remain keen to explore the possibility of the building becoming an element of the SEN provision for the Armagh area.
“Governors have engaged with the Education Authority who have agreed to conduct a feasibility study on possible use of the building as part of local SEN provision, should the Development Proposal be approved.
“We understand that in a ‘demand led’ discipline such as special needs provision there will inevitably be a much greater need for SEN places than currently exists.”
The Board of Governors believe that the education of the children currently enrolled at the school would be “detrimentally impacted by being dispersed to larger schools at this stage in their educational and social development”.
Various options have been looked at and ruled out.
To continue as is, it was pointed out that because of “the low levels of enrolment and the admissions and enrolment trend over a number of years, and the subsequent impact on funding, this option would not enable the school to be sustainable”.
It was also found that there was “no potential collaboration with another school/s” which would enable the Drelincourt to “achieve sustainability”.
In addition, while there is a Church of Ireland Primary School in existence in Portadown, some 10 miles away, a “federation between the two schools would be impractical, and would not reduce the resource demand and would not enable the school to achieve sustainability”.
There was also “no potential for an amalgamation” with other Church of Ireland schools in the immediate vicinity.
Furthermore, amalgamation with the Church of Ireland school in Portadown “would be impractical, given the distance between the two”, and would “necessitate split site operation and result in the current financial deficit being placed on the amalgamated school plus the additional cost of operating a split site school”. This was a scenario which “would not result in sustainability”.
According to the pre-publication consultation: “The Board of Governors, in considering the future of the provision, explored with the Education Authority the placement of special school provision in the school but given the challenges to sustainability, the Education Authority were not in a position to commit to this.
“The Board of Governors are highly committed to the school and there was disappointment that a viable option other than a proposal for closure has not so far been made available.”
The school had responded to a letter from the Department for Education issued in April, and received an update the following month.
The pre-consultation states that there was a need for special education needs places and the Department of Education had “again asked schools to consider this provision”.
The Board of Governors “remain keen” that this option be explored should the closure go ahead next year.
The pre-publication consultation is currently live and anyone wishing to respond must do so before November 28.
After this, a development proposal would follow and be subject to a two-month period for objections to be lodged.
These would then be forwarded to the Department of Education, and it will be in the hands of the Education Minister that the fate of the Drelincourt School will ultimately lie.
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