Grammar Schools

Academic selection: a system of failure…

Jay Burbank on January 6, 2021, 4:52 pm

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As education minister Peter Weir bumbled his way through a ministerial statement on Wednesday afternoon one would be forgiven for confusing the ad hoc COVID 19 response committee with a debate on academic selection. The long-running debate has reared its head again as AQE subscribing grammar schools finally took the decision to delay testing in the face of a 1.8 reproductive rate in the virus here. Whatever your view on academic selection, it smacked of rank arrogance for these 32 …

The Transfer Test: It’s time for an education rethink

Sarah Creighton on January 28, 2019, 9:13 am

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On the 25th January my Twitter and Facebook timeline was full of worried, stressed parents. All of them were anxiously waiting for AQE/PPTC results, due on the 26th. The emotions on display ranged from hope to dread. I sat the 11+ when I was in school. P.7s these days have to sit three, sometimes four, one-hour exams over the course of multiple weekends if they want to get into a grammar school. Thankfully there are plans for pupils to sit …

Record numbers take entrance exams to Catholic Grammar schools…

Mick Fealty on November 16, 2013, 8:32 pm

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Simon Doyle in the Irish News today notes two interesting facts regarding selective education in Northern Ireland. One is that five years after a state run and funded 11+ the number of entrants is rising annually; by ten per cent since they were first introduced. And the other is a recognition by the current Education Minister, John O’Dowd, that he does not have “the power to bring it to an end..” He called instead for more lobbying, “those opposed must …

Catholic Post-Primary Education Reform: “I am anxious to try to build consensus on the way forward”

Pete Baker on May 31, 2012, 4:42 pm

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Following on from the Northern Ireland Commission for Catholic Education (NICCE) belated publication of its Post-Primary Review Strategic Regional Report, individual dioceses are bringing forward their suggestions. The first one out of the blocks appears to concern Catholic maintained schools in Londonderry. The Derry Diocese Administrator, Monsignor Eamon Martin, has published “Together Towards Tomorrow – a discussion paper re Post-Primary Education in the Derry City Area”. [Direct link to 9mb pdf file here]. This Discussion Paper explains the opportunities offered in a ‘partnership’ …

“all schools in the Catholic sector should move to an alternative form of transfer as soon as possible and by no later than 2012…”

Pete Baker on February 13, 2012, 11:12 pm

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Six years in the writing, the Northern Ireland Commission for Catholic Education (NICCE) has published its Post-Primary Review Strategic Regional Report. It’s a mixture of proposals of limited school closures, amalgamations… and wishful thinking. As the BBC reports, Catholic Church representatives have been focusing on one issue in particular. Cardinal Brady was speaking at St Mary’s College in Belfast when he criticised continuing academic selection by schools. “It is totally unacceptable that some Catholic schools are, in effect, becoming all ability …

The not-so-elitist grammar school education (with the exception of Lumen Christi and Rathmore)

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on November 23, 2011, 10:28 pm

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An article in today’s Belfast Telegraph [some detail now online] contains the results of this year’s Freedom of Information trawl around NI grammar schools to find out about their Year 8 entrance policies for the 2011 intake. With two different exam systems (AQE and GL assessment), varying degrees of using the overall scores or grades/quintiles, and some schools , the results are even more difficult to compare than last year (which I posted about in September). The chart below shows …

“Nonsense, Minister.” – Redux

Pete Baker on November 18, 2011, 4:54 pm

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Sinn Féin’s ideologically driven campaign against grammar schools continues, and it’s the Northern Ireland Education Minister, SF’s John O’Dowd, who’s making the strange claims. When the Association of Quality Education (AQE) tests were being sat this year the Minister labelled them “a clever marketing device”. For the Post-Primary Transfer Consortium (PPTC) of schools, who will use a separate assesment test this weekend, he has claimed there is an anonymous “private donor” paying for it. From the BBC report “We have a private donor …