Northern Ireland

Parents support moving 11-plus back into primary classrooms as more schools suspend tests

PRESSURE: Grammar schools are under pressure to cancel entrance tests for a second year
PRESSURE: Grammar schools are under pressure to cancel entrance tests for a second year PRESSURE: Grammar schools are under pressure to cancel entrance tests for a second year

FIVE more Catholic grammar schools have agreed to suspend entrance tests for a second year.

The schools in Newry and Kilkeel said they would temporarily remove academically selective elements from their admissions criteria.

Grammar schools are under pressure to cancel entrance tests again due to significant disruption faced by P6 pupils.

They only returned to classrooms last Monday for the first time since December and are due to go off on holiday again this week.

Education minister Peter Weir is also seeking clarity.

Four other schools had already said they would not use academic selection this year.

They have now been joined by Sacred Heart, Our Lady's, St Colman's and Abbey in Newry as well as St Louis' in Kilkeel.

All are members of the Post Primary Transfer Consortium (PPTC) - one of two groups that operate unregulated exams.

As part of its preparations for 2021/22, PPTC - which is made up mostly of Catholic grammars - invited groups and individuals to help inform its planning.

It sought views on where the assessments should take place, the type of assessments, mitigations that could benefit pupils and the dates of the tests - November as in past years, or December/January.

The meetings, which took place online, heard that parents favoured children sitting tests in primary schools. A sticking point was that this needed to be an `all or nothing approach’, however. There were concerns that some schools’ boards would refuse.

There was said to be “no support” for verbal reasoning exams with parents in favour of continuing with the current maths and English format.

There were calls for shortening passages in the English paper and “avoiding old English style language” while parents argued that `Level 5’ content should be removed from maths papers. The Department of Education advises that only a small percentage of P7 pupils should be at Level 5 when leaving primary school - less than five per cent.

There was also no support for a post-Christmas assessment.

Alliance Party councillor for Lisburn and Castlereagh Michelle Guy was among those who took part.

“The biggest thing for parents right now is certainty. They want to know what process P6 children will face, so it is vital that timely, child-centered decisions are made and communicated to parents ASAP,” she said.

“P7 children were let down by the minister, PPTC and AQE, causing distress to them and their families, and we cannot have that happen again.”

Naomi McBurney, organiser of the #bringitbacktoprimary campaign, welcomed support for exams being taken out of grammar schools.

“Undoubtedly it is what parents want as it is better for children’s wellbeing and also prevents mixed bubbling and large indoor clusters in the middle of a pandemic that asks us to reduce our contacts and socially distance,” she said.

“This cannot be achieved under the normal system of selective schools hosting tests.”

The PPTC has said its role is limited to provision of an entrance assessment for pupils transferring to post-primary education.

It is the responsibility of individual schools, not PPTC, to determine whether or not they wish to use academically selective admissions criteria.