Ms Cynthia Deane:

I will give a little background on our vocational school in Bagenalstown. Bagenalstown is a small town and about 25 years ago it had three schools. Many Irish towns were the same, with the nuns, the brothers and the tech, as it was called. There was a Department proposal to amalgamate all three into a community school but the two religious congregations, the De La Salle Brothers and the Presentation order, decided they did not want a community school. They made an amalgamated secondary school for the boys and girl and the vocational school was left as a stand-alone school. It was a second school in a small town attempting to maintain its enrolment. Over a number of years the school struggled to fill with first year enrolments. It tried to reinvent itself on several occasions by bringing in more PLC students, more adult learners on a part-time basis and introducing more programmes for people with special needs and disabilities. However, in 2015, we in the executive examined the enrolment pattern over a number of years and discovered that eight students were enrolled for first year for that coming September. We had a consultant examine the matter and the recommendation was that, as it was a small number, the school was not sustainable or viable at that stage. We established a task force to examine the issue in more detail and to determine what approaches we might take. The outcome of the task force was that the school should attempt to review its enrolment and try to expand its catchment to attract more students to the school. It has also rebranded and is now called Coláiste Andrew. The school, the parents' association and the community are working very hard to promote the school and keep it open.