Ms Amanda McNamee:

I will pick up on a few of the things that were said. I would like to talk about the factors that are limiting the progress of integrated education. For several years it has been lovely to see parents wanting to send their children to Lagan College where I have been the principal for ten years. It is a great blessing when parents are interested in our school and affirming in the work that we do. Our frustration stems from having to turn children and families away because we cannot physically accommodate more children on the site in south Belfast. As Ms Marshall said, if the Council for Catholic Maintained Schools, CCMS, and the Education Authority are the decision-makers, they decide on the provision of funding to open or support new schools. We started with a grassroots organisation among parents and are now at a point where the governors are wondering if we should do it again. That is literally where we are as a school. It is heartbreaking having to turn children away. The newspapers state there is no demand, but we see it every year.

The other aspect I wish to mention is the all-abilities nature of the school. As I mentioned, we welcome children of all backgrounds. That is reflected in our all-abilities status. Members may know that since the 1960s in the North of Ireland there have been grammar secondary schools and, in effect, the segregation of children along those lines. Most integrated schools are all-abilities and use a non-selective model. In the 1990s, before my time as principal, Lagan College decided to take the bilateral route because of its position in Belfast. It is in a very particular area in terms of parental choice. Many of our friends in the CCMS are now doing the same and opening new schools also. Children of all abilities come to Lagan College, but 35% of our intake are children whose parents have put them through the Association for Quality Education, AQE, or the GL assessment. It is something our board of governors considers every year. When they come back to sit in Stormont, we ask political leaders to look at this issue for Northern Ireland as a whole, rather than school by school.