Ms Hilary Copeland:

I thank members for their acknowledgment of the work New-Bridge Integrated College has done in the past 20 years. When I went there, it was very obvious to me that every other child in my class in the small rural village where I went to primary school was put on a bus to go to another secondary school. It was a very deliberate decision on the part of their parents. I do not think the implications really struck me until I looked back as an adult. It was a rural village with a lot of farm families, ostensibly a mixed village, yet a lot of parents decided not to send their children to the school that was ten minutes' walk up the street. That was very powerful. When I attended New-Bridge Integrated College, I was amused to attend alongside so many other pupils who were in the opposite position. They had come on buses from Ballynahinch, Lisburn, Newry and Mayobridge. They would take two or sometimes three buses a day and I made friends with quite a range of people. My parents must have hated it. I had to be put in a car and driven to visit all of them. They lived all over the place. They must have wondered if I could have made friends with anybody who lived a little closer to home. To be serious, they did not hate it all. This was what the school allowed me to do - to make friends with lots of different people from many backgrounds. The opposition faced by my parents was striking. Neighbours and the families of children who went to the same primary school were critical of what they saw as a wrong decision. There is a lot of fear in small communities and it takes a very long time for it to dissipate. There are people who have not spoken to my parents since. We should not take for granted the decisions parents and the families of children have made to attend integrated schools. They are often the first in their families to do so. There may be other family members who do not agree with that decision and oppose it. Opposition to integrated education can be very close to home.

Until I had left and looked back I did not really realise what a brilliant experience the all-abilities aspect of my education had given me. As a student, I was academically able, but I did not want to go to the grammar school where I had a secure place. When I walked through the gates of New-Bridge Integrated College at the open day I adored the feeling I got from every pupil who was there and every teacher who welcomed me. That is a great reason I continue to talk about my school education more than 20 years later. There are not many adults who do that.