Parents ‘feeling let down by stance of Catholic Church’

Parents ‘feeling let down by stance of Catholic Church’

16 May 2018

THE De La Salle congregation has been been heavily criticised for its role in the controversial proposal to create a single Catholic ‘super school’ in Downpatrick.

St Patrick’s Grammar School’s Parent Friends Association (PFA) has said it “almost feels sorry” for the De La Salle Brothers, who, it claimed were being used by the Catholic hierarchy, which favours non-selective co-education.

In a stinging attack on church authorities driving the rationalisation of the grammar school with St Mary’s High School, De La Salle High School and St Columba’s College in Portaferry, the PFA has warned the De La Salle brothers and Council for Catholic Maintained Schools that there will be “a hardening of opposition” if they continue with their merger proposal.

They claimed that parents “feel let down by the church”. They have also dismissed comments made by CCMS chairman Bishop Donal McKeown, who has said the merger is the “right thing to do”, as a “blinkered whim by an out of touch organisation”.

The comments were made as the first stage of consultation over the future of the four schools draws to an end this morning.

The De La Salle Order, who are the trustees of St Patrick’s and De La Salle, and the Diocese of Down and Connor, which is the trustee of the other two schools, have confirmed their vision for the future is for an all-ability college for 1,600 girls and boys in the town.

The ambitious scheme, which is based on other merger models implemented across Northern Ireland, is vehemently objected to by the PFA because it will end its single sex grammar school tradition.

In a sign of an increasing divide between the PFA and the church, PFA chairman Cormac Artt said it was now clear the proposal was “deeply flawed and needs to be immediately suspended”.

He claimed: “The lack of information, coupled with the inaccuracy of what they have put into the public domain is not only worrying but calls into question the legality and legitimacy of the process. To continue to the next stage in unthinkable.”

“As parents, we feel let down by the very church that purports to support our school and uphold our faith. This is not an issue of academic selection, it is the exposure of a nightmare scenario for all children in this area by the very people who should be the pillars of its support.

“There is no movement from urban diocesan grammar schools to amalgamate with their non-selective neighbours, so why have our local schools been targeted?

“Before this flawed process goes any further, the pupils, teacher, parents, governors and friends of the Red High and a significant number of those in De La Salle, St Columba’s and St Mary’s, call on the De La Salle congregation 

and CCMS to immediately suspend their action and bring all interested parties together to work on an acceptable solution that will put our children’s interests first. To continue on this path will only see a hardening of opposition.

“One almost feels sorry for the De La Salle congregation — the patsy in this proposal.”

Mr Artt also defended the PFA against criticism that it was only interested in protecting its own school.

“We are not merely trying to defend tradition and one institution. We are trying to future proof the educational experience of children in this area,” he said.

“The PFA stands over everything that it has put in the public domain as both accurate and factual and in the best interests of our children and would completely condemn those who try to say everything.”

The PFA has also criticised Sinn Fein and the SDLP for not publicly commenting on the merger proposal until now.

They said the politicians would have questions to answer when children were “corralled into temporary accommodation across three sites”, “when teachers are losing preparation and teaching time as they move between sites” and when “those families who live in the hinterlands no longer have reason to travel to Downpatrick and house values and commerce suffers.”

“Our politicians should look to their voters in Lecale and Ards. The eleventh hour is too late to speak,” he said,

“Voters however have long memories. We hope you will have answer when you come calling for our vote at the next election. The generation of children you are failing now are the electorate of the future.”