ENNISKILLEN Royal Grammar School will use standardised testing to decide whether a child will be admitted into year eight of secondary school. The other two grammar schools in Fermanagh, Mount Lourdes Grammar School and St. Michaels College have set out criteria for entry that is not tested by academic selection.

Principal Elizabeth Armstrong said: “In drawing up our 2021 Covid-19 Contingency Criteria, in the absence of the AQE tests, we, as an academically selective school, believed that it is important that we pursue a route for admission to Year 8 in 2021 which is, as far as possible in this year like no other, still consistent with our commitment to the principle of academic selection.”

The decision came about as a need to “hold faith with parents, carers and pupils who chose to sit the test”.

Miss Armstrong explained: “We are also very conscious of the need to hold faith with our parents/carers and pupils who chose to sit the test as a means of entering an academically selective school.

“We were very aware that the pupils who had registered to sit the AQE CEA test had been working hard to meet the academic expectations of that test. When the opportunity to take that test was withdrawn for unavoidable Covid-19 reasons, we felt it was important to pursue a route where our Admissions Criteria would be based on academic evidence for these pupils, albeit in a different form.”

The school will use academic evidence from tests undertaken in school during P5 which was the last year of schooling for these children to not be interrupted by Covid-19. The school will use PTE English and PTM Maths data or recognised equivalent as primary evidence for entry into school.

However, Miss Armstrong added: “We are also providing the opportunity for parent and carers to provide secondary evidence under the Special Circumstances procedure, if they feel that this primary evidence does not adequately represent their child’s educational attainment.

“Where the P5 data is not available for specific verifiable reasons, we will consider the pupil under Special Circumstances or Special Provision.”

The situation was described by Miss Armstrong as “unprecedented for all concerned".

She added: “We have also drawn on the views of primary school colleagues with whom we work in positive partnership each year to support our P7 pupils in the Transfer process. We look forward to our continued cooperation with them in this most unusual year, in support of their P7 pupils and their parents or carers who wish to make an application to Enniskillen Royal Grammar School. Parents or carers who have any queries or questions are also warmly invited to contact us at school.”

The two other grammar schools in Fermanagh, Mount Lourdes and St. Michael’s will chose applicants based on several factors.

St. Michael’s will give preference to pupils who are current residents in Northern Ireland and if that number is greater than the number of places it will be allocated on the following grounds: Whether the boy has a brother, half-brother, stepbrother or legally adopted brother or half-brother at St. Michael’s College. Whether the boy is the first boy in the family to reach transfer age. Whether the parent/guardian of the boy is a permanent employee of St Michael’s College. Whether the boy had a brother, half-brother, stepbrother or legally adopted brother or half-brother enrolled in the College in the past. Whether the Father of the boy was enrolled in St Michael’s College. If there are more such applicants than places available, then the applicants will be ranked by age, the oldest boy being ranked first and places will be allocated accordingly in each category.

Mount Lourdes Grammar School will admit pupils based on the following selection. Mount Lourdes will give preference to pupils who are current residents in Northern Ireland and if that number is greater than the number of places it will be allocated on the following grounds: Applicants who at the date of their application have another girl of the family (as defined by the Department of Education) currently enrolled in the school or have a girl of the family selected for admission to the school in the coming school year. Applicants who are the first girl in the family to transfer to secondary education. Applicants ranked by date of birth as entered on the Birth Certificate with the eldest being admitted first.

In the event of two or more girls having the same date of birth then selection for all places remaining will be based on the initial letter of the surname as it appears on the birth certificate. The school has selected an order of letters determined by random selection to make this decision.