'We haven't gone away, you know' and 'no surrender'!OLOL principal vows to fight against NICCE proposals

Since the publishing of the review by the Northern Ireland Commission for Catholic Education, fears have been expressed over the future of Our Lady of Lourdes High School in Ballymoney.

Speaking during their annual prize giving ceremony Principal Dr L Cuinneagin said: “I believe that the establishing of one large post-primary Catholic school for this area could result in significant educational instability and unreliability.”

He concluded: “‘We haven’t gone away, you know’ and ‘no surrender’!”

Welcoming ‘distinguished guests’ including Mr Stanley Goudie, Chief Inspector of the Education and Training Inspectorate, Dr Cuinneagin began his speech by addressing the schools achievements over the year: “Mr and Mrs Goudie, Mr Chairperson and Governors, Reverend Father, Mayor Campbell, Deputy Mayor Cousley, guests, parents, and pupils, 2008-09 marked another year of great achievement in the life and history of Our Lady of Lourdes High School.

“Firstly, our whole-school attendance for 2008-09 reached 94.2%; this was the third consecutive year that our pupil attendance came to rest within the top 5% of similar-type schools in Northern Ireland. Such high pupil attendance requires continuous team-work-rate and the factors contributing to this great achievement included: the twenty three pupils who attended each and every day last year; the improvement by six form classes on their attendance of the previous year; the improvement of their personal attendance on that of 2007-08 by seventy pupils; the high attendance in particular of our Year 8 pupils; and the improvement in their personal attendance in 2008-09 by twenty seven of the thirty five pupils identified in September 2008 as in need of being at school more frequently. Of course, such high attendance also requires high expectations of the part of parents and we are very grateful to our parents who have worked closely with us to ensure the continuing significant success in pupil attendance.”

Dr L Cuinneagin went on to highlight and acknowledge the ‘broad and varied additional curricular programme in 2008-09’ including sport, creativity, charity work, drama and music.

Turning to the academic standards attained by the pupils in August 2009, he stated: “We enjoyed another year of superb GCSE results. All our Year 12 pupils who finished last June were entered for 5 GCSEs or more and all of them achieved 5 or more at grades A* to G. In addition, 97% of the cohort gained 5 GCSEs or more at grades A* to E.

“To put these particular GCSE results into a wider context, the standards achieved by our Year 12 pupils at both A* to G and A* to E last year represent examination success for Our Lady of Lourdes School within the top 5% of similar-type schools in Northern Ireland for the fifth consecutive year.

“Furthermore, a remarkable 81% of the pupils achieved 5 GCSEs or more at grades A* - C, which smashed all previous such records in the school and placed this school’s attainment at grades A* to C in 2008-09 at a significant 27% above the Northern Ireland norm and in the top 5% of similar-type schools in Northern Ireland for the second consecutive year.

“Nor was the examination performance of the school in the top 5% of similar-type schools in Northern Ireland in 2008-09 confined to GCSE alone; in the KS3 examinations our pupils performed at the 95th Percentile in both Mathematics and Science at Level 5 and above, and in English at Level 6 and above.

“It is noteworthy that Our Lady of Lourdes High School Ballymoney has featured in the media this week in a table of the top ten non-grammar schools in Northern Ireland, ranked mainly in order of the percentage of pupils who achieved five or more GCSE grades A* - C in 2008-09. While the table does not include details of our dependably excellent pupil attainment at grades A* - G or A* - E or of our dependably excellent pupil attendance, I am delighted that the record breaking GCSE results of our pupils at grades A* - C, once again in 2008-09, have been brought to the attention of a wide audience.

“It is equally as noteworthy that our school is ranked in this table along with other schools that do not represent a like-with-like comparison; a number of schools ranked above us in this list have grammar school streams and, indeed, many, if not all, of them have a higher academic intake; another ranked above us is a single-sex girls’ school; and, crucially, all of the schools listed above us have a much lower Free School Meals factor than us.

“The fact is, our school has a Free Schools Meals factor of almost 30% and on benchmarking the performance of our pupils in 2008-09 in both attendance and GCSE results at A* - G, A* - E, and A* - C in that important actual like-for-like comparative context, and on adding the vital ingredients of the very positive findings of the Inspectorate in October 2009, the irrefutable evidence is that Our Lady of Lourdes High School Ballymoney is setting standards in post-primary non-selective school education in Northern Ireland.

“On that highly encouraging note, I conclude some of the major highlights in another year of tremendous success for Our Lady of Lourdes High School Ballymoney. I thank: the parents and the Governors for their strong support for our work; and the staff for their immense commitment and dedication to the pupils and loyalty to the school. I thank also the officers of the CCMS, the NEELB and the PSNI for their support. Lastly, I congratulate our pupils; they are a great credit to themselves, their families, their parishes and to our school.”

Highlighting these achievements against the NICCE’s proposals, he stated: “Finally, I would like to draw attention to the ethos of this school and its continuing high achievements set against the proposals published by the NICCE for the future of post-primary Catholic education in this area, particularly in light of the advocacy in certain quarters of the one large school option. I believe that the establishing of one large post-primary Catholic school for this area could result in significant educational instability and unreliability as a result of: the loss of established centres of excellence for pupils; an institution replacing community schools; the deep care for and interest in individual pupils being replaced by the impersonal and the unknowing; detrimental effects on the provision for the pastoral care of the pupils; the removal of an important dimension of the post-primary school inter-dependence and solidarity in Ballymoney town; and the erosion of standards.

“In stark contrast, Our Lady of Lourdes High School Ballymoney offers educational solidity and stability: We have constructed purposeful learning links with Ballymoney High School and Dalriada School through the Ballymoney Learning Community; we have established and led out high standards; and we provide for the pupils and families of our local parishes and beyond a quality holistic Catholic education within a deeply caring and values-based faith community.

“While there may be external uncertainty, however, the internal position is clear and unambiguous - we in Our Lady of Lourdes High School Ballymoney have no intention of resting on our laurels and, lest there should be any shadow of a doubt locally or beyond, we have absolutely no intention either of relinquishing in any way, shape or form the hard-earned gains that we have made or the standards we have set by dint of our internal commitment, dedication and determination.

“In short and in conclusion, ladies and gentlemen and girls and boys, ‘we haven’t gone away, you know’ and ‘no surrender’!