BBC News
By Robbie Meredith
Published
image captionThornhill College has about 1,400 pupils and admits 200 year 8 girls every year
A Catholic grammar school which abandoned the transfer test for one year has outlined how it will select pupils for September 2021.
The all-girls school admits about 200 Year 8 girls every year.
The Post Primary Transfer Consortium (PPTC), and subsequently AQE, transfer tests were cancelled in early 2021.
As a result, grammar schools - which are attended by about 45% of post-primary pupils in Northern Ireland - are now having to draw up new criteria for how they will select pupils in 2021.
In its admissions criteria for September 2021, which has just been published, Thornhill said priority would be given to girls who select the college as their first choice school when applications open.
EVEN by Covid standards, it’s been a bit of a white-knuckle ride on the roller-coaster of life these past few weeks, and as if an emergency appeal by the South West Acute Hospital for off-duty staff to come in wasn’t enough, we have the whole ‘hokey-cokey’ of disrupted learning, exams and assessments starting to brew up – something that every pupil, parent and teacher is fully aware of. Starting first with the transfer test, let’s look at what we have. Currently, there are two companies or consortia who run it, and Northern Ireland being as it is, each serves mainly, but by no means exclusively, one side each of our sadly still-polarised community. The ‘Post Primary Transfer Consortium’ that runs the GL exams, and represents 33 schools including St. Michael’s College and Mount Lourdes Grammar School, has already announced they it not be running any transfer examinations, and the responsibility falls on schools to decide how. This will not be published yet, so it�
Lumen Christi College in Derry confirms it will not be using transfer test for new pupils this year
Admissions criteria will be published on February 2
Lumen Christi College in Derry.
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Lumen Christi College in Derry has confirmed that it will not be using the transfer test for its admissions this year.
The school had not yet commented officially on how it planned to admit new pupils for the 2021/22 academic year.
It has now said it will not be using the academic selection process and will instead use criteria which will be published on February 2.
Lumen is one of four grammar schools in Derry, the others being Foyle College, Thornhill College and St Columb s College.
Bishop of Derry calls for transfer test solution to help most disadvantaged Bishop of Derry, Dr Dónal McKeown 11 January, 2021 01:00
A solution needs to be found on transfer tests that prioritises those most disadvantaged by lockdown, the Bishop of Derry had said.
Dr Dónal McKeown said parents were very worried and children were being dragged from one test date to another.
However, some of its schools have already pulled out and the Post-Primary Transfer Consortium (PPTC), including many Catholic grammars, has cancelled its tests.
Speaking on BBC s Sunday Politics show, Dr McKeown said he and Archbishop Eamon Martin had flagged up last May the need for grammar schools to consider a different way of transfer in 2021.