Anger After Shared Education Campus For Derry Turned Down

Groarty Integrated Primary School and Gaelscoil na Daroige had applied to the Northern Ireland Department of Education to build two new schools on the same site, with shared facilities.

- Gareth Cross

THERE was anger in the city yesterday after an application made by two Derry schools to share a bilingual campus was turned down.

However, the Education Authority (EA) has recommended that the plan be rejected as they do not feel it meets certain criteria.

The application was first lodged by principals of the schools, Nick Tomlinson and Oisin Mac Eo in December after a budget of £50m was set aside to build shared schools in the North.

It was revealed last week that the Department of Education had spent just £3m of the budget and that money that hadn’t been spent may has to be returned to the British government.

Groarty Primary School Principal Nick Tomlinson outlined the reasons for the rejection of the plans.

“It was rejected on the basis that there was a lack of evidence of community, parents and people support,” he said.

“We consulted with all our parents and had full support from them, we put that in the application.

“We also had community involvement with letters of support from right across the community. We had community workers working with both sets of children on joint community relations projects.