Friends of Grammar Schools

Simon Doyle

263 words

Publication date: 25 March 2009

Source: The Irish News

Page: Pg. 11

(c) 2009, The Irish News Ltd. All Rights reserved.

The assembly has supported calls to develop a temporary transfer test as a contingency until a permanent new system can be agreed.

A motion tabled by Alliance Party member Trevor Lunn yesterday urged education minister Caitriona Ruane to re-commission a proposed exam she abandoned last month.

Schools, Mr Lunn said, should be allowed to use this for two years.

There will be no 11-plus for pupils this autumn but some are expected to face the prospect … Continue Reading

Ann Widdecombe

504 words

Publication date: 25 March 2009

Source: The Daily Express

Page: 13

(c) 2009 Express Newspapers

FROM the first day it took office this Government has waged war on grammar schools. First, it instituted a system of local ballots, whereby if enough electors in any area signed a petition for a ballot on the abolition of its grammar schools then one had to be held.

Doubtless Labour class warriors reckoned that anyone whose child failed to get into a grammar would vote out of sheer spite for abolition.

They were wrong. Unlike the fools in Whitehall … Continue Reading

624 words

Publication date: 24 March 2009

Source: Daily Mail

Page: 9

(c) 2009 Associated Newspapers. All rights reserved

A GRAMMAR school with a 96 per cent GCSE success rate has been threatened with closure after inspectors criticised its ‘outdated’ race equality policy.

Stretford Grammar was branded ‘failing’ by Ofsted inspectors who also singled out its sex education programme.

They said the school’s curriculum was ‘inadequate’, while admitting academic standards were ‘exceptionally and consistently high’.

The Manchester school is the first grammar in Britain to be placed into special measures, putting it at risk of closure if it does not improve.

But the … Continue Reading

GERRY MORIARTY

618 words

Publication date: 23 March 2009

Source: Irish Times

Page: 7

(c) 2009, The Irish Times.

CONFERENCE DEBATES:ALLIANCE CONFERENCE delegates called for the extension of the 11-plus transfer test for another two years pending resolution of the disagreement between the North’s grammar schools and Sinn Féin Minister for Education Caitríona Ruane.

The last 11-plus exam, which, depending on results, dictates which second-level school primary pupils transfer to, took place in November. Ms Ruane has proposed a system where children at 11 would transfer to post-primary schools without any transfer tests and at 14 make “informed choices on their educational … Continue Reading

GERRY MORIARTY, Northern Editor

Publication date: 20 March 2009

Source: Irish Times

Page: 8

(c) 2009, The Irish Times.

THE THREE main Protestant churches in Northern Ireland have proposed the retention for another year of an 11-plus-type exam in the absence of any consensus on how primary school children should transfer to second-level schools.

The churches were implicitly critical of the Sinn Féin Minister for Education Caitríona Ruane complaining that the current “unregulated education transfer system” was a “failure in good governance”.

The Church of Ireland, Presbyterian and Methodist churches through their Transferor Representatives’ Council called on the Minister and the … Continue Reading

New school tests may need Irish translation

255 words

Publication date: 17 March 2009

Source: Belfast Telegraph

Page: 2,3

(c)2009 Independent News & Media (Northern Ireland). All Rights Reserved.

News

THE ongoing debate over school transfer tests has taken another twist after it emerged that exams may have to be translated into Irish.

According to the BBC, Education Minister Caitríona Ruane has said that schools wishing to set their own tests may have to provide a translation to give pupils from Irish medium primary schools an equal chance.

She warned that failure to … Continue Reading