Coleraine Post-primary Provision - Heir of Uncertainty

Saturday, October 18

Tomorrow some Primary 7 pupils and their parents in the Coleraine catchment area will be taking part in a familiarisation process in advance of the examinations that will impact on their choice of post-primary school for the school year beginning September 2015.

I'm indebted to the Coleraine Times [October 1, 2014] for this press release from the managements of Coleraine Academical Institution, Coleraine College and Coleraine High School:

On Monday, in a joint statement, the three Coleraine schools said: "The Minister's announcement on the future of the Voluntary Grammar and Controlled Post Primary sectors signals the start of an exciting new chapter for education provision in the Coleraine area and one which will provide suitable and sustainable educational pathways for all post-primary pupils in the region.

"We are delighted that the Minister has approved these proposals which had positive support from within the community. While we recognise change of this nature is challenging, we believe this plan presents the best opportunity to deliver a long-term, viable and sustainable Post Primary education system in the Coleraine area".

What a delightful paean of praise. Should parents accept these sentiments at face value? As parents and teachers have been kept so much in the dark it's most unlikely that the community at large will be better informed.

Education minister on right

Task - 15 December 2011

The Minister is commissioning the Education and Library Boards, working in close conjunction with CCMS and engaging extensively with other school sectors, to develop collective strategic plans on an area basis.

"I wanted the planning authorities to set aside individual, sectoral or institutions' needs and focus on how, as a society, we could best provide for the needs of all children and young people in an area." .. Minister, February 26, 2013

'All post-primary pupils in the region'? Unsurprisingly some sectors went and were allowed to go their own way and the North Eastern Education and Library Board was left to cobble together an arrangement for the three schools already mentioned [CAI, CC and CHS]. Those who were paying some attention to the small print noted that in the early consultation phase the 414 responses from CHS parents were only initially counted as one and the responses from the opted-out integrated sector dominated the analysis. The 414 responses were later sort of slipped into the mix - 47 became 447 - but the calculations were left unchanged. Should this not have been picked up and resolved by NEELB members?

The following observation in the same Coleraine Times article knocks some of the shine off the glowing review at the top of the blog:

The schools will now begin the significant work of preparing for the implementation of the decision, a process which will focus on the needs of current pupils in the schools as well as those who will attend them in future years.

In other words, the management of the three schools would appear to have signed off on an almost empty page rather than 'an exciting new chapter'. Have they been fobbed off with the proverbial pig-in-a-poke?

The Ministerial statement issued on Friday, September 24, 2014 appears to have been written by Department officials [pdf file] and sent to the Minister the previous Monday. This statement betrays a certain nervousness:

Presentational/Contentious Issues: It is likely that your decision will attract media coverage.

So why might officials be worried? Could it be to do with the information that has been withheld?

Proposal [i] Amalgamation – facilitated by closure of Coleraine AI and Coleraine HS and the establishment of a new school. ... The DP proposes the enrolment at the new VGS [on the CAI site] to be 1060 by the year 2020.

In theory, the combined Year 8 intake in September 2015 could be slashed from 240 to 150 but, in practice, it's unlikely that the current facilities at CAI could be upgraded to accommodate the girls in such a narrow time-frame; the statement coyly refers to 'a reduction in the numbers'.

Will there be a new build, even a new principal? The Minister's recent response to Claire Sugden MLA appears to offer little more than a fairly basic refurbishment:

To ask the Minister of Education what commitment to funding can he make for a new build following his acceptance of proposals to merge Coleraine High School and Coleraine Academical Institution, whilst increasing enrolment at Coleraine College.

- Hide Answer

On 24 September 2014 I approved the Development Proposals published on 7 May 2014 by North Eastern Education & Library Board (NEELB), to facilitate the amalgamation of Coleraine High School and Coleraine Academical Institution, whilst increasing enrolment at Coleraine College to 900 pupils with effect from 1 September 2015 or as soon as possible thereafter.

My Department will fund the works necessary to allow the amalgamation of Coleraine High School and Coleraine Academical Institution on one site and will give consideration, in conjunction with the school authorities, to the works necessary to facilitate the amalgamation.

However any proposal for a new build for the amalgamated school would be considered along with other projects put forward in advance of any future announcement being made.

I can advise that planning of a programme of minor works for Coleraine Academical Institution is currently underway. Details are as follows: [list]

There's no detail of the major works required or estimate of likely cost.

The DP proposes the enrolment at Coleraine College is increased from an approved enrolment of 600 to 900 with effect from 1 September 2015 or as soon as possible thereafter. The NEELB have also confirmed that the increase at Coleraine College will be on a phased basis, rebalancing the decreased enrolment at the new VGS. The 2013/14 actual enrolment was 244 pupils, significantly less than the approved enrolment.

Will the proposed movement of pupils from fairly successful schools to a school that has struggled whilst under the oversight of the NEELB bolster 'parental confidence in the school’s ability to deliver high quality education' - or will parents look to other post-primary schools to educate their children?

Bushmills - Art for Business Sake

UPDATE :::: THE VIDEO

I'm told a London-based German television crew is coming to town next week to explore the impact of recession and the local action that has been taken to give the main thoroughfare a facelift. Apparently the television company was influenced by a recent article in Der Spiegel, a prominent German newspaper. The article was based on a series of photographs published about a year ago by Cathal McNaughton.

"Life in Northern Ireland Bushmills is rather dull - unemployment is high, tourists stay out. But the residents do not want to just accept that and paint life in their town." .. Google translation of the opening comments in the Der Spiegel article.

Is it too late for Moyle District Council to persuade the owners of the properties on the riverbank to improve the following views?

Much of the hoarding has disappeared and one of the boarded up end windows of the former bank has been smashed.

Causeway Coast - To Frack or Not to Frack 2

UPDATED

Down in Fermanagh:

"Tamboran plans to extract gas using the controversial fracking technique.

It was granted a petroleum licence in 2011. It had three years to either inform the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment (DETI) on its decision to drill or drop its plans.

This deadline passed on Tuesday and an extension was not granted.

Its lawyers will now seek judicial reviews of both Stormont Enterprise Minister Arlene Foster's decision not to extend the licence and Environment Minister Mark H Durkan's rejection in August of a request to drill a borehole at the site near Belcoo." ... BBC report from Fermanagh, October 1, 2014

Meanwhile up on the Causeway Coast there's to be another public meeting

Causeway Coast - to Frack or not to Frack?

Facebook: Protect Our North Coast Public Meeting

Added October 16

Greenpeace on Fracking

UK to allow fracking companies to use 'any substance' under homes

95ZBF: Before Clause 28, insert the following new Clause—

“Further provision about the right of use

(1) The ways in which the right of use may be exercised include—

(a) drilling, boring, fracturing or otherwise altering deep- level land [below 300 metres];

(b) installing infrastructure in deep-level land;

(c) keeping, using or removing any infrastructure installed in deep-level land;

(d) passing any substance through, or putting any substance into, deep-level land or infrastructure installed in deep- level land; Infrastructure Bill - House of Lords, October 14, 2014.

Nurse McConaghy of Carnaff, Dervock

A friend sought my help about Elizabeth McConaghy, a nurse linked to Carnaff, Dervock, who it was believed served in World War I and World War II. One of my Derrykeighan informants said that his grandfather and he had delivered peats to her home around 1942 and that she was, by then, an elderly lady.

[Death date led to newspaper search]

I could see no-one that might have fitted that description in Carnaff in the 1901 census but I did note a Grace Anne McConaghy and two children, Katherine and Alexander. The General Registry Office now has an online search facility so I slowly plodded through the deaths search from 1942, first under Dervock sub-district and then Ballymoney district. This on-line post-1864 search is not available for the past fifty years ie post-1964.

August Seventeenth, 1953, Route Hospital, Ballymoney - Elizabeth McConaghy, late of Carnaff, Dervock - Female - Spinster - 68 years - Retired Nurse - etc.

This indicated a date of birth adjacent to 1885 and a GRONI search yielded:

Fifth August, 1884 in Lisnabragh, Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas McConaghy, farmer, and Ann McConaghy formerly McKinley.

A further birth search produced a brother Thomas, born Fourth July, 1887.

A GRONI marriage search gave Thos McConaghy, full age, bachelor, farmer, living at Lisnabragh, son of Dennis McConaghy, farmer, married in Ballymoney Reformed Presbyterian Church on Nov 20, 1883, Annie McKinley, full age, spinster, living at Clifton Terrace [on Millburn Road], Coleraine, daughter of Robert McKinley, farmer.

A further GRONI marriage search gave Dennis McConaghy, full age, bachelor, weaver, living in Toberdoney, son of Alex McConaghy, weaver, married in Billy Parish Church on 19 April 1853, Catherine Barr, full age, spinster, flowerer [embroidery?], living in Knockavallan, daughter of Thos Barr, weaver.

Anne McConaghie [note variant spelling] was a widow in the 1901 census and working back in the death searches I found that Elizabeth's father Thomas died on Eighth August, 1897, aged 43. and her grandfather Dennis just a sort time earlier on the Twenty-first June, 1897, aged 75. Dennis' death was reported by his daughter Grace Ann [in Carnaff in 1901 - see further up]. Dennis had received some Outdoor Relief support, also in 1897 [Ballymoney ancestry search]

VAD poster

If anyone can provide further information about Nurse McConaghy, especially a photograph, please email NALIL blog [see contact address].

Added October 5

There are several variants of the McConaghy name so it was hardly surprising that I would have difficulty finding Elizabeth once she moved away from her home in north Antrim. She was born in a Reformed Presbyterian home in 1884 and this provided the basis for a wider search. Mccon* produced a result in 1911 but it was macon* that produced a result in 1901.

Just 16 and three years after the adjacent deaths of her father and grandfather, Elizabeth Maconaghy is a servant in the Eglantine Avenue home in south Belfast of Maurice Frederick Fitzgerald, the Co Wicklow born Professor of Engineering in the then Queens College, Belfast, now Queens University. Ten years later, Elizabeth McConnachie is a nurse in the Belfast Union Workhouse on Lisburn Road, later to become Belfast City Hospital.

A NALIL friend has uncovered a Dennis McConaghy, son of Alexander McConaghy quite possibly Elizabeth's grandfather, born in the vicinity of Carnbore. [More to follow]