St Columb's College in Derry publishes its admissions criteria for next year

Another grammar school in Derry has today published its admission criteria.

Due to the pandemic, the transfer test, which grammar schools usually use as the basis for the admission of new pupils, has been cancelled.

As a result, schools are being asked to come up with an alternative admissions process.

Thornhill College in Derry published their admissions criteria for the 2021/22 academic year earlier this week and St Columb's College have published theirs today.

St Columb's said its Board of Governors has determined that, in the event of the number of applicants being greater than the

admissions number for the school, applicants shall be selected in the order of priority set down below, based on

the information provided at the date of application.

1. Applicants of whom a brother is a pupil in the school or will be in the coming year.

2. (i) Applicants who are the first boy of the family or, (ii) in the case of a family which has arrived on or after 1 January 2016 in the College's traditional catchment area (details of which are to be found in a leaflet available from the College), applicants who are the first boy to reach transfer age of that family since its arrival in the College's traditional catchment

area; or (iii) Applicants of whom a brother previously attended the school but has since left.

3. Applicants of whom a parent or step-parent or legally adopted parent is a permanent member of staff of St Columb’s College.

4. Applicants other than those satisfying any one of the criteria (1) – (3) above.

You can find out the full details of the school's admissions criteria here - http://bit.ly/2Y4UxfK

A spokesperson for St Columb's said: "In June 2020 the Board of Governors decided that St Columb’s College would not use academic criteria for admission to Year 8 in September 2021. 

"The Governors made this decision having reflected on the ongoing impact of the Covid-19 crisis, the considerable disruption that this was having on the education of pupils then in Primary 6 and the possibility of further disruption for these same pupils as they moved into Primary 7. 

"The Board of Governors has, therefore, temporarily amended its Admissions Criteria for the 2021-2022 academic year."