AQW 4718/22-27

Ms Connie Egan
Alliance Party
North Down

Tabled Date: 14/10/2022
Answered On Date: 19/10/2022
Priority Written: Yes

Question:
To ask the Minister of Education what actions her Department is taking to progress Section 6.4.5 of the Education Authority Operational Plan 1: 2022-24 and establish a new Integrated primary school to meet the needs of pupils in the East Belfast, South East Belfast and Castlereagh area.

Answer:

The workstream contained within the first Operational Plan (OP1), published by the Education Authority (EA) on 1 September 2022, is a medium-term workstream. OP1 states that “medium term workstreams are exploratory in nature and may require collaborative and innovative work to provide sustainable education provision for a geographical/school cluster area. Medium term workstreams may require a longer timeframe and therefore may span a number of Operational Plans”.

The specific workstream given at Section 6.4.5 of OP1 provides the Background/Engagement as “Establish a new Integrated primary school to meet the needs of pupils in the East Belfast, South Belfast, South East Belfast and Castlereagh area. The Northern Ireland Council for Integrated Education [NICIE] is working with the Integrated Education Fund [IEF] to bring forward further integrated provision for the area”.

The establishment of a new school requires the publication of a Development Proposal (DP) and currently it is only at this is the point at which my Department becomes engaged.