Campaign to save Tyrone school receives top award

A CROSS-community campaign to save a rural Tyrone school from closure has received a prestigious honour.

St Mary’s PS in Fivemiletown started the successful campaign last year, after the Council for Catholic Maintained Schools (CCMS) deemed the school ‘unsustainable’.

It has now has been crowned ‘Best Community Campaign’ in the Sheila McKechnie Awards.

Celebrating the best campaigns and campaigners across the UK, the awards recognise those who have achieved social change through civic action.

With only 42 children in the school, the campaign to ‘Save St Mary’s’ faced a significant challenge.

Building support across the local community, they engaged with businesses, sporting clubs, neighbouring schools, and community organisations to encourage them to oppose the closure.

A team of volunteers spent several weekends travelling around the locality, eventually gathering a petition with almost 10,000 signatures.

Hundreds of people marched through the streets in protest against the proposal. Extensive policy submissions and testimonies from families and children about the impact the school closure would have on them were prepared, and focused briefings, regular engagement, and ‘good old persuasion’ was used to secure cross-community political support for the school.

FORENSIC

Using Freedom of Information requests, they undertook a forensic analysis of the decision-making processes, and they believe that uncovering an unmanaged conflict of interest was another factor that eventually forced the managing authority to withdraw the proposal to close the school.

At the start of this year, the school’s board of governors learned the closure application had finally been withdrawn.

The winners were crowned at a glittering event in central London on Wednesday night, where the finalists gathered to share stories of campaign successes and recognise their many achievements.

Reacting to the win, chair of St Mary’s Board of Governors Mairaid Kelly said, “This award is for everyone who supported our campaign to protect our small rural school from closure.

“To the people of Fivemiletown and beyond, and to the children and their families who protested with us, wrote letters and collected signatures on petitions, please know that this award is for you all.”

Mairaid went on to thank the local politicians who helped the school community in their fight.

“It’s for our local politicians, including Mid Ulster and Fermanagh and Omagh Councils, but, in particular, Colm Gildernew MLA and Deborah Erskine MLA who worked tirelessly in support of our campaign. We have shown what a truly cross-community campaign can achieve, and how the rights of children in rural areas to access services are every bit as important as those in other places,” she added.

“We hope this award gives hope to many others out there who are fighting to protect services that matter to them, and in those difficult times when they doubt whether it will all be worthwhile, please remember that a wee group of parents in Fivemiletown just won a UK-wide award for their campaign, so you can do it too.”

Congratulating them on their success, Mr Gildernew added, “This is a phenomenal achievement and thoroughly deserved recognition for the campaign to save St Mary’s in Fivemiletown. I was delighted to have spoken in the Assembly about their nomination, I also want to recognise the ongoing efforts of the school to support others in similar circumstances, and I am delighted to continue to work with them to increase the recognition of the value of small rural schools.”