- A Department of Education report from last April states there is unmet demand in the area.
- DE criteria for showing unmet demand includes proof of support from parents at schools seeking integration and oversubscription of nearby integrated schools (while other expressions of interest can also be considered).
- Both schools were able to demonstrate demand using the first two criteria in their applications – although it’s worth noting that Mr Mathison specifically highlighted “post-primary” demand so the Bangor Academy application is much more relevant.
UPDATE – 23 October 2025: This is part of a three-article series. On 23 October 2025, each piece in the series was updated to reflect a High Court ruling supporting the decisions made by the Education Minister with regard to the applications discussed below. Please see the end of each article for more details.
In early January, the Education Minister Paul Givan announced his decision not to approve applications for integrated status made by two schools in North Down, Rathmore Primary School and Bangor Academy & Sixth Form College, despite support from parents of children at both schools and the recommendation of his officials.
These decisions received plenty of publicity. On 13 January, a week after they were announced, the decisions were the subject of a debate in the Assembly as a Question for Urgent Oral Answer.
That debate contained several claims that FactCheckNI examines over the course of three articles:
- The Minister said he is “legally prohibited” from approving integrated status “unless it is likely that the school will provide integrated education.”
- Alliance MLA Nick Mathison said an official report found that North Down has substantial unmet demand for Integrated Education.
- Sinn Féin MLA Pat Sheehan said the Minister’s own officials believed the applications should be approved.
Our look at the first claim is here. This article focuses on the second.
During the debate, Alliance MLA Nick Mathison said:
“The integrated education section 10 report from the Minister’s Department confirms that Ards and North Down is an area in which there is substantial unmet demand for integrated education at post-primary level.”
RATING: ACCURATE.
This claim is supported by evidence.
- Source
FactCheckNI contacted Mr Mathison about this claim. He pointed us to an April 2024 report from the Department of Education about integrated education, with reference to the Integrated Education Act (Northern Ireland) 2022. That report states:
“Our analysis indicates that there is demand for post-primary integrated education in excess of supply in six localities: Belfast, Lisburn and Castlereagh, Ards and North Down, Antrim and Newtownabbey, Mid and East Antrim, and Newry and Mourne.”
The report references oversubscribed integrated schools in each of those areas – and includes data on this in its appendices – which it says indicates that there is unmet demand.
That does provide evidence in support of the claim, but we did some digging too.
- How does the Department of Education measure unmet demand?
Ahead of the ultimate decision by Education Minister Paul Givan not to approve the transformation of Bangor Academy and Rathmore Primary School, officials in his department prepared reports about the applications made by both schools.
Paragraph 91 of the report by the officials into Bangor Academy’s proposal to transform and become an integrated school (and Paragraph 8.1 of the report into Rathmore Primary School) refers to the Department’s guidance Integration Works – Transforming Your School (2017) to interpret “unmet demand for Integrated education”. The guidance document explains:
[Unmet demand] can be demonstrated in a range of ways, including:
- the results of the Transformation ballot will be considered as indicating the degree of support within the school for the proposal;
- the availability of integrated education in the local area, including oversubscription at local integrated schools; and
- any other expressions of interest or support.
How does that look in these cases?
- Demand from parents
According to Article 6 (3) of the Integrated Education Act 2022,
“In this Act, a reference to ascertaining the demand for integrated education is a reference to ascertaining the extent to which parents would prefer their children to be educated at grant-maintained integrated or controlled integrated schools rather than at schools which are not grant-maintained integrated schools or controlled integrated schools.”
Demand for integration is a key aspect of both seeking and approving transformation. According to DE:
“Once parents or governors of a school formally initiate Transformation, Electoral Reform Services conducts a secret ballot of parents. If a simple majority of those who vote in the ballot is in favour of Transformation, and at least half of those eligible to vote have done so, the Board of Governors must submit a Development Proposal supported by a Case for Change to the EA.”
Prior to the official secret postal ballot of parents, Bangor Academy undertook an informal online survey with families in March 2023. Of those who responded:
- 76% were in support of Bangor Academy becoming integrated
- 17% were unsure and wanted more information
- 7% said they were not in favour
Staff were also surveyed. Of those who responded:
- 80% were in support of Bangor Academy becoming integrated
- 20% were unsure and wanted more information
- Seemingly 0% were not in favour
Section 70 of the Education Reform (Northern Ireland) Order 1989 outlines the procedure for the secret postal Transformation ballot, including that:
- All parents of pupils registered at the school have the right to vote (not prospective parents)
- If a simple majority of those who vote in the ballot is in favour of applying for the proposed new status and at least 50 percent of those eligible to vote have done so, the Board of Governors must submit a Development Proposal for Transformation to integrated status to the Education Authority.
The school’s proposal application asserts that a parental postal ballot was administered by Civica Election Services between 6 May and 6 June 2023.
Overall, there was a 51% turnout according to the officials’ report. There were 1074 (79.4%) yes votes, and 279 (20.6%) no votes for the proposal (2 votes were spoiled). A turnout of 51% and a majority of those (79.4%) voting yes indicates parental support.
Rathmore Primary School parents were even more in favour. The officials’ report notes that turnout was 61.9% (485 out of 783 parents) – with 82.3% (399) voting in favour of transformation, and 17.7% (86) voting against.
- Demand in the area
Officials identified two integrated secondary schools within a 10 mile radius of Bangor Academy: Strangford Integrated College and Priory College.
Table 1 in the Area Planning Policy’s Team’s report indicates that the total enrolment at both schools has increased year-on-year between 2021/22 and 2023/24. Both schools were operating at capacity with no spare seats (‘available places’) in the 2022/23 academic year.
With respect to Year 8 applications and admissions, Table 9 in the team’s report outlines the intake at the two nearby schools (plus Lagan College which is 13.1 miles away). Some of these figures have been summarised in this chart.
At all three schools, the number of actual Year 8 admissions (green) has exceeded the approved figure (grey line) in recent years once supernumerary pupils were taken into account (which include pupils holding a statement of Special Educational Needs or admitted on the direction of an appeal tribunal like the Exceptional Circumstances Body).
On first preference applications alone, the number of applications consistently exceeds the approved intake at both Strangford Integrated College and Lagan College.
The report notes that Strangford Integrated was allowed to increase its admission and enrolment numbers back in 2020.
Whether using the 10-mile radius or including the third close-by integrated school, numerically the existing nearby integrated schools are full and there is strong evidence that there are more first preference applications than can be accommodated.
This suggests that in the case of Bangor Academy, there is demand. Is that demand, as per the claim, “substantial”?
Taking first preference applications alone, the three nearby schools are oversubscribed by 46.7% (660 applications for 450 places) in 2024/25, and oversubscribed by 25.7% (289 applications for 250 places) if only the closest two are considered.
In the case of Rathmore Primary School, there are other nearby integrated schools: Bangor Central Integrated Primary School is not over-subscribed, Glencraig IPS is more-or-less full, and Loughries CIPS has 21 available places but is further away from Rathmore and tends to attract children from a different catchment (paragraph 7.13 in Rathmore PS report).
The officials concluded that “This demonstrates that there are places available for Integrated provision in the local area, however these places would not meet the demand of all of the existing Rathmore PS pupils.” Based on that, there is demand.
- Other expressions of support?
The team’s report notes (paragraph 104) that Bangor Academy’s proposal:
“… did not provide any detail in respect of expressions of interest, or additional support for the transformation of the school. This would have been beneficial for the Departmental assessment to determine the expected numbers and religious mix into the school in future. The Department is aware that expressions of interest are of themselves not reliable evidence but give an indication of support only.”
No expressions of interest were submitted by Rathmore Primary School, a fact picked up on by the minister in the summary of why he came to his decision.
- The claim
Taking three different ways of assessing unmet demand into account, the evidence collectively suggested to officials that there was demonstrable demand, from parents of current pupils as well as demand for places in existing nearby integrated schools.
The levels of narrative evidence – the “expressions of interest” – is relatively low but, based purely on figures of applications and enrolments combined with the results from the parental ballots, it was fair for Mr Mathison to say that there is “substantial unmet demand for integrated education at post-primary level” within the area.
- UPDATE – 23 October 2025
Education Minister Paul Givan’s decisions were challenged in the High Court. These challenges have been dismissed, with the court refusing to allow leave to apply for judicial review in both cases.
On 15 October, the court asserted that the Minister was bound by the requirement of Article 92(6) of the 1989 Order and shall not approve a transformation proposal unless it appears to the Department that, if granted integrated status, the school would be likely to provide integrated education – meaning in particular the inclusion of reasonable numbers of both Protestant and Roman Catholic pupils. The ruling makes clear that what constitutes “reasonable numbers” in any application is for the Minister and Department to decide.
The full judgement can be read online along with a summary judgement. Following this ruling, the Education Minister provided a written statement to the Assembly.
