Families win school places battle

The children had been excluded from St Cecilia's College

The families of three schoolgirls have won a legal battle to get their children into a Londonderry school.

The pupils' parents applied for a judicial review of their exclusion from St Cecilia's College in the city after they had been allocated places.

The court heard some families were living in Donegal but using the addresses of grandparents to secure grammar school places.

A High Court judge ruled a failure to check addresses was a mistake.

The practice is known as "grannying".

The legal process began after the three girls were offered places at the Northland Road school but these were withdrawn when the Department of Education refused to increase the admissions cap of 130.

Their school uniforms were bought and for the past two weeks their education was in limbo pending the outcome of the case.

'Overjoyed'

On Friday, Mr Justice Weatherup overturned an education board tribunal decision and said the girls should be admitted to the school.

Outside the court, the father of one of the girls said that he was "over the moon, overjoyed."

He said it would mean that his daughter will now be able to get to sleep at night as she had spent the nights crying.

The father added that it was now a matter for the various school authorities to deal with the issue of false addresses.

Niall McAteer, who is a representative of the board of governors at St Cecilia's, said they always wanted to give the girls a place.

"We are not only being asked to be judge and jury on this address issue, but now also maybe the police force," he said.

"That has huge implications for our board of governors, and also for all schools.

"The reality is we are going to need a lot of training, guidance and also some legislation eventually to clear this problem up."