The closing of a school: from anger to possibilities

Bottom-up development is still ‘abnormal’, says Karin Eyben of the Garvagh Enterprise Trust, which is hoping to transfer a former school building in rural Derry into community ownership

In August 2012, Garvagh High School, in the county of Derry, closed due to falling numbers. The school was built in the early 1950s as a result of the education act of 1947, which set out to modernise the aging educational fabric in Northern Ireland, and was the first rural school of that era to be built.

As with many school closures, the school’s death was protracted and painful for the village. Many young people were left facing limited choices with regards viable educational alternatives.

The story since August 2012 is one of a community shifting from anger and loss to investing significant amount of volunteer time to thinking about the long-term potential of the former school building, which backs onto the Garvagh Forest. Since that time the community has been answering three phased questions:

1. Why would we take on this piece of land and listed building?

2. If we did, would it wash its face and for how long?

3. What would it mean to take it on with regards developing skill sets, initial investment, volunteer hours and governance structures?

Over 200 people were involved in attempting to answer question one, which resulted in four scenarios:

1. Social Innovation: Using the school building for incubation and enterprise units; youth apprenticeships and training; a forest school and creative arts hub
2. Expanded museum/heritage provision: An enhanced museum; exhibition space; a gallery; an orientation point to the history and heritage of Garvagh and the wider area
3. Activity provision: Play park; walking and cycling routes; outdoor fitness equipment; focal point at the pedestrian entrance; mountain biking trails support facilities
4. Tourism : Camping; Aire de Service for motorhomes; visitor information

Garvagh Enterprise Trust was in essence established to answer question two. With support from Development Trusts Northern Ireland, the Plunkett Foundation and a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund, we are developing a detailed master plan and business plan. We don’t know yet if we will get to question three. This depends on the final answer to question two.

There have been a number of drivers – and challenges – over the last few years. The drivers of the process have been:

1. This has been a people-led process creating opportunities for local people to share, as well as listening to the hopes and imagination for their place.
2. It has been about prototyping and trying things out together – for example, the development of the Forest School to re-imagine how education is delivered locally.
3. It has been strengths-based. The ongoing community conversation over the last three years has been shaped by an understanding that real energy is generated by noticing and building on what we already have, not what is missing or not working.
4. It has been both about the power and fragility of relationships in a town, as with many towns across Northern Ireland, that is scarred by the legacy of the Troubles and class divisions.
5. It has been based on an understanding that economic development and investment in the Garvagh area must lead to thriving families and communities.

The challenges have tended to be located in the institutional, political and policy landscape. In particular, how long should a community struggle to make the case for what it is trying to do before it receives acknowledgement from key institutional players that this is a worthwhile exploration?

All too often an approach to a statutory body is interpreted as asking for money, whereas we are merely asking for someone to come alongside us and give us the confidence that our process is right and perhaps share some skills and knowledge of the wider scene. Bottom-up development is still ‘abnormal’ in a system where decisions tend to be made on behalf of local people, not with local people.

And the danger of that, as someone once wisely said, is that, ‘if you’re not invited to be at the table, there is the likelihood you might be on the menu’.

• Karin Eyben is programme development officer at the Garvagh Enterprise Trust