Councillor calls for action

She said: “As a recently expanded and emerging town, Waringstown has a large volume of families who are being denied local statutory nursery school provision. The situation where families are encouraged to apply to nursery schools as far away as Newry is frankly ridiculous.

“A narrow selection criteria is working against the establishment of a statutory nursery school in Waringstown. This unfairly discriminates against Waringstown.”

She said: “Catriona Ruane’s commitment to improving pre-school education obviously doesn't apply to Waringstown.”

“The fact that there are currently two classes per year group would indicate the need for pre-school provision at Waringstown Primary,” added the councillor who will be writing to the Education Minister outlining the case for a pre-school unit at Waringstown.