Protestant residents from the Upper Ardoyne have met the Northern Secretary as efforts to resolve the impasse around a primary school in north Belfast continue.
Dr John Reid held a private meeting with representatives of the Protestant community in what officials described as a listening exercise.
The protest has settled into a pattern in which Protestant residents turn their backs and stand in silence as the children are escorted to and from the school. When parents return from leaving the children at the school and walk up to collect them, the protesters blow whistles and sound air horns.
No insults were exchanged yesterday as about 100 protesters faced the parents of about 150 schoolgirls and fewer than 10 pupils were brought in by the school's back entrance.
In contrast to last week, when there was a strong international media presence, the only journalists remaining at the school were from the local, British and Irish press.
For the first time, the press were forbidden from entering the school in an effort to limit the amount of time the parents and security forces were on the Ardoyne Road. Yesterday, the chairman of the school's board of governors, along with a local Protestant clergyman, held an "exploratory" meeting with representatives of the Concerned Residents of Upper Ardoyne (CRUA).
Father Aidan Troy said the meeting lasted about an hour and 15 minutes and had centred entirely on the school itself. He said that when discussions broadened out to include social and inter-community issues they would have to involve the nationalist parents and other groups from the nationalist end of Ardoyne Road.