Hello Diversity, Goodbye Grandparents

at

St Sylvester’s Infant School, Malahide, County Dublin

A third school in north county Dublin has sent a letter to parents warning of dire consequences if parents vote to change the ethos of the school in an upcoming ballot.

St Sylvester’s in Malahide has told parents that a move away from Catholic patronage would mean that the school would no longer be able to celebrate the role of grandparents in children’s lives…

The leaflet also warns that there will be “no more uniforms” and that this will compromise child safety on school tours as well as leading to “arguments in the morning”.

Good times.

Third Dublin school sends letter warning of consequences over changing patronage (RTÉ)

UPDATE:

Via Educate Together

‘Educate Together is aware of much media comment over a series of letters issued in the Malahide / Portmanock / Kinsealy area in relation to possible reassignment of patronage of some Catholic schools.

Educate Together issued a classification statement on this matter yesterday, which can be accessed here.

However, Educate Together is disappointed that the content of further material published today (above) is grossly misleading and categorically untrue.

Due to a number of issues raised, we can only assume that these statements are directed against Educate Together’s equality-based school model.

It has been alleged that multi-denominational / equality-based schools engage in a number of unsafe and negative practices, such as:

compromising on child safety
having ‘low standards’ of education
not celebrating Christmas and other cultural events
not celebrating the role of grandparents in children’s lives
leading to “uncertainty” in local access to secondary education

None of this is true.

Educate Together is calling on school leaders to be aware of their responsibility to provide parents and the general public with accurate information about other school models, especially when they are implicitly referencing Educate Together.

Educate Together has not been consulted regarding any divestments in Malahide/Portmarnock. The organisation is calling for a forum where all stakeholders can exchange opinions and information.

Or anyone interested in learning about Educate Together’s unique, inclusive and equality-based school ethos, our brand new website www.educatetogether.ie will assist…’

Another Day, Another Clarification (Educate Together)

Related posts:

Are The Schools Catholic? School Places For Some, Miniature Tricolours For Others ‘Divestment Of School Patronage Is Slow’ The Sacrament Of School Enrollment

42 thoughts on “Hello Diversity, Goodbye Grandparents”

  4. Dr.Fart MD

    warning that your children won’t be safe unless you do as they say, seems a lil self-unaware, as effing catholics like. christ!

  6. Cian

    Hahaha.
    Brilliant. Non Catholic schools aren’t allowed celebrate Halloween!
    They can’t have uniforms.
    They can’t have grandparents over.

    Utter tosh!

    1. missred

      Halloween is a pagan festival, so frankly Catholics should probably be afraid of it or denounce it.

          2. millie st murderlark

            Eve?

            As in… evening and not the godless slut who got us all in trouble with God?

          3. pedeyw

            Yes All Saints Day, aka All Hallows Day. Seeing as Halloween is named such because it is the evening before All Hallows Day, a Christian festival, I think it’s reasonably safe to say it’s of Christian origin, (though most of them are pretty much secular now anyway). And whether they’re Christian or Secular, they’re not Pagan.

          5. Cian

            Easter is named after the pagen goddess Ēostre.
            (and we celebrate with chicks, chocolate, and eggs – very Christian)

        2. Iwerzon

          The Christians just happened to double-book the pagan feast days as they did with Halloween/Samhain.

          1. pedeyw

            Yeah, they were good at that. It made the locals more amenable to conversion, I suppose.

          2. newsjustin

            I’m always amused that some people use these facts – the links between Christian feast days and often pagan forerunners as some kind of smoking gun. “See. Told you so!”

            Christian churches were and are very well aware of these connections. Though some are more imagined than real, see for example https://aclerkofoxford.blogspot.com/2017/08/a-little-history-of-lammas.html?m=1

            Christmas is celebrated just as the days begin the get longer, we know. St John the Baptist’s feast is celebrated six months away near the longest day, we know that. It’s not strange that these feasts are laid over earlier feasts. It would be stranger if they weren’t.

  7. Murtles

    And vinegar will be served instead of milk and there’ll be no more songs just rhythmic sounds as the children break rocks in the schoolyard at break times and dogs and cats will rise up against multi-dom schools who will have to black out the windows as no sunlight will be allowed in ever.

  9. Niamh

    Baffles me why catholic school committees aren’t brandishing the best stick of all : no more holy days off school.

    1. pedeyw

      It’s a solid play but don’t the holy days just get taken from the overall holiday days anyway?

    2. Cian

      Probably because (working) parents hate holy days – they need to take the day off work or get cover.

  10. newsjustin

    These letters from the schools are funny and amateurish. Good fodder for laughing at and ignoring the issues of parents not really wanting a change to the ethos of their schools – certainly not in the “pig in a poke” cack-handed way its being put to them – and the naive mis management of divestment by successive governments.

  11. Dr_Chimp

    Oh, it’s in the name of more diversity. Therefore it must be a good thing. Yes pleae, diversity at all costs.

    1. newsjustin

      And like the Brexit campaign, facts and half-truths gain traction because the proponents of the idea make a shambles of selling it – I’m looking at you here Dept of Education.

  13. Toe Up

    My daughter attends a nondenominational gaelscoil (which has uniforms). Many of the students celebrate their communion and confirmation, but the classes are held outside of school hours, as with other voluntary after school activities. As a result, the non catholic students are not segregated from the rest of the class. It also means that more school time is available for proper subjects, including the celebration of grandparents.

  14. Junkface

    This a just madness and fear-mongering. None of these things are true, surely people realise this?

    Who is behind this misinformation campaign?

Comments are closed.