Doosh writes;

I Received the following email from my child’s new ETG School, two days before they reopen..

“Hello Everyone, ‘I would like to welcome you all back to school tomorrow, and look forward to getting to know you over the coming weeks. Unfortunately due to the unavailability of some contract cleaners we are looking for assistance from any parents who can spare an hour or so tomorrow (Wednesday) between 4pm and 7pm to help us get the school ready in time. We will greatly appreciate your support.”

…is this to be expected?

Anyone?

They haven’t a clue.

You may recall a post on  Ballinteer Educate Together (multi-denominational) school whose pupils have been housed in temporary accomodation since 2012…

Dudley Colley writes:

Sadly, not only is there no tangible progress, but we are being temporarily rehoused in another campus in Churchtown with two other schools, so it’s gone from bad to worse. We found out about this move from a tweet….

We’re having a protest at the Dáil at 1pm tomorrow, all welcome. In the measntime enjoy an irresistible video of our munchkins (above)…..

Build Ballinteer

Previously: Educate Ridiculously Close Together

From top: Glum schoolchildren from Ballinteer Educate Together (top) and one of the school’s packed classrooms.

In August 2012, Ballinteer Educate Together National School enrolled its first pupils in temporary accommodation at St. Tiernan’s Community School, Parkvale, Balally, Dundrum, Dublin 16.

While they waited for the design and approval process of a new school building to be completed.

And waited.

And waited.

Help Build Ballinteer Educate Together sez:

Today, FOUR years and 180+ pupils later our staff and kids are still in the same temporary accommodation which is now at full capacity with an ever growing waiting list for new pupils including 2 new Jr infant classes who have just started in September of this year.

The issues that have created this situation are not budgetary (full financial approval has for our new school was granted in 2012) or related to the planning of the building itself. In reality the reasons we do not have a suitable building for our school seem to be bureaucratic in nature and centre around securing planning permission for road access to the new site.

Our initial application was submitted in 2012 and as of today we are no closer to any kind of decision that will help us get our school built.

Sadly it seems that the efforts of the Dept of Education have fallen short and that very few practical steps are being taken by the Dept of Education to resolve these issues.

While the board and PTA appreciate that these processes take time, the continued absence of a solution to this problem has resulted in an unacceptable delay which is now beginning to have an adverse affect on the staff and pupils of our school.

As our school continues to grow rapidly these affects will only become more serious and its simply a matter of time before our kids educational experience begins to suffer as a result.

Sign a petition to Richard Bruton, Minister for Education here

Help Build Ballinteer Educate Together (Facebook)

A Portobello Educate Together protest outside Leinster House

Unbelievers.

Have you no schools to go to?

Nicola Murphy writes:

As the chairwoman of the Terenure Educate Together Start-Up Committee, and a parent of two young children, I feel it necessary to address Rev Patrick G Burke’s question (July 20th) as to whether the parents in Dublin 6 really want an Educate Together or are desperate for more school places.

There is no question that the schools in the area are heavily oversubscribed.

However, it is clear to us from our ongoing interaction with parents that the Educate Together model is the first choice of school for a significant number of parents in our area. It is also worth noting that our parents are a diverse group made up of people of all religions and none.

We are all committed to the ethos of equality-based education for our children.

We are also committed to working with the Department of Education on the delivery of such a school, whether this is a new school, or an existing school which transfers patronage under the divestment process.

In an area which has a number of national schools under the patronage of various religions, the response to our campaign has been overwhelming.

With more than 500 expressions of interest in such a short space of time, the parents of Dublin 6 and Dublin 6W are clearly stating that their preference is for a co-educational, child-centred, democratically run and equality-based school, which is a school reflective of the modern Ireland in which we live and the values we embrace….

Irish Times Letters

(RollingNews.ie)

A multi-denominational, co-educational, child-centred and democratically-run 2nd level school?

In Galway?

Have you been drinking?

Susan McGrady writes:

“We have entered this video promoting our campaign in the Better Together competition. We believe that if we can achieve a very high number of votes for this video (or perhaps even win!) we can use this as further evidence of how much support there is for an Educate Together second-level school in Galway….”

Vote HERE