Updated at 10.15am

FOUR POST-PRIMARY schools will see Educate Together as their patron when they open 2015 and 2016, with another in partnership with an Education and Training Board.

The multi-denominational education body was appointed by the Department of Education as patron for schools in Cork, Kildare, Wicklow, and two in Dublin.

Other new schools will be run by the Edward Rice Schools Trust and three Education and Training Boards (ETB),  including one with involvement from the Catholic Bishop of Cloyne.

These schools will cater for up to 7,300 pupils in total, with Educate Together providing as many as 4,300 of these.

Ruth Doggett, Second-level Programme Manager with Educate Together, said the appointments show “the increasing demand for this innovative model of education”.

“Parents are looking for a new approach to second-level education, one that focuses on the lifelong learning needs of learners in the 21st century,” she added.

Speaking to RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, Minister for Education Ruairi Quinn said this appointment was a response to “a diversity requirement in a number of areas”.

He said the denomination of the school is a high priority for parents when deciding where to educate their children.

“We’ve about 730 post-primary schools in the country at the moment, 500 of those would traditionally have been run by Catholic religious teaching orders,” he noted.

Three other post-primary Educate Together schools will open in 2014, two in Dublin and one in Louth, and will be the first run by the organisation.

Earlier this year, the body was appointed as patron for two new primary schools in Dublin and Galway.

The new schools announced are:

• Kingscourt, Cavan, run by Cavan and Monaghan ETB serving 400 pupils
• Cork South Suburbs, run by Edmund Rice Schools Trust, serving 600 pupils.
• Carrigaline, Cork, run by Educate Together, serving 600 pupils.
• Midleton/Carrigtohill, run by Cork ETB with the Bishop of Cloyne, serving 1000 pupils.
• Balbriggan, Dublin, run by Educate Together, serving 700 pupils.
• Ballinteer/Stepaside, Dublin, run by Educate Together, serving 1000 pupils.
• Kingswood, Tallaght, Dublin, run by Dublin and Dún Laoghaire ETB, serving 1000 pupils.
• Celbridge, Kildare, run by both Educate Together and Kildare Wicklow ETB*, serving up to 1000 pupils.
• North Wicklow, run by Educate Together, serving 1000 pupils.

*Subject to confirmation of sufficient parental support

Originally published 8.14am

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