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THE PARENTS OF children at one Clare primary school don’t know the exact moment when they decided to turn to the internet for help.
The school, called Mol an Óige Steiner National School, had already come through more hurdles than most people had expected in its first few years.
When it started in 2005 in Ennistymon, the school had just 7 students in its first year. This year, it has around 120. The school is one of just three Steiner national schools in the country, which, as parent Stuart Woolley explains, means it uses non-traditional methods of teaching, focusing on oral work rather than textbook work for the first few years of education.
“The ethos of the school is the head, the hands and the heart,” says Woolley.
From small beginnings, it soon became clear that the school was in demand with local parents and children. This led to a new problem: space.
The Mol an Óige school is currently housed in six portable cabins, on land borrowed from a hotel in the area. As Stuart Woolley points out, the temporary nature and the size of the cabins means it’s impossible to have basics such as a cloakroom, principal’s office or any of the other facilities you’d expect to have in a school .
The recession has made things extra tough for schools. The Department of Education is going to spend €370 million building and improving schools this year alone – but the waiting list seems to grow all the time, even as new projects are finished.
The school has managed to buy a 6-acre site using a donation made several years ago, but like many schools, it lacks the money to actually build a permanent structure.
“The Department of Education has published a list of schools that will be built in the next five years and the school isn’t on it, so we know it’s going to be at least five years,” says Woolley.
We’d never be able to raise the money in the town – Ennistymon only has about 800 people, so we’re trying to get more people to help.
Through a series of meetings, parents came up with a novel idea: crowdsourcing the €2 million needed to build the school through the internet.
“If we don’t try, we’ll never get it, so we said let’s give it a go and see if we can get enough people on board,” says Woolley.
The parents began their campaign at the start of March. They set up a website and a Facebook page and started to spread the word, hoping to rely on word of mouth to get the story of the school out there in the hopes that a lot of people will be motivated to donate a small amount of money through the site.
“We’re focusing on the idea that if one million people who hear about it gave just €2 each, this is possible,” says Woolley.
The front gate of the school
Part of the reason the crowdsourcing idea came about was because the parents didn’t want to tread on the toes of the school by doing something like raffle sales, explains Stuart.
We concentrate on bigger things – the biggest thing we’re trying to do to get the word out.
Our idea is that €2 is how much people would spend on a coffee – it would be even more than that if they’re buying it in Dublin! – to build a school that will change the lives of generations.
The money isn’t the only challenge the school faces: although it was officially granted status as a national school in 2008 by the Department of Education, it was only on a temporary basis – which means the school has to apply every year to have its recogition as a school renewed.
“Inspectors have been in several times, the school continually passes the assessments, so we’re just waiting for the Department to say yes, you’re a school , and give us permanent recognition,” says Woolley. Parents have been petitioning Education Minister Ruairí Quinn to give the school permanent status.
The school has some way to go to reach the target: the website says it has raised almost €4,000 as of this week – meaning there’s some€1,996,000 to go to hit its target.
The parents are optimistic though. ”We’ve set ourselves a deadline of twelve months because everything always has a final result,” says Woolley. “If we don’t have an end date it could just rumble on forever. By setting an end date we know what we’re aiming for.”
“It’s ambitious but we think we can do it.”
You can find out more about the Mol an Óige school plan on its website: www.buildmolanoige.org
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Home Alone !!
Debbie does dallas
Yes, got to agree with you.
The Shawshank Redemption followed by Alien.
Quiet, man
National Lampoons Christmas Vacation followed by Scrooged. They’re is no substitute.
Elf
Hostile Hostages!
@William Cray.Yep.
where’s Home Alone, Bad Santa & Trading Places? All classics
They’re excluded to get you and I and others to comment and give the illusion of popularity for the article.
Exactly, well they aren’t going to catch me with their plan.
@Pauliebhoy: Me either the beaky snastards
Willie Wonka everytime
Scrooged
Miracle on 34th Street, the original. Cannot beat it
Love Actually is an absolute pile of shite.
@Jimmy Murphy: stink
In fairness, so are most Christmas films.. but it wouldn’t be the same without them.
The muppets Christmas Carol
Die Hard…best Christmas movie ever!
Now I have a machine gun……..HO Ho Ho
Has to be “The Holiday” with Cameron Diaz, Kate Winslet, Jude Law and Jack Black.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0p8Su3bdHc
Elf
And when Santa squeezes his fat white a## down that chimney tonight, he’s gonna find the jolliest bunch of a### holes this side of the nuthouse.
Only watched it last night. Great movie. Gotta love chevy chase.
Yes I’m just blousing ..browsing… its very nippley ….I mean nippy
Santa clause the movie!
Miracle on 34th Street
Polar express!
Bad Santa
Miracle on 34th street should be there
Willy wonka or albert finney’s scrooge
Nightmare before Christmas,
@Enda Murtagh: yaaaaas
The snowman
Home Alone
Gotta be “Elf”
Christmas Carol with Alastair Simon. Black & white version.
@Liamog: Black & white is gay.
Willy Wonka!
@Lily Shannon: what does that have to do with Xmas?
Elf
The Grinch….watch it every year :-)
Home alone
Miracle on 34th Street
By far the best
Willie wonka and the chocolate factory
It was a tough call between Its a wonderful life and Love Actually out of the listed choices but there are so many other classics associated with Christmas that I love. Miracle on 34th Street, Annie, The Grinch, Santa Claus and of course Christmas isn’t Christmas without Willie Wonka:-)
Miracle on 34th street
Home Alone!
The apartment
Superb film
Gremlins :-=
Santa Clause – 1985 http://imdb.com/rg/an_share/title/title/tt0089961/
Miracle on 34th Street…. never on the telly anymore
Christmas Carol
Scrooge1970.or willy wonka
It’s a wonderful life is pure depression. I don’t know how people watch it
A Christmas story
Willie wonka and the chocolate factory
I would sit down to either “Christmas with the Kranks” or else “The Muppets – A Christmas Carol”
First one is quite funny, I love it! And the Muppets movie …., well that one is funny, touching and christmasy. If I HAD to choose ONE it would have to be “Christmas with the Kranks”
Muppet Christmas Carol and The Polar Express. Watch then time and time again and blame the kids for it. Merry Christmas everyone.
Miracle on 34th street
Elf!
The Polar Express
Home Alone and Elf
Miracle on 34th Street
darby o’gill and the little people
Miracle On 34th Street (Original)
Santa Claus The Movie
A muppet Christmas carol or Bad Santa
Trading Places.
The Family Stone with Diane Keaton although Its a Wonderful Life is an absolute classic.
Wilkie Wonka and the chocolate factory!
Fiddler on the Roof
My top 5 in no particular order. Die hard, Willie wonka, rise of the guardians, scrooged and trains plane’s and automobiles.
Jaws. Wouldn’t be Christmas without it.
As good as it gets!
Santa claus the movie
Exorcist
@Abe Brennan: Pllenty of dark spirits on that day?
Bad Santa .
The Bishop’s Wife…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bishop’s_Wife
Polar Express
No one else mentioned wizard of oz
@Louise Ní Riain: you’re confused. It’s not an Xmas movie,
Scrooge Albert finney.
Showgirls
I would sit down to either “Christmas with the Kranks” or else “The Muppets – A Christmas Carol”
First one is quite funny, I love it! And the Muppets movie …., well that one is funny, touching and christmasy. If I HAD to choose ONE it would have to be “Christmas with the Kranks”
@Lilly Passet: Sorry!!! Don’t know WHY my comment went up twice
A Christmas Carol
The return of the man who never came back
A Christmas story, Ralph’s struggle to get a red Ryder BB gun
Santa Clause- made me believe all over again- simply magical
FakeTaxi
Elf
Bad Santa
Miracle on 34th street
Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory. Not a typical Christmas movie but it’s the only time of the year it’s ever on TV so I think it counts.
Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale
A Christmas Carol with Jim Carry.
100% yes. Work of genius. Love it
Where Eagles Dare is on every Christmas, so it is a Christmas movie by now? As are other movies, it seems having a bit of snow in a long movie is enough but then there is The Quiet Man.
They never play movies like Lifeforce or The Medusa Touch at Christmas but always choose a whole load of Hollywood or British WW2 films, how is that Christmassy?
Then the same old films are seen that often that the TV films seem like no matter what station you tune to there is nothing on and the same can be said about the Carols. There are some beautiful medeval carols that are never played and they compete with Christmas songs that are Christmas songs because they mention snow or Christmas.
A Tapestry of Carols by Maddy Prior, Christmas Musicke by The York Waits, Christus natus est | An Early English Christmas by The Sixteen, Harry Christophers and then Christmas Music from Medieval and Renaissance Europe by the same.
The thing about Christmas is people accept the same old stuff and call it tradition, when there is more to Christmas than the same old movies or songs / carols. A bit of something new might put a bit of life into it?
Von Ryans Express, Kellys Heroes, The Heroes of Telemark, Guns of Navarone. All brilliant Christmas time movies to pass away an afternoon on the couch with club orange and ham sandwiches.
@EdmundOrlando: Yes but are they Christmassy? Just asking….
Christmas ape
Jack Frost!!!
The Sound Of Music is a must-watch on Christmas Day (even though it’s not actually a Christmas film, it’s played every year on Christmas Day and watching it while eating a tin of roses is a memory I have from every year!!)
I cannot believe Home Alone 1 or 2 isn’t on the shortlist by the way…. that’d be my other choice !!
Surviving Christmas
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