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PARENTS OF A Dublin primary school are looking for answers ahead of the end of this current year and a move to another temporary site.
Ballinteer Educate Together National School has been operating out of classrooms in St Tiernan’s Secondary School in Balally but its rapid expansion has meant it must now move.
At present there are nine classes from junior infants to third class comprising about 230 children.
A parents’ group has said the current facilities are inadequate with resource teachers forced to work in the lobby and caretaker equipment being stored in toilets.
Amanda Bailey, head of the PTA and parent of a child at the school, says the size of the classrooms at the current site are too small, but too many questions remain about the new plan.
It’s really not fair on our children to be treated like this, they’re in tiny classrooms. One, with 27 children in 34 sq metres, is even nicknamed ‘the headache room’ because it gets so stuffy
“We knew we were moving and we were happy to get out of the 34 sq metre classrooms,” she told TheJournal.ie.
The new building has 80 sq metre classrooms so we were happy to get more space and we thought it was positive, but we don’t know what way they are dividing up the space.
The school is to grow next year with two extra classes, making 11 in total.
Plans have been previously submitted for the construction of a permanent school building beside St Tiernan’s but these plans were rejected due to access concerns.
Updated plans were also submitted but were also refused and there have been suggestions that lands could be purchased by the Department of Education to help with access to the site.
The problems have meant that the permanent plans have stalled with the school now moving to another temporary site at Notre Dame in Churchtown.
That school campus will be shared with a secondary school and parents have expressed concerns about space at the new school.
The parents’ group says the principal of Ballinteer Educate Together National School has yet to even examine the new facility. Instead, parents are waiting on an assessment of the new site to be carried out by the department.
https://www.facebook.com/BallinteerETNS/videos/1483943528293391/
Parents will be holding a demonstration at the Dáil next Tuesday in an attempt to put pressure on the department to find a solution. The main issue they want addressed is to be given a timetable for the construction of the permanent school next to St Tiernan’s.
A number of politicians have been acting on behalf of the parents and, in response to a question from Senator Neale Richmond, Education Minister Richard Bruton said the school is a “high priority” for the department.
The minister said the Notre Dame site was purchased by the department and a technical assessment is currently being carried out with regards to how best to accommodate Ballinteer Educate Together.
Bruton added that there is “no doubt” that a new planning application would be submitted to allow for the construction of the permanent school building:
I can assure the Senator, from our point of view, that this is a high priority. We want to facilitate this successful school. We want to complete these processes as quickly as possible but we have to do them in a way that meets the requirements and expectations of pupils for the long term, and that is a very important consideration.
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We deserve a massive reduction in our tv license for wasted money spent on producing shows such as Dancing with the stars and Ireland’s got talent. I know there’s an off button on my TV but these shows should only be visible on RTE Player and not mainstream.
I’d rather watch Christy Duignam tell his life story on the late late for the 10th time than to watch a bunch of overpaid RTE presenters & z listers buck leaping round a studio.
@Gareth Cooney: Ireland’s Got Talent is set for TV3 so no license fee money going there. It’ll last 2 seasons, at best, anyway.
@Pat Doran: IGT will be another Tops of the Parish show. Easily avoidable.
BREAKING NEWS: I won’t be talking about any of these shows!
@An Observer: ___ Not even to say “I don’t watch that crap?”
Jason Byrne is shockingly bad at every thing he dose….
@gold3n:
Some say he can’t even spell simple 4 letter words
@Tweety McTweeter: You’re missing an ‘a’ there
@gold3n: he is a bit of a dose.
@gold3n: but he does it LOUDLY, so its hilarious
Hold on a second. You’ve included Dancing With The Stars and Ireland’s Got Talent in your list of programmes included in the golden age of television? Surely you jest?
They may well be talked about, but purely in a derogatory fashion.
New comedy on RTÉ DANCING WITH THE STARS
@EC P Ford: It should be called “Dancing”
@Paul Furey: ___ It should be “Desperate Z Listers falling about because they’ve got nothing better to do.”
@EC P Ford: Dancing With The Stars’ Non Famous Siblings.
Great, more shows I can watch online. I don’t know about you people, but TV is just not for me.
@Dalya Al-Tulaihi: I was only saying the other day how much you’d miss the mundane show games or chat show repeats. Now everything you watch has to be just as exciting and as mysterious as the last show and you’re not going to be happy till you find something which could take ages. There’s very little you can throw on for the sake of it, You end up spending more time clicking and swiping which leads to more time spent in front of the screen. You have to pause it instead of waiting for the adds while you run to the jax or to make a cup of tea disturbing everyone’s viewing ,that’s if you’re lucky enough everyone’s not on their own screen. Online viewing is great all right and instant but sometimes you’d miss the traditional viewing.
@Hardly Normal: oh I totally agree!! But since no one in the house is bothered with the tv anyway it’s hard for me to bring that tradition back all by myself you know!? It’s great when the family is gathered and all are watching the same show, but the older you grow the more distant you become from family because everyone start to have their own taste in shows, movies, etc.
I was reading the article skeptically, however, there is a lot of good shite in there.
What about doctor who
Looking into the future like former Taoiseach Brian Cowen. Must watch TV my arse.
@Paul Coughlan: biffo can read the future through interpreting his Guinness shytes.
Load of shite
@JJ: What a waste of 160. for a license
They missed a trick in not getting Kim Kardashian to play donatella Versace as she is morphing into her recently
Bring back the Riordans I say !!!
What did you use to ‘bait’ your breath? Maggots? Worms?
Just waiting for the next episode of Designated survivor, that is all, last episode broke me
Black Mirror dropped on Netflix this morning.
What I want to know is…when will the RTE bring back Celebrity Pigs ‘n’ Heels?… sorry meant…Celebrity Jigs ‘n’ Reels…
How about Wheeler Dealers ?
I never watched the English Dancing with the stars so I don’t know why I decided to watch the Irish one, however, I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Another reason not to pay tv licence
RTE CRAP!!!!!!!!! NOT ONE ORIGINAL PROGRAM THAT WORTH LOOKING AT
BOYCOTT TV LICENCE
I wont be talking about them. Same crap on RTE. Just a different year.
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