There is a day of action planned for Tuesday next, November 24th organised by the public service unions.

Arising from this, Gaelscoil Philib Barún will not be in a position to accept children on that day for Health and Safety reasons. The school and the naíonra will be closed.

It is not the intention of the Board of Management to interrupt your child’s education and we very much regret having to take this course of action.

Have you received a letter regarding the Rainbows support programme for pupils who have suffered loss through death or separation? Please contact Múinteoir Caitríona for further information. The letter is also available from here.

Building work has been almost completed on the school’s temporary buildings. Every room can adequately accommodate all the pupils wishing to enrol in Gaelscoil Philib Barún.

This does not mean however that the school community will cease its ongoing campaign for a permanent school in partnership with Tramore Community Development Committee who wish to build a community hall on the school site. The focus now is on progressing the school building application to architectural planning stage within the government school building programme. Recent renovations to our buildings have shown up many flaws in the prefabricated classrooms we currently occupy and underline the folly of state investment in structures that aren’t designed to last. If you would like to help with the publicity committee’s work in highlighting the case for a permanent school come along to the next meeting campaign meeting on Thursday Nov. 19th in the Grand Hotel at meeting.

By his own recent admission, the Minister for Education clearly has a whopping €386m of unspent funding at his disposal. More than enough to build a new school for Gaelscoil Philib Barún and for many, many others too.

However, for reasons known only to him and his department, our school is left languishing among 1,178 other schools awaiting major capital works. This is not only depressing (considering we’ve been asking for a permanent school for over 24 years) but also shocking when you consider how many other schools are in the same situation as we are.

The mere fact that €386m of budgeted money remains unspent is not only a crime against our children but also a crime against thousands of construction workers facing very tough and uncertain times at present. The Minister has confirmed that the money will indeed be spent but he did not say when, where or how.

The waiting continues…

During the Summer the Minister for Education and Science, Batt O’Keeffe, T.D. published information on the school building programme. It makes sobering reading for any school on the Department’s waiting list. The details can be downloaded from here: Department of Education & Science - Information By Topic.

Seeing our school’s project in the still languishing in the applications received section along with over a thousand other schools clarifies again that absolutely no progress has been made since 2005 with regard to a permanent structure for Gaelscoil Philib Barún.

To add to our frustration and disappointment we have been assigned an initial band rating of 2.2 which is a remarkable fact in itself as the other two primary schools in Tramore, Holy Cross National School and Glór na Mara are given the highest rating of 1.1. Clearly Gaelscoil Philib Barún is not a priority with the Minister and his Department. Can anybody explain the logic in the Department’s criteria for prioritising projects?

The school mourns the passing of Nicky O’Connor last Tuesday, 9th September 2009 in Waterford Regional Hospital following injuries sustained during a fall six weeks ago.

Nicky was a loving father to Aodh Ó Conchubhair, Sixth Class; Finn, Fourth class; Dónal, Second class; Paddy, Snr. Infants; and Seadh, Naíonra Philib Barún; and Peig 4 months old. Our sincere and heartfelt sympathies go to Úna, Nicky’s partner and indeed to the O’Connor and Dunphy families.

Pupils and parents formed a guard of honour as the coffin was brought to Holy Cross Church, Tramore, on Friday last, as a mark of respect to a father who was daily at the school, collecting and dropping his boys with no fuss but maybe a whistled tune and a spring in his step reflecting his confidence in Kilkenny’s ability to defeat the lesser hurlers of this world.

We also send our sympathies to the Gavin family as they mourn the recent death of Ben. A former member of the board of management of the Gaelscoil, Ben and his wife Breda supported the school from its inception. It was Ben who brought Martin Cullen to the school in the early nineties before he was a TD even and showed him the condition of our accommodation. Jenna the younger of Ben’s daughters left the school two years ago.

Related Articles

• The Late Nicky O’Connor (Munster Express Online, 18 September 2009)
• Unbearable Grief (Marion O’Mara, Waterford News & Star, 15 September 2009)
• Death of former Port ‘Skipper’ Ben Gavin (Jamie O’Keeffe, Munster Express, 28 August 2009)

The AGM of the Parents Association will take place on Wednesday night next, 16th September 2009  at 7.30 pm in the Gaelscoil. The meeting was originally scheduled for the previous weeks but was postponed due to the death of Nicky O’Connor. All parents are encouraged to attend.

Parents using the road to the school are asked to cooperate by noting the following rules:

• Park only in parking spaces provided
• Use the set down area outside the school for that purpose. Do not park there.
• When dropping and collecting please do not delay unnecessarily
• Always walk on the footpaths

Gaelscoil Philib Barún will reopen on the 1st of September at 9.00 am.

Parents of pupils in junior infants may collect children at 12.00 for the first two weeks. All other classes will have a full day. Details of the school planned holidays and half days are available here.

A recent article published in the Irish Times by Pól ó Muirí describes the benefits of sending children to All-Irish schools and the benefits of immersion education. The reseach is the work of Dr. Réamaí Mathers, Gaelscoileanna Trust in Belfast. Mathers research shows that according to statistics supplied by the Dept. of Education, Northern Ireland pupils in Gaelscoileanna showed greater ability in English and Maths than their peers in English schools.

He said he studied the results for the past three years for pupils at keystage 2 (pupils aged between eight and eleven years of age) and Gaelscoileanna were ahead for maths and English during that period. The full text of the article is available in Irish here.