Bright new co-ed future for Claremorris kids as primary schools amalgamate

“I arrived here in October of 2020. I think one of my first interactions with the parents was, because I was new, ‘When are you amalgamating?’.”

From the minute Grace Burke took up her new job as principal of the all-girls Scoil Mhuire Gan Smál in Claremorris, her agenda had already been laid out.

Change was wanted, change was needed, and change has now been delivered as Scoil Mhuire Gan Smál gets ready to merge with Claremorris Boys NS.

Between 2002 and 2022, the population of Claremorris rose from over 2,100 to 3,678. The area currently has three primary schools (the two aforementioned and the Gaelscoil) and two secondary schools, Mount Saint Michael and Saint Colman’s College. All have served the young people of the Claremorris area well since their foundation.

But in an Ireland where the nuns and Christian Brothers have long left the schools they founded, it is rather peculiar that local children are still being dropped to four different schools wearing four different sets of uniforms on any given morning. This was the reality got some families in Claremorris.

It’s little wonder that the merger got the support of over 90 percent of parents surveyed when the consultation process began in earnest.

“There’s no circular or no handbook on how to do it, so we’ve been learning as we are going along,” Grace Burke, the first-ever principal of Claremorris NS, tells The Mayo News during a recent visit to Scoil Mhuire gan Smál.

“Mostly, it’s about the children. We listened to the children and their concerns and what they were worried about and what they were looking forward to, and we took that into consideration when we were mixing classes. They wanted to be with their friends, they didn’t want to miss out.

“We made it very clear to the pupils that this would only benefit their education but there would be no loss of any privileges or sporting activities.”

Expansion

Unlike Claremorris Boys NS, Scoil Mhuire gan Smál is not an ‘all-girls school’, strictly speaking.

For years, Scoil Mhuire gan Smál has taught boys in mixed classes up until they made their Holy Communion. They’d then make the short walk over to the boys’ school on the Cill Colman Road – a move one parent once equated to ‘middle school’.

From September, the boys’ school will look after the Fifth and Sixth Classes on the ‘Kilcolman campus’ while the rest be taught at the the girls’ school, now known as the ‘Convent campus’.

The new school has a lot going for it. It’s surrounded by a booming, busy town, but feels almost rural down at the end of a narrow avenue off the N60. It also has a dedicated autism class, which will be taught by Siobhán Walsh, who is current Deputy Principal of Scoil Mhuire gan Smál, and two SNAs.

Siobhán, who has a master’s degree in special education, says their long-term goal is to integrate all six children in this class into mainstream education.

“We also use reverse integration, that is children who will be unable to be integrated initially, they mightn’t be integrated for the full day. One child might be integrated for maths, one child might be integrated for English and then some of the children might just be integrated for play,” she explains.

First opened in the 1950s, Scoil Mhuire gan Smál now boasts state-of-the-art classrooms, a sensory room and a computer room to cater for over 200 students.

With enough green space to host a mini Electric Picnic, it’s a case of when, not if, the school will expand its facilities. An afterschool facility is currently being explored, while an astroturf pitch has also been mooted.

“My vision is that we will have the best national school or primary-education school for Claremorris here on this campus,” Peter McAllig, Chairman of Scoil Muire gan Smál, tells The Mayo News.

New crest

Orla Henry, Deputy Principal of Claremorris Boys School says her gasúrs were mainly worried that they’d keep their friends and the school football league.

Although some of them are ‘pretending that they are too cool for the girls’, Orla maintains that they are ‘actually really excited’ about this new chapter in their school’s history.

Since starting in the boys’ school, Ms Henry has got the lads singing in a choir. Likewise, sports like rugby and Gaelic football have seen a big uptake among the local girls.

It seems only right that the Claremorris NS crest – designed by the kids themselves – should feature a football, a book, a cross, a boy, a girl and a musical instrument.

“The girls were mad to play rugby, and the boys couldn’t believe that they wanted to play rugby. So it [co-ed] has just removed from that thing of ‘this is a boy thing, this is a girl thing’. That doesn’t exist anymore,” explains Orla.

Next month will mark a historic chapter in primary school education in Claremorris. But by the time everyone’s settled in, Claremorris NS won’t look or feel any different to the busy world outside.

Grace Burke illustrates this in simple terms.

“As I was saying to the children on the student council ‘Hands up here who lives in a house of all boys or all girls?’ ‘Hands up here, who has a parent who works with all men or all women?’ ‘Hands up here, who goes to Tesco and it’s all only men or women?’. I’m trying to explain to them, it’s natural, it’s what we’re used to. It’s no different to being at home, or going to a birthday party.”

Something new but nothing new all at once for the children of Claremorris.