Sacred Heart School looking to the future

THESE are exciting times for Sacred Heart School (SHS) in Westport. Not only are they celebrating their centenary, from next summer, they will be welcoming boys into their student population.

On top of that, they are currently in the process of designing a new school campus. With a lot to talk about, acting Principal Kevin Malone and acting Deputy Principal Olivia Kelly sat down with The Mayo News to share the details.

The new school campus on the Castlebar Street site is currently in the design phase and the completion date is 2030. Following the design stage, planning permission will have to be sought and the works will go out to tender.

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As part of the new campus, Westport Educate Together primary school will move into a new home on the shared site.

The project is part of a fast track process with the department called ADAPT 4 Programme - Programme Innovate. Kevin Malone says the school is “really lucky” to have an appointed design team and project managers, who will “essentially run the project on behalf of the department. So you're dealing with very specialised, high quality professionals in this area.”

Temporary accommodation

THE decision to use the former Scoil Phádraig on Westport's Altamount Street as temporary accommodation for the Sacred Heart School proved controversial last year when hundreds of people attended a public demonstration outside the site calling for the Department of Education to allocate the building to Holy Trinity NS as originally intended.

Ultimately, Sacred Heart School’s Acting Principal Kevin Malone hopes the fast track process will mean that Holy Trinity can move into the new classrooms sooner.

“This will be part of the department's strategic plan for Westport. So the plans are in the design stage at the moment, but ultimately you will have three schools that will have fantastic new facilities ourselves, Educate Together, and Holy Trinity.”

Work begins on Altamount Street next month to complete 11 classrooms, a science lab and a facility to serve food.

Next September, 300 students will move into the new classrooms. The students will be based across both the Altamount site and Castlebar Street. Acting Deputy Principal, Olivia Kelly, points out that, as the crow flies, it’s not that far a walk between the two hubs.

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It is envisaged that the Sacred Heart students will be there for a number of years but will be back on the Castlebar Street site before the 2030 completion date. Thus freeing up the Altamount site for Holy Trinity to move into.

Co-education

A CONSULTATION process in 2023 with parents and prospective students ‘clearly’ showed SHS that mixed education was the ‘preferred option’ and in 2024, it acquired co-education status.

“We're constantly evolving as the time is moving on. We always listen to the changing of our school community and offer the best possible education we can,” Malone says.

From next September, boys will be able to enrol in SHS for the first time. All years will be open for enrolment. Both the acting Deputy Principal and the Principal confirmed that there is no minimum number of boys who can enrol. It is not envisaged that the overall school population of 532 students will increase.

Their move towards co-education comes after the school next door, Rice College, opened its doors to girls for the first time earlier this month. SHS has already seen a drop in its intake of first year students as 60 female students started in Rice College.

Malone plays down this decrease and states that “numbers do fluctuate” each year and SHS has received “a lot of very positive feedback already, and we're hoping that the community will see that we'll see what we have to offer in terms of our history, our tradition and our core values that are very much rooted.”

Diplomatic

WHEN asked if an amalgamation between Sacred Heart and Rice College was considered, Kevin Malone is diplomatic, “decisions around merger are something that the patrons and the Department of Education would make a call on.”

Fundamentally, it was a decision by the Board of Management, patrons of the school and the Department of Education and he was not involved.

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There are not currently any plans to stage the annual school play with Rice College, as had previously been the case.

“Both schools have their own school play in Transition Year and that was very successful last year. So that's what we'd be hoping to produce again towards the end of January.”

Weighing up the pros and cons of a merger, he says that a merged school would potentially enable a greater subject choice and better facilities but the cost of such a move would cause difficulties in conforming the school community and the loss of a close knit community.

Looking to the future of SHS, Malone radiates positivity: “We have a very clear plan on what's going to be delivered and when it's going to be delivered. That brings us to a different space than when we were in 2024 but we can see we have very positive support from the department, very positive support from the trustees, and a very clear plan and what's going to be delivered in Westport.”

As part of the 100th anniversary celebrations, the school will be hosting an anniversary Mass at 2.15pm in St Mary’s Church on Mercy Day, Wednesday, September 24. The Mass will be celebrated by the Archbishop Francis Duffy.

“It’s a very important day in our school calendar where we celebrate the establishment and the legacy of the Sisters of Mercy and the wonderful history they have that's rooted within the kindness and the compassion and the support that they have given to the school.”

The school is hosting an open day for prospective first years at 5pm in the school on October 8.