Mayo school principal 'devastated' at Minister's exclusion from building list

"I was absolutely devastated," says Áine Moran, principal of Sancta Maria College Louisburgh, remembering when she heard the news, that Minister for Education Hildegarde Naughton had decided to exclude her school in the ministry's building list.

In fact, not a single school from Mayo will receive any financial support from this round of funding.

Under the National Development Plan more than €7bn will be spent on educational infrastructure between now and 2030. In terms of Connacht, the county of Sligo also doesn't have any schools included, while Leitrim and Roscommon have one school each included on the list. 

Minister Naughton's home county Galway in the meantime has no fewer than ten schools on the building list.

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Sancta Maria principal Moran explains, that the school already reduces their numbers to ensure that the have the accommodation.

"And we have had a 50-year lease on a building across the road, so we are managing. But the biggest issue for us is that part of our extension is appropriate accommodation for our two special classes, one of which has been open now for 12 years, and it's in an upstairs small classroom, which is utterly inappropriate for students with Autism Spectrum Disorder ASD."

These kids need appropriate space and special equipment.

"They're supposed to have life skills learning spaces and big, bright classrooms, outdoor sensory spaces. I came from a school in Dublin that had the appropriate accommodation for special classes. We also have a moderate general disability class, and those children are using wheelchairs, and they're upstairs, which is a real health and safety risk for fire."

All of their staff has to be trained on lifting the children out of there, down the stairs on evacuation chairs, which according to Moran isn't really a solution.

The special classes in Sancta Maria College have been open for 12 years which means there are two cohorts of full year groups that have gone through the school, as it's a six-year cycle in the school.

"So there have been two lots of children that have started in first year and now have exited the school, finished school, done their six years in secondary school, and not had the appropriate accommodation. The department are very keen that every school in the country opens a special class, and rightly so, every school in the country should have the facility," principal Moran emphasises.

"But there's a difference between opening a special class and having a special classroom, and they have to start going together, because teachers cannot teach without the proper accommodation, it's just not possible, especially for such specialised teaching."

The school is in line to get more science labs and technology rooms, art roms and classrooms, in the extension, but Ms Moran says the main part of their issue around the delay in the extension is around the provision for special classes.

"Our extension has been sanctioned and to much applause by local politicians all over Facebook, and generally the annoying part for schools is that before we're ever informed that we have been sanctioned for an extension. But ours was sanctioned in 2022, it's 2026 now," Moran explains.

"At the end, it's the children that are losing out on appropriate education. One child might be overstimulated and need to maybe jump up and down to self-regulate or to shout to self-regulate.

"That might be extremely distressing for another child that's trying to learn in the same room, because in order for them to keep themselves self-regulated, they might need a very quiet space. 

"And it's our legal obligation under the Education Act to provide an appropriate education for every child in our class. You simply cannot do that in a room that won't fit equipment and learning tools and equipment. And then there's the level of needs of individual children that cannot be met because they're all in a tiny, inappropriate space.

"And the teachers are frustrated as well because they can't do what they'd like to do."

On top of all that, Sancta Maria College is having an inspection next week.

"The inspection is looking at, am I providing the appropriate resources for our teachers to do their jobs properly? And if I cannot provide them with the appropriate resources because we don't have the space for the appropriate resources. Well, that's a black mark on me, isn't it? But there's absolutely nothing I can do about it if the department will not build appropriate buildings. And look, it does look just bad now."

Moran says, she will continue to put pressure on everybody that I can. I'm fortunate in these situations that you have to be the one that's writing emails. And that's all besides her usual job, to advance teaching and learning in the school.

When it comes to Government funding for the future, the principal isn't optimistic:

"There's not enough money being made available. What they need to do is kill the hope."

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