Principal’s Letter 10/9/19
Dear Parent/Guardian,
At the start of the year I welcome you all back to St Paul’s. I hope your son/daughter has settled in well and is looking forward to the year ahead. I wish to extend a special welcome to the five classes of new first years and the new students who have transferred into other years over the summer. While the increased student population brings new challenges it is very heartening to be in a position of growth and it is testament to the hard working and dedicated staff of the school who continue to propel St Paul’s forward despite the antiquated conditions. Congratulations to all our Leaving Certificate students who received their results in August. I wish them every success for their bright futures.
As Ms Ber Sullivan and Mr George Dikker have retired, I want to thank them for their marvellous service to St Paul’s and wish them a long, healthy and happy retirement. I also wish to acknowledge the service of Mr Brian Kaye who has finished after 10 years as caretaker in St Paul’s. I welcome new teachers Ms Aideen Holohan, Ms Eimear Byrne, Ms Shauna Byrne, Ms Jennifer Murphy, Mr Brendan Murphy, Ms Niamh Conlan and Ms Mary Doyle to the teaching staff, confident that they will bring new skills and energy to the teaching of their subjects and the learning of their students. I extend a warm welcome also to Ms Vizletta Moraes, who joins our Special Needs Assistant team.
Ms Kim Barrett has been appointed to the role of the Behaviour for Learning teacher and I wish her every success in this challenging and rewarding role. As a result of increased enrolments Ms Sandra Doyle has been appointed as First Year year head and the Co-ordination of the House Exams. Ms Nicola Whelan has been appointed as the Attendance Co-ordinator, LCA Co-ordinator and School Completion Liaison teacher.
The new school project is near the end of the pre-qualification stage, with a shortlist of 8 contractors finalised. The next stage is to go to tender, which according to the DES should take between 7 and 8 months. The acquisition of the site is nearing conclusion and we wait expectantly for its conclusion. Construction of the new school should commence immediately after the tender stage and will take 18 months to complete.
The Board of Management met with the Department of Education and Skills representatives a couple of times last year regarding the new school and additionally the current facility and the many difficulties that we experience on a daily basis. They visited the school, approved and granted the school further additional temporary accommodation, including essential work on the foul water, to cater for ever increasing enrolments and while it was hoped that these prefabricated buildings would be ready for the beginning of the new school year, however the new proposed handover date is September 16th. This has made the beginning of the year very challenging for the staff and students and I wish to thank them sincerely for their co-operation and understanding. I want to especially thank the local scouts troop for the use of their premises as an interim arrangement.
In May 2019 we had a follow up inspection on the Whole School Evaluation from 2014. The findings were re-affirming of progress with recommendations for further development. Both the original WSE and the follow up reports are available on www.education.ie
Yours sincerely
Brian Bergin