Educate Together is delighted at the Department of Education and Skills announcement that a new equality-based Educate Together national school is to be established in Limekiln Road, Dublin 12. Riverview Educate Together National School will open to Junior Infants this September.
The demand in the Dublin area is such that a parent-led campaign to accelerate the opening of an equality-based Educate Together school collected almost 1,000 expressions of interest and garnered national and international media attention.
This school will be established under the process recommended by the Forum for Patronage and Pluralism in 2011 whereby schools would be divested to facilitate diversity of patronage in areas where parental demand was identified. It was envisioned that this process would provide families with the Educate Together equality-based option in education.
The news of the school’s opening comes as a relief to many parents. Said Nikki Murphy of the Campaign Group:
‘I'm just so happy that this has come together for the 2016 school year. Our campaign for equality-based education in the area has been short, but intense.
Our committee has worked incredibly hard and achieved a lot in less that 1 year, and there are many to thank who supported us. The huge amount of support and interest in the proposed school has been overwhelming.
I'm conscious that unfortunately for some families this school has come too late, and all over Dublin there are huge waiting lists for Educate Together places. We look forward now to working with Educate Together and creating a much needed new school for the whole community.’
Said Gerry McKevitt, Regional Development Officer of Educate Together:
“I am delighted for the parents who have campaigned for this school. I am looking forward to working with all stakeholders to ensure that this school opens in a timely and efficient manner.”
Parents can enrol their children here.
Whilst the opening of this school is most welcome, the overall level of progress on divestment to date barely scratches the surface of what is needed. Educate Together calls on the relevant apparatuses to speed up the process in the remaining 18 areas that still wait for their Educate Together national schools.
Educate Together is also gathering Expressions of Interest from parents in South Dublin City and Dun Laoghaire as it gears up to its application for new national schools in these areas.
