Educate Together is aware that the Dun Laoghaire ETNS school management team and the Department of Education and Skills have been working to find suitable accommodation for the school to open safely next week.
Educate Together has been informed that temporary accommodation has now been secured and the school will open on September 1st, albeit not in the originally anticipated location.
Credit is due to the school and to the Department who have worked hard over the summer to ensure the school opens on the appointed date. In mid-September, the school will move to the Dun Laoghaire town-centre location that is currently being refurbished.
Dun Laoghaire ETNS was opened in 2017 in response to population growth in the Dun Laoghaire area. Ultimately what pupils attending the school now need is a purpose-built and permanent building. For that to become a reality, for both this school and for other new and developing schools, considerable improvements are required in Ireland’s planning systems. Educate Together is calling for a cross-departmental review of the wider planning processes around school buildings and school sites, and a return to the situation where schools open in their permanent buildings.
