Allow me to introduce myself; my name is Dave Murphy and my son is in Senior Infants. As you may be aware Citywest Educate Together National School only came about through the hard work and dedication of a campaign group led by many of you, the parents.
Now we need a second level Educate Together School in Citywest to send our children to once they have finished their primary education. As it stands, we only have 4 years before this year’s Second Class complete primary school and need a second level school to attend.
The process of getting a school, as you may imagine, is not quick so we need to act fast and get together to make sure we can get a second level Educate Together school for our children. If we act now we will all benefit in the future.
This issue has been discussed at the last 2 Parents’ Association meetings and a keen interest in helping with the campaign has been shown. We need to establish a committee to develop and steer the campaign. I have begun the process and now I invite you all to join the campaign for a second level Educate Together School for our children.
Here are the key points of information and the process so far:
Positive Findings:
South Dublin County Council has a local development plan for the Fortunestown area from 2012 that includes the provision for up to two second level schools. This is fantastic news!
The Fortunestown Area Plan 2012 covers two electoral constituencies, Dublin Mid-West (Brittas, Saggart, Rathcoole, Newcastle, Clondalkin) & Dublin South West (Tallaght South, Jobstown, Fortunestown, Citywest). The benefit here is that it gives us 8 TD's instead of 4 that we can approach to support our campaign. The most important point here is we have to get their pledge to support our campaign for an Educate Together Second Level School in Citywest.
Support from Educate Together:
Educate Together as an organisation, can help out by supporting and guiding the process, however, they cannot assist with the development a school without parental involvement.
Educate Together are developing campaign packs that will be ready in the coming months and will share these with us when they are ready.
I have spoken to the liaison officer for our catchment area, Gerry McKevitt. . He said that Educate Together will be in a position to support our campaign from September.
Key Dates:
It is only 10 months to the next General Election. The Dáil has to be dissolved by 6th April 2016. Therefore, we have 10 months to rally the support of as many politicians as we can.
Between September 2015 & January 2016, according to Gerry McKevitt from Educate Together, the Department of Education Patronage Committee, will decide the patronage of new second level schools required between 2016-2019 & possibly also 2019-2022. So, we have to campaign as much as possible before September.
The key date for us is to have the second level Educate Together school built and fully ready for students as of September 2019 (this is the date when Aoife's current class will complete 6th class, the final class in primary school).
Meeting with Joanna Tuffy on 20th April 2015
I had a positive first meeting with Joanna Tuffy, Chair of the Oireachtas Committee on Education. She will meet us again and keep in touch.
Your child needs you to get involved now!
An Educate Together Second Level School is very much needed in Citywest. So, please come along to the next Parent’s Association meeting on June 16th at 7:30pm in the school and join our second level campaign!
In the meantime, please register your interest in getting a secondary school in our area - http://www.educatetogether.ie/future-schools & [email protected]
Best Regards,
Dave Murphy