Dear parents and guardians,
We are writing to update you on the situation regarding the roof of our school building.
As you may know, a large project of work took place on the roof in October this year. Following an assessment, it had been decided that the ridge tiles were the cause of the problems we had been experiencing and so the Department of Education paid a significant grant for work to be completed to secure all ridge tiles and the tiles immediately below them. We have been assured that all ridge tiles are now secure and will not cause further problems.
Unfortunately, this has not resolved the issue, as more tiles have fallen since this work was completed. This has been the cause for serious concern in both schools, as well as for our landlord DDLETB (Dublin and Dún Laoghaire Education and Training Board). We wish to reassure you that we have taken the following actions in this regard:
- Application has been made to the Department of Education and Skills for a further Emergency Works grant, in order to affix netting over all roof tiles, which would catch any tiles and prevent them from falling to the ground. We expect that this money will be released within a week and that work will start before our winter holidays. Though work will likely continue into the new year, we will be requesting that the roofing contractors do as they did last time and prioritise making safe one entrance for each school at the start of their works.
- Until this work has been completed, we are keeping the children inside during the school day. We are also opening our school doors earlier than usual (8.25am for Citywest ETNS and 8.40am for Scoil Niamh CNS) so that families can wait inside the building rather than outside it.
If you have any suggestions for us or any concerns or queries about this, please don’t hesitate to talk with us about them.
Kind regards,
Caitríona Hand, Séamus Conboy,
Principal, Citywest ETNS. Principal, Scoil Niamh CNS.