Tag Archives: school

THE Sixmilebridge area badly needs a secondary school, the September meeting of Clare County Council heard. Councillor John Crowe said that throughout Clare there are significant problems with the availability of places in secondary schools. “As we all know there is a major shortage of school places in secondary schools throughout the county. Even with new schools and extensions in Killaloe, Tulla, Scariff and Ennistymon, we still have a major problem.” He said that in the parish of Sixmilebridge there are now over 600 pupils attending two national schools. On top of that he said there are 252 in Newmarket, 293 in Cratloe, 210 at the Wells, 35 in Ballycar and 112 at Stonehall. All the secondary schools closest to Sixmilebridge are already packed, with the demographics still becoming more unfavourable. “If you look at St Caimin’s and the Comprehensive and Tulla, they’re all full, with waiting lists. We all know what it’s like, any of us who are councillors …

APPROXIMATELY 200-250 people turned out in Sixmilebridge this morning for a protest against the decision to stop move local secondary school children away from dedicated school bus services onto public buses. It was a huge turnout given the 7.20 start time, chosen to reflect the early times that hundreds of children will get the buses from outside McGregors in the centre of Sixmilebridge. Protestors walked in a loop on both sides of the Sixmilebridge/Shannon road, which they traversed using two pedestrian crossings. At times they deliberately delayed traffic for relatively short times as part of the protest. This didn’t always go down well and one woman was struck at low speed by a car, while a bus also hit a male protester. The collisions were at very low speeds and there were no injuries. “As we were moving, it kind of drove at us, expecting us to move. When we didn’t move he just revved the car up and bumped …

THE “wonderful addition” 44 children from Ukraine have made to Ennis Educate Together school has been highlighted by principal David Quinn at the school’s recent celebration day. The event also presented an opportunity to showcase the quite literal growth of a new project which has resulted in a sunflower, the national flower of Ukraine, planted for every pupil in the school. As well as welcoming the school’s new enrolments, the day was a celebration for the entire school and offered an opportunity for families to visit for the first time since Covid-19. On the day Ennis Educate Together’s youngest pupil Oleksandr  and oldest pupil Melisa helped raise the school flag with its newly designed logo featuring new school colours, chosen with input from the children. Mr Quinn explained, “The children’s voice is very important in our school. Last year we surveyed the children in third to sixth classes to choose our schools colours and to add them to our school …

THIS month marks 60 years since the first national school was opened in Shannon. It was in February of 1962 that St Senan’s opened its doors, as the town was being established, with thousands having received their education there since. School principal Tori Hehir said that plans are being made to mark the milestone. “We’re doing a school mass on February 23, and we’ll have past pupils and past teachers there, all of that. With fun days we’re going to push them out to March and April and see will the remaining Covid measures lift.” She said the school now has 129 pupils, with the numbers not as large as they once were due to demographic changes in Shannon and the opening of a number of other schools. St Senan’s board of management is chaired by Geraldine Lambert, who has deep family ties to the school. “I’m actually the first great grandparent of a child in the school. My great …

AN Ennis school has become the first in the country to get on board with an innovative fitness and learning tool, writes Jessica Quinn. St Clare’s has just taken delivery of four ActivAll Boards for use throughout the school with all 83 learners. The learning boards are all based outside in the school grounds and work off electricity helping learners with daily physical and mental activities to get their heart rate going as well as developinng hand-eye coordination and motor skills. Principal John Murphy said the school community and young people have waited a long time for the boards to be installed but now they are here the staff and learners are using them constantly throughout the day. “Covid and Brexit delayed the arrival of the boards which come from the UK,” said Mr Murphy, noting St Clare’s is the first school in Ireland to engage with this new technology. “All staff received training last week and the boards went …

ENNIS National School students are showing that they aren’t ‘knit-wits’ when it comes to getting ahead for Christmas. The school’s ‘Crafty Crew’ knitting club of third to sixth class students are creating knitted squares for their now annual Christmas tree project. For the past three years instead of pine needles have been using knitting needles to made a community Christmas tree. As part of the project hundreds of knitted squares made by the students, their families and friends, are sewn together to create the unique festive decoration. They are now appealing to anybody who would like to get involved by making their very own patch for the tree to donate it to the project. Ciara Harding from Ennis National School explains, “The children at Ennis National School are currently working on knitting squares for their annual Christmas Tree Project. Over the past three years we have combined our work at school with squares from parents ,grandparents and friends of Ennis National School …

WHILE the sun was shining and temperatures were well over 20 degrees, the children of Ennis National School were in their classrooms on Wednesday, their summer holidays over once again. Under normal circumstances very few people, either teachers or pupils, would look forward to going back to school, but with so little time having been spent in the classroom since Covid jolted everyone out of their old routines, the late August/early September blues might be a little softer this year. Ennis National School principal Brian Troy said that while much work had to be done to get his school ready, it wasn’t nearly as severe as when reopening in 2020. “There was a lot of preparation, but it wasn’t as intense as last year with all the changes in relation to Covid-19. All of those changes are remaining in place, we’re advised by the Department to keep those going and we have all the normal stuff, there’s the maintenance of …

A SCHOOL in the county was targeted by fraudsters who managed to compromise the principal’s email, however no funds were stolen, gardaí have confirmed. According to Clare Gardaí the financial officer of the school was contacted by a scammer pretending to be the school principal authorising payment to a company. In light of this, Clare Crime Prevention Officer Sergeant Triona Brooks has issued advice to businesses, urging “robust policies and procedures” be put in place when it comes to dealing with banking details. She outlined, “The financial officer in a school in the county received an e-mail which looked like it was from the principal of the school authorising payment to a company who had not done any work in the school. “The principal’s email had been compromised but thankfully it was discovered before any payment was made.” Sergeant Brooks advises, “Ensure staff take great care and attention each time they are asked to change bank account details. “Check the …