Topping out ceremony for two new schools
A ‘ topping out’ ceremony was held recently for the new school buildings in Bray for St Philomena’s National School and Coláiste Ráithín.
Minister Simon Harris and other guests attended the ceremony. Everyone was impressed with the workmanship which went into these new educational establishments. The Sammon Group, and Carillion PLC worked on the projects and their representatives as well as Minister Harris spoke about the importance of this development for the surrounding community and of how vital this type of investment in education is for the country as a whole.
Partnership was a key theme for the day and each speaker spoke with great enthusiasm about how important this factor was in the successful delivery of outstanding educational establishments.
‘ This is a momentous day for these two schools,’ said Mr Harris. ‘Both Ravenswell NS and Coláiste Raithín have been campaigning for an extraordinarily long time for their new schools. I want to take this opportunity to commend and congratulate the principals, Emer Breen and Gearóid Ó Ciaráin, the teachers, Boards of Management, and the many many parents and indeed students who have campaigned for years to make this happen.
‘ This is a new chapter in this wonderful schools story and I look forward to visiting when you are all settled in.’
A short brick laying ceremony followed, which saw the minister lay a brick at the highest point of the primary school building and in so doing mark the successful progression of the build to date.
Guests were then taken on a fully guided tour of both the Primary and Post Primary buildings in their current state of finish. The tour gave guests a unique opportunity to view a working site, an appreciation of rapid-build construction techniques and to visualise how the buildings will appear upon completion.
The secondary school will provide for around 450 pupils, while there will be around 720 pupils at St Philomena;s.
As part of the Public Private Partner- ship, Sammon Group and Carillion PLC have been contracted to design, construct, finance and maintain the school, over a concession period of 25 years.
Work on site commenced Summer 2016 with completion scheduled for late 2017.
The site comprises 10 acres of greenfield (formerly a golf course), north of Bray town and is the first element of a large local area master plan.
The new building provides over 10,000m2 of state of the art educational facilities over a combination of single, two and three storey sections.
There are a variety of teaching areas including double height PE halls.
In addition, to general classrooms, in the Post Primary School, there are a number of specialised teaching areas including science labs, technology rooms, arts and crafts, music and drama areas, multimedia suites, a fitness suite, relaxation areas, and more.
The PE hall has been designed to provide community and out of hours access.
The primary school includes a special education needs suite, tiered seating in the PE Hall, and 24 classrooms.