SCHOOL SHUTS DUE TO DEBRIS FEARS
HUNDREDS of pupils were evacuated from one of the biggest schools in the district during Storm Diana after material left behind during construction blew in front of the premises.
Edmund Rice Senior School in Castlemoyle, near Irishtown, was evacuated after a 6ft length of metal flashing was discovered at the front of the school shortly after pupils arrived on Wednesday morning.
The school was shut on Thursday and Friday to allow the design team and architect to inspect the school. Principal Gerry Moran, pictured
right, said the inspection was carried out on Friday.
A thorough roof inspection was carried out. The neighbouring primary school, Catherine McAuley Junior, was closed on Thursday and Friday during the senior school examinations.
Principal Gerry Moran said: ‘ They deemed there wasn’t anything on the roof that should keep the school closed. It was established that it was probably left over building material. It was a one off event.’
Mr Moran said fears that a piece of the roof had fallen off into the front of the school – where hundreds of pupils and scores of staff and parents pass by every day – were allayed by the investigating team’s findings.
‘ They deemed it safe after a visual inspection of the roof. We don’t know where the material came from. It was picked up at about 9 a.m. We need to try to find out where the piece came from. We couldn’t find out as there was no missing piece so the deduction was that it was a piece of building material that was left behind,’ he said, adding that he doesn’t believe further investigations into the building are required at this time.
Parents were alerted by text message that there was an issue with the roof at the school.
‘We sent a message telling parents that all of our pupils were safe and there was nobody injured and that as a precaution we left the school via a sport’s field to St Mary’s Secondary School.’
220 pupils were safely escorted through a gate connecting the two school complexes, across a field and into St Mary’s Sports Hall. The remaining 80 left on their school buses, as usual.
‘ There was no urgency to leave the building because everyone is safe inside.’
Mr Moran said the school, which opened to pupils in February 2017, is safe and was well built, adding that 1 per cent of the snag list is yet to be completed as the construction company, Sammon Contracting Group, went into liquidation following the collapse of Carillion in January.
‘ The company went into receivership and was liquidated so we are waiting for the liquidator to come back with what needs to be replaced.’
Describing the incident as a ‘one off thing’, Mr Moran said the school is eager to get feedback on how they handled the situation.
‘We want to know if people are happy with what we did. So far the feedback has been positive from parents. We have created an email, buildingissue@bunscoilris.ie, and if anyone wants to comment they can reach us there. We got six or seven comments from parents who said they were happy that we kept them in the loop and some of the children told their parents how smoothly the evacuation went.’
Two senior officials from New Ross Municipal District council, engineers Sinead Casey and Eilis Furlong, addressed pupils about why evacuations occur.
Mr Moran thanked St Mary’s principal John Michael Porter and the school staff for facilitating his pupils until they could be collected by their parents.