Numbers at school set to reach 330

How big little acorns grow! That adage certainly applies to Saint Francis School – now like all others on extended closedown and hoping at the end of the summer to get back to classrooms.

By then approximately 330 pupils will be enrolled in the school. That compares with just 20 when the school opened in 2007, and the teaching staff comprised two teachers, including principal Oreena Lawless.

The school was based in pre fabricated accommodation at the community centre on Sandy Lane, where it operated with enrolment growing until 2013 when it transferred to a brand new purpose built building, which is its headquarters now on the Rock Road.

The staff number now is 19, including learning support members, with three pre-fabricated rooms needed to accommodate the school population, with two more to be provided for the new school year..

With the COVID virus having disrupted life so much, including education, the school management on returning to the classrooms will try to ‘ keep thing as normal as possible’, told principal Oreena Lawless.

Observing the health and safety guidelines will be paramount, and in this regard parents can play a very important role in teaching their children how to wash their hands, soaping for 20 seconds and rinsing them, she said.

Patrun

Now that the date for the parish’s annual patrun has passed, with the customary date the first Sunday in July, all families with family members, relatives and friends laid to rest in Saint Fursey’s Church will be praying that they will have another opportunity to pay their respects to them.

Similarly those with loved ones interred in the old cemetery hope that circumstances will allow the blessing of the graves on Golf Links Road go ahead as planned on the second Sunday in August, which this year is August 9.

A new date for the ceremony in the main cemetery has been arranged for the first Sunday in September (September 6), starting at the usual time of 7pm.