Temple Carrig may accept St Andrew’s pupils
MINISTER for Health Simon Harris has made a submission to the Department of Eduction in support of the parents of St Andrew’s National School in Bray.
Minister Harris said that Temple Carrig needs additional capacity to cater for pupils of St Andrew’s, who currently do not have a feeder secondary school in place.
‘ The announcement of the new second level school to open in Greystones does not remove the need for additional capacity in Temple Carrig.
‘ They are amenable to enrolling St Andrews students but cannot do so until they have sufficient capacity,’ he said.
‘St Andrew’s parents can be assured of my full support. Greystones secondary schools are receiving significant investment with St David’s new buildings going to tender and the new second level to open in September.
‘ The expansion of Temple Carrig is an essential part of this,’ said Minister Harris.
The secondary school currently provides 750 places.
Speaking in the Seanad recently, Senator Gerard P Craughwell said that he had been asked by Cllr Rory O’Connor of Wicklow County Council to raise the matter with the Minister for Education on behalf of parents and staff of St Andrew’s National School.
Senator Craughwell said that the school is the only school in Ireland shared by three churches - Church of Ireland, Presbyterian and Methodist.
‘ The problem now facing the school is that there is no feeder status for St. Andrew’s national school to any school in the area with the same ethos,’ he said.
The senator said that according to Article 44 of the Constitution, parents of minority faiths have a right to send their children to schools of their ethos and values.
‘I have been told that currently some of the pupils in sixth class in St. Andrew’s national school still have no places allocated to them for next year,’ he said.
‘ The transition to secondary school is challenging enough for young people and their parents, without the added impediment of there being no school available with their religious ethos.’
He said that pupils from St Andrew’s have no category one access to any school in Bray.
‘One possible solution is Temple Carrig school, which is only five minutes up the road and is the only nearby school in Wicklow of a similar ethos.’
Responding to Senator Craughwell, Minister for Education Joe McHugh outlined some of the regulations.
He said that new schools established since 2011 to meet demographic demand are required to prioritise applications from within the area. ‘ There is therefore nothing precluding young primary school students from applying to Temple Carrig secondary school but, because of respect for the integrity of the school planning areas, pupils from within the school planning area are prioritised,’ said Minister McHugh.