Call to ring-fence funding for disadvantaged schools

EXTRA support for disadvantaged schools is having a positive effect but needs to be ring-fenced from any future cutbacks, a school principal has claimed.

North Presentation Primary School, in the shadow of Cork’s North Cathedral, has nearly 240 pupils, most from the nearby Shandon, Blackpool and Gurranabraher. It caters mostly for girls — with boys taught up to first class — and almost two-thirds of pupils are from families who have arrived in Ireland in the past decade.

School principal Kathleen Haverty said the additional staff and funding it gets as one of the 200 most disadvantaged urban primary schools — under the Department of Education’s Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools (DEIS) scheme — has brought huge benefits.

“We’ve got a lot of resources under DEIS, our results in standardised tests in maths and English have got progressively better over the last few years. They are improving slowly, but improvements in pupils’ attendance have been the most obvious outcome,” she said. “The pupil-teacher ratio is important in this kind of school and we’re lucky to have extra staff to keep the numbers small, but it’s important that this would continue.”

While 250 of the 1,400 teachers, who help primary and second-level students whose first language is not English, are being cut from next month, North Presentation will not lose its supports due to the high numbers of international students.

“We’ve been fortunate to keep our language support teachers, and that should be continued as well, it’s hugely important,” said Ms Haverty. “We find that most international pupils are very motivated and that has a positive effect on the other children.”

The school’s teachers have also been trained to deliver Reading Recovery and Maths Recovery programmes. These help weaker pupils catch up in reading, writing or maths, with extra lessons designed for each child’s particular needs.

Ms Haverty said the home school community liaison scheme is another important support, but it is vital the role continues to be filled by teachers. She said they are better placed than other professionals to assess a child’s progress, as well as being able to deal with parents’ educational questions.