Nine children start full-time classes as staffing row resolved

NINE children who had been restricted to part-time classes at a special school because of a dispute over staffing levels have started full-time classes after the row was resolved.

Delighted parents told the Irish Examiner that an extra teacher is being funded for a month to allow St Gabriel’s Special School in the Cork suburb of Bishopstown to assess their individual needs and decide which classes they should join. After losing two of its 10 teachers since last summer, the school said it was unable to offer full-time placement to the nine new pupils who have severe autism or profound disabilities.

Instead, they were offered part-time provision of two or three days on alternating weeks, but the Department of Education and National Council for Special Education told the school this was unacceptable as it still had more staff than is normally sanctioned for a school of its size dealing with the category of special needs pupils it caters for.

The board of the 38-pupil-school said yesterday it did not want to comment on the resolution of the matter.

But parents said they were notified of the decision to restore full-time placements last Friday and they have all been back to school since Monday. Sheila Dunne said it is a fairytale ending for her severely autistic seven-year-old son, TJ.

“Hopefully, he will have a lot of years there and we want to focus on his future now. Normally, he can be highly strung when he is bored, but his frustration levels were way down even after just one full day at school.”

Christy Ryan from Cobh, whose daughter, Lucy, is at the severe end of the autistic spectrum, has an intellectual disability and suffers from epilepsy, said it is a huge weight off the family’s shoulders having a full-time place for her.