Efforts continue to help schoolgoers avoid 2-mile move

Efforts are continuing to avoid moving 400 secondary students to temporary classrooms almost two miles from their Cork city centre school this week.

Parents of students at Scoil Mhuire, a fee-paying all-girls school, reacted angrily last week to the planned move of all classes to a northside industrial estate in Blackpool.

The school had told parents by letter that the move was forced on it when a premises being leased since March on the same street during refurbishment work had become unavailable for the upcoming term.

But hopes remain high that an acceptable resolution can be reached, possibly as early as this morning, meaning the move to a building on former Sunbeam textile factory grounds can be avoided.

Although the school reopens today, the immediacy is eased by the fact that girls are returning on a staggered basis, with different year groups beginning on different days during the week.

“We have been looking at other places in the locality and we are very hopeful that we can have something finalised this week,” said a school spokesperson.

The biggest concerns expressed by parents, many of whom attended a meeting on the issue last Thursday night, were around the changes that had to be made to travel arrangements.

There was also anger at the short notice given, just days ahead of classes resuming this week, and the possible impact on girls’ participation in extra-curricular activities such as music lessons in the city centre after school.

Scoil Mhuire operates from three old houses at Sidney Place on Wellington Road, one of which is undergoing a major refurbishment.

Classes for around 100 girls had been moved to the nearby premises to facilitate the project.

However, the unavailability of the leased premises meant those 100 students would have to move to an alternative location.

But when a nearby location could not be found, moving the entire school was planned because of the timetable difficulties around some classes being held two miles away from the majority of students.

A parents’ meeting has been arranged by the parents’ council for tomorrow night.