Mother pleads for SNA assistant as five year old Kate is unable to start school

A Cork mother has admitted she is agonising over how to break the news to her daughter that she won’t be able to start primary school later this week.

Excited Kate Crowley, 5, from Dunkettle, can’t wait to start “big school” with her friends on Friday.

However, the bright child’s dreams of attending St Columbus Girls’ School in Douglas now rest on the outcome of an appeal lodged by the school’s principal against a decision not to grant her a full- time special needs assistant (SNA).