‘It’s kind of cool to be starting at a brand new school’

There were nerves for everybody as 45 students and more than a dozen teachers had their first day in a new Cork second-level school yesterday morning.

But there was excitement in even greater measure as the youngsters from around East Cork became a piece of Carrigtwohill Community College’s history.

Local student Seán Creedon was glad to have many of his old classmates from Scoil Mhuire Naofa in Carrigtwohill with him on their first day in second-level education.

“It’s kind of cool really that we’ll always be the oldest, and we’ll always be looked on as the first people who went to this school,” he said.

For Seán and for Sophie O’Connor, it was also the first taste of mixed education as her primary school, Scoil Clochair Mhuire, is an all-girls’ school.

“I think it’s nice, it’s different but it’s nice to meet other people. I was a bit nervous today but I was also very excited,” said Sophie.

Not only is she one of the school’s first students, but she is also the first in her family to make the journey to second-level. With that transition comes the chance to study new subjects, and Sophie is looking forward to home economics and PE. For Seán, metalwork, science, and Spanish are among those he is very interested in learning.

The school has very modern facilities, even in its temporary home at a business park on the edge of the town. It is planned to move within three years to a newly built school, with Cork Education and Training Board (CETB) working with the Department of Education to secure a site.

At the opening of Carrigtwohill Community College were (front row) Emma Grimes, Sophie O’Connor, Reema Forde, Clodagh O’Regan; (back row) Abbie O’Connor, Katelyn O’Neill, Alice Bogue, and Sophie Healy with Caroline Collins, year head. Picture: Jim Coughlan

CETB and Catholic Bishop of Cloyne William Crean are joint patrons of the school, which also has a staff of 12 teachers, along with deputy principal Tadhg Long and principal Lorna Dundon.

She said it was yesterday’s opening was the culmination of a lot of hard work, helped by co-operation with other schools with whom some teachers are being shared in the early stages.

“We wanted to ensure every subject was catered for and we’re fully ready for all the junior cycle reforms,” she said.

With parents strongly involved from the beginning, including the design of the purple uniform, it was also a big day for some of those who campaigned for the new school, which will eventually accommodate up to 1,000 students.

“It’s a great moment to see the kids in their uniforms, it was a dream for so long and it’s a great sense of satisfaction to see that realised,” said Arona Moorcraft, one of the group who lobbied for the school to be established in Carrigtwohill.

The opening of school should help to ease pressure on other east Cork second-level schools, and it has enrolled students from Cobh, Glounthaune, Little Island, Midleton, Watergrasshill.

Students Abbie O’Connor and Oisin O’Neill, checking the equipment in the home economics class. Picture: Jim Coughlan

Meanwhile, students are preparing to begin at two more new Cork second-level schools on Monday.

The first classes for Cork Educate Together Secondary School include students from its main catchment areas of Douglas and Rochestown on the city’s southside, but it also has students from as far away as Innishannon, Blarney, Glanmire, and Aghada in east Cork. It is being opened on an interim basis at Cork ETB’s Nagle Community College in Mahon, but should move to temporary accommodation in Douglas next autumn ahead of the planned construction of a purpose-built school near Douglas by 2018.

Edmund Rice College, a Catholic secondary school, is opening in Carrigaline in temporary accommodation but work on its building is underway in the South Cork town since earlier this summer.