New Cork school to kick off on Ballincollig GAA grounds
Nicola Barrett, the newly-appointed principal of the new Le Chéile secondary school in Ballincollig, Cork.
A new post-primary school being established in Cork this year will open in temporary accommodation on the grounds of a local GAA club, it has been announced.
Nicola Barrett, the newly-appointed principal of Le Chéile Secondary School in Ballincollig, said the new school will open its doors in September on the grounds of Ballincollig GAA Club, with the school expected to seek planning permission for up to three years for temporary modular structures.
“It is important to note that temporary does not mean inferior,” Ms Barrett said.
“This accommodation will boast science labs, a practical workroom, a kitchen for home economics, an art room, a music room and of course classrooms kitted out with the most modern technology.
“The building and its facilities will give our first-year students access to a full curriculum.”
It is understood the Department of Education is still pursuing a permanent site for the new school building.
A primary school that opened in the town in 2017 is still operating from temporary structures on the grounds of the local rugby club.
Education Minister Norma Foley announced last December that the Catholic Le Chéile Schools Trust would operate the new 1,000-pupil co-ed secondary school in the town.
The patronage of the new school was announced last December after the minister accepted the recommendations of the New Schools Establishment Group, which was set up in 2011 to advise the minister on the patronage of new schools.
Le Chéile is the trustee of three schools in Cork – St Angela’s College, St Aloysius’ College, Carrigtwohill, and the Ursuline College in Blackrock.
An interim board of management for the new school has been established and Ms Barrett said staff recruitment was ongoing, with about 40 students enrolled already.
Ms Barrett began her teaching career at St Joseph’s College, Presentation Convent, in Lucan, Co Dublin, and in 2003, she moved to Blackwater Community School in Lismore, a new school established as a result of an amalgamation of three schools in the area.
During her time there, she completed a masters in Management of Education and in 2015, she was appointed deputy principal of Presentation Secondary School in Mitchelstown, before she left a year later to become principal of Presentation Secondary School in Ballyphehane.
She is a cellist with Cork Concert Orchestra and Cork Fleischmann Symphony Orchestra.
“It is my aim and the aim of the Le Chéile Trust that our students will leave school fully developed academically, socially, emotionally and morally to ensure that they have the best chance of success in life,” she said.
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