‘The message we’re giving our children is you’re not worth a room’ says Cork principal

Due to the cramped accommodation her school has been using for three years, the school’s support teacher will have to work in the hallway in September

Principal Trina Golden said the school may not have permanent accommodation for at least four years, adding to the uncertainty. Picture: Denis Minihane

“The message we’re giving our children and the value that we place on learning is you’re not worth a room,” says principal of Owenabue Educate Together National School (ETNS) Trina Golden.

Due to the cramped temporary accommodation her school has been using for three years, a former creche in Heron’s Wood in Carrigaline, the school’s support teacher will have to work in the hallway in September.

“The classrooms are quite cramped and small and as we grow, it’s going to get very tight very quickly. We have a new class coming in September which means our support teacher will then have to work out of the hallway,” she said.

The Department of Education has identified a site for the permanent building of the primary school, however, that is the only progress so far despite Ms Golden warning that the students and staff will not fit the premises after next year.

“When you don’t have the right amount of space and the right types of spaces, firstly it limits the curriculum. We don’t have space for significant PE,” she said, while also having no space for regulation or sensory needs.

Their learning and the learning of everyone else in the class is significantly impacted and you add to that the impact on staff, it’s hugely challenging.

Ms Golden said the school may not have permanent accommodation for at least four years, adding to the uncertainty.

“The very challenging part is, with a lot of schools in temporary accommodation, you don’t find out until maybe the March, April, or May before September that you have to move,” she said.

Owenabue ETNS enrols in October each year, with Ms Golden not having answers for new parents as to where they will be the following year. “It’s very, very challenging to grow a school in that circumstance,” she said.

She said the school is “one of the luckier ones” as the quality of temporary accommodation is good, however she said, “it won’t last”.

What happens next is the big question for us... It’s a big ask to ask parents to give you their five-year-old and you don’t know where you’re going to be putting them.

Voicing concerns to the department about the lack of space for future students, Ms Golden said: “They won’t even talk about that, it’s too far ahead, everything’s quite last minute. We certainly do need urgency around it and I’m not sure that’s there.

“There’s always an issue with forward planning and that’s not only with schools as we can see with the housing crisis,” she said before adding: “We know the demographics are there, this isn’t a surprise.” 

Ms Golden said young students “deserve better” noting that some go through their entire primary school education without stepping foot in their new building.

“You could be nearly on top of each other,” she said. “If we have two support teachers working out of hallways, we’re taking out kids who need support and you’re bringing them into a space that’s not ideal for learning and what is that telling them about how we value their learning?”