‘This is horrendous - it’s no way to treat a child’: Parents’ anger over lack of school places in Taoiseach’s home town

Several parents in the Taoiseach’s hometown of Greystones, Co Wicklow, say they still do not have secondary-school places for their children for September.

All three secondary schools in the town are heavily oversubscribed due to a surge in local population in recent years and delays building a promised new secondary school.

Additional classes were created in recent weeks when about 80 local children were without school places, while Simon Harris announced recently that a contract was due to be awarded for the construction of a new secondary school in the town to alleviate enrolment pressures.

However, between six and eight parents whose children are still without school places for this coming September say the uncertainty is causing huge stress for their families.

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Emma Grist, who lives a few hundreds metres from Temple Carrig secondary school, said her daughter Lucy (12) is “devastated”.

“Imagine you are 12 years old. How can you expect to get your head around all of this? It’s horrendous. It’s no way to treat a child. The other day the children in her class were practising for their primary graduation ceremony, which is supposed to be a fun period in their lives. But it is just very upsetting for her. As a parent I have never felt more helpless,” she said.

“It makes no sense to me that we’re driving past the gates of our local secondary school every day, where she doesn’t have a place. We can’t afford eight grand for a private school place, and it’s not right to be sending her out of her community – this is where all her friends are, it’s where her football team is.”

The Department of Education said in a statement that admissions processes are managed directly by school authorities and the nature of the process is “quite complex, typically with multiple iterations”.

“The post-primary schools in Greystones have been requested to share an update in respect of the position regarding first-year school places with the Department,” it added.

Minister for Education Norma Foley has previously pledged that all children who need a school place will get one for September.

The mother of another sixth-class boy in the area without a school place said her son has “withdrawn emotionally” and dropped out of sport.

“His friends and classmates have all got a place at our local secondary school where they play hockey. Since this, he has stopped playing hockey because it’s too upsetting,” said the boy’s mother, who asked not to be identified.

“He and the others without school places are called ‘the left overs’ by the other kids. He asks why he’s not good enough to get into the school. He doesn’t sleep, he isn’t interested in anything any more, and he used to love school, hockey, swimming and going cycling and meeting his friends.”

[ Emer Currie: Too many children face a chaotic lottery to get a secondary school place. Here’s how we can change it ]

She said the family was “extremely stressed” and some school days have been especially upsetting, such as a social event at the local GAA club where children were divided up into teams based on the secondary schools they will attend in September.

“He has retreated hugely, at a time where moving from primary to secondary is hard enough and a big change. It is a time where kids should be able to build up their self-esteem for this big change. Instead, he will be going into September at an all-time low,” she said.

Jennifer Whitmore, a Greystones-based Social Democrats TD, said the Minister for Education and her department have repeatedly made a commitment that each child would get a place in the Greystones area.

[ The Irish Times view on the shortage of school places: a failure of planning ]

“They need now to intervene directly and make good on that promise. It is completely unacceptable that children still don’t know where they are going to secondary in September. The stress this is placing on children is enormous and unfair. This needs to be resolved urgently.”

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