For pupils at Crumlin multi-denominational school in Dublin, school is usually a good experience. On Monday of last week, though, was particularly special. It was the first day of the new term and the children's first day in a new school. More importantly it's the school's first permanent home - on part of the old Griffith Barracks' site at Dublin's South Circular Road.

At the school the relief is still palpable. "We feel settled now," explains 11-year-old Leanne Dolan, with considerable satisfaction. "We can call it our own and nobody can move us on."

However, the 24 children in the two-teacher school are used to being moved on. The school started life in a disused factory in Kilmainham in 1994. Two years later it found refuge in a premises at Inchicore which was earmarked for development. By July 1997 the school was homeless again and since then has been renting two classrooms at St Catherine's National School, School Street.

Darlene Brennan, who will be 11 in May, says she's delighted with the new school. Sharing in School Street was difficult. "We had to share the yard and when the other school came out to play we had to go back in, so we didn't get our full playtime," she says. "Here it's like being at a country school. It's not a bit like a city school."

Shane Canning, (8), who started out in Kilmainham, promises revolution if they have to move again. He's found all the moving "horrible", he says "We'd just get settled and the next thing was we would have to move. If they try to move us again I'm not going". Grainne Walker, (10) and Aidan Marshall (9) are also determined to stay, come what may. "Stressful," is how Grainne describes the times when the school was without a permanent home. It's unlikely, though, that the school will ever have to move again. The Office of Public works has given the school a long lease on the property, for which planning permission was obtained last December. Since then parents and children have worked hard to create warm, welcoming classrooms out of a gloomy former guard house and detention centre - where it's said that Daniel O'Connell was held.

Alice Harrold, who is five-and-three-quarters (she insists on the three-quarters), is particularly struck by the brightness of the school and the size of the yard. "I like the school because I helped to make it myself," she says. "I had to paint the walls on our class," says seven-year-old Caoimhe Marshall, who agrees that she too feels proud.

Principal Sinead O'Kane is impressed by the commitment shown by the families. "They've knocked down walls and scraped and painted others. They've laid new floors and put in doors, windows and toilets," she says. The school still has some way to go however, and renovations are ongoing. So far, parents have spent up to £15,000 on renovations and have had to take out loans and overdrafts to finance the operation. "It's taken us a long time to get here but I feel happy today," says parent Lorraine Canning. "These premises are adequate for the time being but we will build a proper school eventually." "It's a great location," comments Liz Butler. "There's a lot of young families in the area and we have the chance to be both religiously and socially mixed."

"We come from Ballyfermot and it's difficult for Darlene to get here, " says her mother, Gemma. "But she's come on in leaps and bounds since she's been here and it's a relief that the school finally has a permanent home."