Notes Patrick Costello parents meeting (6th October 2022)

(Email sent Oct 6 2022)

Thanks to everyone for your interest! As many of you will have seen in recent media reports, Maynooth University found there's a deficit of 780 secondary school places in Dublin 8.

To discuss the need for a new school in the area, 12 of us (parents/guardians) had a Zoom meeting with Patrick Costello TD this evening. Thanks again to Patrick for sharing his time and expertise.

We can keep this email list for longer comms as we go – put the 37 of us on bcc for now just in case – but I’ve also set up a WhatsApp group for anyone interested in helping out with the practicalities!

Key points

• To get a new secondary school, we first need to convince the Department of Education we need one, then nail down a location and, eventually, decide on patronage. Optimistically, this could be a 3-5 year process start to finish. See more below.
• To help persuade the Department, we need to gather convincing evidence, such as the recent Maynooth study, plus data on where kids are going now to secondary school, commute distance etc, and expressions of interest and testimonials from parents/guardians.

Action items

1. Find out from primary school principals in D8

• Where last year’s sixth class students went to secondary school
• How many students are in each year of their school (to assess the cohorts who will need secondary school places in coming years)
• Need someone to do this per primary school in D8. We can set up a Google sheet to log this info. Let me know if you’re volunteering to do this… I gather someone from Gaelscoil Inse Chóir is already on the case!
• Please also ask the principal if they have any useful info from a school travel survey.

2. Gather testimonials, statements of interest etc from local parents/guardians of primary and secondary age children

• If anyone wants to volunteer to set up a Google form to capture this info, that would be great!

3. Check in with parents who set up Canal Way Educate Together to see what they learned and would recommend about the process.

I might know one of them - not sure. Does anyone else know a parent from that group?

4. Consult the relevant people at the Dept of Education (see more below) to get more insight into what they need

Patrick is taking this on and will report back at the next meeting (no date agreed yet)

5. Rustle up more support!

Please share this email and/or the WhatsApp group to anyone you think might be interested.

I’ve included more detailed notes on the school planning process, for anyone interested! Please share any ideas, suggestions etc... everything welcome.

Thanks a mill,

K