ETEN The Electronic Newsletter from Educate Together
Vol. 7 No. 5 – June 15 2007 
(Including pictures from our recent AGM in the Kilkenny School Project on May 26th 2007)  

Director Chris Lennon- speaking at AGM	Paul Rowe, CEO; Mary Aust, Vice Chair; David Denny, Chair; Kirsten Hove, Hon. Secretary, during the AGM

Grant for Patron Bodies
Over the past few weeks, Educate Together has held detailed discussions with the Department of Education and Science over a grant to cover to the Patron's costs of setting up a new school. We are delighted to announce that the DES has now decided to make such a grant available in order to support the opening of the Adamstown Castle Educate Together National School. 

This grant, which was confirmed during the speech of the Secretary General of the Department, Brigid McManus at Educate Together's AGM, has been a core aim of Educate Together's policy campaign over the past year. Our readers may be unaware that up until this development, the State has provided no funding to enable school patrons to undertake the complex and detailed work involved in setting up schools. 

The lack of such funding has been one of the two key restraints that has prevented Educate Together proceeding to apply to open a number of new schools in 2007 despite extensive demand from parents for such developments in many parts of the country. The other restraint has been the lack of confirmed and credible building plans for permanent buildings for such schools. 

Educate Together looks forward to this grant becoming available to all patrons opening schools recognised by the Department of Education and Science.  Such grants are essential to enable patrons such as Educate Together to scale up their services so that they can meet the extensive demand from parents for Educate Together model schools. Whilst the current grant remains approximately one third of the real cost of the school opening process, it is an enormous step forward and we would like to thank all those who have supported our case and campaign in the last six months.

As you will see below Educate Together are hiring a New Schools Officer. This resource will enable us to commence work in August/September around the firm planning of new schools for 2008 and beyond. This process will be conducted in consultation with the DES Planning Section, as their commitment will be required around accommodation for such new schools.

We would like to thank the Minister and her officials for their commitment, courtesy and attention to detail during these negotiations.

Sophia Byrne, Swords ETNS, during policy motions.	A cross section of the audience during the AGM

Educate Together Holds Successful AGM
The 10th Annual General Meeting of Educate Together was held at Kilkenny School Project N.S. on May 26th. This was an important meeting of the 41 Educate Together school communities. The meeting unanimously approved Educate Together's three year Business Plan "The Future Starts Here Every Day" which charts an exciting programme of development for the organisation. 

Gerard Kelly, Swords ETNS, speaking	Paul Rowe, CEO, during AGM

The highlights of the policy discussions at the AGM were strong motions supporting the move to pilot the Educate Together ethos at second-level as well as major debates on school size and its impact on a schools ethos and educational performance.  The involvement of student's councils in the work of the organisation was also discussed. 

Director of Educate Togeter, Philip Schofield and Conchita Legorburo Serra engrossed in proceedings at the AGM	A cross section of the audience at the AGM

The meeting saw the election of 5 new Directors to the Educate Together Board and the election of Noreen Byrne as Chairperson and Sean Bond as Vice-chairperson. David Denny was warmly congratulated for his nine years of voluntary service on the Board, four years as Secretary and five as Chairperson.  Photos and details of motions passed and other details are available on the Educate Together website. Verbatim records of proceedings as quicktime movies or as a set of 2 DVDs are now available from the office.

Sean Bond, Director, speaking at AGM

Padraig Mannion, Standing Orders Committee speaking at AGM	Grace- not too enthused by the proceedings

Huge thanks to all in Kilkenny School Project N.S. for making it such a memorable and enjoyable day.

Maurice Hurley, Tyrrellstown ETNS speaking on policy motions.	Peter Bluett , Kilkenny School Project

Statement on Diswellstown Developments
Educate Together was surprised to learn that the DES had recognised a further school in Diswellstown (Dublin 15) under the patronage of Dermot Martin, the Catholic Archbishop Dublin on an emergency basis outside the agreed procedures for the recognition of new schools. We were particularly surprised to learn that the Archbishop stated on national TV, that he had reluctantly agreed to become the patron of this school on an interim basis of two year because no one else was prepared to do so. 

We would like to clearly state that no approach whatsoever was made to Educate Together in relation to this matter. 

The Diswellstown area is of specific concern for Educate Together. Not only is this the chosen area for the pilot project for the first primary school operated by the VEC, it is the area in which the first Educate Together school in Dublin 15 was founded and is home to many parents who would like to send their children to one of our schools.

The Castleknock Educate Together National School was started in the community hall closest to the area and only agreed to move to its current location in Beechpark Avenue in north eastern Castleknock as a result of the Department's inability to fund the aquisition of a new site in the Diswellstown/Lutrellstown area at that time. 

As part of the agreement reached in July 2000, the DES undertook to maintain a reservation of a site for a further Educate Together school in Diswellstown. This year, parents of 195 children applied for 54 junior infant places in Castleknock ETNS. A significant percentage of the 141 children who could not be offered a place live in the Diswellstown area.

If we had been approached, our response would have been that we were interested in opening a further school in the eastern part of Dublin 15 and would do so as long as there was a concrete and credible plan in place for the DES to provide a permanent building for the school and that the DES would fund the necessary professional services required to ensure that the school was opened in a responsible and efficient manner.


Shortage of School Places in South Lucan and the Development of Adamstown
Educate Together is proceeding to open the Adamstown Castle Educate Together National School. This school will open in brand new permanent accommodation as part of the Adamstown SDZ programme. This programme will see two 16-classroom national schools built in the early phase of the development to serve the needs of the families moving into the area. Initial offers of places in the school have been made and this week, Tom Moriarty, a teacher who has worked in North Kildare ETNS for the past 9 years and has over 20 years teaching experience has been appointed Principal. The selection process for the teachers for this school is now commencing.
 
However, the levels of applications for places in this school (now running at over 420 children up to 2011, 240 of whom are seeking places this September) have once again indicated a serious shortage of Educate Together school places in the South Lucan area. It is clear that unless urgent action is taken by the DES, there will be significant numbers of children without school places in September.
 
Educate Together is Hiring
Educate Together is seeking additional professional development staff to join a team that will make a decisive contribution to the reform of education in Ireland over the next few years. Educate Together is revolutionising Irish education by championing schools that are Rights-based, Inclusive, Child-centred and democratically managed. We are expanding our primary school network of 42 schools and now commencing a programme to enter second-level education. If you are committed to the objectives of our philosophy of education and are interested in working with us in one of the positions below, we would like to talk to you.
There are vacancies for:
Second Level Project Manager
New Schools Officer
Administrative Assistant.
For more information please go to http://www.educatetogether.ie/

Campaign 2007- New Schools for 21st century Ireland
Thank you for supporting our "New schools for 21st Century Ireland" Campaign. As a result of the campaign, the Department of Education and Science has agreed to give all Patrons a one-off Grant towards opening new schools. This goes a considerable way towards meeting our request that the State, through the Department of Education and Science, takes responsibility for the planning and delivery of new  educational infrastructure which provide equality of access to all families,  regardless of social, cultural or religious background. There are still many details under negotiation, but we are hopeful that the Department's commitment to funding Patrons in the initial start-up phase is a step in the right direction.

Educate Together Schools in the News
(taken from the pages of the national and local press in the past month)
Wicklow ETNS – recipient of the Award of Science Excellence from the Discovery Primary Science programme
Wicklow ETNS – gets the Green Flag from the Mayor of Wicklow in recognition of their environmental awareness campaign and projects
Lucan ETNS – student Ciara Hamilton wins radio sponsored short-story competition.
Swords ETNS – students are issued passports for Geography Week while they travel “abroad” to country-themed classrooms.
Glasnevin ETNS – gets the Green Flag from a local benefactor in recognition of their environmental awareness campaign and projects
Letterkenny ETNS – students participate in a fiction book-writing project in the Irish language and swapped stories with a neighbouring school.

More photos from AGM 2007 at Kilkenny School Project N.S.
If your name or anyone you know is left out please email louise.daly@educatetogether.ie and let us know.

Paul Row, CEO and Mary Aust, vice Chair	David Denny makes his farewell address
Elaine Harris holds baby Grace	Joanne Galvin, Waterford ETNS, and Colette Kavanagh, Bray School Project
John Keaveney, Navan ETNS makes his point during policy motions.	Philip Schofield with David Denny at the AGM
Frieda McGovern, Director with Mary Nicholson, principal of host school Kilkenny School Project.	Sophia Byrne & Gerard Kelly, Swords ETNS with Conchita Legorburo Serra
Padraig Mannion with Kieran Griffin, Bray School Project	Kirsten Hove, Maurice Hurley & Chris Lennon
Some of the many volunteers from the KSP	Enjoying the sun during lunch at the AGM
Ger Hogan, Kilkenny School Project, Angela Jennings, Bray School Project, Collette Kavanagh, Bray School Project	Educate Together Stand
Kim, Bray School Project and Mary Aust, Board of Directors.	Having a break at the AGM
Maeve Corish & Niamh McGuirk , Donabate Portrane ETNS	Joan Ward, Teaching council, Brigid McManus,
Paul Rowe, Noreen Byrne (new Chairperson of ET) and Brigid McManus, Secretary General of the DES enjoy a joke at the AGM.	Brigid McManus, during her speech at the AGM
Brigid McManus	Paul Rowe

Enjoying the sun at the Educate Together AGM	Paul Rowe, CEO; Noreen Byrne, Chairperson with Brigid McManus, Secretary General of the Department of Education