The school around the corner - Tyrrelstown ETNS

“If you’re happy, you’ll do well in school”

It may be one of the newest schools in Dublin 15 but Tyrrelstown Educate Together is already making a mark on its community that would be the envy of many more established schools.

With an average class size of only 20.5 pupils per teacher, the school is set to expand rapidly over the coming years as its catchment area grows and comes of age. However principal Maurice Hurley is very optimistic about the future.

The school currently has 270 pupils on its roll and a staggering 230 applications for next September. However Maurice puts this into context by explaining that, as is the case in most schools, many of these applicants will have applied for places in a number of schools. “We expect that about 130 will take up places between ourselves and Mulhuddart national school,” he predicts.

The Tyrrelstown area where the majority of pupils live has a high “new Irish” population. According to Maurice approximately 50% of the area would class themselves as “traditional Irish”. Yet surprisingly – and perhaps as an indication of the settled nature of the community – “all bar one of this year’s 64 junior infants class are Irish born. We have to adopt a new view of what Irish citizenship means in this changing world,” he says.

Music plays a major part in the life of Tyrrelstown Educate Together. “It’s a big thing in the school,” says Maurice. “We push both music and sport. We have a school choir after school. Everyone learns some element of music and also a musical instrument. We also have basketball, football and swimming.”

The emphasis on play is everywhere to be seen in the school yard. Each class has its own basketball ring for pupils to use. There is a dedicated dance area in the yard and an outdoor speaker plays music during break times.

According to Maurice, “a lot of kids nowadays don’t know how to play anymore, they are so used to playing on Playstations and Nintendos and the like. That’s why we place such emphasis on playing. Break time is a happy time. I firmly believe that anyone who is happy in school will do well in school and music and playing make you happier,” he says.

Maurice also feels strongly about the benefits of the intercultural environment on offer in Tyrrelstown. “Already we have some excellent independent test results to prove the case,” he says. “Our senior class, for example, has scored 15% higher in mathematics (on average) than the norm. While obviously, a small number of children who arrive in our school with little or no English language skills will temporarily score lower in some tests, our experience shows clearly that children who are bi-lingual or multi-lingual do better in the long term,” he said.

However interestingly “traditional Irish” pupils also thrive in this multi-cultural environment and benefit, both educationally and socially, from the interaction with their “new Irish “ peers.

Although it is only 2½ years in operation, Tyrrelstown ETNS is already in its fourth building. Having started life in a temporary prefab in Littlepace it then moved to a new prefab structure on its present temporary site on Powerstown Road. With the continuing growth in pupil numbers some classes were then relocated to the old Institute of Horology building beside Connolly Hospital. Last September, the entire school was relocated to a larger two storey prefab building previously occupied by Castleknock ETNS and which was dismantled and re-assembled on the Powerstown Road site.

A new school building is now promised for a new site north of the Tyrrelstown shopping centre. This site will be shared with Mulhuddart national school which will also be relocating to this site. “We would hope to be moving into our new building in September 2009 if the Department of Education and Fingal County Council get moving on it in the next month or so,” said Maurice.

Parental involvement in the school is also strong and the newly formed parent teacher association is swinging into action with a number of planned events in the coming months. Under the direction of acting chairperson Gabriella Rebreanu, the PTA is planning a spring fair next month, an international day in May and end of school-year textbook and tracksuit sales in June. The PTA is also active in assisting with school assemblies, coffee-mornings, evening classes and other special events.

The new school building has also opened up new possibilities and with an assembly hall a range of new opportunities are now available for the pupils. The school is also anxious to make these facilities available where possible for the local community. Already the new Tyrrelstown GAA club is training children on Saturday mornings in the school grounds and Maurice is anxious to develop this community use of the premises. “It does however raise a number of other issues around cost and caretaking and we would like the county council to provide us with some support to facilitate this community use,” he says.

Last week the school’s enrolment day proved very successful with Maurice, his team of teaching staff and members of the board of management under chairperson Olayinka Egbesakin meeting parents and showing them the facilities now on offer for their children. The response was excellent – and why shouldn’t it be? Maurice summed it up succinctly in his recent letter to local parents:

“Tyrrelstown ETNS is a young enthusiastic, community based school. Come and join us now”

In each issue of Community Voice we will be profiling one of Dublin 15’s schools.

Our next visit will be to Scoil Bhríde Boys’ National School in Blanchardstown Village.

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