Home at last!

The story of Castaheany Educate Together national school is one that has certain biblical touches about it. After four years of ‘wandering in the wilderness’, the school and its 320 pupils took to the highway and made an ‘exodus’ on foot from their previous temporary accommodation in the prefabs of Mary Mother of Hope School in Littlepace to their new home in Ongar.

It was an amazing sight to see - a long column of children, many with their faces painted, some carrying flags and banners, together with parents, teachers and two community gardaí on bicycles wending their way through Littlepace and on up to the ‘promised land’ in Ongar village.

The keys of new 16 classroom school were handed over recently – 10 weeks ahead of schedule. “Once we got the keys on Wednesday, it was a case of all hands on deck,” said principal Mary Healy. “Staff, parents, board of management and local residents all rowed in to help get the school ready for the children by the following Monday.”

As well as the 16 classrooms, the new school comprises a large PE hall, 10 resource rooms, a library/computer room, a home school liaison room and a staff room. “We also have a garden and outdoor decking, two basketball courts, lots of storage facilities and a comms room for all our computer, broadband and other networking equipment,” said Mary.

“We really do have everything we need,” she said – “it was worth waiting for. I suppose we have a certain amount of mixed feelings. We are obviously very happy to be moving here but we are also very grateful to Mary Mother of Hope for looking after us for three years.”

Minister for Finance and local TD, Brian Lenihan also welcomed the early completion of the new school which he said “will go a significant way to meeting the additional educational needs of our community.”

The school which cost over €7 million has the capacity to provide for 480 pupils. According to the Minister, “this school, which has been completed ahead of time and on budget was designed by the Department’s own in-house team of architects and represents best practice in low energy sustainable green design by using 50% less energy than traditional built schools.”

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