Which are the fastest growing schools – and which are down?
April 12, 2011
Which schools have seen a surge in pupil numbers over the past decade and which are most popular with parents, writes SEAN FLYNN
SCHOOL ENROLMENT figures provide a fascinating glimpse in parental choice. They help track which schools are seen as ‘successful’ and which ones are struggling to fill numbers. The lists published on this page track a decade of change in Irish education. They compare school enrolment figures for this school year with the position a decade ago.
The main features of the list include: – “Free’’ State-run schools which experienced a drop in enrolment during the Celtic Tiger have managed to reverse this trend in recent years. – Many VEC schools – especially those outside of Dublin are booming. Irish language schools have seen a surge in pupil numbers. – The popularity of fee-paying schools remains very resilient despite fees averaging €5,000 per year; – Schools which perform well in The Irish Times Feeder School Lists have shown a surge in pupil numbers.
Another feature of the data is the surge in pupil numbers in the post-Leaving Certificate colleges; these cater for students in the year or two after they leave secondary school. In Dublin alone, colleges of further education in Dún Laoghaire, Killester, Sallynoggin and Dundrum have seen enrolment increase by at least 50 per cent over the past decade. The fastest growing school on the list is Coláiste Chiaráin, Croom, about 20 minutes from Limerick city. On its hugely impressive website, it describes itself as the “school of the future.” In 2004, the headmaster, Noel Malone was awarded the Dell Technology Award for Excellence in Education, the first recipient outside the US. Remarkably, virtually a huge majority of of the top 30 fastest growing schools in the State are all in the VEC sector. All of these schools challenge those lazy cliches about the VEC.
The fastest growing school in Dublin is St Colmcille’s Community School in Knocklyon, an area of rapid population growth. Like many community schools in Dublin, the school has built a very strong local reputation since it was opened in 2000. The second-fastest growing school in Dublin is St Kevins CBS in Finglas is an interesting case study. The school suffered a severe decline in enrolment for decades but it has managed to dramatically turn this around in recent years.
Other Dublin schools which have reversed a decline in enrolment include Oatlands College, Stillorgan. Pupil numbers are up from 340 to over 500 and there is a long waiting list. This comes after a period during the boom when the school was squeezed by the huge number of “big brand” fee-paying schools in the area. Overall, the picture for Christian Brothers schools in Dublin is a mixed one. While places like St Kevin’s are booming, schools like O’Connells, St Joseph’s in Fairview and St Paul’s in Raheny are continuing to see declining pupil numbers. Many of these schools have been hugely successful in integrating newcomer children. Another school worthy of mention is St Brendan’s College, Dunboyne, Co Meath which has registered growth of 58 per cent in enrolment. St Brendan’s was featured on the successful RTÉ documentary The School last year.
Among fee-paying schools, the most striking feature is the 28 per cent growth registered by one of the more expensive schools in the State – St Gerard’s in Bray, Co Wicklow. Most of the big name schools have seen growth over the past decade including Gonzaga (up 11 per cent), Belvedere and CUS (both up 10 per cent ) and Blackrock College (up 4 per cent).
The published lists are based on Department of Education figures for the 2001-02 school year and the current school year. The percentage increase/decrease quoted represents the growth/decline in pupil numbers.
All schools with less than 200 pupils in either 2001 or 2010/11 have been excluded from the lists on this page – except for fee-paying schools. Broadly new schools in new areas have also been excluded.
Data on enrolment patterns in PLCs is available on irishtimes.com
The Irish Times
Child not read to at bedtime is ‘abused’, says Quinn
March 28, 2011
A CHILD not read to when going to bed at night was an abused child, Minister for Education Ruairí Quinn told the Dáil.
“If a home does not cherish literacy, it is a form of abuse,” he said. Mr Quinn said literacy started in the home. “By the time a four-year-old arrives in junior infants, outcomes in literacy have already been significantly determined by the commitment of parents, no matter what class or socio-economic group,2 he added. The Minister said he had raised concerns in the past about the State’s “wonderful” education system not delivering. He added that party colleague Aodhán Ó Ríordáin, a primary school principal in Dublin’s inner city, was the first to highlight the need for a right-to-read programme.
“I will be looking at that not to scapegoat teachers or schools, because we are all failing, as parents, society and families, and we must find a way collectively to deal with the issue,”said Mr Quinn. Mr Quinn said a middle-class child from a committed family arrived in school at four years of age with a vocabulary that was twice that of a child from a disadvantaged family. A working-class boy who left school at 15 years of age, unable to read or write, was destined for a future of intermittent employment and, possibly, crime. He said the electronic media had reduced the necessity for reading as a form of entertainment. He intended, he said, to devolve back to school principals more autonomy and independence to do what they considered to be best. “It is wrong that we have 3,200 primary schools, stretching from the Aran Islands to the inner city of Dublin, or disadvantaged rural areas in Border counties, with a one-size-fits-all curriculum and little discretion for the principal.”
The Minister said a key commitment of the programme for government was the development and implementation of a national literacy strategy, which included the production of action plans by schools, with school-level targets linked to national targets. There had been more than 460 written submissions to a public consultation process on a draft national strategy on literacy and numeracy covering the period up to 2020, he said. In parallel, focused consultation meetings were being held with groups of key stakeholders with a deadline of early May. “Implementation will require a sustained commitment from schools and other stakeholders and I want to ensure their input is considered in finalising the strategy.” Mr Quinn said he intended that the literacy and numeracy skills of students would be improved very significantly so that the decline of recent years could be reversed and Irish students would again be among the best-performing groups internationally.
Brendan Smith (FF) said the Minister might have pre-empted him when he said a revision of the curriculum was necessary to ensure literacy and numeracy skills were adequate for children in primary schools. Seán Crowe (SF) said a family with a literacy problem would not have any books or magazines in the house, so if a parent went back to education and was supported, the children’s literacy standard would increase. Mr Quinn told Peadar Tóibín (SF) that the status of Irish as a compulsory examination subject would remain.
The Irish Times – Michael O’Regan
Increase in pupil-teacher ratio
March 21, 2011
A chara, – There is a lot of focus during Seachtain na Gaeilge on the state of the language in the country. Gaelscoileanna are the most hopeful thing we have with regard to the promotion, learning and preservation of Gaeilge. Yet the Department of Education has announced a significant increase in the pupil-teacher ratio in Gaelscoileanna from next September.
I am chairperson of Gaelscoil Phádraig in Ballybrack, Co Dublin. According to the new schedule for appointment and retention of teachers, from September 2011 we will lose one post. Also on the basis of the old figures we would be entitled to employ an extra teacher meaning that our principal would not have to continue teaching a class and fulfilling an ever- increasing administrative role.
Gaelscoil Phádraig is in a disadvantaged area, but we do not have disadvantaged status which all other schools in the area have. We are housed on a small temporary site in prefab classrooms. How can anyone justify an increase in the pupil-teacher ratio of 20 pupils? Yes, an increase of 20. For example, according to the new schedule the number of pupils required to employ or maintain a 6th teacher rises from 153 to 173. How can the Department of Education defend that?
I have a great grá for Gaelscoil Phádraig and I am extremely proud of it. I see the great work being done by the teachers. I see the wonderful progress being made by the children. I see how happy they are and I hear them chatting to each other in Irish outside the classrooms. An increase of 20 in the pupil teacher ratio is not acceptable for these children. – Is mise,
HILDA de ROISTE,
(Cathaoirleach),
Gaelscoil Phádraig,
Ascaill Shíleann,
Baile Breac,
Co Átha Cliath.
Call for separate Irish language and literature courses
March 16, 2011
AN COIMISINÉIR Teanga Seán Ó Cuirreáin has proposed that Irish-language tuition be split into two separate school courses as part of the promised Government review.
Mr Ó Cuirreáin said one course could focus on the language basics for non-native speakers. A second course would focus on literature and language history as an option for native speakers and those pupils with a good command of Irish. He was speaking in Galway yesterday at the publication of his annual report which found only 1.5 per cent of the administrative staff of the Department of Education and Skills could provide a service in Irish. The same department was among a number of public bodies which were subject to almost a dozen investigations by his staff under the provisions of the Official Languages Act.
Mr Ó Cuirreáin welcomed the Government’s commitment to review Irish-language tuition. The programme for government has dropped the Fine Gael proposal to abandon compulsory Irish for the Leaving Certificate, and Mr Ó Cuirreáin said a review was a far better option. However, he agreed there was a need for reform of the current system, whereby children are given 1,500 hours of Irish-language tuition over 13 years in primary and secondary school and still leave without a “basic ability”. “We are not getting value for money. The basic ability is not there when children are leaving [education]. There is a school of thought that we should possibly have two different courses. One would be a communications course where the emphasis would be on writing, reading and speaking Irish, and only on that,! he said.
“A second course would be for people with a natural interest in the language: literature, poetry, drama and so on.” Mr Ó Cuirreáin said a language-based course could result in school-leavers having sufficient command of the language to “watch TG4 or read a newspaper … Certainly abandoning the language will not achieve that.” Mr Ó Cuirreáin described as “alarming” the confirmation by his office that only 1.5 per cent of the administrative staff of the Department of Education and Skills could provide service in Irish – a decrease of 50 per cent in the past five years. He also described as a “myth” the suggestion that translating official documents to Irish cost far more than their production in English. He noted that the full cost of translating Clare County Council’s draft development plan for the six-year period between 2011 and 2017 was EUR10,112 – less than one-third of the amount suggested in a media report.
However, an investigation by his office found it cost over EUR350,000 to prepare such a document in English. “This equates to 97.3 per cent of the budget for the English version and 2.7 per cent for the Irish version,” he said. Very few official documents were required by law to be provided bilingually, he said. Current legislation allowed for publication electronically rather than in print form, as long as both official languages were treated equally. Some 700 complaints were made last year to the commissioner about difficulties accessing State services through Irish – more complaints than were made in any year since the office was first established, he said. Most complaints were resolved through informal negotiation with the relevant public body, or by providing advice to the complainant.
The Irish Times – Lorna Siggins
Ábhar dóchais agus éadóchais ag an Choimisinéir Teanga
March 16, 2011
Eagraíochtaí teanga ag cur fáilte roimh Chlár an Rialtais
March 10, 2011
Five schools to open by 2013
March 8, 2011
FIVE NEW primary schools are to be established over the next two years under the patronage of the multi-denominational group Educate Together and the gaelscoil umbrella body, An Foras Pátrúnachta.
All five are in areas of rapid population growth in the Dublin commuter belt. Educate Together will open schools in the Dublin suburbs of Blanchardstown west, Mulhuddart and Ashbourne, Co Meath. An Foras Pátrúnachta will open one inter-denominational school in west Dublin and one in Ashbourne. There are no new Catholic schools in the list of new schools detailed by the Department of Education yesterday. Last month, the Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Diarmuid Martin acknowledged the Catholic Church was over-represented in primary education, given the increasing secularisation of Irish society.
At present, the church controls 89.6 per cent of all primary schools in the State. Earlier this year an internal department report said it is was no longer practical for “every student to be provided with access to a place in a school operated by a patron of their choice”. In future, it says patrons must be able to show clear public demand for their proposed schools. In a proposal which could generate difficulties for Catholic schools, it also says patrons must demonstrate that the demand for any proposed new school is not already being met. Last year, the department identified possible areas where the church might divest itself of certain primary schools. The new programme for government promises a forum on patronage and pluralism in the primary sector which will sit for one year. This has been a long-term demand of the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation.
The forum’s recommendations will be drawn up into a White Paper for consideration and implementation by government to ensure that the education system can provide sufficiently diverse number of schools, catering for all religions and none.
The Irish Times – Seán Flynn
Agreement for ‘one of the darkest hours’
March 7, 2011
PROPOSALS AGREED by Fine Gael and Labour on the economy, public sector reform, political renewal, healthcare and education form the basis of the document Towards Recovery: Programme for National Government.
The programme was approved by the special conference of the Labour Party yesterday at University College Dublin. It was outlined to members of the Fine Gael parliamentary party meeting in the Shelbourne hotel. The 64-page document begins with a “statement of common purpose” which declares that “a democratic revolution” took place on election day and that “we now face one of the darkest hours in the history of our independent State”.
There are commitments on the budget deficit, public sector staffing levels, water charges, constitutional reform, job creation, income tax and third-level education. The two parties have reached a compromise on the year 2015 instead of Fine Gael’s 2014 and Labour’s 2016 for reaching the 3 per cent deficit target. Fine Gael sought to cut 30,000 jobs from the public sector on a voluntary basis by 2014, compared with 18.000 sought by Labour. This figure has been agreed by the two parties at between 18,000 and 21,000 within the same period, with a further 4,000 to go by 2015. On third-level education, the parties have agreed to a “full review” of funding before the end of this year, based on the Hunt and OECD reports, but there is no specific reference to the Fine Gael plan for a graduate tax.
“Our goal is to introduce a funding system that will provide third-level institutions with reliable funding but does not impact access for students,” the document states. A State-owned water utility company is to be established to take over from the local authorities, with the objective of installing water meters in every household and “move to a charging system that is based on use above the free allowance”. A constitutional convention will review Bunreacht na hÉireann and the government will “prioritise” referendums on five topics:
abolition of the Seanad, although no date is specified; reversing the effects of the Abbeylara judgment on the powers of Oireachtas committee investigations;
protecting the right of citizens to “communicate in confidence” with their public representatives; cutting the salaries of judges in “restricted” circumstances;
children’s rights.
The convention will also consider such topics as: same-sex marriage; reducing the presidential term from seven to five years; reducing the voting age; and removing the provision on blasphemy. The number of TDs will be reduced in line with the 2011 census. Ministerial salaries will be cut, political expenses will have to be vouched for and severance payments for ministers will be cut. A strategic investment bank, proposed by Labour, is to be established, although there no detail supplied in this document. Fás will be replaced by a national employment and entitlements service. Resources will be provided within the first 100 days of the new administration for a jobs fund. An export trade council will be established to promote trade and exports. A national development plan will be drawn up for the period 2012-2019. A commercially-financed investment programme called the NewERA plan, which was the title used in the Fine Gael manifesto, will also be put in place.
The document states: “We will target up to EUR2 billion in sales of non-strategic state assets drawing from the recommendations of the McCarthy review group on State assets, when available.” The programme also pledges “to stick to the aggregate adjustment as set out in the national recovery plan for the combined period 2011-12”. Existing rates of income tax, together with bands and credits, will be maintained. Top marginal rates on income will not be increased. “We will reduce, cap or abolish property tax reliefs and other tax shelters which benefit very high income earners,” the programme states. The new government will “consider” a site valuation tax on property, which must take account of “mortgage distress” and the provision of a reliable stream of revenue to local government. “We will review the universal social charge,” the document states.
An independent fiscal advisory council will be set up to “undertake fiscal macroeconomic projections and monitoring”. In the health area, universal health insurance will be brought in by 2016, with access according to need and payment according to ability to pay. “Universal primary care will remove fees for GP care,” the document adds. On the Irish language, there is to be “a thorough reform” of the curriculum and the way Irish is taught. There is no reference to the controversial Fine Gael proposal to drop Irish as a compulsory subject of study for Leaving Cert. The preamble to the document begins: “On the 25th February a democratic revolution took place in Ireland. Old beliefs, traditions and expectations were blown away.” The document continues: “It is no exaggeration to say that we now face one of the darkest hours in the history of our independent State.
“To deal with this unprecedented national economic emergency, our country needs an unprecedented level of political resolve. “What is needed now after a long period of reckless, ill disciplined government is strong, resolute leadership. “That is why Fine Gael and Labour, the two largest political parties in the State, having achieved historic levels of support in the general election, now seek to use their mandate to form a government for national recovery.”
The Irish Times – Deaglán de Bréadún
Review of Leaving and Junior Cert promised
March 7, 2011
EDUCATION: THE PROGRAMME for government has backed away from controversial Fine Gael policies on the Irish language and third-level fees – but it is promising a review of both the Leaving and Junior Cert exams.
While Fine Gael planned to abolish Irish as a compulsory Leaving Cert subject, the programme says it will only “consider the question of whether Irish should be optional for Leaving Cert’’ after implementing steps to improve the quality and effectiveness of Irish teaching in schools. The Fine Gael plan to introduce a graduate tax for students is also watered down. Instead, the programme promises to introduce a funding system which will provide colleges with reliable funding without impeding access for poorer students. Surprisingly, the programme opts for a full review of the recent Hunt Report on third level (which took two years to prepare) and the earlier 2004 OECD review of higher education in Ireland.
The programme also promises an audit of higher degree (level 8) qualifications and the learning outcomes for graduates of these courses. The programme appears more radical on the issue of information for parents on schools. A system of self-evaluation will be introduced, requiring all schools to evaluate their own performance year-on-year and to publish information across a wide range of criteria. It says parents should have access to more information when choosing a school, although it does not specify whether this should include Leaving Cert results.
The programme acknowledges widespread criticisms that the Leaving and Junior Cert exams – with their focus on rote learning – are no longer fit for purpose. On school patronage, the programme backs a new forum on patronage and pluralism in the primary sector, which will sit for one year. The programme signals that the multi-denominational group Educate Together will be recognised as a second level patron.
The Irish Times – Seán Flynn
Gaeilge ar an chlár
March 3, 2011
