In the rural area of Rinn Mhaoile, in northwest Conamara, children from the Tully National School are preparing to return to school next week, in the dressing rooms of their local community hall.
Due to catastrophic damage to the school, which was battered by Storm Éowyn last Friday, it is not safe for staff or pupils to return to their old classrooms or school building.
Principal Barbara Warbout outlined the extent of the destruction.
"In the main school, I looked at the walls and noticed that they had moved and then the cracks began to show.
"The tiles on the roof were lifted, there's water coming in now and the structure of the building is very vulnerable and certainly not safe to have staff or our children in there. We won't be going back in now until we're told it's safe to do so," she added.
"At the moment there is a team getting the dressing rooms in the local hall ready, they're being painted, carpeted, coat hangers put up for the children. We don't have broadband, we don't have any of the luxuries we used to have.
"We also don't have any outdoor play area. The kids will be cooped up together into dressing rooms for, I don't know how long really, could be a couple of months, it could be shorter. We don't know how long it will be by the time they get back into a classroom," Ms Warbout said.
After a week out of school and with the prospect of going back to a very different school environment, Ms Warbout expects a certain amount of anxiety amongst the children:
"They'll have been out six days due to the storm, so it's a long time for them and there's bound to be a little bit of anxiety over where they're going.
"I'm hoping to have a couple of hours on Sunday when we're finished and we have everything ready in the hall to invite the parents and the kids in to have a look around and to show them that it won't be as scary for them as they might have thought," she added.
When asked what the Government response should be, Ms Warbout was very clear: "I want to see people. I don't want emails, I don't want phone calls, I want department representatives to tell me what to do because this is just overwhelming.
"There's only so much that a board of management and a principal can do. I need the department to put the plan in place and to help us."
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