Staff and parents at a primary school in Milford, Co Donegal, say their school building is no longer fit for purpose and have pleaded with the Department of Education to carefully consider their application for a new building.
The children's toilets of Scoil Mhuire have no hot water. There is no outside green play area. Pupils are taught in the corridor, storeroom and the hall because of a lack of suitable space.
The staff of Scoil Mhuire, who cater for 219 students, wrote to Minister for Education Norma Foley about their situation.
In that letter, staff told Minister Foley that children are taught in the corridor outside of classrooms when they receive support from special education teachers or when they undertake group work because of a lack of available space elsewhere.
They said children have no running warm water in the toilets to wash their hands. They added the demands on the school’s water supply has often resulted in low water pressure meaning that children cannot correctly wash their hands.
They said there is no safe space inside the building for children who require occupational therapy or movement breaks.
The school hall is being used by four teachers. It also contains the photocopier and sensory room.
As the hall is currently used as a classroom for four teachers, the school has no area to host assemblies, Christmas plays or other school community events.
The staff said in the letter to the Minister the schoolyard is uneven, leading to many injuries and that children have no green areas for play.
The Milford area saw an increase in population of over 25% over the past 20 years, during which time enrolment at Scoil Mhuire increased by approximately 40%.
Scoil Mhuire Board of Management has made repeated requests over several years to the Department of Education for the construction of a new school building. The current school was built in the 1950s.
Recently, Scoil Mhuire Parents' Association wrote to the school community to say, "as each year passes the deterioration of our school is worsening."
They told parents the construction of two modular classrooms last year resulted in a loss of a third of the outside recreational area.
Road safety issues are a matter of concern for parents as the school community has witnessed several collisions over the years.
Pick-up and drop-off times are staggered in an attempt "to alleviate the chaos" given the primary school’ location dovetailed between two secondary schools near a busy junction.
The school has been gifted land in a nearby location. The parents' association says the land provides an ideal opportunity to move forward with plans to construct a new building which is fit for purpose.
A spokesperson for the Department of Education said it has received an application from Scoil Mhuire, Milford for a replacement school building.
They added: "Department officials are engaging with the school in relation to its application for a replacement school building."
The spokesperson said the Department has recently delivered modular accommodation at Scoil Mhuire, providing one mainstream classroom, one special education needs classroom and two special education tuition rooms.
They said modular accommodation being provided to schools today is high-quality, robust and durable and all new buildings, including modular buildings, are required to meet the Near Zero Energy Building, or NZEB, standard.
The spokesperson added Scoil Mhuire had also accepted a traditional build project under the Department’s Additional School Accommodation scheme for two mainstream classrooms and two special education teaching rooms.
"The school authorities progressed this project to Stage 3, tender stage. However, the school has now made the decision not to proceed with this project.
"The Department is required to manage the overall school building programme so that we target and prioritise areas that are under greatest pressure for additional school places. This reflects the Department’s fundamental objective of ensuring the availability of a school place for every child.
"The main focus of the Department’s capital funding over the last decade and for the coming period is on provision of critical additional capacity to cater for increasing demographics and children with special education needs.
"The Department’s approach is to maximise the usage of existing capacity in the school estate and, in tandem with this, to manage the progression of the existing pipeline of projects within available budgets and in line with the Government’s Infrastructure Guidelines," the spokesperson concluded.
Chairperson of the School’s Board of Management Fr Stephen Gorman said Scoil Mhuire, Milford has an increase in "both increase enrolment of approximately 40% over the past five years and it’s autism provision is fully subscribed with a waiting list."
Fr Gorman said the Board of Management is committed to opening a second autism class in a new school building on a green field site that is fit for purpose.
