Proud moment for Bettystown as new school officially opened

Following many years of site and planning difficulties, the new building for Scoil Oilbhéir Naofa in Bettystown was officially opened by Mary Hanafin, Minister for Tourism, Culture and Sport, and a former education minister, on Friday. The new Scoil Oilibhéir Naofa is a 24-classroom school which also has six special needs/learning support rooms, an assembly hall and ancillary offices. The school also boasts a purpose-built autistic unit which can cater for up to 12 pupils with mild learning difficulties. The Department of Education and Skills provided some €7.8 million for the project. The new building is the first phase of a major school development in the Bettystown/Laytown area which will see the redevelopment of Scoil an Spioraid Naoimh Primary School, and the construction of a 1,000-student post-primary school, Coláiste na hInse, There are currently some 370 pupils, ranging from four to eight years of age, attending classes from junior infants to second class at the Bettystown school. “Today is a huge milestone in the development of this magnificent school in Bettystown and one which so many people here today have worked long and hard to see come true,†Ms Hanafin said. “This school serves children from the new and developing community in the Bettysown area and is enthusiastically supported at every step of the way by the parents who are active in so many respects.†Minister Hanafin was greeted at the school by pupils from junior infants who formed a guard of honour at the front of the new school. The minister also heard some performances of songs and poems in English and Irish from pupils from each of the classes. She said: “It is wonderful to see that pupils in this school have, from the very start, been involved in projects such as the Green School projects. In 2007, they were awarded their first Green Flag for recycling, and I was delighted to see that the school now has achieved its second Green Flag for energy awareness. I know, too, that there is much work going on preparing second class pupils for their upcoming participation in the Halleluiah Chorus taking place in the RDS. I think that the pupils will really enjoy the new sensory garden and outdoor performance area, which is a great space for showcasing the skills of these young talented children.†The minister said she was pleased to see that the school has set up a school website with the assistance of parents. “ICT and computers are such an integral part of young people's learning and their everyday lives, and by having state-of-the-art computer equipment available in their new school, as a result of funding from the Department of Education and Skills, means that teaching and learning is right up to the minute. There is a wealth of information about the school and the curriculum on the website – everything from homework and healthy lunches to the code of discipline and attendance is covered along with very useful information for parents about the school and their role in their child's learning. It is also great to read the second class blog and keep in touch with everything they are thinking about.†The minister said she was pleased to hear that the classrooms and assembly hall were available for the wider community to use out of school hours and that the VEC would be using the school to deliver some back to education and back to work courses in recent times, which will benefit the whole community. She also paid tribute to the teachers and staff at the school for their ongoing commitment to the education of children from the area. “I want to also pay particular credit to and acknowledge the long support of the principal, Mary Carpenter, who invited me to be here today for this special day in the schools' history,†she said. “Mary has lived with this project through some ups and downs, and can be very proud of the whole school community which draws on all their expertise to benefit the children now and into the future.â€