‘There is work to be done’... Navan school principal urging Education Minister McEntee to engage with local school leaders

A Meath primary school principal said schools in the county should welcome the prospect of a local minister for education.

Darragh Roe, principal, Ard Rí Community National School in Navan is urging Minister McEntee to engage with local school leaders directly to ensure no time is lost in achieving real progress for the children of Meath.

"There is work to be done! For us, providing facilities for our rapidly growing community is front and centre. Ard Rí Community National School is 15 years old this year. We opened with seven children in 2010. We now have 361 children, learning across 15 classrooms tucked away in temporary accommodation at the back of Navan Rugby Club. While we have an upbeat outlook on life, our facilities are stretched beyond belief. We sought additional modular rooms from the Department of Education three years ago. We have been putting in partitions and coming up with interim solutions for space since then. There is nowhere near enough space for children to play, nowhere to teach children with additional needs, no universal access toilet, there is no flow through the building and unbelievably, a simple and inexpensive plan to create a central corridor, with storage and a second special education room has just been shelved by the department.

"While we are fighting for scraps at Balreask Old, we are awaiting planning permission for a state of the art new build at Academy Street, Navan, where we will share a campus with our friends from St Ultan's Special School. This vital two-school project faces delay after delay. The minister will be aware of the increase in demand for Special Classes, especially in the Navan area. Once built, Ard Rí CNS will provide four classrooms for children with autism. This will be a welcome relief for 24 families in the Navan area. The current scheduled delivery date for this new campus is 2027. I would like to challenge the incoming minister to cut the ribbon on this new build within this projected time frame."

Mr Roe, said he hoped Minister McEntee would appreciate the scale of change currently underway in Irish primary schools nationally.

"Society is changing and school leaders welcome updates to curriculum and pastoral approaches to better address the evolving needs of our pupils. However, the pace of change in our schools needs to be managed so that school leaders can maintain a steady ship for children and staff. Schools are more complex than ever before and schools are crying out for supports of external professionals like Psychology, OT, SLT to begin to meet the needs of our diverse communities," he concluded.