Longwood students set to move into new school building

Staff and pupils of St Nicholas"s Primary School in Longwood were due to move to their new school building this morning (Wednesday) which means that all the school will finally be back under one roof. Longwood"s existing school building has just four classrooms and was unable to accommodate the huge surge in the school"s population in recent years. This meant that pupils were split across three sites - the existing school, the parish hall and the GAA clubhouse, which is some 700 metres away. A new school was sanctioned by the Department of Education and work began last year on the new school building, which is located on the Enfield Road and will share a campus with the planned new secondary school when it is built. The new school features 12 classrooms, a general-purpose room and ancillary rooms including a library, learning support rooms, a staff room and offices as well as a basketball court, junior and senior play areas. The 200 pupils and 15 staff members were due to meet at the old school building this morning and were to make their way to the new school, class by class, with a Garda escort. An official opening of the school will be held in September. School principal John Ennis said there is a lot of excitement among the pupils ahead of the move and he said he is delighted that all the children will be back under the one roof. Speaking previously, Mr Ennis explained that having a split site meant that parents had to drop children off at one site and then move on to another. Because of this, the school had to have two different start times but the new school will put an end to this. The new modern school building has been anxiously awaited in Longwood where many new estates have been built in recent years leading to a population surge in the area. Some 10 years ago, pupil numbers in Longwood were only about 100 but there are now more than 200 pupils in the school. Meanwhile, County Meath VEC was recently given the go-ahead to complete the purchase of a site for a new secondary school in the village. St Fintina"s Post Primary school is currently located on a very confined site and more than two-thirds of the students are attending classes in prefabs. Meath VEC had been instructed not to proceed with the purchase of the site last September because of Government cuts but the go-ahead was recently given to the VEC to conclude the deal on the 10-acre site, which has already been rezoned for education purposes. The school currently does not have any playing pitches and has to move off-site for football matches. St Fintina"s is operating at capacity with 160 students but does not have an assembly hall.