A Dublin secondary school with more than 500 students says it will lose access to promised outdoor spaces such as a football pitch, running track and sensory garden under new Department of Education plans.
Belmayne Educate Together Secondary School in north Dublin, established in 2019, is due to complete its move out of temporary classrooms and into a permanent school building later this year.
However, plans to develop playing fields, a sensory garden and other sports facilities on land occupied by prefabs are being put on hold after the Department of Education told the school it wants to locate a new special school in the temporary classrooms for an unspecified period.
The school is planning to host a public meeting on the issue on Thursday evening in the face of what is says is growing frustration among students, parents and the wider community over the plans.
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School principal Aisling Kenevey said the school has offered to host the special school in a section of its new permanent school building for up to four years, but this has been turned down.
“We’re very open to sharing our school and we think our solution is a win-win for everyone,” she said. “We have a brand new wing in our permanent building which is equipped with accessible toilets, a kitchen and brand-new large classrooms.
“That would allow both schools to use the sensory garden and outdoor sport facilities as per the original planning.
“We fully support the need for a special school in the area and strongly believe that our proposal benefits both our students and the future students of the special school.”
Ms Kenevey said new plans to host the special school in the prefabs raises a “huge amount” of health and safety issues and may force the school to cap numbers at a time when the local population is growing.
“With the current plans, we will be left with no safe assembly area for our students in the event of a fire or fire drill, potentially endangering the safety of more than 1,000 students. This is a serious concern that the Department of Education has failed to address adequately despite numerous requests for clarification,” she said.
The Department of Education has said it is liaising directly with the patron of the school, Educate Together, over the plans.
The new special school is due to move to a permanent building in Balgriffin Park, Belmayne, at an unspecified date in the future.
In the meantime, the department has said its focus is on repurposing existing buildings to facilitate the opening of a new special school for the 2025/26 school year “as quickly as possible”.
It confirmed that the Belmayne Educate Together Secondary School site is owned by the department and, in time, is intended to provide capacity for 1,000 pupils, as well as a four-classroom special education needs base. There are currently 530 students enrolled in the school.
Ms Kenevey said she believed the school’s proposal was “much more cost effective” given the additional spending that would be required to upgrade prefabs for use as a special school.
The schools has received support from community organisations such as Clongriffin Athletics Club, which hoped to be able to use the school’s running track.
Ms Kenevey said the school was looking to sit down with department officials to explore alternatives that could suits the needs of all concerned.
“We cannot measure the cost savings in terms of preventing antisocial behaviour in Belmayne and the mental health of our young people,” she said.
“We urgently ask the Department of Education to reconsider our proposal and to meet with us to discuss it.”
