What is it like to run a post-primary school with an enrolment equivalent to the population of a small town? The answer: probably a cross between living in a beehive and working in Grand Central Station.
A minor organisational miracle is required daily in each case to create order and efficiency out of potential chaos. So it is with Gorey Community School, which has begun the new term with more than 1,500 pupils, whose education will be overseen by 107 teachers, full-time and part-time.
A school of this size obviously generates unique challenges. All devolve ultimately upon the school principal, the several doors to whose office might as well be revolving, so constant is the traffic through them.
Nicholas Sweetman has had the role for the six years since the school was created in 1993 out of the amalgamation of three local educational establishments, the Loreto School, the CBS and the Vocational College. He admits that many of the administrative tasks are very difficult. "Time tabling is a monumental task," he remarks. "That would be one of my biggest headaches. Every room here is full all the time."
Between normal classes, extracurricular work and after-school activities, the school complex, on the outskirts of the north Wexford town, is open some 350 days a year until 11 p.m.
Its curriculum is probably as broad as any, offering subjects ranging from agriculture, building construction, metalwork and woodwork to music and classical studies. "We tend to have everything that's available, simply because we can get a class for it," says Mr Sweetman. "We also do every sport that you can think of."
There is continued growth pressure on student numbers, although the school board's policy is not to accept enrolment from outside its specific catchment area. Nor does it operate a waiting-list system.
But the substantial migration to the north Wexford-south Wicklow coastal area, plus the increase in returning emigrants, have expanded the resident population in that catchment area and, with it, the demand for school places.
Few drop out: some 280 pupils entered first year this autumn, about 260 sat this year's Leaving Cert exams, and 275 the Junior Cert (of the latter, two pupils scored nine straight As out of nine).
The number of pupils puts pressure on many school facilities. The school was planned for an estimated 1,000 pupils and built accordingly. But almost 1,300 entered when it opened and it has grown steadily since.
The size of the student body means that the school caters for a huge range of abilities. "We would have lots of children with physical and mental disabilities," says Mr Sweetmen. "That is very enriching for the whole school but it also creates difficulties. It is very difficult to get the sort of support from the Department [of Education] that you need."
For example, the school was not allocated a designated home-school liaison officer. "We have one, but it comes out of the teachers' quota." Nor, in spite of the many special-needs pupils and the enormous pressure on facilities, was it designated as disadvantaged. Such designation would have meant more realistic funding for various facilities.
Gorey is allocated just £2,500 for books; in Enniscorthy, three much smaller schools, which are designated as disadvantaged, each receive several times this figure. "Because we amalgamated, we lost out," points out Mr Sweetman.
One gymnasium for 1,500 pupils means tight scheduling of its use. But the gym is a major benefit to the town of Gorey also, and is solidly booked for after-hours use. The school library provides up to 70 reading spaces "at a push", but another reading room is to be supplied by the Department.
To make the running of such a large school manageable, a complicated system of "Year Heads" and class tutors is operated. A Year Head has about 250 pupils to look after. This year, for the first time, 24 mentors have been appointed from among the sixth-year classes to look after the first-year pupils. And there is a very active parents' association.
A major new worry for the school's administration is the intimation at Government level that Community Employment (CE) schemes are to be drastically cut back. "It will be very serious," the principal says. "We're on our fourth or fifth CE scheme, on which we have 16 personnel, without whom a lot of the things we do could not be done."
The school's reception staff are CE personnel, its library is similarly supervised by them, and CE personnel help maintain the grounds. The training element has been an important resource for the town: people have gone straight from these CE schemes into full-time employment. "But all these services will have to be curtailed if the CE scheme goes, because there is no way that the Department is going to pay for them," Mr Sweetman says.
The principal believes that incoming children, even from much smaller primary schools, adapt very well to the size of the Gorey Community School. "It teaches them independence very quickly." The numbers also help in the sourcing and maintenance of a school orchestra, and a highly professional musical is produced every second year.
With a long-standing artistic tradition in Gorey, it is not surprising that the community school has a very strong art department. The NCAD has more students from the Gorey school than from any other.
There are no major social problems because of the size of the student body. Says Mr Sweetman: "The biggest problem is alcohol abuse. Another big problem is the number of kids who work after school. It is clear that a number of them underachieve because of this."
Mr Sweetman's own previous post was as principal of a school in Adamstown village, "where I had 400 to 450 children, and I would certainly have known every student and a large percentage of the parents".