THE NATIONAL Council for Special Education has, for the first time, published a list of resource hours and special needs assistants allocated to schools.
Topping the Dublin list overall was Newpark Comprehensive, a non-fee-paying school in south Dublin, with a special needs assistant (SNA) allocation of 20.5 and a total resource hour allocation of 324.
Heading the fee-paying list is St Andrew’s College, Booterstown, with an SNA allocation of 4.5 and a resource hour allocation of 127.4.
Schools apply to the council for resource hours, based on the number of students in the school who qualify for them. A resource teacher provides additional attention and educational assistance to a student within class hours.
Overall, just 37 schools in the Dublin area have a resource allocation of less than 30 hours. Some 21 of those are non-fee-paying schools while 16 are feepaying.
Among the fee-paying schools on the list are St Columba’s College, Mount Anville Secondary School and Gonzaga College with resource allocations of 21.2, 20.3 and 17.1 respectively. St Columba’s also has an allocation of one SNA while Mount Anville has two.
Most schools in Dublin – 90 overall – have a resource allocation of at least 50 hours. Non-feepaying schools with large resource hour allocations include: Rosmini Community School (207 hours), St Tiernan’s Community School (196.2 hours) and Mount Temple Comprehensive School (162.9 hours). SNA allocation also varies widely, although Newpark has the highest at 20.5.
In all, 27 schools were allocated between 100 and 200 resource hours. St Andrew’s College, Booterstown, was the only fee-paying school in this bracket. The non-feepaying schools included Castleknock Community College, Oatlands College, Ballinteer Community School, St Aidan’s Community School and Pobailscoil Iosolde.
Five of the 27 schools that were allocated between 80 and 100 resource hours were fee-paying. The High School in Rathgar has a total resource hour allocation of 98.1. Wesley College is allocated 94.5 resource hours and four SNAs. Belvedere College, Blackrock College and Terenure College follow in a cluster with allocations of 89.5, 86 and 85.5 resource hours respectively.
Of the schools with a resource hour allocation of less than 20 hours, eight are non-fee-paying while nine are fee-paying. The feepaying schools range from St Mary’s College with a resource hour allocation of 18.9, Alexandra College (17.9), Gonzaga College (17.1), Holy Child Secondary School (16.7), Rockbrook Park School (14.4), St Patrick’s Cathedral School (14), Loreto College, Stephen’s Green (10.4), St Killian’s Deutsche Schule (7.7) to St Conleth’s College (5.5). The non-feepaying schools at the bottom of the list include Coláiste Íosagáin, Stillorgan and Holy Faith Secondary School, Clontarf.