New Schools

future_plans

I see that the Gaelscoil and the Educate Together schools received formal recognition from the Dept of Education today. Does anybody know where these sites are? And what kind of temp structures will be in place?

loyatemu

Blacklion - opposite Lidl I think.

dubsgirl

Does anyone know what this means for the Charlesland site that was I thought supposed to be for one of these schools? Wonder why they changed their minds?

loyatemu

dunno - the site is still available. according to the recent CGP newsletter the access to it is no longer beside Puroga but will be through the new development instead.

ryecatcher

Just got a letter from St Brigids (my son due to start in Sept) and they are going to take the site in Charlesland. There was no indication of dates but they will be building there.
The letter also said that 2 new temporary jr infants classrooms will be set up on their current Trafalgar Rd location for this Sept and not temporary Charlesland classrooms, as they originally informed parents.

larbis

Educate Together and Gaelscoil will be sharing the Blacklion site. We are very happy with the outcome and the huge support from the community for both schools.

The Charlesland site realistically won't be developed for at least 2 years, there has still been no agreement made with the developers.

You can keep an eye on progress at www.greystoneset.ie.

Sparks115

I had my son down for a place in the educate together school in 2010 as I was hoping it would be in Charlesland but as someone has already stated both schools are going up to Blacklion. As I live in Charlesland I dont want to be wasting petrol driving up and down the road and getting stuck in traffic at 9am in the morning. If there are nearly 4 primary schools in the same area all using 2 roads it will be a bit of a nightmare plus the building at the Harbour will be even busier. I dont see the logic to the planning for this or was there no other option? I still am delighted though that Greystones is getting the schools for a growing population of young children. In a few years we will need more secondary schools!

larbis

Hopefully people will use the Killincarrig road from Charlesland to Blacklion to prevent congestion the other way. I know Charlesland would be handier, but the Blacklion site has a much nicer aspect, and is off the main road a little bit.. The 184 goes direct from Charlesland to Blacklion as well for when the kids are a little bit older.
It IS nice to have the choice, isn't it?:)

loyatemu

larbis wrote: »

Hopefully people will use the Killincarrig road from Charlesland to Blacklion to prevent congestion the other way. I know Charlesland would be handier, but the Blacklion site has a much nicer aspect, and is off the main road a little bit.. The 184 goes direct from Charlesland to Blacklion as well for when the kids are a little bit older.
It IS nice to have the choice, isn't it?:)

Yes, but there should also be a school in Charlesland. In 5 years time there could be several hundred schoolgoing kids living in Charlesland - its not good planning to have all of them travelling 2 miles+ to get to school (and realistically 80% of them will end up being driven in cars).

Imhof Tank

loyatemu wrote: »

Yes, but there should also be a school in Charlesland. In 5 years time there could be several hundred schoolgoing kids living in Charlesland - its not good planning to have all of them travelling 2 miles+ to get to school (and realistically 80% of them will end up being driven in cars).

But that is the plan - a 32 classroom primary school for Charlesland, with the current St Bridget likley to re-locate there (and grow in size from current pupil numbers to fill the new building over time obviously)

Is anyone seriously advocating gaelscoils and educate together schools in Blacklion and Charlesland - in addition to the 32 calssrooom school in Charlesland? Or is it the case that some would prefer to see everything in Charlesland and nothing at all in Blacklion?

loyatemu

good luck to the ET and Gael schools, but my worry is that the Charlesland school will get long-fingered and eventually dropped.

Theres a lot of opposition to Brigids moving - even if Brigids did move, its ethos would mean Catholic kids from elsewhere in Greystones would get priority over non-catholic kids in Charlesland. You could have the ridiculous situation of kids from Rathdown (for example) being driven over to Charlesland while kids from Charlesland being driven to Blacklion. I'd rather see an additional multi or non-denominational school opened here with the St Brigids site retained for educational purposes.

Imhof Tank

[QUOTE=loyatemu;55796517

You could have the ridiculous situation of kids from Rathdown (for example) being driven over to Charlesland while kids from Charlesland being driven to Blacklion. I'd rather see an additional multi or non-denominational school opened here with the St Brigids site retained for educational purposes.[/QUOTE]

I don’t think its ridiculous at all – unless you want the government to build a school at the end of every street, some travelling is inevitable, and Greystones hasn’t gotten that big that separate religious and non denominational primary schools are needed in both Charlesland and the rest of the town.

And its not like kids from Rathdown Park will have to be getting up at 5 am or anything to get accross to Charlesland, or vice versa.

AFAIK the gaelschoil and educate together people had major requirements to satisfy in terms of convincing the department of education that the numbers were there in the town as a whole for their proposed schools before the Blacklion site was allocated to them. I daresay they has support from a lot of parents from Charlesland – without whom they wouldn’t have had the minimum numbers, meaning that if you stripped out the Charlesland parents from the supporters of the Blacklion schools – Blacklion wouldn’t have the minimum numbers and Charlesland wouldn’t either and instead of the town of Greystones getting 1 educate together and 1 gaelscoil (at Blacklion), the town as a whole would get nothing.

What this seems to come down to basically is that it would be most convenient for Charlesland if whatever new infrastructure is going were located in Charlesland.

loyatemu

Imhof Tank wrote: »

What this seems to come down to basically is that it would be most convenient for Charlesland if whatever new infrastructure is going were located in Charlesland.

there's already a site allocated in Charlesland, I'd just like to make sure that it is actually used, and is accessible to the max number of Charlesland (and Eden Gate) kids. The fewer kids being driven across town to get to school, the better.

There's easily enough population in Charlesland\Eden Gate to support a primary school, especially when the next phase is built (theres already ~2000 houses and apartments between the 2 developments). In a few years the place will be full of kids.

I'm not in any way criticising the ET and Gaelscoil organisers - they've done brilliant work in getting their schools off the ground. My criticism is of half-assed government planning that allows large estates to be built without planning in advance for the infrastructure (and Charlesland is by no means the worst example of this - we've actually done relatively well).

Greystones hasn’t gotten that big that separate religious and non denominational primary schools are needed in both Charlesland and the rest of the town.

well, I don't think there should be seperate religious and non-denominational schools at all, but thats another argument.

Imhof Tank

loyatemu wrote: »

There's easily enough population in Charlesland\Eden Gate to support a primary school, especially when the next phase is built (theres already ~2000 houses and apartments between the 2 developments). In a few years the place will be full of kids.

.

Agreed, which is why a 32 class room school is part of the currently pending planning application under appeal.

Sure, it would be great to have everything on one's doorstep, but realistically there is no way that more gaelscoils or educate together schools in Charlesland could be justified in addition to:-

• The new 32 room school at Charesland, and
• The new gaelscoil in Blacklion, and
• The new ET in Blacklion

future_plans

Well hopefully if planning persmission is granted, and a condition will be that the school is a priority.

Although i don't think the developers will be building that school, they are only setting aside a site for a school that will be handed over to the Dept of Education. Their track record has been woeful in recent years, so I wouldn't be holding my breath for a school in Charlesland. Perhaps your grand children might have one.

Since the developers are not actually building the school, I do not know why it was submitted as part of their overall planning application. The school plans should have been submitted as a separate application in my opinion. I guess if there was any real pressure or urgency about the Department, then this would hav been done.