Crunching The Numbers

Principals Simon Carey, Ruairi Farrell & Alan Cox WEDS9NOV22

oint press release from Greystones secondary school principals Simon Carey (St David’s), Ruairí Farrell (Greystones Community College) and Alan Cox (Temple Carrig School), issued on Tuesday, October 3rd 2023…

The Principals of Greystones Community College, St David’s Holy Faith Secondary School and Temple Carrig School have worked together over the past number of weeks in planning for First Year Admissions 2024.

As of Monday 3rd October, our applications process has gone live and over the course of the next eight weeks we will be making offers to several hundred Sixth Class pupils for entry into First Year 2024.

As with last year, we will continue to work together to ensure that families accept only one school place in order to maximise the number of places for as many children as possible.
It is, however, with considerable concern that the Principals of these three secondary schools in the town are writing to advise that the number of First Year places in Greystones-Delgany in September 2024 will be significantly less than last year and is likely to be insufficient for the number of students coming out of the local primary schools. The capacity in our schools is simply not big enough and we have been obliged to restrict the supply of available places
this year.

Specifically:

⦿ St David’s Holy Faith Secondary School, Greystones, will provide 120 places in First Year for the academic year 2024-2025, the same number as in the last academic year. The school is now at full capacity with 752 students, increasing to 770 next year.

⦿  Greystones Community College, despite taking on additional year groups every year and increasing capacity where accommodation has allowed in the past, is now in a situation where it is at full capacity due to the delay in construction of the permanent school building. Consequently, the intake has had to be reduced from 144 to 96 places in First Year for the academic year 2024-2025 and there are concerns that a further reduction will have to be made in 2025 if the building is not complete. The school is very much in the growing stage and cannot meet the demand for school places in the community in its current interim accommodation.

⦿ Temple Carrig is in a building designed for 750 students, but already has over 950 students. The school agreed to an expansion in 2021 and has been taking an additional class group every year as our part of that agreement. However, the plans for building the extension have stalled within the Department of Education and we have already been forced to hold classes in stairwells, corridors, tents and meeting rooms. After extensive pressure, four prefab classrooms which were promised for 1 st September 2021 were finally opened on 28th September 2023, but the Department have admitted that these are merely intended to cope with the existing numbers in the school and there is no prospect of additional capacity being put in place for the academic year 2024-2025. We won’t be reducing the size of the school, but, as a result of the delays in providing classroom accommodation, all we can do is keep numbers stable by replacing the number of outgoing Sixth Years. This means that the numbers in First Year for the academic year 2024-2025 will be 144, down from 168 last year.

The three schools just don’t have enough space to take greater numbers in the coming year so we regret that there will be 72 less secondary school places this year. We will continue to work together on Admissions and are doing everything we can within our control, but we just can’t say with the same confidence as previous years that every child is going to get a place.

We are particularly grateful to our local T.D.s who have all been extraordinarily helpful in supporting the three schools in our dealings with the Department of Education. They, like us, have been lobbying hard behind the scenes to urge the Department to increase the supply of secondary school accommodation in the area and they share our exasperation with the pace of progress.

We are writing because we are acutely conscious of the enormous distress, worry and frustration that difficulties in securing a secondary school place causes for families, both parents and children alike. We should alert parents to the reduction in places in First Year next year and, at this time of year when most schools are running their admissions processes, to advise them to apply elsewhere as well as in Greystones so that they have back up options in case their child is unfortunate not to secure a place in the town itself.

You can read Jennifer Whitmore’s take on the reduction of secondary school places for 2024 here.