School principal hits out at lack of Covid assistance

The principal of a Moate primary school where one classroom is too small to allow its 31 pupils socially distance has voiced deep frustration over the lack of help provided to the school by Minister Norma Foley and the Department of Education.

The 105 boys attending St Oliver Plunkett NS returned to school yesterday (Tuesday), despite ongoing concerns about the suitability of its facilities amid the pandemic.

School principal Sinead White said the most pressing issue related to a 46 square metre classroom which has to accommodate 31 fourth and fifth class pupils, as well as a teacher and a special needs assistant.

At the end of July, Sinead went to the Department to request either a prefab classroom which would be big enough to allow the 31 pupils socially distance, or the appointment of an extra teacher to allow the class be split into smaller groups.

Both of these requests were turned down, which ultimately prompted an extraordinary meeting of the school's board of management last weekend. The meeting discussed the possibility of a 'blended' reopening, where only half of the children would be allowed into the school building at one time.

It was ultimately decided to go ahead with a full reopening this week, because the blended approach was considered unfair on pupils and their parents, but Sinead said the concerns she's been raising with the Department have not gone away.

"My issue with the Department is that they have ignored me. They have ignored my requests. I feel that we've been left hanging, and it's been very frustrating," she told the Westmeath Independent.

"The Minister was on 'Ireland AM' last Wednesday, and the night before on 'Prime Time', stating that she was confident every school was ready to reopen.

"I've been informed that the Minister has been made aware of our school's situation, so I don't know how she can stand over her statement that every school is ready.

"Not every school is ready. Our school is not ready, and I'm sure I'm not unique in that, only I'm one of the few principals who has spoken up about it."

Sinead said she was told by the Department in mid-August that they could not sanction a prefab for St Oliver Plunkett NS because it would require planning permission, and they couldn't provide an extra teacher because none were available.

However, it's her understanding that she could have gotten retrospective planning permission for a prefab, and she was also aware of qualified teachers who may have been willing to take up a post at the school if one was available.

When she asked the Department what she was supposed to do to socially distance 31 children in a 46 square metre classroom, she was advised to create two 'pods', one with 15 children and one with 16 children.

"Once I had a metre distance between those two pods, the Department were satisfied that could work," she said. "I don't feel that's adequate. From what I'm looking at, and what they're telling me, I don't think they're taking Covid-19 seriously at all."

In addition to speaking to this newspaper, Sinead gave interviews about the situation on RTE's Liveline and on Midlands 103 last week.

She loves her school, and has been working there for the last fifteen years, so she was initially hesitant about going public with her concerns.

"I was really reluctant to do it because you don't want to be shining a light on your school in a negative way. We have a lovely school here, I love being a teaching principal here, but I looked for help and I got nothing from the Department.

"I feel that the Department is only interested in getting our schools open, I don't feel they're interested in keeping our schools open.

"If they were interested in keeping our schools open they would engage with the principals that need help now, instead of waiting until a few weeks' time and then we're in deeper trouble because Covid has entered our school.

"My objective is to keep the school Covid-free, but I can't do that if I don't have the basic measures in place. It's an impossible task and it's been very stressful."

She said St Oliver Plunkett NS has an old building which had been suffering from a lack of investment in some time.

"I sent an application to the Department for support back in February, pre-Covid, to redevelop and upgrade our school," Sinead explained.

"Our school is very old, it's had very little funding from the Department over the years, and I had issues with leaking roofs and plumbing issues all of last year. I looked for support in February but I didn't hear anything back from the Department at all.

"The roadmap (the return to school) and funding for schools was based on pupil numbers, it wasn't based on individual school need," she pointed out.

"There are some schools in Athlone that are purpose-built brand new schools, fabulous buildings, and they would have got funding based on the number of pupils in their school, not what they needed to reopen their school.

"I think that was completely wrong of the Department to be throwing money at some schools and then leaving other schools really stuck."

Sinead said the staff and parents at the school had been very supportive in recent weeks. She said the school has implemented every measure it could to make the reopening this week as safe as possible in the circumstances.

"We've managed to have an access point for every child coming in. They're coming in at different entrances.

"We've pulled every unit we could out of (the 4th/5th classroom) to try and get as much space in, but it's very tight.

"We have hand sanitising and colour-coded rooms, markings in the yard, an arrow system into the school where children are in different-coloured groupings.

"We've put everything we can in place, and the whole school has been cleared of clutter. I don't think I could do any more, but my concerns are still there. They haven't gone away.

"If I had another teacher my classroom size would have been smaller, which would really have allayed a lot of the parents' concerns, and staff's concerns as well," she said.