WELCOME TO THE PORTOBELLO EDUCATE TOGETHER SCHOOL START-UP GROUP FACT SHEET
Portobello Educate Together is working to create a new multi-denominational school to serve the communities of Dublin 2, 6, 6W, 8 & 12.
Who we are…
- Portobello Educate Together was established by local parents in January 2010 due to massive demand for additional multi-denominational school places across Dublin 2, 6, 6W, 8 and 12. The two local multi-denominational schools (Griffith Barracks, D8 and Ranelagh MDS, D6) are single-stream. Their combined waiting list for Sept 2010 was approx. 500 children.
- We have a committed and pro-active board/committee of parents (chair: Senator Ivana Bacik).
- We have 465 parents and supporters currently on our membership list.
- A total of 199 children are pre-enrolled for 2013-2016* as follows:
Year Number pre-enrolled
| |
|
| Sept 2013 | 78 |
| Sept 2014 | 70 |
| Sept 2015 | 50 |
| Sept 2016 | 1 |
*Enrolment figures at 23rd August 2011. Excludes 11 children who are enrolled for classes other than Junior Infants
What we have achieved since January 2010…
We have lobbied:
- We met with the Minister, Ruairi Quinn TD in May 2011. We held meetings with the two previous Ministers for Education & Skills (Tanaiste Mary Coughlan and Batt O’Keeffe); as well as Fergus O’Dowd TD, Fine Gael Education spokesperson; and Ruairi Quinn TD, Labour (now Minister for Education).
- We set up and ran several active lobbying campaigns in which hundreds of emails and letters were sent seeking support from local TDs and councillors of all parties.
We organised a petition for more multi-denominational school places which was handed to the then Tanaiste on 3rd November 2010 at an event outside Leinster House which was featured in the Irish Independent 4/11/10 & Irish Times online edition 3/11/10.
We have become affiliated:
- We are affiliated to the national patron body Educate Together.
We have raised money and awareness:
- Our second Family Fun Day & Teddy Bears’ Picnic was held on Sunday September 11th in Harolds Cross Park. As last year this was a great success and attended by about 300 people (and their bears!).
- We held a great live music benefit on June 16th, featuring Sophie Coyle and The Shamrogues.
- With Educate Together we organised a public meeting on May 5th, which was addressed by Paul Rowe, CEO Educate Together; Amy Mulvihill, Regional Development Officer; Ivana Bacik; and Dermot Stanley, an ET teacher. Over 50 people attended.
- Held a free arts and crafts day for over 40 children on April 17th (this event was open to all children aged between 3 and 8 in the PMDS catchment areas).
- We raised over 1,200 euro at our first fundraising pub quiz in March.
What we want to achieve:
- Our aim is to provide more parents and their children with multi-denominational education; and in doing so, to make an important contribution to a thriving, civic local community.
- We hope to achieve this through working with existing schools in the area, and we welcome the opportunity to meet with school principals, boards and parents’ associations to explore options, including transformation of patronage, together.
November 2011
