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Nine new Educate Together schools opening this week only 'scratching the surface'

The schools will open in Cork, Dublin, Mayo and Wicklow.

NINE NEW EDUCATE Together schools are opening this week, four primary schools and five secondary schools.

The schools will open in Cork, Dublin, Mayo and Wicklow – marking the second highest total number of schools to open in one year in Educate Together’s history. Twelve national schools opened in 2012.

The nine new schools will bring the total number of Educate Together school in Ireland to 90 – 81 primary and 9 secondary.

In 2011, the then Education Minister Ruairi Quinn had plans that involved fifty schools being divested. However, only eight have been divested up until now.

Educate Together spokesperson Luke O’Shaughnessy told TheJournal.ie, “Just a handful of Educate Together schools have opened up in divestment areas to date.

This level of progress barely scratches the surface of what needs to be done to provide the basic right of parents to access a school of choice.

Minister for Education Richard Bruton has recently committed to 400 multi and non denominational schools by 2030.

New schools 

The second level schools are: Bremore Educate Together Secondary School in Balbriggan; Clonturk Community College in Whitehall, Dublin (in partnership with City of Dublin ETB); Cork ETSS; North Wicklow ETSS and Stepaside ETSS.

This is the highest number of second level schools that Educate Together has opened in one year.

The four new national schools are: Broombridge ETNS, Grace Park ETNS and Riverview ETNS in Dublin, and Castlebar ETNS in Co. Mayo. Broombridge ETNS and Grace Park ETNS will open in response to growing demographic demand for school places. Riverview ETNS and Castlebar ETNS open as part of the divestment process.

Nikki Murphy is a member of the Riverview ETNS start-up group and mother of Reuben, one of the school’s first junior infants, she said:

I feel very lucky that my son Reuben can attend an Educate Together school in the community. I’ve no doubt he will be happy and enjoy learning here.

“There is no doubt either that Riverview will be another hugely popular and over-subscribed Educate Together school in south Dublin. Hopefully there will be lots more to follow.”

Schools in Arklow, Ballina, Clonmel, Cobh, Dungarvan, Fermoy, Kells, Killarney, Leixlip, Loughrea, Nenagh, Palmerstown/Dublin 10, Passage West, Shannon, Westport and Whitehall are still waiting to be divested.

Talks have begun in the 18 areas that are scheduled to receive Educate Together national schools.

Read: Here is how Ireland’s bishops responded to being asked to hand over their schools>

Read: Mayo councillor objects to Educate Together, calling its schools ‘elitist’>

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275 Comments
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    Mute Darren Davis
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    Jan 12th 2019, 2:16 PM

    Thanks for the recipes. The soup was lovely, I’ll try the compost one for lunch tomorrow

    47
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    Mute Mal
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    Jan 12th 2019, 1:11 PM

    Thanks that does sound simple

    29
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    Mute ianglen
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    Jan 12th 2019, 2:23 PM

    Neighbour put out a compost bin last at back of house and the rats had a field day.
    Put it as far away from your house if you can..

    14
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    Mute Brian McCarthy
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    Jan 13th 2019, 4:20 PM

    @ianglen: you’re putting the wrong stuff in the composter
    if it’s attracting rats

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    Mute Sean
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    Jan 12th 2019, 2:59 PM

    Composting is amazing all right. Did you know that you can get rid of a 1000 pound cow in just six weeks by covering it in eight cubic yards of wood mulch? Basic recipe. Place the carcass on a bed of wood chips 2 feet deep, then cover it to a depth of about 4 feet, with at least 2 feet on the sides.It doesn’t attract flies or vermin or smell. It just disappears! All you are left with is some large bones.

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    Mute Garreth Byrne
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    Jan 12th 2019, 3:22 PM

    @Sean: How many suburban and town gardeners have got a 1000 pound dead cow to begin with?

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    Mute WoodlandBard
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    Jan 12th 2019, 4:18 PM

    @Garreth Byrne: i think this may have started as a Dublin gangster technique that eventually got adapted to farm animals.

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    Mute Garreth Byrne
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    Jan 12th 2019, 6:59 PM

    @WoodlandBard: I see. So composted dead cows and composted dead gangstas are equally effective in organic vegetable gardening, eh? IOFGA and the Soil Association might have reservations.

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    Mute Tweety McTweeter
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    Jan 12th 2019, 2:48 PM

    Dampening it down with a bleach mix every so often gets rid of the smell and kills off the yucky bugs and insects

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    Mute Ryan Dub
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    Jan 12th 2019, 5:26 PM

    @Tweety McTweeter: Do not put bleach in the garden.

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    Mute Brian Ó Dálaigh
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    Jan 12th 2019, 5:44 PM

    @Tweety McTweeter: would you tuck into a nice glass of bleach? If your answer is no, then do not put it on any compost that you intend to use for growing food. Also, if your compost smells that badly it means you’re doing it completely wrong.

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    Mute helen walsh
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    Jan 12th 2019, 4:45 PM

    Yes, how do you keep vermin away from compost heaps, their urine and droppings are bound to infect the compost heap…

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    Mute silentbob2012
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    Jan 13th 2019, 12:00 AM

    @helen walsh: simple. It’s not a black art.Everything for your compost heap must be uncooked and plant based. That means no cooked foods, no fats, no carbs, no oils. Egg shells excepted but it helps to break them down before chucking ‘em on your compost. Mix in cardboard, unbleached paper and newspaper from time to time, layered grass clippings, any garden vegetation as in the article above and away you go. If you’ve got rats or mice, you’ve been putting in foodstuffs.

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    Mute datagharch
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    Sep 18th 2019, 8:41 AM

    thanks alot

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    Mute David Cagney
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    Jan 13th 2019, 10:40 AM

    I don’t have a square yard, it’s more rectangular, with a circular end – so none of this is going to work.

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    Mute Ciarán Mac Cormaic
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    Jan 13th 2019, 4:55 PM

    @David Cagney: You might still be able to have the soup.

    3
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