Whitecross National School

Synopsis of issues for teaching staff at Whitecross School in relation inadequate school building.

• Infants from prefab classrooms have to cross school yard to do messages-safety issue
• Children have to go in and out of classrooms on cold, wet days to go to learning support, computer lessons as well as school assemblies in the hall. Children also have to get to learning support classes
• Toilets are almost located in classrooms and are not suitable as children's toilets as well as often creating a smell in the classroom.
• Children in prefabs are sick more regularly especially when the flu hit the school, regulation of air quality of these units is difficult as they can move from being very cold, to suddenly warm and stuffy-increased sickness absence is borne out by roll books
• Three classrooms were installed more than 25 years ago as a temporary solution to the accommodation crisis then. They are still being used as classrooms today. When installed 25 years ago they were second hand units-we don't really know how old they are!
• Financially the classrooms cost DES €70,000 per year for 5 unitsalso cost €100,000 to put on site
• 70% of the children attending the school do so in a temporary classroom. Parents were promised a completed building by the BoM, who in turn believed DES when school was tasked to find a design team in 2007
• Two of the mainstream classes are half the DES recommended size for a classroom. Thus with 13 classrooms we have just 4 that are of an acceptable standard.
• As far as DES is concerned, we don't have a staff room. When a prefabricated staff-room was requested, it was refused by DES. The prefabricated unit that was allowed also functions as a staff room.
• Teachers in the prefabricated building feel very isolated as the rooms are away from the main building and away from the staff room and staff toilet facilities. It in ordeal for a teacher who has to leave her/his room as they are concerned about leaving the class even if the situation is urgent.
• Infants going to the yard from prefabs have to dodge through older classes and sometimes get hurt or knocked over.
• Meeting parents for appointments or PT meetings is a huge problem. Parents have to be met in all sorts of weather during class time. They also have to queue outside in the elements for PT meetings. Teachers also feel insecure when confronted by a difficult parent or indeed pupil as they are away from any form of immediate help or support. Teachers often feel that they are working in complete isolation.
• During frosty weather the water tanks freeze and deprive the classes of water for washing and flushing the toilet.
• What is really frustrating is that the school agreed to requests from DES to take pupils from neighbouring parishes, such as Laytown and Balbriggan to facilitate overcrowding issues there and now that those issues are resolved we are still waiting in Julianstown.
• Access for cleaning staff always problematical, also increase school cleaning bill, as the prefabs require more cleaning and more time to get around to
• Prefabs have been added on in an unplanned manner, thus school space and facilities compromised
• Supervision a big problem on wet days and often neither the children or the teacher can have a break
• Older prefabs particularly noisy with teacher in neighbouring LS room disrupted by low level noise coming from neighbouring classroom
• Some teachers have spent all their teaching career in a prefab, they don't know what a proper classroom is!
• There are a constant amount of repair issues attached to even the newer prefabs, with windows cracking, door locks failing, heaters not working, leaks in toilets, fittings coming off walls etc.
• Signigicant rodent problem around prefabs, this was really evident during the last cold spellaccess has been a huge problem for teachers as the wireless signal is not constant, so it can very from acceptable, to poor, to non-existent, thus planning technology based lessons is hugely problematical for teachers. We also planned to purchase a bank of laptops to share between classes, thus increasing accessibility for all pupils to proper IT lessons. This plan was shelved due to transportation issues for a laptop bank.
• Astronomical electricity bill in winter time as all the prefabs are electrically heated. The last bill we received was for over €2300, even with the school being closed for the Christmas holidays.
• We are the only school in East Meath/South Louth that has not been given hope for a school building in the near future. Promised objectivity in prioritising building projects has not happened. While many schools are complete the rest are at an advanced planning stage. All of the school community is demoralised by the lack of progress.