The new Edmund Rice Senior School and Catherine McAuley Junior School at Castlemoyle, near Irishtown is nearing completion. Pic: John Walsh
THE BOARD of Management at the new primary school campus nearing completion in New Ross is hopeful it will be open in November.
The Edmund Rice Senior School and Catherine McAuley Junior School, which will be located at Castlemoyle, near the Irishtown, are the result of an amalgamation of the existing CBS, Michael Street Boys, and St. Joseph’s Girls, primary schools in the town.
When contacted about the project by the Echo, Brian McMahon, who is Principal of the CBS, said everyone is “hoping” for a November opening.
Even though the campus won’t be accepting students through its doors at the start of the new school term in September the month will bring about historically significant changes for both the CBS and St. Josephs as boys registered in the former will begin their new school term in the latter – which has been an all-girls school for the last number of decades.
While Mr. McMahon said one of the new school buildings looks likely to be finished “slightly ahead of the other” the Department of Education is unlikely to want one opening without the other.
“The plan is to get into them in tandem and it has to happen during a holiday period,” he said.
“The next window of opportunity will be the October mid-term break which will mean being in there in November if it’s all on time.”
If that doesn’t happen Mr. McMahon said the next available time period will be the Christmas break.
The scheduled hand-over date from the contractor is mid-October and Mr. McMahon is hopeful that will go ahead as planned.
He said much of the internal work in the school has been done and added that while everyone involved would have liked to have the project finished by now all that can be done is wait: “It will happen when it happens and all we can do now is wait and we hope we will be in there in November.”
He also complimented the standard of workmanship involved.
With regard to the amalgamation of the schools he said the delay in getting in could be advantageous as it will mean the staff will get used to working with each other and the pupils themselves will have the opportunity to acclimatise themselves to being in a mixed school.
“We have a couple of months now to integrate the staff and pupils before moving in [to the campus] which is a good thing,” he said.
“The different staff have to get to know each other and also the pupils but by the time we move up everyone should be fully integrated.”
“The amalgamation is the big thing and we are fully prepared for September from an educational point of view and that’s the important thing at the end of the day,” he added.
Mr. McMahon confirmed that moving into the new campus will be “a major change” for everyone involved and when it finally happens it will take about a week to complete the transition.
“If it’s not the October break it will be Christmas but we are hopeful we will open in November.”
