School bus crash fear as RTE expose tyre danger [herald.ie]
- Published: 26 June 2009
GRAVE concerns have been raised about school bus safety after gardai allowed a bus filled with children, which had a "dangerous" defect, to continue its journey.
Viewers of an RTE show on traffic gardai saw officers come across a bus driving on a motorway with a damaged tyre, one broken seatbelt and several children standing unbelted.
The tyre was shown to be worn at the side, with a protruding wire that one of the gardai observed could "take the hand off" a child. However, despite the obvious concerns, the driver of the bus was allowed to continue the journey.
The disturbing discovery was made on a bus seen randomly stopped on the M4 on Traffic Blues, a programme following officers on road duties.
The driver was warned that his vehicle would be impounded if he did not change the tyre, but no other action was taken against him on screen.
tragedy
The incident occurred despite increased inspections of buses after the Navan crash tragedy in which five schoolgirls were killed.
Fine Gael's spokesman on school transport, Frank Feighan TD, said the number of inspections needed to quadruple. However, he praised the gardai for taking the initiative in carrying out checks.
"I would be concerned that after so much public awareness being raised, there are still some children who don't wear seatbelts," Mr Feighan said.
"The fact that one of the belts was out of order is unsatisfactory and the state of the tyre is very, very worrying. I know there are a lot of inspections going on, but it's clearly not enough and clearly the message isn't getting through. Standards cannot be allowed to slip."
Asked about letting the bus driver continue, Mr Feighan said: "The garda made his decision and it's hard to see how bad the tyre was."
A Garda Press Office spokesman said: "If it was a borderline case, the garda was right to use his discretion as they do on a daily basis. But if it was of such a defect that it would cause immediate serious danger, it would have been impounded there and then or the driver would have been given an opportunity to change the tyre."
Supervisors
The National Parents Council (Primary) CEO Aine Lynch said she had not seen the programme, but was calling for supervisors to be present on buses to ensure children remained seated and belted.
Meanwhile, an investigation has begun into the cause of a blaze on board a bus on the M50 yesterday from which 63 children miraculously escaped.
Millstreet principal leads drive to replace prefabs with bricks [corkman.ie]
- Published: 26 June 2009
A MILLSTREET school principal has saved the Dept of Education at least €14.6 million after putting forward a proposal to use grant money to build new classrooms rather than waste it on renting prefabricated units.
Joan O'Mahony recently learned that her proposal will now be rolled out nationwide by the Minister for Education, Batt O'Keeffe who hails from nearby Cullen.
The very humorous principal told The Corkman that Millstreet Convent NS has been allowed use its grant aid of €240,000 to build two new classrooms rather than buying prefabricated units.
"We are a country school and know the value of money, and I could not justify spending €240,000 on prefabricated units when I'd have two fine classrooms for it instead," said Joan O'Mahony.
The school, with over 200 students, was built during the famine.
"I heard the Minister would be in our area last year and said 'now is my time to nab him'. I went up to him and he turned to me and said - well you look like a woman who is looking for money," said Ms O'Mahony.
She said that she told Minister O'Keeffe that she had the money but wasn't too keen on wasting it on prefabricated buildings which would depreciate and wear down over time. "He loved the idea and agreed with me that bricks and mortar were the way to go," she said.
However, the Dept of Education were not so keen on the idea as they had 'no box to tick' when it came to this new idea. O'Mahony explained to an official within the department as this was a pilot project then a new sheet could be drafted which included a box to tick on it.
She got a quick correspondence from the Minister that her proposal was given the green light.
At present, two classrooms are being built by the Buckley Brothers, Ballydesmond, and it's hoped the classrooms will be ready for use on September 1.
"The school was built during the famine, and I said to the Minister, if a school could be built during that time, then surely the Department could find a few bob for us to get this project going," she said.
The national school includes a staggering 17 different nationalities - Iraq, Iran, Moldovian, Congo, Nigerian, Bulgaria, Poland to mention a few.
The land where the school was built was given by the Catholic gentry of Coomlogane over 150 years ago. O'Mahony felt the project should in honour be called 'The Coomlogane project.'
She said that up to a few years ago there were 140 children on the roll book. However, that number rocketed has rocketed with immigrants and asylum seekers. "We really are a cosmopolitan school and our motto is that everyone is welcome through our door with absolutely no strings attached," she said.
She thanked Minister O'Keeffe and Deputy Michael Moynihan who also worked on making this project a reality.
Now, 60 schools nationwide will follow this pilot programme which all started in Millstreet.
"The school's proposal made sense to me so I decided to make the option available to other schools around the country and so far almost 60 of them have chosen to follow the example of Millstreet Convent National School as part of the pilot plan,' said Minister O'Keeffe. Those include Castlelyons NSational School, Baltydaniel NS, and Scoil Freastogail Muire, Fermoy.
Clarification regarding legitimate use of capitation funding Circular 0040/2009 [education.ie]
- Published: 25 June 2009
In the context of the Budget in October 2008 the Minister for Education and Science indicated that it was his intention to streamline and rationalise the different grant schemes that provide funding to primary schools. The Minister made this statement having regard to representations and suggestions made to his Department that the grant system should be simplified for ease of administration and that school management should have greater autonomy over the funding provided.
The purpose of this letter is to clarify that capitation funding provided this year for general running costs and funding provided for caretaking and secretarial services may be regarded as a common grant from which the Board of Management can allocate according to its own priorities. In due course both grant schemes will be merged. In the interim both grants will continue to be paid according to existing timelines and calculated separately as heretofore.
As you will be aware, a decision was made in the October 2008 budget that funding for school books would be targeted at schools within the DEIS (Delivering Equality of
Schools that are not in receipt of DEIS funding can utilise capitation or caretaker/secretarial funding to support book rental schemes or to otherwise help provide books for individual pupils where this is considered by a Board to be a priority for the school.
Martin Hanevy
Assistant Secretary
June 2009
ILSA Annual Conference 2009 [ilsa.ie]
- Published: 24 June 2009
ILSA Annual Conference 2009
"Meeting the Needs of All Students in Challenging Times"
Venue: St. Patrick's College, Drumcondra, Dublin
Date: September 18th & 19th
Further details will be posted here when available.
Membership Application/Renewal forms may be downloaded by clicking here (pdf) or here (Word).
Leading and supporting change in schools [ncca.ie]
- Published: 24 June 2009
Leading and supporting change in schools
Check out a new paper that brings together ideas on how curriculum change happens in schools. How does our thinking fit with your ideas on how change happens? We're consulting on the paper as part of our work on the NCCA's Strategic Plan. We'd welcome your views. Follow this link to submit your views.
