Carlow Educate Together National School was built in 2008 after a successful three-year campaign from a parents’ group. The building has been purpose-built as an 8-classroom school and contains 2 support rooms, a staff room and two offices.
All of our classrooms have been built with plenty of space for each child and are hooked up to our computer network. Each room also has Internet-linked computers and an Interactive Whiteboard. All furniture has been granted by the Department of Education’s Buildings Section and supplied by Jones’ Business Systems.
After only 3 years, we’ve almost filled the building! There are now six classrooms being used by classes in our school:
- Junior Infants
- Senior Infants
- 1st and 2nd class
- 3rd and 4th class
- 5th and 6th class
- Special Class
Carlow Educate Together National School opened an autistic spectrum disorders class on January 7th, 2009. It is the only class in the town supported and funded by the Department of Education and the first of its type in Carlow Town. This class can cater for up to six children. There are four members of staff in the class this year.
Claire McInerney will be teaching in this class again this year. Claire has many years of experience teaching children with Special Educational Needs and was Deputy Principal of Kilkea National School before coming to our school. Lisa Sullivan, Bessie O’Toole and Majella Geoghan are the special needs assistants in the classroom. They have been working with children with ASD for many years.
The Outreach class provides several teaching methodologies, including TEAACH, to suit the individual child’s needs. Moreover, children are given opportunities to integrate with the mainstream classes. Therefore, children from the outreach class spend varying degrees of time with their peers and vice versa. It is hoped that, in time, the children will integrate completely and be able to cope well with the average Irish classroom. Each year, so far, several children have fully integrated into mainstream classes and this has worked really well and they are brilliantly supported. This system has seen huge benefits for all members of the school community and creates an inclusive atmosphere. An added feature for children in the school is the addition of a multi-sensory room, which was fully completed in mid-2010.
We have an open enrollment system in our school so you can pre-enrol your child at any time during the school year. Pre-enrollment does not necessarily guarantee a place in our school as places are limited. As a child-centred school, we tend to enrol children only at the beginning of each school term. Obviously, there are circumstances where children will require enrollment mid-way through the year, (e.g. moving to Carlow), and these factors will be taken into account. Our school enrollment policy dictates that we will only enrol the maximum number that the government dictates for teacher to pupil ratio. As of August 2011, this figure is 29.