Connacht Tribune
Students fight to keep secondary school open
Students of Coláiste an Chreagáin in Mountbellew are spearheading a campaign to keep the secondary school open.
The 80-year-old learning facility, formerly known as St. Jarlath’s Vocational School, faces closure as a mainstream school, due to dwindling enrolment. It plans to turn its attention to third level further education and training instead.
The bombshell news was dropped last week causing anger and confusion in the school community. But students of the school, with the support of parents, have channelled their frustration into efforts to save the school through increased recruitment.
They have set-up an online petition and campaign to try to boost enrolment numbers – appealing to youngsters in the area to opt to go to first year at Coláiste an Chreagáin so that its Board of Management might reverse its decision to focus on further education and training.
“Our school has been open for over 80 years, and was one of the first rural schools in the country. If you are going into first year this September we ask you to please consider Coláiste an Chreagáin as an option for you, or if you know somebody who is currently in sixth class, please make them aware of our fantastic school,” the students’ petition says.
The school was opened in 1932 but it was confirmed last week that it will cease accepting first years and transition year students due to low projected intake for September 2017.
Students currently in first and second year, will continue to be schooled there until they finish their junior cycle, when they will then have to move to another school. Those already in the senior cycle and third year, will be accommodated to complete their Leaving Cert and second level education.
Coláiste an Chreagáin plans to phase out its mainstream secondary education by 2019, by which time it will be completely focused on pre-college courses, apprenticeships and post-leaving cert courses or PLCs.
On current numbers, there will be just 45 mainstream students at the school come September.
However, parents claim that some 16 new students had committed to joining first year in September until the GRETB (formerly the VEC) and the Department of Education “pulled the rug from under” ongoing efforts to save the school.
The school has been described by parents as “like a family”, and they have vowed to fight the decision.
Even principal Ann Marie Carroll said she would like to see the school remain open as a mainstream educator but the figures don’t stack up.
“Coláiste an Chreagáin would love to continue the mainstream education and serve the needs of community – as it currently stands we do not have the sufficient numbers on the books. It’s a cruel way of looking at it but that’s the reality,” she said.
She said there has been a “continuous decline” in the number of mainstream students enrolling in the past few years.
That in turn has a negative impact on staffing levels, and erodes the school’s teaching allocation, she said.
She said the Board of Management met to consider the challenge faced by declining enrolment but the GRETB and the Department of Education “were not in a position to provide the staffing that we needed to provide a broad mainstream curriculum for our students that we were looking at in the incoming first year.”
She said there was growing demand for further education and training and Coláiste an Chreagáin was ideally placed and has already secured links with local further and higher education institutions to provide a wide range of pre-apprenticeship course and pre-college courses.
“The figures we had were unsustainable. Should the figures dramatically increase, that would be a matter for the Board of Management to consider, but as it currently stands, the figures that we had, for our perspective incoming first years, was not significant for us to sustain the mainstream side of the house by intaking first years,” said Ms Carroll.
The students have used an online petition to highlight the reasons why it should remain open. The petition points out how there is a wide variety of sports on offer at the school including basketball, football, soccer, hurling, swimming, table tennis, athletics, handball and horse riding.
“Unless we increase the amount of first year students enrolled in Coláiste an Chreagáin for September 2017, then our beloved school must stop its mainstream education service. This means that our school will be unable to provide second level education for the current first and second year students and they will be forced to move school,” the petition added.
Significant state investment is required to address ‘shocking’ inequalities that leave cancer patients in the West at greater risk of succumbing to the disease.
A meeting of Regional Health Forum West heard that survival rates for breast, lung and colorectal cancers than the national average, and with the most deprived quintile of the population, the West’s residents faced poorer outcomes from a cancer diagnosis.
For breast cancer patients, the five-year survival rate was 80% in the West versus 85% nationally; for lung cancer patients it was 16.7% in the west against a 19.5% national survival rate; and in the West’s colorectal cancer patients, there was a 62.6% survival rate where the national average was 63.1%.
These startling statistics were provided in answer to a question from Ballinasloe-based Cllr Evelyn Parsons (Ind) who said it was yet another reminder that cancer treatment infrastructure in the West was in dire need of improvement.
“The situation is pretty stark. In the Western Regional Health Forum area, we have the highest incidence of deprivation and the highest health inequalities because of that – we have the highest incidences of cancer nationally because of that,” said Cllr Parsons, who is also a general practitioner.
In details provided by CEO of Saolta Health Care Group, which operates Galway’s hospitals, it was stated that a number of factors were impacting on patient outcomes.
Get the full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune, on sale in shops now, or you can download the digital edition from www.connachttribune.ie. You can also download our Connacht Tribune App from Apple’s App Store or get the Android Version from Google Play.
Galway 3-18
Cork 1-10
NEW setting; new opposition; new challenge. It made no difference to the Galway minor hurlers as they chalked up a remarkable sixth consecutive double digits championship victory at Semple Stadium on Saturday.
The final scoreline in Thurles may have been a little harsh on Cork, but there was no doubting Galway’s overall superiority in setting up only a second-ever All-Ireland showdown against Clare at the same venue on Sunday week.
Having claimed an historic Leinster title the previous weekend, Galway took a while to get going against the Rebels and also endured their first period in a match in which they were heavily outscored, but still the boys in maroon roll on.
Beating a decent Cork outfit by 14 points sums up how formidable Galway are. No team has managed to lay a glove on them so far, and though Clare might ask them questions other challengers haven’t, they are going to have to find significant improvement on their semi-final win over 14-man Kilkenny to pull off a final upset.
Galway just aren’t winning their matches; they are overpowering the teams which have stood in their way. Their level of consistency is admirable for young players starting off on the inter-county journey, while the team’s temperament appears to be bombproof, no matter what is thrown at them.
Having romped through Leinster, Galway should have been a bit rattled by being only level (0-4 each) after 20 minutes and being a little fortunate not to have been behind; or when Cork stormed out of the blocks at the start of the second half by hitting 1-4 to just a solitary point in reply, but there was never any trace of panic in their ranks.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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GARDAÍ and the IFA have issued a joint appeal to all road users to take extra care as the silage season gets under way across the country.
Silage harvesting started in many parts of Galway last week – and over the coming month, the sight of tractors and trailers on rural roads will be getting far more frequent.
Inspector Conor Madden, who is in charge of Galway Roads Policing, told the Farming Tribune that a bit of extra care and common-sense from all road users would go a long way towards preventing serious collisions on roads this summer.
“One thing I would ask farmers and contractors to consider is to try and get more experienced drivers working for them.
“Tractors have got faster and bigger – and they are also towing heavy loads of silage – so care and experience are a great help in terms of accident prevention,” Inspector Madden told the Farming Tribune.
He said that tractor drivers should always be aware of traffic building up behind them and to pull in and let these vehicles pass, where it was safe to do so.
“By the same token, other road users should always exercise extra care; drive that bit slower; and ‘pull in’ that bit more, when meeting tractors and heavy machinery.
“We all want to see everyone enjoying a safe summer on our roads – that extra bit of care, and consideration for other roads users can make a huge difference,” said Conor Madden.
He also advised motorists and tractor drivers to be acutely aware of pedestrians and cyclists on the roads during the summer season when more people would be out walking and cycling on the roads.
The IFA has also joined in on the road safety appeal with Galway IFA Farm Family and Social Affairs Chair Teresa Roche asking all road users to exercise that extra bit of care and caution.
“We are renewing our annual appeal for motorists to be on the look out for tractors, trailers and other agricultural machinery exiting from fields and farmyards,” she said.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App
Download the Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App to access to Galway’s best-selling newspaper.
Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
Or purchase the Digital Edition for PC, Mac or Laptop from Pagesuite HERE.
Get the Connacht Tribune Live app
The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
Families queue up for school’s offer of free house
West has lower cancer survival rates than rest
Galway minors continue to lay waste to all opponents
Gardaí and IFA issue a joint appeal on summer road safety
Marathon Man plans to call a halt – but not before he hits 160 races
