ST COLMCILLE'S P.S.

2 Rockstown Road, Carrickmore, co Tyrone BT79 9 BE

Tec 028 8076 1283 / 028 8076 1855

DEVELOPMENT PROPOSAL FOR STATUTORY NAÍSCOIL IN

ST COLMCILLE'S P.S/ BUNSCOIL NAOMH COLMCILLE

Dear parents

Ever since Naíscoil Cholmcille was established in 2001, the Board of Governors of St Colmcille's Primary School / Bunscoil Naomh Colmcille has sought the provision of a statutory Irish-medium Nursery on the grounds of the school.

Naíscoil Cholmcille is regarded as an integral part of the school provision and an essential foundation for the school's Bunscoil. Since it opened, Naíscoil staff have enjoyed a professional working relationship with teachers and assistants in St Colmcille's PS/Bunscoil Naomh Colmcille.

We believe that a statutory Irish Medium Nursery is essential because:

• There should be equity between English and Irish medium provision; English Medium children have access to a full-time statutory Nursery, Irish-medium should have the same entitlement.
• In recent years, the Naíscoil Committee has secured Pathways funding to extend its opening hours, currently just 30 minutes short of full-time. It is important that the Department of Education approves full-time provision as soon as possible to ensure continuity of provision and equity with English-medium provision.
• The Naíscoil is regarded as an integral part of the school provision and an essential foundation for the school's Bunscoil, however, it requires statutory recognition to secure its long-term future.
• Enrolment figures over the past ten years in the Naíscoil and birth rates in the parish indicate that a full-time statutory Naíscoil is viable.
• Naíscoil Cholmcille is in an area scoring high on the deprivation index of 46 in access to services, 144 income affecting children and 193 in deprivation of living environment so access to quality local full-time Naíscoil provision is important rather than relying on a voluntary committee to seek annual funding.
• Given a longer-term perspective, it may be difficult to recruit professionally trained leaders and assistants with the requisite competence in Irish to lead and manage a voluntary setting as such people are more likely to pursue a teaching qualification.
• The Board of Governors is committed to securing a new school building for the school community. To date over £750,000 has been committed to this project by the Department of Education. As a matter of equity, Naíscoil Colmcille should be an integral element within the design process. This can best secured if it has statutory recognition.

In 2017, the Minister turned down our previous Development Proposal for statutory status for the Naíscoil and over the past three years CCMS has prepared the resubmission of the development proposal on behalf of the Board of Governors, initially seeking full-time provision but were advised to revise the proposal to “part-time” as full-time provision wasn’t attainable at that time.

However, since this application was submitted, changes have occurred in department policy namely the implementation of standardisation of Pre-school Education Programme to full-time (22.5 hours per week) for all children aged 3-4 as part of the Early Learning and Childcare Strategy, in line with the recommendations of the Fair Start Report (2021). On that basis, we believe this should be taken into account when considering this application.

In conclusion, in recognition of its healthy admissions numbers and the inequity between English and Irish medium provision, it is imperative that a statutory Irish Medium Nursery shall replace the voluntary Naíscoil and that the Minister of Education approves a full-time Naíscoil as a priority within the standardisation programme for Pre-school Education.

The consultation document link is https://www.eani.org.uk/school-management/area-planning/developmentproposals

Local politicians, schools and Irish Medium organisations have made very positive responses to the consultation process so far. If you would like to make a response to the consultation, please send an email to dps@education-ni.gov.uk closing date for submissions is the 12^thNovember 2024.

Yours faithfully

Peter Cush

Principal

Naíscoil Colm Cille

An Charraig Mhór

Creggan Road, Carrickmore, Co Tyrone BT79 9BD

A Chara

As you are aware a development proposal is under consultation to change Naíscoil from voluntary to statutory provision. Currently Naíscoil is a voluntary service managed by the Naíscoil committee and is inspected by Social Services and the Education Training Inspectorate (ETI).

We are permitted to enrol 21-24 children and need staff ratio of 1 staff per 8 children. Our staff are level 5 child care professionals with high fluency in Irish. We are funded for part time hours 9.15am -11.45 am but for the past few years we have applied and received pathway funding to extend our hours from 9.15-1. We are not permitted to extend the hours beyond this. We apply annually and cannot guarantee we will get this every year or that the funding stream will continue.

To seek parity of provision with the English medium nursery, the committee were interested in seeking full time statutory provision. Statutory provision would mean the school would be part of St. Colmcille's primary school and managed by them. They would be permitted to enrol 26 children and have a staffing ratio of 1 member of staff to 13 children so a teacher and a teaching assistant would be employed.

During the consultation process the CCMS advised the application should be changed to apply for part time as they stated full time provision was not being granted. There has since been a change in policy were implementation of standardisation of Pre-school Education Programme to full-time (22.5 hours per week) for all children aged 3-4 as part of the Early Learning and Childcare Strategy, in line with the recommendations of the Fair Start Report (2021) is being rolled out but may take several years until all services are funded for full time hours.

The Naíscoil committee have responded to the consultation seeking full time provision to provide equality between English and Irish medium. It is important that parents and the local community respond to the consultation even if you have previously responded to earlier rounds of consultation. The consultation document link is https://www.eani.org.uk/school-management/area-planning/developmentproposals

Responses to the consultation should be emailed to dps@education-ni.gov.uk  closing date for submissions is the 12th November 2024.

Naíscoil Committee