Scoil Ghleann an Ghrifín
Bulbhard Ghleann an Ghrifín
Leamhcán
Co Átha Cliath
Fón: 01 6219 819
Fasc: . 01 6219 821
e-phost: info@gvet.ie
www.gveducate.org
Griffeen Valley Educate
TogetherNational school
Griffeen Glen Boulevard,
Lucan, Co. Dublin.
Tel: 01 6219 819
Fax No. 01 6219 821
E-Mail: info@gvet.ie
www.gveducate.org
Principal’s Annual Report
Griffeen Valley ETNS
School Year 2012-2013
1. One of the primary achievements of the school year 2012-2013 was the
successful conclusion of difficult negotiations with the Department of
Education and Skills in relation to our new building. Building work will begin
in the next few months and take approximately 1 year to complete. The
additional structure will contain 8 new classrooms, 2 new libraries, hugely
improved facilities for our children with special needs, and a magnificent new
hall. Huge congratulations are due to our Board of Management for its
persistence and determination to achieve this for GVETNS, especially in the
context of the really challenging economic circumstances we live in.
2. A second major success of the last school year was the offering of a pilot allIrish-medium Junior Infant class. This class was a marvellous success. When
the pilot project was reviewed around Easter time, a near 100% of parents and
children wanted to continue with Irish-medium instruction into Senior Infants.
In the current school year, Griffeen is in the happy position of being able to
offer a choice for parents of English-medium or Irish-medium instruction in
both Junior and Senior Infants, a unique situation in Irish primary education.
3. Our school is very proud to report that our children ‘initiated, led and
delivered’ upon the first ever all-island fledgling Students’ Union/Council
summit last June. 4 schools met in Armagh around the time of the G8 Summit,
representing schools from both sides of the border, and from both traditions
north of the border. Issues such as Globalisation and World Hunger/ Food
Security were discussed, and plans were laid to expand on the first ever
primary schools students’ forum in the new school year.
Our Students’ Union was particularly busy last October working with
UNICEF to organise a ballot of all our students on the Referendum on
Children’s Rights. The discussions and debates held were passionate, with
many children demanding to know why children are excluded from voting in a
referendum on children’s rights. Interestingly, the result of the vote in the
adult referendum was similar to the result in Griffeen carried out almost a
week beforehand.
4. The last school year saw the arrival of a whole number of ‘distinguished’
guests in Griffeen. Colm O’Gorman, Chairperson of Amnesty International
Ireland, visited and listened with great attention to a debate between our two
5th classes as to whether Griffeen should be the first primary school in Ireland
to join Amnesty. The debate was very robust, and stunned and surprised Colm
who later tweeted that he was enormously pleased by the quality of the
questions and comments put to him by the children. At the end of the robust
discussion, our senior assembly decided to go ahead and become Amnesty
International Ireland’s most youthful troops. Among the other visitors were
Morleigh Steinberg, partner of U2’s The Edge, Fachtna Clandillon, founder of
Nagarhope; Wilfred Bungei, Olympic 800m champion from Beijing; Lynn
Jackson, head of the Irish Holocaust Trust; Brian Maguire, distinguished artist
and human rights activist and Sheila Nunan, General Secretary of the Irish
National Teachers’ Organisation.
5. The ever-generous children from Griffeen were busy fundraising for worthy
causes in ’12-’13. Our support for the Simon Community centred around their
October Fun Run. February 15th was, as always, associated with our work for
Amnesty International. Time was also found to organise some very welcome
support for the Special Olympics Ireland organisation.
6. Our collective love of books and of creating writing also had important places
in our school life during the school year. Many of our classes attended creative
writing workshops in Roddy Doyle’s “Fighting Words” venue. The annual
Book Fair in October, organised by Liz and Rita, was another wonderful
success. Almost €4,000 was raised as children were seen in numbers in an
enraptured state walking the school with eyes glued to their latest literary
purchase.
Children’s Books Ireland and Hodges Figgis invited some of our junior
children to help the Children’s Laureate to paint their Christmas window, and
the Santasaurus window in Dawson St was greatly admired.
The visit of internationally renowned author, Melvin Burgess, was a
wonderful highlight of the year, especially in our 6th classes. There he read
from and debated aspects of his books with the children who were truly
enthralled by the questions he posed and the uncertainties he explored with
them. Education, as you know of course, comes from the Latin words “E
Duco”, meaning to lead from!! Melvin’s exceptional discussions with our
children were an outstanding example of an educator leading information from
a group of receptive kiddies to wonderful, educational effect. We look forward
to welcoming him again when his book tours allow, and to witnessing him
enthral another group of young people with his wit, his probing questions and
his thrilling stories.
7. After-school clubs also featured strongly in the afternoons in our building.
Science, computers, basketball for both boys and girls, and soccer were among
the options offered the charges in Griffeen. Meanwhile, in-school sport, as
ever well coordinated by Órla, was very extensive, with Johnny McCaffrey,
captain of Dublin’s unlucky hurlers, a very regular visitor to our school. At the
same time, Stephen Rice, a star of the Shamrock Rovers team also called
weekly, as the big hitters competed for the hearts and minds of our budding
supremos.
8.
Not everything in the rosiest of gardens is always rosy, and so it was for the
children with special needs in schools throughout Ireland, including Griffeen.
Their human rights were again trampled upon on a daily basis as a direct result
of government cutbacks. We are appalled and disgusted at the lengths our
government is prepared to go to in its determination to repay debts that many
people feel are not ours [and certainly not those of our most vulnerable
children].
9. Griffeen Valley continued to try to support those of our páistí for whom some
aspects of life are a bit of a bit challenging. Lisa opened a Green Room for
some of our kiddies who struggle with the noise and commotion of the yard.
Julie continued to offer support for those children who have particular needs in
the areas of bereavement and loss.
10. South Dublin County Council decided to mark our children’s willingness to
walk or cycle to school with the provision of a new €4,000 bike shelter. The
Council also provided a very welcome conveyor belt of prizes for our cyclists
with bicycle hats, pumps, repair kits and lots more coming our way over the
course of the last school year. No doubt the good habits in terms of walking
and cycling will stand us in good stead when our new building starts and the
school is closed to all traffic!!!!! Wellie boots and brollies at the ready!
11. Griffeen’s kids marked and celebrated a multitude of various events and
occasions in the course of the last school year. Our Food Fair was moved to
September and was, again, a delicious success. Our Winter Fair raised an
amount of money and got us all in the mood for Christmas. The Holocaust was
scrutinised and examined in an exceptional manner with the visit of Lynn
Jackson, chair of the Holocaust Educational Trust Ireland. Martin Luther
King’s famous “I had a Dream” speech was honoured in theatrical style by our
4th classes. Meanwhile, Maths week, Science week, Seachtain na Gaeilge and
Healthy Eating week all had their moments in a very full school year.
12. Science has managed to elbow itself into a place of some prominence in the
life of the school. For the 7th year in a row, the school was awarded with the
“Excellence in Science Award”, a record we are just a little bit proud of!
Siobhán also worked on a raft of experiments with the children, and submitted
their work for the inspection of some academics from Trinity College. The
result of that inspection found our wannabe scientists being invited to the lofty
heights of Trinity College, where they were enthusiastically commended for
their scientific achievements.
13. Technology continues to become more central to school life and the last
school year was no exception. 2 new state-of-the-art photocopiers were
purchased. A large screen now occupies a prominent place in the school foyer
showing pictures of our little scholars enjoying all the fun of the fair. This
screen will also display messages to parents, thereby developing our ability to
keep our parent body up-to-date with life in the Valley! Griffeen School also
joined the twitterati in the last school year and can be found at @GVETNS for
further information on the fun and frolics of teaching and learning in GVET!
14. Singin’ and dancin’ enjoys a well-deserved status in our school. Weekly
whole-school singing classes, Christmas/Winter concerts and the bi-annual
Griffeen’s Got Talent all contribute to the regular sound of music in the rooms
and hall in Griffeen. The school is also very happy to announce that
discussions held with Westside Stage School at the end of the last school year
will allow both Griffeen and Westside to announce a package of scholarships
for children from our school in the new calendar year. This is very exciting
and will prove a wonderful opportunity for some of our very talented little
scholars.
15. Griffeen’s parent body continued to play an absolutely essential role in the life
of the school. The school’s PTA, ably led by Deirdre and Rosie, gave a clear
voice to the views of parents, while at the same time spearheading the school’s
fundraising drive. €20,000 was raised in the last school year, a huge tribute to
the ongoing generosity of our parents in these very difficult economic times.
Our PTA also organised an excellent talk on Internet Safety, supervised and
coordinated some school discos, contributed generously to the school’s
professional development fund and heavily funded our Students’ Union’s trip
to the inaugural All-Island Students’ Union/Council Forum.
None of the above includes the huge amount of work that goes into the selling
of school books [all done in-house to save money] and to the organisation of
both the school book club and school book-rental scheme. Thanks to the
exceptional efforts of parents, the school has been able to reduce the cost of
books to parents for each of the last 4 years.
The school’s garden has produced yet another bumper crop of spuds, peas,
broccoli and much more. Michael Cremins deserves great credit for the time,
effort and TLC he gives to our garden. Eileen and Jenny have also contributed
hugely and we thank them for their labours.
16. In the midst of all of the above unfolding and unravelling in various states
each day in Griffeen, our school’s inspector arrived unannounced one day last
March to carry out an “incidental inspection”. His report was wonderfully
encouraging of the work of little scholars and staff alike. He highlighted, in
particular, the warmth of the atmosphere around the school and the happiness
the children exuded. He praised the very high standard of Irish around the
school. His comments were very encouraging and a nice compliment to the
efforts of the school’s hard-working, enthusiastic and very capable staff.
17. The last 4 weeks of the last school year found the school dealing with some
unfortunate matters arising from a trip to the Gaeltacht. The school’s Board of
Management made a comprehensive statement on this trip at the end of June
last and this is available on the school’s website gveducate.org
18. Year 12 in the story of our school has just kicked off for the 440 scholars in
Griffeen Valley School. It will be another year of frenetic activity, with as
much fun in the learning process as is humanly and technologically possible.
We look forward to the year ahead with great enthusiasm and wish our staff,
parents, Board of Management and, most especially, the little scholars a very
happy and productive 2013-2014.