No place in Fermoy national school for four autistic pupils

Four students with autism are set to have to move from Fermoy Educate Together National School (ETNS) due to ongoing issues with space meaning that the school cannot open an autism class it was sanctioned last year.

School principal Toni Maguire told The Echo that the department of education had sent a property management team to asses the facility in March, and talks have since reopened with Cork Education and Training Board about allowing the school to use two classrooms on the second floor.

She explained: “I’ve been highlighting for years that that we’re in a department building, why couldn’t we be facilitated in the rooms upstairs — I didn’t feel the space up there was being used to capacity, so that’s currently being looked into.

“Meanwhile, our children need an autism class. We have four students we’ve been facilitating here because their parents wanted to send them to a multidenominational school, they’ve remained with us out of hope that we could get a class for them,” she said.

“Last year a class was sanctioned, but the department didn’t give us the space and the letters sanctioning classes only last for a year. We have another two parents currently homeschooling their children but hoping to bring them here, but when I asked to get a class sanctioned for the coming year, it was denied. The four children we have are going to have to leave and enrol in Catholic schools for the next school year.

“We’re still teaching SET classes in hallways and in the staffroom, while people coming to use the photocopier or go to the office are interrupting their learning. 

"We physically can’t fit any more children into our classrooms, we have a waiting list that we can’t accommodate.”

Social Democrats TD Liam Quaide highlighted the importance of non-religious schools and the overcrowding situation in the Fermoy school in the Dáil last week, saying: “Throughout the country, parents have extremely limited choice in where they send their children. This is particularly true in rural areas and in my own constituency of Cork East, where, for example, we have only two ETNS and no secondary schools.”

A spokesperson for the department of education told The Echo: “Officials from the department recently visited Fermoy ETNS and are considering a number of options in relation to the school’s future accommodation needs. The department and the National Council for Special Education will continue to consider the school for special classes in future years.”