Cork parents 'relieved and delighted' that special school will open as normal following fears staff shortages would limit hours

Parents at a Cork special school have expressed relief that a planned reduction of services has been paused, following interventions by the Taoiseach and the special education minister.

St Gabriel’s Special School in Bishopstown has 54 students, aged four to 18, with severe intellectual disabilities, autism, and complex needs.

On Thursday night, parents at the special school were told by the school’s board of management that, from next Monday, all pupils would be moved to “a temporary part-time attendance schedule”.

The school said that in recent weeks “several serious incidents have occurred within the school environment”, resulting in injury to staff and pupils, “instances of pupils absconding from supervision … and situations requiring emergency medical intervention”.

The board of management said the new schedule would mean children “identified as high-risk due to crisis behaviour” would attend three days per week, while those designated as being lower risk would attend four days per week.

These were part of “urgent measures being taken in response to the ongoing critical staffing shortage”, the school said, “particularly in the area of Special Needs Assistants (SNAs)”.

Today, following communications with Taoiseach Micheál Martin and the special education minister Michael Moynihan, the school announced that the measures were being paused.

This afternoon, St Gabriel’s principal Dave Thomas contacted parents saying that “following meaningful engagement” with the Department of Education and the National Council of Special Education (NCSE), the school was pausing the introduction of emergency measures.

He said the school understood that “the NCSE will have a team in the school on Tuesday to begin supporting us with a full review of staffing needs”.

The Taoiseach, who had opened the special school in 1998 when he was education minister, said St Gabriel’s was very close to his own heart.

“It provides very important opportunities for the children and young people there, and strong supports have gone into the school, we’ve modernised it in recent times in terms of the physical facilities and so on. There’s an issue around the allocation of special needs assistants, but these issues can be resolved, and again, we will engage with the school on that,” Mr Martin said.

He added that he was glad that a process was in place now to resolve any remaining issues around staffing at St Gabriel’s.

Special education minister Michael Moynihan said there had been an “intensive engagement” with the school.

“A team from the NCSE will be going into the school early next week to fully support them in meeting the needs of their children,” he said.

One parent told The Echo she was “relieved and delighted” that the emergency measures had been paused, and she singled out Pat Buckley, Sinn Féin TD for Cork East, for his support.

“As a group we stood together and we fought for our children. We put the pressure on and we are grateful to Pat Buckley for always having our back.

“We’re grateful too to the Taoiseach and minister Moynihan, and we will be holding them to their word,” she said.

Mr Buckley said it was a “victory for people power, but these parents should not have to fight for their children’s education like this”.