First steps for school with big plans for the future

Staff of Enfield Community School from left ….Jennifer Daly, Laura Walsh, Rebecca Kenny and principal, Shane Foley.

The opening of the new Enfield Community College this September will be the culmination of years of campaigning by local families for a school for the south Meath town.

Generations of secondary school students from Enfield have had lengthy daily journeys from the town to schools in Kilcock and Maynooth, Longwood, Trim and Edenderry.

When the new school opens in September with around 35 first year students, it will be the start of a new LMETB school which is expected to grow to 1,000 pupils in just a few short years.

At the helm of the new establishment is Shane Foley, former principal of Dunshaughlin Community College, along with a team of nine talented young teachers who are enthusiastic at the prospect of starting up a new school under the mantle of the Louth Meath Education and Training Board.

“We have the unique opportunity of providing very specialised education this year, with small classes and plenty of support from teachers,” he says.

To date they have 35 pupils enrolled and Mr Foley is in the unique position of having plenty of room for social distancing in the school's temporary accommodation.

Delays in the planning process for the new school has meant the new temporary accommodation planned for the school won't be ready until November, but in the meantime, the school will be located in the old ESB offices in the town.

“We will have our purpose built temporary accommodation at the back of the current building ready in November and it will include general classrooms as well as home economics, woodwork, metalwork rooms and science labs.”

“Meath Co Council has kindly leased us this building for a year and I want to thank the CEO, Jackie Maguire for her role it procuring it.

“The building is being developed to the highest standard and meets full fire and disability access standards.

“Extensive work is currently been carried out on the building thanks to the funding which CE Martin O’ Brien secured for the project," he said.

Mr Foley is currently in the process of ordering the necessary furniture and equipment and establishing a book rental scheme that will be needed to have the school up and running for September.

“We have a great staff of nine and LMETB had the foresight to hire a guidance counsellor Roisin Breslin for the new school.

"We are putting the finishing touches to our recruitment campaign with the hiring of the following ancillary staff cleaner, caretaker and secretary.

Mr Foley is delighted at the number of people who have called into his office in the new school to talk to him.

“The other schools in the area had completed their enrollment process before patronage of our school was finalised. We have had people enrolled elsewhere who have changed their minds and enrolled here.”

He expects that over the next five to seven years Enfield Community College will cater for 1,000 students.

A permament school building which will cater for 1,000 pupils is planned for the Kilcock Road. It will be a state of the art campus with a full sized sports hall and two ASD units.

He is anxious to build a core community in the school that will be very much part of Enfield.

“We will provide for all sports and hook in with the local clubs,” he said.

“Students of Enfield Community College will have long term connections with their local community

“As a new school we will be creating the tradition and culture of the school

“I will be working with the staff to create that culture, but it will not just be about ourselves.

“It will be very much community-based, working with the parents and students and our core value will be respect.

“It is our priority to provide a safe, positive and supportive learning environment for all our students.

“We will have a comprehensive academic programme as well as an extensive programme of co curricular and extra curricular activities,” he said.