Today Riverview Educate Together National School welcomed its first cohort of Junior Infant pupils. Based in the former St Peter’s National School in Limekiln Road, Riverview ETNS is one of schools that has been ‘divested’ to Educate Together from the Archdiocese of Dublin to provide choice of school patronage to families in the surrounding community.
The demand in the locality was such that a parent-led campaign to accelerate the opening of an Educate Together school national school collected more than 1,000 Expressions of Interest and garnered national and international media attention.
Says Principal Margaret Burke:
“For our Junior Infant children who packed their bags and put on their new shoes to come to Riverview Educate Together National School this morning, and for their families, today is a special day. For me too this is very special day; it is a day filled with a sense of gratitude, privilege and purpose as we all start out together to build a school; to build a happy and vibrant learning community.”
Say Nikki Murphy, parent:
"Today is a great day of new beginnings for Riverview ETNS and for the Junior Infants on their first day of school. I feel very lucky that my son Reuben can attend an Educate Together school in the community. I've no doubt he will be happy and enjoy learning here. There is no doubt either that Riverview will be another hugely popular and over-subscribed Educate Together school in south Dublin. Hopefully there will be lots more to follow."
Riverview ETNS joins three other national schools that will open this week: Castlebar ETNS in Mayo and Broombridge ETNS and Grace Park ETNS in Dublin. Educate Together also also opened five second-level schools in Cork, Wicklow and Dublin on Monday.
Riverview ETNS has opened as part of the divestment process. This process of reconfiguration was recommended in 2012/2013 by the Government-appointed Forum for Patronage and Pluralism to progress the transfer of patronage of a small number of Catholic schools to another patron, such as Educate Together, where there is parental demand to do so.
