“The best birthday and retirement present ever!” Newry Principal after school funding announcement | Latest Newry News, Newry Sport and Newry Business for Newry City

“The best birthday and retirement present ever!” Newry Principal after school funding announcement

“It’s the best birthday and retirement present ever!”

Those were the words of Mr Ciarán Mackin this week, Principal of Saint Patrick’s Nursery and Primary School in The Meadow, Newry on hearing the news that the school had received approval from the Minister of Education Peter Weir for a 4million pound Capital investment.

 

 

The investment is for a refurbishment to enhance the existing facilities.

He told Newry Times, “The school is celebrating its 60th Birthday and I am preparing for retirement. 

“Clearly education and indeed society is experiencing very difficult and challenging times as a result of Covid-19 and the acceptance of our submission will help lift some of the uncertainty and ensure that Saint Patrick’s will have state of the art facilities to improve the life chances of all our pupils. 

 

 

“Approval will allow Saint Patrick’s a blank canvas to future proof planning for curriculum delivery in whatever form it takes post Covid-19.

He continued, “To get to this point has taken a very strong lobbying campaign led by our Chair of Governors Karen Mc Nally, our current Governors, past Governors, past and current staff and indeed local politicians. 

“I would like to thank in particular MLA Liz Kimmins, who in recent times made sure that our bid was given priority placement on the Minister’s desk. 

 

 

“Saint Patrick’s prides itself as being in the heart of the community and having the community at heart so this is a good news story for everyone and can only improve the contribution the school makes to the social fabric of Newry.”

Mr Mackin paid tribute to the entire school family for the way they had embraced the Home-School Learning programme which had been triggered prior to the announcement of school closure and lockdown. 

He said the staff are acutely aware of the pressures of home learning and continue to employ and explore a range of methods to enhance the connection between pupil and school.

 

 

 

Keep up to date with all the latest Northern Ireland Coronavirus / Covid-19 news HERE

 

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Posted by on May 8 2020. Filed under Community. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

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