Redevelopment of St. Peter's School

Building a Future Together is our Vision for St. Peter's School and the parish community.  We believe that St. Peter's School ought to be a safe and pleasant environment in which to learn.  It should offer all the facilities available to achieve  high education standards and be a centre of excellence in the field of Catholic education. 

In 1998 we began the process of amalgamating the three schools in the parish (all housed in one building)  St. Peter's Boy's School, St. Peter's Girl's School and St. Peter's Infant School into one. In 1999 the new school was established, now known as St. Peter's National School.  A new principal, Mrs Joan Quinn was appointed and a new Board of Management was put in place.

Since then we have been tackling the needs of the school alongside the needs of the parish-community. We are now focussing our attention on the physical structure of the school building and adjacent parish hall which dates back to 1891 and is in need of  major refurbishment.  We are currently in negotiation with central government to pursue this objective and the Vincentian Community as Trustees and the Board of Management will pursue every possible avenue to obtain the necessary funding to make this dream a reality.

June 30th, 2001
With support from An Taoiseach, Mr. Bertie Ahern and the Minister for Education, Dr. Michael Woods we have now progressed to point where the Department of Education & Science have just approved the appointment of a design team.  
It is their task to oversee the redevelopment of the parish school in line with the plans displayed in the church some months ago. Apart from improving the learning environment for pupils and teachers this will also allow the school to grow - we will have two extra teaching posts from September 2001 - and provide new facilities such as a computer room and library. The school will reopen as usual this September and it is hoped that the work will be completed by September 2003.

January 2002
Plans for the new school and community centre have been proposed by the Design Team and have been submitted for planning permission as the first step in the process of redevelopment.  On Tuesday 26th March 2002 an information night took place to present the plans for the National School and Community Hall.  Blackwood Associates Architects presented the model of the new school and Fr. Sean discussed the various aspects of the project.  The model is on view in the parish office from Tuesday 2nd April, 2002.  You can support the project by contacting your local TD to ensure the funding is available to complete the plans and build a new school and community centre for the future generations.

December 2002
Update on St. Peter's National School
A decision was made to rebuild St. Peter’s National School at a cost of €3 million with a local contribution of €25,000. After consultation with the Department of Education a set of working plans were drawn up for a new school building. The present school façade on St. Peter’s Road will remain but the rest of the development requires the site of the present St. Peter’s Hall to meet up with regulations.

We had hoped to build a Community Centre at the same time as the school at a further cost of €1.1 million. The Vincentian Community would put forward approximately 50% of this cost if matching funding could be found. To-date it is not possible to secure matching funding, therefore the school will go ahead without the Community Centre. If we do not proceed with the school plans which are ready for submission to the Department of Education and then to the City Council for planning permission there is a great danger that we will lose out on the school development. This new school development will incorporate a hall which will be available for Parish and Community Activities after the needs of the school children are met.

I believe that this school development will give a rebirth to the Parish and the local community and I hope it can be in place by late 2004 or early 2005.
Fr. Brian Moore, CM