Scoil Ghráinne Community National School opened this morning in Phibblestown, near Clonee in west Dublin with about 60 pupils in the junior infant classes. About one-third of pupils are children of immigrants, some of whom come from the large Nigerian population in the locality.

The school is currently based in temporary accommodation located on an educational campus along with Coláiste Pobail Setanta, a new community college also opening this year. A permanent 24-classroom school is to be completed by 2010.

Scoil Choilm, which opened last year under the temporary patronage of the Catholic Archbishop of Dublin, will transfer to the new Community National School model from today. Both schools will have a strong multi-ethnic enrolment and in both schools religious instruction will be given during school hours.

Scoil Ghráinne will teach a general values and ethics programme prepared by a senior academic. The Co Dublin VEC stresses that Scoil Ghráinne is "multi-faith, co-educational, democratic and child-centred providing a full primary school curriculum". It will "recognise the wishes of parents to have their children receive religious education or morality-based education as an integral part of the school curriculum".

A chairperson for the board at Scoil Ghráinne has still to be appointed but he/she is expected to be a former school principal. The make-up of the board of management will be similar to that in other primary schools, with two representatives of the patron (the VEC), two parents, the school principal, one staff member and two community representatives.

The Irish National Teachers' Organisation supports the new model which, it says, reflects the diversity of modern Ireland. It believes this diversity should be accommodated under one school roof. Michael Moriarty of the Irish Vocational Education Association said the new model would be inclusive of all religious beliefs and would recognise, as far as possible, the wishes of parents to have their children receive instruction in religion and faith formation.

It is expected that hundreds of similar community national schools will open around the country over the next ten years to cater for the projected population growth of 100,000 schoolchildren. (Source: Irish Times)