Parents celebrate the success of nursery after two decades

Parents celebrate the success of nursery after two decades

30 September 2015

TWO members of the steering committee who helped launch the cross-community nursery are delighted the hard work in the early days not only paid off, but paved the way for the Naiscoil to celebrate its 20th anniversary.

Siobhan O’Connell and Paula Bn. Mhic Thomoltaigh are delighted that former students have graduated while many others are currently studying third level education. Siobhan, who has been a committee member for 21 years and its current chairwoman, explained her daughter Aisling was six weeks old when her father Pat Kernan encouraged her to get involved.

“Aisling was three when she joined the nursery and recently graduated from Liverpool Hope University with a first class honours degree. It is a tremendous boost for all of us that we now see children who began their education here at the Naiscoil go through to third level education. In the early days we did not look too far ahead,” she continued.

“The Naiscoil opened in 1995 with the Bunscoil opening three years later. It was far from easy in the early days and we continue to work hard to generate the money we need to keep going. The parents have been brilliant with their support over two decades.

“We are perhaps not like other play groups and schools where parents leave their children at the door and then pick them up again. We involve our parents as much as we can as we are a voluntary playgroup. It is our dream to secure state funding but that has not happened yet, although it is still a goal we want to work towards.”

Siobhan added: “We are always trying to keep on top of things and will keep on doing that. We have funding from the Department of Education but it does not cover everything. We simply could not function without this. We started off with peace and reconciliation funding which helped get us off the ground and while there is still some of that money around, it is very much depleted. If we could just become independent or a recognised unit it would be great.”

Paula, who was was the first chairwoman of the Naiscoil’s steering committee and a founder member of the nursery, said she was “so proud” of the students who recently graduated from university.

“The night before we were due to open we had nine children, we had a teacher and a venue and it took so much time and hard work to reach this point. I thought will these children turn up and what is going to happen? I was told not to worry by another member because a similar nursery in Belfast started with the same number and was blossoming.

“I settled myself, but those children, whom we had for two years, then had to go into English speaking primaries when they left here. We then set to work trying to get the Bunscoil started and it opened several years later with five children.”

Paula said the cross-community steering committee looked at other Irish language nursery schools and revealed that what she witnessed encouraged her. She also admitted while there was a doubt the Naiscoil could work in Downpatrick, it did.

She added: “It worked because we had the support of the Lecale Gaelic Society and the support and confidence of parents. We had a good base and an excellent teacher and because we were doing things properly, safely and efficiently we were successful.

“Eight per cent of the first Naiscoil entrants are now university graduates and that is really something. There is not another nursery school in the country could say that. We had a curriculum which you do not always get in other schools and this was an important part of our success.”