I am delighted to announce that the Department of Education has approved our Development Proposal to increase the school admission and enrolment numbers. Míle buíochas / Thank you so much to you all for your wonderful support in helping us achieve this aim. This is a vital step in helping the school acquire new classrooms to better accommodate our pupils.
I would also like to bring the following issue to your attention.
Athbhreithniú scéim taistil scoile / Review of Home to School transport
Schools have been asked to inform parents that the Department of Education are undertaking a review of their Home to School Transport scheme. Parents are invited to complete a questionnaire – https://www.education-ni.gov.uk/articles/home-to-school and the consultation will be live until the end of March.
I recognize that this doesn’t affect a lot of you but I would like to say that this review is very important, especially in relation to gaelscoileanna and it’s important that as many parents as possible complete it. Currently, if a parent who lives out of town chooses Gaelic medium education for their child, they can avail of a travel allowance even if there are English medium primaries nearer to their home. Parental choice is given priority within the scheme as it stands. However, if the result of the consultation is to downgrade the status of parental choice, there is a danger that parents will NOT get that allowance and as a result, some may be forced to choose the English medium school beside them and NOT a gaelscoil that is further away.
As you’re aware, we are a growing, developing sector in education and if the parental choice is removed from the scheme, there is a danger that the numbers choosing Gaelic medium education for their children will decline. It is for this reason that I am asking you to complete the questionnaire if at all possible.
For those of you entitled to claim Transport allowance please take note of the following changes. In order to claim transport, your child’s name needs to be on a transport entitlement list held by the EA. From September 2017, parents who felt they may be entitled to transport were no longer able to fill out a manual form in order to be included on this list, this process is now done online at www.eani.org.uk/transport and parents were informed of this change at the time.
Please note, the names of all children in a family who attend the school need to be on this list as when the older child leaves the school you will not be able to claim transport for a younger child if their name is not on the list, ie, you would need to go online and have the younger child’s name put on the list.
Previously, once your child’s name was on the list, a claim form (TR2) was given out to the parent to fill in the child’s details, and then returned to the school for yearly attendance to be recorded and for the Principal to sign. The school then posted the claim forms to the EA.
However, we have recently been informed by the EA, that this will no longer take place. From now on, the school is unable to have any input into parents receiving travel. If your child is on the EA transport entitlement list, the EA will send out a claim form, which is now a PA1 (a claim form for the Parental Allowance Scheme) directly to the parent. This form does not need to be brought into the school, the parent should fill out the form and return to the EA.
In the future, any queries you have in regards to receiving claim forms or transport will have to be taken up with the EA. The EA have informed us that they are currently in the process of sending out letters regarding this change to parents who are currently on the transport entitlement list.
If you need any clarification regarding this information, please feel free to ask Mary in the office. GRMA.
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