Parents are being encouraged to make their views known about which body they want to see running Galway's new secondary school, and Minister Seán Kyne has declared his preference is that patronage should be awarded to Educate Together.
Four bodies are applying for patronage of the new secondary school for the Galway city and Oranmore region - the Bishop of Tuam, Killala & Achonry, Educate Together, Galway Roscommon Education and Training Board, and Scoil Sinéad Limited.
Parents can make their views known through the new online patronage process system via http://patronage.education.gov.ie. Feedback from this will be used by the Department of Education to help determine the patronage of the new school. The site also includes information on the prospective patrons and the school planning area in which they reside. Parents have until July 31 to register their preference.
“I encourage parents - those of children attending primary schools in the Galway city and Oranmore areas who will be attending a secondary school within the next five years - to have their say on what type of patron they would prefer to run the new secondary for the Galway City/Oranmore area," said Dep Kyne, the Minister for Community Development, Natural Resources and Digital Development, and Fine Gael TD for Galway West.
However Minister Kyne said his "personal preference" is for this new secondary school to be "Galway’s first Educate Together secondary school" as the other patronage options are "currently provided for and a new Educate Together second-level school would serve the half-a-dozen Educate Together primary schools in Galway".
