Campaign Launched For Newtown Secondary School

Newtown Tuesday, just after tea…

atest press release from Cllr Danny Alvey, issued on Thursday, October 17th 2024…

A campaign group of local parents has been established in Newtown and Roundwood to lobby the Department of Education to build a new secondary school.

Land was zoned for community and education purposes as part of the Local Area Plan for Newtownmountkennedy, as far back as the 2002 edition, with the expectation it would be used to build a secondary school for the growing population in the wider area.

However no movement has been made by the Department to provide such a school and instead students from the local primary schools travel to Kilcoole, Greystones or Wicklow Town for secondary education. In recent years schools in all of these towns have reached capacity and local students have been forced instead to travel as far as Dublin to get a school place.

There has also been a huge amount of house building in both Newtown and Roundwood and the campaign group feel a new secondary school is now desperately needed for the area.

The first meeting of the campaign group was on Monday 15th October when local TD Jennifer Whitmore and Anya Llewellyn from the campaign for the new Greystones Community College met local parents and teachers to share experiences and advice from their successful campaign. Following on from this the group has launched a petition and will be asking all TDs and candidates in the upcoming general election to pledge their support for this new secondary school.

Local councillor and parent of two, Danny Alvey, is one of the campaign organisers and said at the launch: “Newtown is now the 7th biggest town by population in all of county Wicklow but the only one in the top ten without a secondary school. With two primary schools now in the town and another in nearby Roundwood there is sufficient local demand to immediately fill a new secondary school. When I recently called to doors in advance of the local election, secondary school places was amongst the biggest issues raised by residents in Newtown, Roundwood and right across the district. I have two young children and I’m already worried how much worse the situation will be when they are older if we don’t build this new school to match the massive amount of new houses in this area.”

Also speaking at the meeting, member of the Board of Management of Newtown Primary School, mother of three and also a campaign organiser, Ciara Martin said: “Our children are yet again being forgotten by the Department’s lack of forward planning. Year after year we are seeing families in Newtown, Roundwood and beyond agonising over the unknown when it comes to their children’s place at a “local” secondary school.

“It’s at the top of everyone’s mind, because people realise the bad situation we’re being left in here in Newtown, we’ve seen huge demand for school places due to the accelerating population increases in the area. The sanctioning of a secondary school in Newtown must be a priority – our current feeder school for our 6th class students is bursting at the seams and the Department of Education is sleep walking into yet another enrolment crisis. We must have immediate common sense solutions for the children, families and community of Newtown.”

Anne Gregory is chairperson of Woodstock Educate Together National School in Newtown and Heather Boyle is the parents representative on the Board of Management, both are also campaign organisers. Speaking at the first meeting, Heather said: “Newtown is one of the fastest growing towns in Ireland. In 2019, Woodstock Educate Together National School opened and we are reaching capacity already. There’s a real concern amongst the parents in the schools in the area about the lack of a secondary school for the children after primary school. In this day and age, this is an unnecessary anxiety for parents and students.

“Education is globally recognised as a basic human right, and in Ireland for many years we have taken immense pride in our education system.

The Newtown Secondary School campaign group

“Sudden population growth, such as what we have seen in Newtown, is a natural progression, but it is crucial that the infrastructure and supports are developed in conjunction with it. It is imperative that the government acts now in order to ensure that a whole generation of children do not get left behind in this town.”

Local TD Jennifer Whitmore attended the first meeting of the group to give them support and advice. Speaking at it Jennifer said: “Every October in recent years, when enrolment opens for secondary schools in Greystones and Kilcoole there has been chaos as parents try desperately to get their children a place. Just this year, yet again, several students did not have places until the 11th hour. These secondary schools are clearly at capacity, with three waiting on new builds or extensions.

“This has a knock-on effect down the coast as more and more students are travelling to these schools from Newtown, Roundwood and further afield. It is now time that the Department of Education planned for the future and started a new secondary school build in Newtown. This would alleviate some of the pressure in Greystones and Kilcoole and prepare for the increased demand coming from over 1,000 new build homes in Newtown alone.

“I commend these local parents for coming together to campaign for this and I will do my best to support them and urge all my local colleagues in the Dáil to do the same.”

You can find out more about the Secondary School For Newtownmountkennedy campaign – and sign the petition – here, or email young Alvey here.