On Wednesday evening we hosted an event at The Greenroom to officially celebrate the launch of the East Cork Educate Together Secondary School campaign. In attendance were representatives from East Cork schools and parents associations, local politicians and the press.
We kicked things off with presentations from Charlotte and Bader, two students currently attending Cork Educate Together Secondary School. They talked about the things they love about Educate Together and their school, whilst also highlighting the inconvenience and impact of their long commutes into the City.
Up next was Rhodri Mears, principal of Midleton Educate Together National School.
He talked through the unprecedented growth in East Cork, and the impact that is going to have on existing secondary schools that are already at capacity.
As a national school, we’re going into our 11th year with 550 pupils and we’re still growing. On the back of that, and the fact that children are being left on waiting lists for current secondary schools in the region, there is a definite need for another secondary school in the area.
Rhodri Mears
Rhodri also highlighted the amount of work we have ahead of us, and the importance of support from the local community.
Caz Koopman, a parent and member of our committee and Siobhan Mortell of the Educate Together board of directors then presented on what makes Educate Together schools so special.
Finally, we wrapped things up with a small gift to all those who attended – car stickers to help spread the word!