Ms Debbie O'Neill:

I will let the others talk on the roll numbers. If the committee could do what the Cathaoirleach suggested for us, it would be fantastic, but it is a long way from happening, I would say. I will finish with a little story about who we really are and what we do. It is hard to figure it out when talking about just numbers but we had a whole curriculum evaluation in English last year, where two inspectors came in to us for two days. Afterwards, we were brought together as a management team for feedback.

One of the inspectors said that she really wished she had been there for a whole-school-evaluation, which would take a week, so she could then write in the report exactly what she wanted to say. She wanted to say that the overwhelming feeling you get when you spend time in our school is one of love. It is love that we have for the children, love that the children have for us and the love that we have for each other. That environment does not happen organically in a school. One works on that all of the time as a principal and management to get the right people in to make sure that one has the right resources to work with the families and be the first point of contact all the time. I think that is really what we do and what we do well. Love means inclusion and belonging. Just because something is written about inclusion in a paper does not mean that if children go to a school they are included. My story gives a little more insight into all of our schools and what we are.