By Christy Parker

Principal Sinead Solleveld, teachers Maureen Allen Roche, Sinead Griffin and pupils in the crowded classroom

Overcrowding is threatening the ability of a Youghal primary school to meet the demand for its services. South Abbey NS currently accommodates 61 children but is struggling to cope in the 200 year-old converted church that has been its premises for over 120 years. The landlocked, two-storey building has no space even for a temporary prefab and playtime is rotated as the playground can only safely accommodate a third of the children at once.

Structurally the Church of Ireland building is solid but the school has had to convert a small storage space to a third classroom, where 20 children sit round seven tables pushed together. While the school has five toilet areas, a kitchen and a gym hall, the corridor doubles as a library. There is no staff room for the three teachers, no accommodation for its resource and language support teachers or SNA’s and no unit for the autistic children enrolled.

The school began procedures to relocate to a green site over 18 months go but its application has yet to be processed by the Dept of Education. Meanwhile enrollment applications are expected to surpass 70 for next September. “Regulations allocate 79 children per three teachers but in reality the school has outgrown the building,” says Principal Sinead Solleveld.

Founded in 1856, South Abbey National School moved to its present premises on the site of a 13th century Franciscan friary, in 1886. It has traditionally offered a relaxed environment for all denominations, where children progressed at their own rate, with individual attention emphasised. As recently as 2001, Sinead recalls, “there were 17 children and just one teacher.”

Between September 2006 and September 2007, the school experienced an increase of 15 pupils, thereby becoming a ‘developing school’ and acquiring its third teacher. However this has also placed extra stress on the limited space and inadequate facilities.

The enrollments reflect contemporary Ireland with Asian, English and African accents complimenting the twangs of Youghal and west Waterford. While Youghal’s increasing population largely accounts for the increased numbers, South Abbey has also, up to now, been able to offer places to those unable to enroll in nearby Bun-Scoil Mhuire.

In June 2006, a Department inspector visited to school to assuage conditions. Though nothing was given in writing, the inspector supported the application for a new school to be built. A suitable green field site was subsequently identified. Since then however, numerous representations to the Department and to local politicians have proved fruitless. “We have been told a second department official must assess the situation further,” says Sinead. Meanwhile the children await their turn to use the playground.