A fresh approach to enrolment
Adam Morton takes a look at the new school enrolment process recently launched by a small collection of schools in Lucan.
At present there is no centralised enrolment process to primary schools in the Republic of Ireland. Each school operates its own enrolment policy drawn up by each individual board of management. The NGO Educate Together believe this process is creating a segregation in the school system, especially in rapidly developing urban areas and are taking steps to change the process.
Educate Together runs schools that guarantee equality of access to children regardless of their social, cultural or religious background. In Irish National schools boards of management manage each individual school on behalf of the patron. For example, in Catholic schools, the patron is usually the local Bishop, whereas in Educate Together Schools the patron is the company (Educate Together) obliged to operate the schools.
In the suburban town of Lucan, in South Dublin four Educate Together National Schools (ETNS), Adamstown Castle Educate Together National School (ETNS), Esker ETNS, Griffeen Valley ETNS and Lucan East ETNS have come together to launch the Lucan Common Enrolment System (LCES). The aim of this system is to promote inclusive, integrated schools that serve the needs of local families. Essentially, the children in Lucan will now be able to access their most conveniently located Educate Together school on a fair, transparent and equal basis. The LCES aims to end the situation in which children are forced to crisscross all over Lucan to attend a school that is not necessarily their nearest one.
The new system prioritises children based on:
• Age: the system prioritises children by their age, with older children given priority over younger children;
• Family: siblings will be prioritised so that it will be much more likely that children from the same family will be educated together in one school;
• Proximity to school: children will be more likely to be assigned to their nearest participating Educate Together school in Lucan.
This system will, it is hoped, ensure that newcomer families are not proportionally disadvantaged in accessing schools. They also hope that by placing an emphasis on siblings and proximity to schools it will help foster local friendships and ensure a greater sense of community in each school.
In practice LCES will centralise the enrolment application process in these four schools. The process will be headed by a committee of representatives from the board of management of each of the four schools. The child’s name will be placed on the LCES database, run by an independent database company.
Children on the list will be offered a place in order of age (oldest first), until all available places in the four schools are filled. Once a child has secured a place, the LCES will determine the school to which the child will be assigned. The placement of children in individual schools will be based on the agreed criteria of siblings and proximity.
