This article is from page 3 of the 2009-03-03 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 3 JPG
A COMMON enrollment policy for primary schools in the Ennis parish area will be launched in Ennis on Thursday.
The policy means that all student enrollments for children attending schools in the Ennis parish area will now be handled by the Clare Educa- tion Centre at the Kilrush Road, En- nis instead of by individual schools.
The key features of the new policy
are a co-coordinated structure for all schools, and common advertis- ing dates, application forms, closing dates and registration sessions.
The policy is the product of a series of meetings organised by the Ennis Education Forum, a body that rep- resents all schools in Ennis parish. The process has been facilitated by St Senan’s education office in Lim- erick. The office provides support to the Dioceses of Limerick, Killaloe and Kerry.
Speaking yesterday Joe O’Connell Director at St Senan’s said the En- nis Education Forum had explored several issues when formulating the policy.
‘The six schools in the Ennis par- ish came together to formulate the policy. The forum met regularly and a sub-committee of chairmen of Boards of Management and school principals was formed. They looked at applying a common set of proce- dures for all the schools.”
Mr O’Connell said that prior to the introduction of the new system, schools operated their own enroll- ment policies.
“One of the issues that they were working towards was a common agreement on areas such as applica- tion forms and closing dates for reg- istration. There was a lot of collabo- ration on all of the issues that were raised and the forum has worked hard to achieve it.”
The enrollment policy aims to guar-
antee 25 per cent of all new school places for minorities, Travellers and foreign nationals.
The common enrollment policy 1s due to be introduced in September. The aim is to provide a common enrollment policy for all schools in the Ennis parish, to include Catholic education and a welcome for pupils of other faiths and traditions.
The policy will be launched at in the Old Ground Hotel, Ennis on Thursday, March 5 at 8pm