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Tuesday, 30th August
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30th August 2011 • Volume 18, Issue 23 • Leader House, North Street, Swords, Co. Dublin. • ISDN 8139966 • Tel: 8•400•200
Local Schools Back Decision On Book Costs School principals around the North County have welcomed the decision by school book publishers to hold off on publishing revised textbooks for a four year period. This is a move which will surely ease ‘back to school’ costs for already hard pressed parents across the region in the years to come. This news has been confirmed to the County Leader by a spokesperson for the Department of Education and Science. The welcome news comes following a hugely successful Saint Vincent de Paul (SVP) petition, backed heavily by schools across our region, and meetings held between Education Minister, Ruairi Quinn, and the Irish Educational Publishers Association (IEPA) a number of weeks ago.
By Kieran Dunne Speaking to the County Leader, principal of St Finian’s Community College Swords, Ms Denise Kelly backed the plan saying, “We are also delighted that this commitment has been made. We run a very successful book rental programme in our school in order to ease the burden on parents and it is very popular, even though our Co-ordinator, Ms Jane Farrell, spends a lot of time on it, we feel the work is worth it in these difficult economic times.” Eddie Fynes, principal of Loreto Girls’ School in Balbriggan, Sharon McGrath, principal of Fingal Community College in Swords and Miriam Dowdall, principal of St
Helen’s JNS, Portmarnock, were of the same opinion. Ms McDowell said, “It is something we would definitely back, we have introduced our own system on a smaller scale where we would recycle books back into it yearly. Anything that cuts down costs for parents is most welcome,” she said. Mr Fynes added, “I’m totally supportive of this and we feel that there is no need for book companies to bring out revised editions, unless it is totally necessary. We are very conscious of handing down books from child to child. Similarly, Ms McGrath, welcomed the decision. “This agreement is just great and benefits everyone from students’ parents to teachers and staff. We have our own very successful book rental scheme, but this now means an improvement will be made both logistically and practically with the same books being made available over a four-year period,” she said. Denis Barry, President of St Vincent de Paul in River Valley told the County Leader, “We made strong representation to have the entire school book scheme reviewed. At last, the minister is seeing the light and putting pressure on the publishers to rethink,” he said. It now means that books can be passed on to younger siblings providing families across the County, with publishers agreeing not to produce any revisions to books within four-years of publication. Continued on page 12
Funds Donated To Kinsealy Centre By Jennifer McShane A long awaited community centre for the Kinsealy/Melrose area will be given some funding from the Swords Baptist Church as a thank you to the residents of the area. This comes as wonderful news as locals have spent more than 20 years campaigning for the project to go ahead. In June, the county council confirmed finance would be ring-fenced for the project. Through the local
The residents in Garristown Village recently enjoyed a free Summer Festival that was plenty of fun for all the family. Balloon modelers and face painters were on hand to entertain the kids and everyone throughly enjoyed the day. Pictured here enjoying the Garristown Village Summer Festival is Jack White (aged two), Dylan White (aged five) and Tommy White (aged seven) all from Garristown.
authority, a total of €1 million was donated by the Baptist Church and in return the church were given some land in Kinsealy to build a new complex of their own. The new community centre will inject life and vibrancy into the area and from a practical perspective, this will hugely benefit the youth of Kinsealy, which is growing in size all the time. They will now have their own facility to enjoy various activities and will no longer have to travel to Swords or Malahide to use other community centres. Speaking about the imminent project, a delighted Jim Keely, Chairman of the Melrose/Kinsealy Residents Association told the County Leader: “It’s wonderful that our residents will at last have their own centre. There really is a great need for this facility, particularly for our young people. We recently held a festival and for the second year running over 200 children signed up, so the demand for a centre has always been very apparent.” Continued on page 21
EVER THINK OF VOLUNTEERING? It is a wonderful way to give something back. SVP urgently needs volunteers for home visitation work in Swords and surrounding areas. If you would like to help contact; Siobhan Tyrrell T: 01 8198414 E: siobhan.tyrrell@svpdublin.ie Please also check our website, www.svp.ie, for further details
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