Ardee Educate Together celebrates 20th anniversary

Ardee Educate Together N.S. is celebrating its 20 year anniversary this year. The school opened in September 2002 with 20 pupils and two teachers.

The school has now grown to 200 pupils with 16 full time teachers, three part time teachers and 13 Special Needs Assistants. It is a multi-denominational and multi-cultural school, that caters for all levels of diversity. The school Vision Statement is Learn Together to Live Together and the school Mission Statement is No Child an Outsider. 

Speaking to the Dundalk Democrat, School Principal Ann Middleton (pictured below) remarked on how the school has grown in the past 20 years, and how at the start people knew so little about the school, or even what an Educate Together school was. “Nobody knew what it was. Nobody knew what it was, or that we were even here. There could be things going on in the town and it didn't feature at all, people never really knew it existed. Now everybody does.

“The time Tallanstown won the Tidy Towns [competition], we won the school category. They gave us a civic reception for that and stopped the traffic and we walked up the town and the shopkeepers and everyone clapped. From then on they knew. Now we're always included in everything.”

Principal Middlteon explains that the school is child centred and democratically run, with pupils actively engaging in academics, arts, sports, culture, information technology, citizenship and environment. Individual subjects offered are English, Irish, Maths, Computing / I.T., Science, History, Geography, Social Personal Health Education, P.E./Football, Art, Music & Drama along with Relationship & Sexuality education (RSE).  Stay Safe (Child Protection).  Anti Bullying / Cyber Bullying Programmes. Faith formation classes are run after school for Communion and Confirmation.

The overall aim is for each and every child to reach his / her absolute potential in a nurturing, caring and encouraging environment. Principal Middleton remarked, “as one of our eastern European mothers said 'this is much more like a big family than a school'.”

As well as growing ten times its original size the school has notched up its fair share of awards in its short lifetime. It is a very active Green School with five Green Flags for Anti-Litter, Recycling & Waste Management, Energy Conservation, Water Conservation, Travel & Transport & Biodiversity. 

It has won the Louth County Council Environment Awards for Best School (3 times), Best Teacher (Principal Ann Middleton) & Junior Environmentalist of the Year both Girl & Boy Awards.

Next it was on to National Awards. The school won both the Regional & National “Supervalu” Tidy Towns Awards for its project work, community work & school garden in 2010.  Louth Co. Council & Ardee Town Council jointly held a Civic Reception in Ardee Castle to honour this achievement.

The school was the winner of the National “Woodies D.I.Y.” School Vegetable Garden Award in 2011.   But it’s not just all about being “Green”. In the same year 3rd & 4th Classes won both the Regional & National “Lidl” Fit Factor Award for their project work on healthy eating, lifestyle & fitness. They were presented with €6,000 worth of P.E. equipment as a prize.

The school has been awarded the second Yellow Healthy School Flag in the county for its programme & project work on health, hygiene & activity. 

It also has the very first Blue Activity Flag to be awarded in Co. Louth for sports & P.E. There is a “Be Active” programme after school every Wednesday. 

It easily gained the Yellow Diversity Flag award as it fits in perfectly with the school’s ethos as an Educate Together school.

One of the principles of Educate Together is that instead of the religious programme that is carried out in other school, it runs what is called an ethical programme.

“There's four strands in it”, the Principal explains. “One of them is moral and spiritual, one is equality and justice, and one is environment. And one is belief systems, which would be all the different belief systems and you do a little bit about each one. You don't teach any one in particular. We do have faith formation classes as well, these are on Tuesdays and Wednesdays after school. At the moment we do communion and confirmation after school.”

Principal Middleton says that the pupils do make their communion and confirmation, but they don't want the whole ethos of the school to be based around it. “Some of them are even stronger in their faith because of it”, she adds. “They make the conscious effort for the children to come to the class and then the classes would have about maybe 20 in them, so they're smaller classes.”

Looking at some of the main changes that have taken place at Educate Together and in education since it opened 20 years ago, Principal Middleton said that “to begin with, it was books and a little bit of IT, Now it's nearly all IT, even the book companies – all the books are online and the digital whiteboard is used in all the lessons.

At present at Ardee Educate Together, the junior school is one side of the road and the senior the other. The junior school accommodates junior and senior infants, first and second class, and three of the special classes for children with autism..

The senior school accommodates third, fourth, fifth and sixth in it, and one of the special classes for children with autism.

“We've got four special classes for autism, there's six in each class, with one teacher and two special needs assistants”, the Principal explains.”We also have four special education teachers. They're for children in the main stream.

She continues, “we have two playgrounds and a football pitch. Then we have a sensory area. We have a sensory outdoor area as well and then we have one of these big basket swings, everybody loves a go on – the staff even!”

One of the biggest changes at Ardee Educate Together, is the biggest one yet to come and is the granting of a new purpose built state of the art school building on its own grounds. A full size school complete with four special needs classes has been granted for 2022.

It will be built on four acres of ground beside St Brigid’s Hospital on Kells Road.  Building to begin before Christmas. 

Initially it is planned to be an eight classrooms model with four learning support rooms, large P.E. hall, four special classes for autism with multisensory rooms. There will also be a sports pitch and facilities.This will be added to as the need arises. The layout and dimensions have been planned. It is intended to cater for the growing population of mid Co. Louth which is predicted to peak shortly.

Principal Middleton says that there will be a party to celebrate the twentieth anniversary. “The children are asking when are we having the party. We'll definitely do it in October. We probably will have a disco outside in the playground. We had one when we were ten years old.

“We'll have a cake and we'll have the balloons and party food and music – we had a DJ here the last time. It was like two discos with the teachers all dancing and the children all dancing. We had the teachers cars parked down the road to make enough room.”

Reflecting on 20 years in Ardee, Principal Middleton adds, “I wish to thank all the community who have been so supportive, and the staff. We have wonderful staff who are very very dedicated and give absolutely 100% to all the children. And the children we have are lovely. We've never had a child yet who didn't fit in.”

The last 20 years have been a story of success for Ardee Educate Together and the next 20 years promise to be even better. Enrolments are currently being taken. Contact the school directly on (041) 6853774 for further information.