The school received the wonderful news that it had become the first Champion School of Sanctuary in Enniscorthy. A monitoring team visited the school on Wednesday and other invited guests included Lorraine O’Gorman the Director of the local Education Centre and Catherine Nolan who represented the Parents Association. The school had been in regular contact with the National Coordinator Tiffy Allen who has been of great assistance throughout the year.
Prior to the event the school submitted a portfolio which highlighted all the different events/activities that have taken place in the past year. A special thanks to teachers Siun Cashman and Alice James who worked with the Student Committee in putting this together. The student committee was made up of:
Maciej Barcikowski, Yagmur Keklik, Bradley Mashamba, Stefanny De Souza Belo, Ciaran Treacy, Sofiia Bezruchenko, Jules Araba, Aaron Joby, Shakira Waters, Gavin Sinnott, Andrei Gabriel Mirea and Gabriela Kursci.
The day began with the welcome address from Principal Iain Wickham who highlighted the truly inclusive nature of the school and briefly spoke about the school profile. He also mentioned that the ideals of School of Sanctuary fit in very nicely with the school ethos and the core values of all Waterford and Wexford Education and Training Board schools. Shakira Waters representing the students spoke about the events that have taken place over the past year such as the multi-cultural day, the creation of a designated space in the school for School of Sanctuary which is the canteen and the art and wooden piece of work here. She also talked about the Film day and Wear Red day to tackle racism.
The invited guests were then brought to several places in the school to see how this initiative has permeated through all aspects of school life. The first stop was to the Junior Certificate Schools Programme (JCSP) Library to meet school librarian Mary Flynn who spoke about the wonderful activities that take place there particularly to enhance student learning and the lunchtime activities like chess and creative writing. Deputy Principal Tina Merriman spoke of the significant merits associated with the JCSP programme where everyone is capable of success once the proper supports are in place. With a significant number of students requiring additional English support Room 14 was the next stop and teacher Alice James emphasised all that teachers are doing to ensure that these students can access the curriculum and that regular tracking to monitor progress takes place. The brief tour finished in the canteen and the visiting party was very impressed with the focal point for School of Sanctuary. This was very much a team effort involving teachers and students working together to create the artwork.
It was then back to the multi-purpose room for musical entertainment and poetry from students from all parts of the world.
Sofiia Bezruchenko and Nicole Gailis recited and inspirational poem.
Anasthssia Kozyrska played a classical piece on the piano.
Stefanny De Souza Belo played violin accompanied by her Music teacher Emer Collins.
Kyla Ngwenya sang a beautiful song from her native land.
The entertainment finished with a selection of students dancing to music from all around. Finally, Bradley Mashamba and Farhan Muhammed Khan spoke of their experiences since arriving to the school which have been very positive with the only downside the unpredictable Irish weather. It was then down to the library for light refreshments. Following brief deliberations Michelle Jordan then made the announcement that Enniscorthy Community College was to become a Champion School of Sanctuary. This was greeted with great celebrations from all present. School Principal Iain Wickham thanked the monitoring team, students and staff that had assisted greatly in getting this award.
The monitoring team for the visit included:
Michelle Jordan - Loreto Wexford Champion School of Sanctuary.
Kieran Kinsella - Selskar College Champion School of Sanctuary
Katie Murphy- South East Technological University
Maeve O Byrne- Wexford Local Development
John Caulfield - Wexford County Council Integration Officer
Mummy Okgalo - Sanctuary Ambassador, Wexford
Sikhanysiwe - Sanctuary Ambassador, Wexford
Abimbola Omosebi - Sanctuary Ambassador, Wexford
Homayoon Shirzad - Schools of Sanctuary Coordinator, Ireland South