NEWS that St Senans National School in Foynes will have a new ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder) special needs class by September has been given a warm welcome.
The Minister with responsibility for Special Education and Inclusion, Hildegaard Naughton, announced the provision of the new unit this week.
St Senan’s currently has five classrooms, one of which is used as a preschool facility. In addition to these classrooms, there are two learning support/resource classrooms, a hall, and a computer room.
Fine Gael Minister Patrick O’Donovan welcomed the announcement, saying that “parents, teachers and the board of management in St Senan’s in Foynes have been in touch with me for a while now. They had hoped to be able to be in a position to offer a class like many other schools across the county are doing at the moment for children with ASD.”
“It had been going on for a bit of time, longer than we had hoped for, and I got Minister Hildegard Naughton involved to her office. She assisted the cabinet with me and I got confirmation that sanction has been given for the school to proceed for this September,” Minister O’Donovan explained.
“It’s good for the school, it’s good for the teachers, the board of management, the parents, but more importantly it’s good for the children in the Foynes area who will be able now to go to their parish school, which is something that we all want for our children and for local children”.
