The new programme entitled, Giving Children an Even Break, is designed to tackle educational disadvantage and was launched by me in January. It has an urban and rural dimen sion. The school referred to by the Deputy is included in the urban dimension.
Under the urban dimension of the new programme, I am committed to supporting schools with the highest concentrations of disadvantaged pupils in the maintenance of maximum class sizes of 20:1 in junior classes, that is infants through to second class, and 29:1 in senior classes, that is third class through to sixth class, over the three year period.
The school in question is eligible to receive a supplementary grant aid of £2,479 towards the provision of suitable educational supports for the pupils concerned in respect of the current school year.
In line with normal staffing arrangements for national schools, teacher post allocations for the purpose of the new programme in respect of the current school year were determined by reference to enrolments in junior and senior classes at 30 September 1999.
The school in question was one of a number of urban schools considered for additional teaching staff under the new programme. It was deemed that the school had sufficient teaching staff already to implement the maximum class size guidelines of 20:1 in junior classes and 29:1 in senior classes in respect of the current school year.
Likewise, on examination of the enrolment in the school at 30 September 2000, it was concluded that the school had sufficient teaching staff to implement the maximum class size guidelines under the new programme for the forthcoming school year.
The staffing of a primary school for a particular year is determined by reference to the number of pupils enrolled in the school on 30 September of the previous year. The actual number of mainstream posts sanctioned is determined by reference to a staffing schedule that is formulated for a particular year following discussions with the managerial authorities and the INTO.
The current staffing of this particular school is a principal and six mainstream class teachers based on an enrolment of 166 pupils at 30 September 1999. The school has also been allocated two disadvantage concessionary teachers in addition to two learning support teachers, one special class teacher, one refugee teacher and one shared home-school-community liaison co-ordinator.
On the basis of an enrolment of 189 pupils as at 30 September 2000, the school in question will gain an additional mainstream class teacher for the 2001-02 school year in addition to the staffing allocation for the current school year.
