BY DIARMAID DOHERTY
HE principal of Errigal College in Letterkenny has said exciting plans to develop a new €15m state-of-the-art school campus are a massive boost for education in the town.
Mr Danny McFadden said the development could be completed by 2026 and when finished, will completely transform school life at Errigal College.
“It’s very positive news that we have now gone to planning with this development,” Mr McFadden told the Donegal News.
“Once completed, the new school building will be an outstanding facility for the town.”
The new school will also address a growing demand for classroom space at Errigal College where the school population has doubled within two years.
Next September, the school will welcome its biggest ever intake of new first year pupils with 110 students moving from primary school to Errigal College.
A planning application has been lodged with Donegal County Council in the name of Anne McHugh, Chief Executive of Donegal ETB.
The new school building will include 27 general classrooms, 19 specialist classrooms, two special needs classrooms, a special education needs suite, a multi-purpose hall, staffroom and administration rooms.
If given the go-ahead the new school campus will be developed on the green-field site which currently caters for Errigal College’s football and GAA pitches.
It means the development won’t interfere with everyday school life and there will be no need to find temporary school accommodation.
Once the new school is complete, the plan is to demolish the existing building and in its place, the site will be developed into sports fields.
Work recently got underway on the development of a temporary modular building which will add another seven new classrooms to Errigal College.
The new facility will be completed in December.
The extra space is urgently needed at the school which has shown dramatic growth in recent times.
In the new school term, there will be 450 mainstream pupils and 100 post Leaving Certificate students.
When he took over as principal in November 2020, Mr. McFadden said there were 226 pupils at the school.
“So it has doubled in two years.”
He said the main reason for the sudden growth centres on a new demand from parents for a ‘co-ed’ system for their children.
Errigal College is the only secondary school in Letterkenny which caters for boys and girls where the students are taught through the medium of English.
In recent years, two local national schools – Scoil Cholmclle and Scoil Mhuire Gan Smal – have changed to co-ed, and Mr. McFadden said that move has resulted in a growing demand for places at Errigal College.
Mr. McFadden also praised the teaching staff and other staff members at Errigal College for the part they have played in the growing popularity of the school.
“We offer all subjects here,” he said.
“We have introduced computer science to Leaving Cert and we have introduced PE as an exam subject at Leaving Cert.
“We have also put a huge emphasis on STEM subjects – Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.
“We opened up a brand new STEM lab just before Christmas.
“We have invited a lot of parents and sixth class students in to see that and that’s tying in with our digital learning plan,” said Mr McFadden.
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