10th July 2020
Throughout the current crisis, INTO has been a strong advocate for vulnerable children who attend our primary and special schools. INTO President Mary Magner today visited a summer provision programme at a Dublin school.
INTO has supported each of the types of school vacation-time programmes.
We have worked constructively with the Department of Education to ensure the continuation of the school meals scheme during both the Easter holidays and the ongoing closure of our primary schools.
We successfully lobbied the government to extend this important programme throughout the summer.
We also provided guidance to our members who work in special education and in DEIS schools.
We worked constructively with the department on this year’s summer provision scheme, which began in earnest this week. Alongside the current scheme, a school-based programme was also rolled out by the Department of Health.
Some 15,000 children with special educational needs and 7,000 pupils from DEIS schools will participate in the summer schemes this year. The vast majority of these schemes will have INTO members working with the children.
To recognise the enormous work undertaken by our members to make summer provision successful, INTO President Mary Magner has today visited a participating school, Riverview ETNS, in Walkinstown, Dublin. The President in her visit spoke with teachers and SNAs and acknowledged the incredible work undertaken at summer programmes in primary schools.
INTO President Mary Magner said:
I am incredibly proud of the contribution of our members who will work in hundreds of schools and others who will engage with the home-based strand of summer provision. These important programmes support children with a wide range of special educational needs and, this year there are also strands which include children from our most disadvantaged communities. While I would love to visit every participating school in any strand of the provision, we must all be mindful of the current pandemic and limit our movements where we can.”