REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE ON HER VISIT TO RATHGAR JUNIOR SCHOOL, GROSVENOR ROAD, RATHMINES
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE ON HER VISIT TO RATHGAR JUNIOR SCHOOL, GROSVENOR ROAD, RATHMINES WEDNESDAY, 13TH OCTOBER, 1999
A phríomhoide, a mhúinteoirí, a dhaltaí agus a chairde, tá an-áthas orm behith i láthair anseo inniu i Scoil Shóisearach Ráth Garbh.
I am very happy to be here with you today in Rathgar Junior School. When you invited me to be with you on your Open Day last June, I was disappointed that another commitment prevented me from visiting you at that time. So, I am delighted to be able to come here today during this term when you mark the 80th anniversary of the school’s foundation. I want to thank Miss Bewley and the Management Committee for extending the invitation to me and, of course, Naomi Sabherwal who first wrote to me in autumn of last year.
Rathgar Junior School has much to cherish and celebrate. When M Isabel Douglas founded the school here in 1919 she hoped to offer her pupils a broader educational experience than that available in many schools at the time. Her Froebel training had encouraged her to appreciate the importance of putting the individual needs and interests of the child first. She understood that we learn best when all our talents are fully developed. It was an exceptionally innovative approach for the time and generations of children at this school have benefited from her vision.
You can be proud that these ideals continue to be fostered and developed in Rathgar Junior School today and that your teachers still strive to help each pupil learn and grow as a rounded individual. I was impressed to hear of the wide range of activities which pupils of the school enjoy. I know, for example, that music is greatly cherished in this school. It was good to hear too, that you have an Irish Dance Group which I know put on a display of Irish dancing last spring when you had your ‘Irish Morning’ of songs, poems and Irish tunes. And I have very much enjoyed seeing the attractive and colourful artwork on display in the infant rooms and hearing your poems and songs.
One of the most valuable attributes of your school has been the welcome it has offered to pupils of different traditions, needs and backgrounds. Many of the adults who have supported or worked in the school from its earliest years have been members of the Religious Society of Friends, and that ethos has been maintained up to this day under the guidance of the School’s Management Committee. The long-standing commitment of this community to education and the belief of Friends that people of all religious traditions should learn to live and work together have been influential in shaping this school’s tradition of inclusiveness. It is an approach which now more than ever, we need on this island as we look to the future. I am delighted to be able to celebrate this commitment to diversity with you today. I know that pupils come to this school from many traditions and nationalities – over a dozen families have connections overseas and the teachers have come from Canada and England as well as Ireland, North and South.
I must also praise you for your participation in the Pushkin Prizes Schools’ Programme for Creative Writing and Poetry. This competition gives you an opportunity to co-operate with schools and pupils of different traditions and I am sure that you, like many other children all over Ireland and elsewhere, have found it to be an enriching and rewarding experience.
One of the most important lessons that you will learn at this school is to value and respect each person that you meet. Each pupil and adult here is good at doing some things and less good at others, but working together, we can do most things well. We can work, play, and co-operate to make this a school where achievements are celebrated and everyone feels cared for and valued. I would like to praise you and your teachers greatly for the way in which you all help each other and for your excellent co-operation with the special pupils in St. Michael’s House across the road. I know how much they enjoy working with you – learning carols and songs or completing art and craft work, and I’m sure that you gain much from them.
It is also very heartening that you do not forget people who are less fortunate than yourselves: the way in which you give presents and toys to children from poorer homes at Christmas is an excellent practical expression of your concern for others. In this way the ideals which Miss Douglas had in 1919 have been maintained and fostered over the years, so that this school retains the happy atmosphere enjoyed by the first six pupils of Rathgar Junior School in September, 1919. Indeed I know that the link back to those early years is cherished all the more because among those original pupils were the father and uncle of the present headmistress, Miss Bewley, and that one of your teachers, Mrs. Dorothy Philips, personally remembers Miss Douglas.
Mar chríoch, ba mhaith liom mo bhuíochas a chur iúl daoibh go léir as ucht na fáilte a chur sibh romham anseo inniu agus guím ráth Dé oraibh go léir sna blianta atá romhainn. Go raibh míle maith agaibh.