Tuesday, 3 March 2020

CORK- PRIMARY SCHOOL PROVIDING FACILITIES ROOM FOR THE HOMELESS FAMILIES OF PUPILS

A Cork primary school is providing cooking and laundry facilities to the families of pupils who are homeless. North Presentation Primary School has had children from up to 12 homeless families attend their school. The school has a parents' room with a kitchen and the school's principal, Nickie Egan, has opened it up to families in need during the day. Ms Egan said: "They can come in, if they like. They can use all the cooking utensils we have here. "If they don't have the money for the ingredients, we'll buy the ingredients for them and they can cook a meal for their family. "Then they can bring it back to their bed and breakfast, later on in the day, because most of them have microwaves and they can heat it up." The school has also opened its laundry facilities to the families.

 CORONAVIRU NEWS LINKS:

 https://www.irishtimes.com/news/health/coronavirus-new-measures-to-combat-spread-in-ireland-to-be-announced-1.4190819 

 https://www.reuters.com/news/world 

 https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-51714703 

 https://www.rte.ie/news/world/2020/0303/1119856-coronavirus-world/ 

Ms Egan added: "There have been times where we would say, if you don't want to do the washing and drying there, if you don't want other parents to see it, drop it off to us in a bag in the morning.
"When you come back later on, the bag will be back where you left it, but the things will be clean and dry."

A 2019 survey by the Irish Primary Principals' Network found that one in four primary schools have children who are homeless.

North Presentation Primary School is a Deis school with 270 pupils in the Blackpool area of Cork city.

Ms Egan said they first noticed the effect of homelessness in their school two years ago.

"You can see children who have been bubbly and bright and happy, and they bounce in the door in the morning, but they bounce back out in the afternoon," she said.

"The thing that would affect us the most, that breaks our hearts, is when the bounce going out the door is gone."

The teachers of the school have also completed training with Cork-based charity, An Eisteacht.

The training equips frontline practitioners, such as teachers, with the skills to build relationships with parents and also understand behaviours that could be due to toxic stress or adverse childhood experiences. 

The charity's founder and CEO, Dr Maeve Hurley, said: "Schools can make a difference. The school community has the potential to be an emotionally and mentally healthy environment for children.

"So you might think, surely it's about learning to read and write. But if we really want children to have the best opportunity to learn then we need to be thinking about how do we set up an environment which sets them up for that.

"Also, for teachers, it's helpful to make sense of the behaviours they're seeing.

"It helps the teachers to think about what's going on for a child or what's happened a child rather than thinking what's wrong with them that they are behaving like that. There's a shift in mindset."

A school environment with a sense of love, compassion and nurture is vital to Ms Egan.

She added: "It was something that is just critical to us here. For us to build these skills so that we can break a cycle and we can break a cycle.

"You don't have to be a huge, powerful person to make a difference in lives. Everybody can make a difference in somebody's life."

ADDITIONAL TEXT:
The Parents Room At North Presentation Primary School Cork
The Children's Rights Alliance has said the priority for the next government must be to address child homelessness.

The alliance's Report Card 2020 has given the outgoing Government a 'C+' for its efforts in the area of children's rights over the past 12 months, which is up from a 'C' in 2019.

According to the organisation, the areas that need improving are homelessness, mental health and the rights of Traveller and Roma children, which received a 'D' in the report card.

Commenting on the Report Card, CRA Chief Executive Tanya Ward said: "Very little progress has been made in relation to child mental health and it remains a challenge that the next government must now meet with greater urgency."

She said they had recorded poor performance from the Government year after year on the issue of child homelessness, adding that the grade in this area has fluctuated "from an 'E' to an 'F' over the past four years - the lowest grades awarded to any of the areas assessed".

Ms Ward also said little had been done to address the fact that Traveller families are disproportionately affected by the housing crisis.

She said: "While Traveller families make up less than 1% of the population, they make up 9% of the homeless population and face the highest level of discrimination when accessing housing.

"Traveller and Roma children are more likely to report being bullied and many children report hiding their identity."

The Children's Rights Alliance said the reason the grade increased from a 'C' to 'C+' was because the Government reached its commitments across a number of areas.

In terms of health, primary care went from a 'C+' in 2019 to 'B' in 2020.

Subsidised and school-age childcare was given a 'B' for 2020, up from a 'C+' in 2019, and refugee and asylum-seeking children went from a 'D-' in 2019 to 'C+' in 2020.

ENDS:


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If you or someone you know has been affected by mental health issues you can contact:

  • Samaritans - 116 123, text 087 2609090 or email jo@samaritans.ie
  • Pieta House (Suicide & Self-harm) - 1800 247 247 or 01 623 5606
  • Aware (Depression, Bi-Polar Disorder & Anxiety) - 1800 80 48 48
  • Grow (Mental Health support & Recovery) - 1890 474 474
  • Bodywhys (Eating Disorders Associations of Ireland) - 1890 200 444
  • Childline (for under 18s) - 1800 66 66 66.
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