Castlepollard principal looks back on 11 years at the helm

After 11 years at the helm of Castlepollard Community College, Mary Coyle plans to retire this midterm, and says she will miss the people – the students and the teachers.

The Oldcastle native remembers fondly starting her stint as principal in Castlepollard: “I worked in Cavan for 20 years before I came here, but when I came to Castlepollard, it was a little bit like coming home because I went to primary school in Fore, where my mother was principal,” she told the Westmeath Examiner in an interview at her school last week.

“It was like the next generation was here waiting for me and I received a very good welcome when I arrived, and it was very different from being at a school in a big town – there was a real sense of community.”

Teaching is always something Mary had wanted to do, business teaching in particular, but when she graduated in the 1980s, there was an embargo on teaching jobs.

“I started working for Cavan VEC, as it was that time. It was a very small PLC college and I ended up teaching business and company law, word processing, technology.

“Actually those years in Cavan were a really good preparation for this job because at the time, PLC courses were only starting, so it was all new and you had to really think outside the box. There was no curriculum.

“I had an excellent principal there called Donal Crotty, and I learned so much from him because when I went into Cavan, we had 100 students, and when I left we had a 1,000. So I learned an awful lot about growing a school.”

A skill that stood to Mary when dealing with parents as a first time principal in Castlepollard was the fact that she was a mother of three, two having just finished second level, and a third in the midst of Leaving Cert.

“The fact that I was able to step into their shoes meant I was able to empathise with a lot of their concerns. It was a skill that I really didn’t think about when I was starting, but it was certainly important. And it continued to be because parents need to know that you understand them.

“When I first arrived, the school was only three or four years open, it was a beautiful new, clean, and bright school. We had 90 mainstream students and a number of PLC students, and only 11 teachers, along with the principal and deputy principal.

“So we started a journey and now 11 years later, we have 270 students and 30 teachers.

“We grew slowly but surely, and we put continuous improvement into our mission statement. That was the challenge – to try to do something new every year, to try to improve.

“A plethora of new teachers brought new skills and talents, the culture of the school changed and improved.”

As well as introducing iPads for all students, which worked particularly well during the Covid-19 lockdown, one of the first things Mary tackled when she started in Castlepollard was improving the curriculum, and last year students had the choice of applied maths, physics, chemistry, biology, and music.

“We expanded the type of subjects available and it meant that you were catering for all students. We’ve never refused a student into first year, So we have students with special needs, we have high achieving students, and we have everyone in between,” she said, “and expanded the programme, with Leaving Cert Applied and transition year.”

The introduction of extra curricular activities has also boosted the school and its students.

“Traditionally this would have been a hurling school, and it still is. The GAA is big here, but I remember when we started introducing music and drama, and some children that would spend their lunchtime sitting in the corridors, were sitting at the piano beside the music teacher absolutely ecstatic that they were being catered for.

“We’ve done four musicals, with dramas in between, and that has been a great success. We’ve also introduced debating, and it means that any of those students involved in musicals, drama or debating, by the time they get to fifth year, they have no problem standing up there in front of a crowd. It has improved their self-esteem no end and given students confidence.”

Pride

“The other thing I notice is the pride the students have in the school. If they are standing on the stage performing, or out playing hurling or football, they wear the crest with confidence,” said the principal.

“Academically, this year was the best results we’ve ever had, and we worked towards that. We had a student with more than 600 points, we have students going on to do veterinary this year, so the academic side grew alongside all the other extra curricular activity, but it was a huge team effort.”

Mary put this success down to the culture at the school. “People say that, if a child is happy, they’ll learn, but also I think, if a teacher is happy they’ll teach.

“It’s important to me that every teacher likes their job, and that no one, students or teachers, walks out the door in the evening feeling stressed.

“People say the atmosphere in the school is very calm – we try and keep stress to a minimum because stress is like that virus, it spreads like crazy. There’s a good atmosphere among the staff, and they all work together, and welcome new skills and talents. That’s important in any organisation.”

Looking back on what was a difficult school term earlier in the year, Mary says it was a challenge, but one that Castlepollard Community College was ready for.

“At the beginning of last year, we started a digital learning project, we starting to put everything online for students – their homework, and their notes, and we had a small focus group working on it. So when everything closed down in March, it couldn’t have come at better time! We were well set up for online learning.

“We looked at it as just another challenge, and that went for the calculated grades also. The year ended well but we did have to pick up the pieces when we came back,” she admits.

“The teachers had to look and see what the impact was, and definitely for the children with special education needs, it was tougher on them, so there was a little bit of work to be done there to bring them back up to speed and that’s ongoing.”

Commenting on last week’s announcement that there was an error in the Leaving Cert grading system, Mary says it was “unfortunate”, but bound to happen.

“The reality is that it took eight years to implement the new Junior Cert, and if they had been deciding to implement calculated grades, it probably would have taken three to five years, so like everything else, it had to be done in a very short space of time, and it was inevitable there was going to be some kind of an error.

“It was unfortunate but I don’t think we’ve seen the full repercussions of it yet. Supposing you have a student who is very strong in practical subjects, and wouldn’t be strong in English, Irish or Maths, and their two worst subjects might have been very bad, but they might have got an A in metalwork and woodwork in Junior Cert, so those students would have been affected very badly.”

Tribute

Paying tribute to the team she has worked with for so many year s,Mary said: “All the teachers, without exception, and the deputy principal, Mr McGrath, have been wonderful.

“When I started here, I was very raw, the deputy principal, Olive McCormack, who was new at the time as well, really helped me get a very good overview of the school as well.

“Of course I’m going to miss it, I’m going to miss the people, the students and the teachers. But I have to say it’s getting a bit more difficult. There’s a lot of bureaucracy, there’s a lot of making sure every box is ticked, and when you spend a lot of time at that, then other things suffer.

“I am also a believer that there is a certain amount of time people can do jobs, and I think I’m at my capacity now because I feel somebody else will come in here and introduce new blood and lift the school even more.

“I’m also conscious of my own health and wellbeing as well, and I like my leisure. I play a little bit of golf and I want to be able to do those things as well.

“My children are all grown up and working, I don’t have to worry about them, so I might as well look after myself.”

Her hopes for the school going forward are that a new special needs facility, which was approved by the Department of Education in 2018, to cater for the two ASD classes in Castlepollard Community College, will finally come to fruition, and in the near future.

“I am disappointed that I’m walking out of here and we don’t have facilities particularly for students with special needs – which they should have. It’s not fair on the students and it’s not fair on the teachers.”