What a difference a year makes...

When Ballinagore School opens its gates to pupils old and new this September it will be with a spanking new extension which will afford both children and their teachers some much needed space to play and learn.After a long time in the pipeline, the extension which includes a playhall and two new classrooms, was started and finished in just under a year and the children can now move out of their temporary home at Ballinagore GAA club.This time last year teachers at the school were given just 48 hours to pack up the school and move essentials to the GAA pitch.'We had been waiting for this extension for a long, long time,' said school principal John Smith. 'But the final push came when the Commission for Schools Accommodation recommended that schools along the N6 corridor should have the required extensions due to projected population growth.'The main reason that we wanted the extension was that we were really pushed for space. In fact last year we had so little room that we couldn"t get on with teaching the full curriculum.'This year we are starting the new term with a four-classroom school. At the minute we have three teachers but now we have room to expand as the numbers continue to grow.'We had a great year last year and this year is set to be even better. In our first year in the GAA Premier Hurling Competition we won it and we also won the Three Teacher"s School Competition. We are not over budget yet as far as I know but we might have to go over to build a cabinet for all our trophies,' he laughed.'I would really like to thank the Board of Management who were so tenacious in going after funding and in particular Mrs Barbara Reynolds. I would also like to thank both the builder and architect for the brilliant job that they have done.'