St Martin's Special School in Waterford has officially opened their new building.
They've moved from Ballytruckle Road to a €9.5 million facility at St John's Villas on Lower Grange.
The 3,765 square metre building caters for 66 learners aged from four to eighteen years of age with mild, moderate and severe learning difficulties.
Speaking at the opening, Waterford Minister of State John Halligan said the State’s investment of €9.5 million into the construction and fitting out of the new school building was 'money well spent', to ensure the delivery of a’'bright, purpose-built facility that offers St Martin’s staff the space and flexibility they need to deliver high-quality education'.
Delighted to officially open St Martin’s Special School new building in #Waterford this morning. Credit to all involved pic.twitter.com/uk5Ql6gVAw
— John Halligan (@JohnHalligan) June 14, 2018
Minister Halligan added that "this purpose-built school building was designed to align with the complexity of needs of all the learners attending St Martin’s. Its 14 classrooms, sensory areas, post-primary level home economics, woodwork and horticulture rooms and a range of para-educational and therapy rooms will ensure the pupils have access to a curriculum that is broad, balanced, relevant, differentiated, progressive and continuous.
"Additional facilities include a kitchen and a dining room, a large General Purpose hall and several suitably equipped playground areas and this building, in my opinion, represents a new benchmark nationally for special schools. But this did not happen by chance. The design and construction of this wonderful new school building is the culmination of lots of hard work between school principal Terry Ryan, the staff, and the design professionals and I want to commend them for their efforts. It is clear that the needs of the pupils were front and centre at all times during this project.
"For example, one of the biggest complaints from existing special schools which have never been modernised is the lack of space for teaching, support services and storage. This was given enormous consideration in the construction of St Martin’s, to ensure the school pupils, staff and specialist tutors or providers of therapies have the necessary space and flexibility to carry out teaching and also deliver programmes and therapeutic supports in a purpose-built setting.
"I have been visiting St Martin’s for many years now and I am continuously impressed by the child-centred approach to education that Terry and all the staff work so hard to achieve. Their new home is a credit to their dedication and determination to ensure the very best for their school community."
Our recently completed project - the New St. Martins Special School - will have its Official Opening this afternoon, in...
Posted by C.J. Falconer & Associates Architects on Thursday, June 14, 2018
Main Picture: C.J. Falconer & Associates
