THE principal of Holy Evangelists’ Primary School in Twinbrook has described moving out of the former St Luke’s building and into their new purpose build school as “an emotional day”.
Speaking to the Andersonstown News, Claire Robinson said: “It is an absolutely fantastic day for this community and it has been a long time coming.
“When you compare what we have now to what we had in the old building. The old building was on its last legs. It is a sad time to see it go as we had thousands through that building from 1972 and there had been lots of lovely comments from people all over the world on social media who have really fond memories of the school and staff.
“To me, today is the birth of Holy Evangelists’. Even though we amalgamated five years ago, this is now Holy Evangelists’ Primary School and a great start for us.”
The new Holy Evangelists' Primary School
Discussing how the layout of the new building will assist the school in terms of maintaining their Covid-19 bubbles, Mrs Robinson added: “At the moment our children are in bubbles and the majority of classrooms in our new building have their own toilet.
“Primary one to four also have their own external doors to their classrooms. They enter the building from the yard into their cloakroom and then into their classroom.
“This means that we have less movement around the corridors of the school because there are no toilets on the corridors which is a big bonus in terms of Covid as the bubbles are then well protected. They are nearly like self-contained flats.
“All classrooms also have their own resource areas. If a classroom assistant takes out a reading group or a maths support group then they go outside the room and there is an area set up for them. This is also where our teachers will conduct the likes of art lessons.”
Enjoying their new surroundings
The building itself was designed with the curriculum and the health and safety of the children in mind.
“The building is constructed around a courtyard which is specifically for primary one and two structured play.
“How that differs from playground play is that this area will be used for construction, planting, climbing and outdoor reading.
“Each primary one and two class will be timetabled for this area daily which means that they will be getting out into the fresh air to learn which they didn’t have in the old school.
“Our biggest struggle at the moment is coping with the underfloor heating.
Ready for a day's working at school
“We are not used to the heat as our old building was so cold. We used to have to keep our coats on, now I feel like we could be running around in our summer clothes” she joked.
Detailing the scale of the new building, Claire added: “Our assembly hall is absolutely massive and can be divided into two.
“The soundproofing in it is fantastic. We have a state-of-the-art sound and lighting system in it and we can fit between 250 to 300 adults into it comfortably once Covid has lifted.
“We’re the first school in Northern Ireland to have the latest Clevertouch boards installed. They are like having a massive iPad on the wall. We have also invested a lot of our money in providing state-of-the-art ICT provision for the children. In our old building we would have had interactive whiteboards that ranged from between 10 to 13-years-old.
Read all about it
“We brought nothing with us to the new building except for our children’s resources such as reading books and maths equipment.”
While the school may be kitted out with the latest furniture and technology, the furniture from the old school has been donated to the Saints Youth Centre and other schools in the area.
Discussing what staff and students think of the new building, Claire said: “When you get a member of staff saying that it will be a pleasure to come to work every day, that is priceless. I also had a Primary Two pupil describe it as epic.
“It is epic for this community. For so long we didn’t have any investment and now we have the new transport hub, a new park under construction, the new Brook Leisure Centre and now a new school building right at the nucellus of Twinbrook. After years of underinvestment, this is brilliant.”
State-of-the-art facilities
While this represents the completion of the first phase of the school, the second phase including a new nursery building and car park is due to be completed by Halloween.
Looking ahead Claire added: “The asbestos removal team started today and the old building will be demolished over the next four to six weeks to make way for our new car park.
“The new car park will be a one-way system which will be welcome news for local residents as it has been madness. Our parents will be able to drive in, drop off then exit through another gate which will take the pressure off Glasveigh Drive.”
