THE SUDDEN CLOSURE of a primary school in Celbridge has left parents scrambling for childcare and searching for answers from the board of management, with uncertainty over how long pupils could be out of the classroom.

A small group of parents gathered outside the gates of St Patrick’s Primary School at around 10am this morning, after the school announced yesterday afternoon that it would close temporarily due to safety concerns.

Several said they had taken unexpected days off work after learning of the closure with little warning.

Alison King, whose daughter is in first class, said the news came with little warning.

“The message came at half one yesterday,” she told The Journal.

We didn’t even get 24 hours’ notice.

“Even if the board had told us earlier in the week that they were meeting and that the school might have to close, it would have given us a bit of a heads up so that we could plan.”

King said she managed to take annual leave at short notice, but is worried about the weeks ahead.

“It was just pure luck that I got the day off today. I chanced my arm asking for annual leave, but that’s my holiday. What happens during the summer?”

St Patrick’s Primary School has around 360 pupils and operates largely from modular buildings that are nearly two decades old.

A sign at the entrance to the primary school.

A consultant’s report submitted as part of an emergency works application last year warned the structures were “not fit for purpose” and posed a “serious immediate threat”.

The report, seen by The Journal, identified major fire safety breaches, failing fire doors and structural issues including rotting plywood flooring and water penetration through the roof.

Among the fire safety breaches were “almost universal failure of fire-doors and catastrophic failure of the ground floor plate”. Plywood on the ground floor was said to be “rotting and failing… resulting in collapse of the floors”, and there were also “multiple instances of water penetration at roof/ceiling level”.

The report added that “ad hoc repairs have been carried out over the years”.

One classroom was closed earlier this year due to water leakage, while another had part of its ceiling collapse during the Christmas period.

Parents at the gathering seemed to confirm the findings of the report, having heard worrying accounts from their children about the condition of the school buildings in recent months.

One parent said their child told them a light fitting had fallen from the ceiling during class and smashed.

Another said their children came home describing how the ceiling of a classroom had collapsed, while others described floors lifting and leaks in the buildings.

In a lengthy statement to parents, the school’s board of management informed parents yesterday that they had made the decision to close the school, citing recent external fire safety and building compliance reviews.

The sudden closure has left many parents scrambling for childcare.

Eugene, whose child is in junior infants, said remote learning is unlikely to work for younger pupils.

“For fifth or sixth class the online classes might work,” he explained, “but my kids are seven and five. They need attention from a teacher or an assistant.”

“My wife and I both have to go into the office a number of days a week. It’s going to be a real struggle.”

Some families have had to rely on neighbours or friends.

One parent said a friend who works in home care had to leave her children with a neighbour because she had no option but to go to clients’ homes.

“She literally had to knock in and ask, ‘Can you mind them for a few hours?’,” the parent said.

Another parent said her own family was able to help others for now.

“My wife isn’t working at the moment, so she took a couple of kids in this morning,” Eugene said. “But that’s not a long-term solution.”

A number of parents gathered outside the school this morning.

While parents spoke outside the school gates, scaffolding and roofing works were visible on the prefab buildings behind them.

Áine Tóibín, who also has a child at the school, said many parents feel conflicted about the closure.

“There’s relief that we don’t have to send them into a building we know is dangerous, but at the same time we’re thinking, what happens now? People have jobs,” Tóibín said.

She added that the consultant’s report submitted to the Department of Education last year was “absolutely damning”.

“It’s literally saying the whole thing is rotting and collapsing,” Tóibín said.

It’ll be great if they can patch it up safely and get us to the end of term. But it’s still a rotting building.

Parents said the building has long lacked basic facilities.

“There’s no hall, so PE has to happen in classrooms,” one said.

Another added that pupils cannot all fit in the yard at once and have to share lunch breaks.

There is also no space in the school to participate in the government’s school meals programme.

Despite the conditions, several parents praised the staff.

“The teachers and staff are all amazing, and the kids love going here,” said Tóibín.

“It’s the building that’s the problem.”

The school site in Celbridge, Co Kildare.

The school is also part of the long-delayed Celbridge Campus project, which is intended to include a new building for St Patrick’s National School alongside Celbridge Community School and St Raphael’s Special School.

The project is currently at Stage 2a of the Department of Education’s building process, the developed design phase, more than 18 years after plans for a new campus first emerged.

Stage 2a involves the preliminary design, site surveys and cost estimates.

In a statement yesterday, the Department of Education said it had been in contact with the school and would meet with management to ensure it “reopens as soon as possible”.

The department said project managers and contractors have been engaged to address structural defects and that roofing contractors are currently on site carrying out works.

It said the school has been provided with a programme of planned repairs, including using two modular units to temporarily decant classes while upgrades are carried out.

“It’s an absolutely shocking situation that we find ourselves in,” said parent Niamh Ahern, who has a child in third class.

“We as parents can’t believe that it has come to this. We’re seriously concerned about the children’s safety in the school, there are holes in the floor, leaks, electrical issues and fire safety hazards.”

She said her son had previously told her about problems in the classroom.

One day he came home and said there was a hole in the floor in third class. The teacher had to put a table over it so they could keep working. How is that a safe environment for teachers or students?

Ahern said parents are now looking for clear answers from the Board of Management meeting scheduled for this evening.

“We’re expecting clarity and real solutions, not just plastering over what’s going on here. The children need to be back at school in a safe environment.”

The meeting between the school’s Board of Management and families is scheduled for 8pm tonight at Celbridge GAA Club, on whose grounds the school is situated.

“You can’t just close the school and hope for the best,” King said.

“We need to know what the plan is.”