Mags Gargan
Mags Gargan visits a rural Tipperary school for a special celebration to mark its students’ commitment to social justice
The modern, bright and newly renovated Presentation Secondary School in Ballingarry, Co. Tipperary can be found tucked away on the outskirts of the village. With just over 200 students, the co-educational school is a small community that punches way above its weight in terms of contributing to make the larger world a better place.
The Irish Catholic has come to attend a special assembly gathered to celebrate the school’s many social justice projects and specifically to present a cheque to Trócaire to represent the over €30,000 the school has raised for the overseas development agency over the last 16 years.
Every year the school takes part in Trócaire’s Lenten campaign and this year thanks to a commitment that each student would try to raise €10 through a sponsorship card, the school broke their €30,000 target.
“€5 is enough to feed 50 children for one day so just imagine what €30,000 has done and will do in the future,” says Jennifer Brennan, Trócaire’s Schools Audience Lead.
Generosity
Jennifer came to the school to accept the cheque and thank the school for its generosity. She tells The Irish Catholic that “the continued support of schools like Ballingarry is amazing, not just through the fundraising but also through them bringing development education and justice into the heart of their ethos. I’m in awe of all that the students do, the atmosphere and the pride that they have in what they do and who they are,” she says.
Presentation Ballingarry is a school that has much to be proud of, according to the principal, Angela Cahill. “Each year we gather on prize day to celebrate and highlight the many wonderful successes our students enjoy. These successes range from academic to sporting to literary.”
But she says the school is also proud of its Catholic ethos and the work of the RE department, and it was in order to honour this that the school decided to celebrate “the generosity and selflessness of our students, staff and parents, both past and present, who have collectively made our school, in the words of Nano Nagle, go ‘one step beyond’.”
The Presentation Sisters came to Ballingarry in 1871 and the current school was first built in 1983. Now part of the Ceist schools trust, the school still maintains a link to the order through the three sisters living locally, Srs Teresa, Patricia and Miriam.
It was Sr Teresa who first suggested that the school undertake an immersion programme in 2009, which sowed the seeds of a lasting relationship between Presentation Ballingarry and St Anthony’s Anglo-Indian school in Chennai, India under the project ‘Ag Obair le Cheile’.
In 2010 the three Presentation sisters and two teachers, Helena Bourke and Brian Moran, travelled to St Anthony’s to establish a link “that allowed us to work together to learn about and respect each other’s culture, traditions and way of life”, says Ms Bourke. “We started to collaborate on common projects that focussed on social justice, equity and sustainable development.”
New culture
The Transition Year (TY) students took on the challenge to fundraise to send 10 students to India to immerse themselves in a new culture. “We donated money to St Anthony’s to help them with much needed school equipment and materials.
“We also helped out financially at the after school club in the slums and with a local orphanage,” Ms Bourke says. “We decided that we would organise a permanent ongoing annual fundraiser to help sponsor a child’s education at St Anthony’s. For the last few years we have been sponsoring Maria, who is now nine-years-old and in grade three in St Anthony’s.”
Through ‘Challenge to Change’, a development education project initiated by the Presentation Education Office, the school became part of a Self Help Africa project in Malawi in 2005.
“The aim of the project was to raise awareness of the importance of water and to challenge our own use of water,” explains religion teacher, Teresa Regan. “We were invited to raise €10,000, which we did, and we hoped to sink one well in Malawi but it was with great joy that we discovered that we had provided enough clean water for the village for 50 years.”
Ms Regan is the driving force behind many of the social justice projects in the school and this was acknowledged at the assembly through a presentation to her from vice principal, Gerry Dowling. You can hear the pride in her voice when she speaks about the work of the students, but also the obvious pride that the students themselves have for their school.
Family
“I think because it is such a small school, that we are all so close like a big family,” says Abigail Maher (TY). “When someone is feeling down or something is not right we know that the teachers are there to support us as well as everyone in the other years.”
“We are all very supportive of each other and our classmates and our year,” says Leanne Phillips (2nd year).
Older students are encouraged to help younger students, for example each first year has an assigned fifth year ‘buddy’ who looks out for them and helps them settle in. “We also do spike ball with the primary schools,” says Maria McGrath (TY). “The TY girls are divided into teams to go round each of the primary schools in the local area. Every Tuesday for six weeks we teach them the game and then we have a big blitz for the schools here in the hall.”
“We have done coaching courses for GAA as well and I’ve done basketball courses for the first and second years in the school,” says Ned Grogan (TY).
The students also started a project this year to support local senior citizens as part of the Young Social Innovators programme.
“We had a market day at Christmas where we made gifts and sold them to raise funds and then we had a Christmas dinner for the seniors where we served, washed up and entertained,” says Abigail.
“It was one of the best things I have ever done,” says Emily Ruttle (TY). “Everyone had great fun.”
Ideas
“We didn’t want to pick something that you would just do for a year and then stop,” says Katie Cleere (TY). “We hope that next year’s TY will keep it going and we can give them ideas and help them out.”
Three 5th years attended the Ceist leadership course in Dublin this year and came back with the proposal to hold a Happiness Week next year to promote positive mental health.
“It was going to be Mental Health Week but we thought Happiness Week would have a nicer ring to it,” says Caoimhe Murphy.
“We are going to arrange an activity for every day of the week to spread happiness around the school,” says Niamh Ryan.
“We want to give everyone in the school a boost and to make them feel happier in themselves. It is to bring people together, to bond and to have fun and to release the stress for exam years too,” says James McGrath.
The spirit of Nano Nagle is certainly alive in Presentation Ballingarry and its Catholic ethos is very much in evidence – from the Mercy Door of the prayer room to the Christmas and Easter Masses.
Ms Cahill says the school “holds Christian values to the forefront”. “Our adherence to the Catholic ethos is very strong here. It is tangible in the atmosphere of the school and in the respectful way we all treat each other, and I am hugely proud of that. But like everything in life no project or ethos could come to such fruition without the drive and dedication of staff,” she says.
“It is great to see young people enthusiastically involved in projects that benefit others and not themselves, not only in our own community here but further afield. The experiences that our students have had in these projects will stand to them their entire lives.”