Five Kildare schools added to DEIS programme with extra supports

Minister for Education Norma Foley has today announced a major expansion of the DEIS (Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools) programme that will see the programme extended to an additional five schools across Kildare.

For the first time since 2017 the DEIS programme is being significantly expanded and eligible schools will now gain access to targeted supports to address educational disadvantage.

Schools in the DEIS programme avail of a range of targeted supports aimed at tackling educational disadvantage, including additional classroom teaching posts, home-school community liaison coordinator posts, DEIS grant funding and access to the School Completion Programme.

This announcement sees an additional investment of €32million per annum being allocated to the 310 schools being added to the programme nationally.

The schools being added to the programme in Kildare are:

Scoil Naomh Ide, Athy
Scoil Naomh Brighde, Carbury
Scoil Naomh Bride, Curragh
St Patricks National School, Newbridge
Gaelscoil Átha Í, Athy

Two schools in Kildare have been reclassified. Scoil Mhicil Naofa, Athy has been reclassified from DEIS Urban Band 2 to Urban Band 1. St Conleths National School, Carbury has been reclassified from Rural to DEIS Urban Band 2.

Minister Foley said: “I am delighted to announce the largest-ever single investment in the DEIS programme and in particular the addition of five new schools in Kildare. I have no doubt that today’s announcement will be of enormous benefit to the students in these schools.

“The DEIS programme is an internationally recognised, proven programme that provides targeted resources to schools with the highest levels of concentrated educational disadvantage to supports their students to have an equal opportunity to achieve their potential in education.

“This announcement follows an intensive undertaking of work by the DEIS technical group, which involved valuable input from stakeholders. The refined DEIS identification model builds on the objectivity and fairness of the 2017 version, but now captures a greater breadth of disadvantage and accounts for severity of disadvantage through the application of a weighted process. It also takes into consideration the significant educational disadvantage experienced by Traveller and Roma learners and of students residing in direct provision or emergency homeless accommodation. Using this approach we can extend the additional targeted supports of the DEIS programme to those schools serving high concentrations of students at risk of educational disadvantage and be confident that the largest investment to date in the DEIS programme is being provided to those schools most in need.”

The Department of Education will work with the schools that will benefit from the programme to support them to make the transition. Information sessions will be held for schools in the coming weeks on the DEIS programme, what supports will be available to schools and to support them in planning for improvement. Materials are in development to inform parents and students of the benefits of inclusion in the DEIS programme.

From September 2022, these schools will access all supports under the programme to match their respective band. Schools are assigned to the DEIS bands based on the location of the school and their level of concentrated educational disadvantage.

The full list of schools that will be joining the DEIS programme from September 2022 is available here: https://www.gov.ie/en/ publication/7938e-list-of- schools-into-deis/

Information for schools and a report on the refined DEIS identification model is available here: https://www.gov.ie/en/ publication/a3c9e-extension- of-deis-to-further-schools/