About Us

Patricia Harrington (Principal), Mary O’Hanlon (Deputy Principal), Stella Griffin (SNA), Ciara Hourihan (Class Teacher), Joan Humphreys (SNA), Maria Labrador (SNA), Noreen Linehan (SNA), Shane Lynch (SNA), Helen Hayes (Class Teacher) Mary McAuliffe (Class Teacher), Margaret Morgan SNA),  Noelle Noonan (SNA), Leticia Ocampos (SNA), Brenda O’Dowling (Swimming Teacher),  Catherine O’Leary (Home Economics Teacher), Oran O’Reilly (Music Teacher), Pauline O’Mahony Meade (Secretary), Sarah O’Sullivan (Class Teacher), Jennifer Treacy (Class Teacher), Muireann White (Class Teacher).

Also thanks to  Gráinne McHale, Rory and Graham from SoundOut Cork and all in Music Generation.

Download our School Evaluation here

Patron

The Bishop of Cork and Ross is the Patron and Trustee.

Partners and Friends

We work in partnership with Enable Ireland with whom we share facilities in the Lavanagh Centre, Ballintemple, Cork.  Many organisations and businesses in the Cork area support our work including Mainport, SR Technics, Novartis, Staff and Management of Cork Prison, Soroptimist International (Cork) and Douglas Golf Club.  We share learning partnerships with CIT, UCC, Music Generation, SoundOUT, Cork Pops Orchestra, Ashton, Douglas Community School, Scoil Ursula and others.

Board of Management: School of Divine Child, Lavanagh Centre Miriam Murphy (Chairperson),  Gillian Cantillon (Deputy Chairperson),   Jim O’Shaughnessy (Treasurer), Terry O’Neill, Ruth Good, Dave Ronayne, Mary O’Hanlon, Patricia Harrington (Principal and Secretary)

Bus Drivers

Finbarr Sheehan, Michael O’Donovan, Val Sheehan and all in Douglas Cabs,  Brendan Luddy and all in Sun Cabs, Val Calnan and John Harrington

Escorts on School Transport

David Donovan, Denis Neville, Tina Keniry, Neil Creed, Dolores Bluett, Helen O’Sullivan, Valerie Archer, Leticia, Helen

The school of the Divine Child opened in Grattan Street in 1959 to meet the educational needs of children with Cerebral Palsy.  In 1966, a site was purchased at Lavanagh House, Ballintemple and the School moved there in 1971.  In addition to the primary school curriculum students with physical disabilities receive multidisciplinary services onsite from Enable Ireland (www.enableireland.ie)

The School of the Divine Child has always had an involvement with the development of information technology since its first participation in a pilot project on the use of Computer in Schools in 1984. A wide range of assistive technology devices are used by our students to access the curriculum and since 2008 we have been involved in the Eagle Eyes Camera Mouse project led by Boston College (USA) and SESS (Special Education Support Service, Ireland).  We believe that emerging technologies are making communication easier for our students and we make every effort to keep up with new developments.  In recent years we have developed a partnership with Safe Care Technologies.

The School has use of the hydrotherapy pool which was opened in the school grounds in 1980. Close links have been fostered with many mainstream schools at primary and second level.  We work closely with Music Generation Cork and SoundOUT project led by our former music teacher, Grainne McHale.  We are active participants in the Cork Lifelong Learning Festival and work closely with students attending University College Cork and Cork Institute of Technology.  In the past 10 years we made connections with schools in Northern Ireland and Finland as part of a Co-Operation Ireland IT Project and a Comenius Project which saw staff and students exchange visits with schools in Poland, Hungary and Germany.

The school curriculum has expanded to include second level courses: Junior Certificate, Junior Certificate Schools Programme, Junior Cycle level 2 and QQI awards.

In 2014 -2015, students from Douglas Community School joined our senior class for music lessons and together they composed several songs ~www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOXJ8bf5_cs

We are grateful to a wide range of sponsors for the various resources in our school. Click here for more information.

• Our school Links programme is designed to ensure that we engage with a wide range of education partners at primary, secondary and third level.
• Shared Learning Experiences – The School of the Divine Child has established links with local primary and secondary schools as well as with UCC and CIT.  These links allow our students the opportunity to visit other schools for social and curricular activities.  Students from second level and third level colleges attend the School of the Divine Child on work experience.
• Our students attend art galleries, shop for special events and attend concerts throughout the school year.   Students also visit the bank, post office, butcher and shops in the locality.  The school is located next to the Atlantic pond which is a useful facility for environmental awareness lessons.
• As part of the Music Generation Programme our students perform with mainstream schools on a wide variety of stages.
• Senior school students attend PE on a weekly basis in Douglas Community School.
• Some students over the age of twelve years are members of a Foroige club which meets one Friday afternoon every month.
• A number of our students are involved in sports activities organised by the Cork City Sports partnership. http://www.corksports.ie/index.cfm/page/sportsinclusionoffice

www.sess.ie/
www.try-it.ie
www.musicworks.org/
www.ncse.ie
www.education.ie
www.npc.ie
www.nabmse.ie
www.enableireland.ie
www.corkcity.ie/learningfestival
www.cesc.ie
www.scoilnet.ie
www.examinations.ie  email sec.specialneeds@examinations.ie
www.irelandstats.com/school-of-the-divine-child-scoil-an-linbh-iosa-rollnumber-18483w/