About Us

Patricia Harrington (Principal), Mary O’Hanlon (Deputy Principal), Ciara Hourihan (Class Teacher), Dawn Barry (SNA), Mariangela Doherty (Class Teacher), Stella Griffin (SNA), Joan Humphreys (SNA),  Mary Hurley (SNA), Maura Kavanagh (SNA), Noreen Linehan (SNA), Shane Lynch SNA), Maria Martin (SNA), Mary McAuliffe (Class Teacher), Margaret Morgan (SNA),  Jelena Maconovic (Class Teacher), Noelle Noonan (SNA),  Vincent O’Brien (Caretaker), Leticia Ocampos (SNA), Laura O’Halloran (SNA), Myles O Riordan (Class Teacher), Sarah O Sullivan (Class Teacher),  Nora O’Leary (Home Economics Teacher), Oran O’Reilly (Music and Science Teacher), Pauline O’Mahoney Meade (Secretary), Jennifer Treacy (Class Teacher), Muireann White (Class Teacher), Ruth White (SNA)

Music Mash Up provides music lessons to our pupils. Thank you Clodagh  for your work.  Music Mash up is supported by Music Generation 

Download our School Evaluation here

Patron

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

Partners and Friends

Many organisations and businesses in the Cork area support our work including Enable Ireland; St. Josephs, Charleville; Brothers of Charity;  Co-Action; Mainport Holdings; Biomarin;  Staff and Management of Cork Prison, Soroptimist International (Cork); PC Systems and Douglas Golf Club.

We share learning partnerships with CIT, UCC, Music Mash Up, Music Generation,  Cork Pops Orchestra, Ashton, Douglas Community School, Scoil Ursula, Beaumont Boys and Girls Schools and others.

The School is a member of the National Association of Boards of Management (NABMSE); CPSMA and IPPN.

Board of Management: School of Divine Child, Lavanagh Centre.

Dave Ronayne (Chair),  Miriam Murphy (Deputy Chair),  Jim O’Shaughnessy (Treasurer), Kate Creedon, Colleen Hawkins Worthington, Terry O’Neill, Mary McAuliffe, Patricia Harrington (Principal and Secretary)

Escorts on School Transport

Valerie Archer,  Stella Collier, David Donovan, Christine Hayes, Noelle O’Flynn, Helen O’Sullivan, Mary Magee, Maria Martin, Clare O’Mahony, Claudine Saunders, Niall Staunton, Ruth White, Catherine White.

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 an applicaiton was made to the Department of Education for a grant to build a School.  In January 1971 School of the Divine Child moved to Lavanagh Centre, Ballintemple.

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. Later projects included Eagle Eyes Camera Mouse project led by Boston College (USA) and supported by the Special Education Support Service  (Ireland).   In recent years we have developed a partnership with Safe Care Technologies and consult with them regularly on communication and assistive technologies for living. In music we use SoundBeam, Magic Flute, Garage Band and other technologies.  Staff receive training through Safe Care technologies and through Enable Ireland’s service.

Community is an important part of our School life and classes and individual pupils can be seen involved in projects in Ballintemple village and nearby Ardfoyle and Pairc Ui Chaoimh.  We foster close links with many mainstream schools at primary and second level.    We are active participants in the Cork Lifelong Learning Festival and work closely with students attending University College Cork and Cork Institute of Technology.  Past school projects have involved partnerships through Comenius and cooperation North funding.

Horticulture, Home Economics, Music, Lego and Construction projects play an important part in our curriculum.   The school offers both a primary and second level curriculum which is differentiated to suit students’ individual learning styles and abilities.  Aistear and Numicon are taught at primary level.  At second level we offer Junior Certificate, Junior Certificate Schools Programme,  and JCT (Junior Cycle) courses at levels 1 and 2.

Music Partners can be seen on ~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 Mash Up 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.
• 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/