Stepaside ETSS opened its doors to students on Monday 29th of August 2016. Stepaside Educate Together Secondary School will be temporarily based in the grounds of Stepaside Educate Together National School in Belarmine Vale. The permanent location for the 1,000 student school has yet to be announced by the Department of Education and Skills. Our school is on the Department of Education building list for 2018 and will be built under the newest specifications. The school will incorporate the newest designs for classrooms, numerous specialist rooms, meeting areas and sports facilities.
In Stepaside ETSS we aim to provide a co-educational, innovative, child-centred, equality based and democratic learning space. Student Leadership will be a cornerstone of what we do and with time we hope to have a very engaged and innovative Parents’ association. Educate Together at second-level is about more than preparing students to sit State exams: it moves away from ‘teaching to the test’ towards a truly integrated school experience where all facets of the individual are respected and nurtured.
Professor Brendan Tangney, Co-director for the Trinity Centre for Research in IT and Education and Academic Director of Bridge21, Trinity College, Dublin shares the excitement of the whole school community about the school.
‘The Irish education system needs visionary secondary schools which offer a real alternative to the drill-and-kill, teach to the exam, approach which is so prevalent at present. The opening of Stepaside Educate Together, and its sister schools around the country, is a truly exciting prospect which everyone who is seriously interested in the education of the nation’s children will welcome and I wish them all the best in their endeavours.’