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Presentation College, Carlow

• Address: Askea, Carlow
• Tel: 059 914 3927
• Email: [email protected]
• Website: www.presentationcollegecarlow.com

Mission Statement

All members of the school community – pupils, parents, teachers and other staff – are held in very high regard and their dignity, worth and individuality is respected. We strive to build a sense of community based on Christian values. The school’s Code of Conduct acknowledges this and aims to promote a culture of respect throughout the school. It recognises that good discipline enables good teaching and allows good learning to take place.

School History

The Presentation Sisters were founded in 1775 by a great woman called Nano Nagle. In doing so she was responding to one of the great needs of her time: the provision of educational facilities for the children of the poor. From 1811 until 1947 the Presentation Sisters in Carlow catered for Primary pupils only. The Secondary Top which then opened became a voluntary Secondary school for girls in 1971. In response to the demand for greater facilities for boys and girls and aware of the value of co-education the present school, Presentation College, was built by the parish. It was completed in 1982 and the Presentation Sisters were requested to take over the functions of the Trustees. A Board of Management was set-up in October 1987. The duties, powers and responsibilities of the Trustees, Board of Management and the Staff are set out in The Manual for Boards of Management of Catholic Secondary Schools. The Board of Management serves a three year term.

Nano Nagle responded to the needs of her time by setting up schools and developing a curriculum that catered for the needs of her students. Today, Presentation College, Carlow endeavours to respond to the needs of its students. Our response must be relevant to our living in the modern world. The basic challenge remains the same – to share with our students the Christian Vision of life and to equip them with the skills which are necessary for successful and happy lives.

Today, Presentation College is a co-educational voluntary Catholic secondary school which caters for pupils of all religions and backgrounds. We aim to provide our pupils with an education that equips them for life and living in the modern world. We aim to challenge students to share with us the Christian vision of life. Over the past few years we have drawn up a Mission Statement which describes the kind of school we wish to be. We hope that every member of the school community will attempt to live by it and we intend that all of our decisions are informed by it and our school development plans based on it.

In Summary:

• 1775 The Presentation Sisters were founded by Nano Nagle
• 1811 to 1947 The Presentation Sisters in Carlow cater for Primary pupils only.
• 1947 Secondary Top opens and students are prepared for the Intermediate and Leaving Certificate exams.
• 1971 Presentation Convent becomes a full Secondary School for girls.
• 1982 Presentation College is built by the parish, in response to the demand for greater facilities for boys and girls and aware of the value of co-education. The Presentation Sisters take over the functions of the Trustees.
• 1987 A Board of Management is set-up.
• 1994 Transition Year introduced.
• 1998 Leaving Certificate Applied introduced
• 2005 Major Extension approved
• 2007 Completion of New Extension

News from Presentation College, Carlow

18 Jan 2021

Presentation college carlow ty newsletter.

TY Newsletter November/December 2020 The TY Newsletter November/December 2020 is now available. This newsletter is packed full of…

05 Jan 2021

Presentation college carlow ty newsletter december 2020.

TY Newsletter December 2020 Welcome to the first edition of the Pres TY Newsletter. Well done to all…

29 Oct 2020

Presentation college carlow news – october 2020.

Soccer Champions Congratulations to Presentation College Carlow’s minor girls’ soccer team who were crowned Region 3 Minor Schools Soccer…

26 May 2020

Presentation college carlow news – may 2020.

WWGS Citizen’s Passport Award We are delighted that the World Wide Global School (WWGS) Citizen’s Passport Award has…

23 Mar 2020

Presentation college carlow news – march 2020.

 Presentation College Girls reach the Leinster Quarter Finals The girls soccer team at Presentation College, Carlow, following on…

27 Feb 2020

Presentation carlow news – february 2020.

Two Polish Teachers visit Presentation College From 27 January to 7 February two dedicated teachers of German in…

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Address : Presentation College, Askea, Carlow, Co. Carlow. R93 F298

Phone : 059 9143927

Email : [email protected] 

Registered Charity Number: CHY20204581

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Public lectures, research hub, fr conn attends presentation college student council launch.

News Fr Conn attends Presentation College Student Council Launch

The pupils at Presentation College, Carlow officially launched their Student Council on March 23rd. The students welcomed special guests, Senator Jennifer Murnane O’Connor, Fr Conn O’Maoldomhnaigh, Chairperson of the Board of Management and Mr Gerry Watchorn, Ceist Co-ordinator.

The Student Council was re-established this year with elections from every class, followed by executive officer elections within the council. The entire process has been well stewarded by Ms Cadinot, Student Council Liaison officer who took up the project this year. After the official launch, all 800 students and staff in the school, gathered outside to spell ‘Student Voice’ as a drone flew overhead and took a photo. This was to highlight the important role students’ play in the development of the school, with teachers underlining its significance.

Chairperson of the Student Council, Dan Pender, said: ‘In recent years the student voice wasn’t quite as loud as it is today, we are now formally represented and we have brought about great changes in the school already and it is only our first year!’

• May 17, 2018

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• Charity Number: 1058
• RCN: 20027261
• (0)59 9153200
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• College Street, Carlow, Co. Carlow R93 A003
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Developed by Designedly

Note: Gript’s usual editorial practice is to require two separate and independent sources for anything that we report as factual. In this case, there is only one source for this story, because staff members in Presentation College have been advised not to speak to the media.

We think it is fair to report the information in this report, but we also think that it is important to tell you, the readers, that it comes from a single source, albeit one with first-hand knowledge of the situation.

We would also point out that a single source with first hand knowledge of the situation is one more source than has been cited in most of the disgraceful coverage by other media outlets this week.

__________________________________

On Tuesday morning of this week, Presentation College Carlow was just a normal, medium sized, provincial school like any other, unaccustomed to national publicity. By Tuesday evening, it was being denounced in national media outlets as an institution which is unsafe for your daughters – one where wretched, leering, male teachers were so interested in eyeing up young girls that they could not concentrate on their work, and where the girls had to be told to cover up their bodies so as to avoid turning themselves into a sexual distraction for the men.

This story went everywhere. It was based, we now know, on a single facebook post that had been shared by a woman called Sandra Haughney four days earlier. Here is the original post:

The claim in the post is explosive: That female students were told, explicitly, that their leggings were distracting the male teachers.

The problem is, according to our source, that the claim is flatly untrue.

Gript finally managed, in the past 24 hours, to speak to a staff member of Presentation College who is familiar with the situation. Staff members, it will not surprise you to learn, have been advised not to talk to journalists, and people in the school are reluctant to talk, and generally (and for good reason) have little trust in the media’s ability to report this story fairly.

Last week, students in Presentation College were, indeed, reminded of the school’s uniform code. The language that was used – in one instance only – was that “teachers were being driven to distraction reminding you” of the uniform code.

Not – and this is important – that anybody’s body was a distraction. Not that teachers were leering at them. Simply that it was becoming such an issue in the school that teachers were spending so much time enforcing and reminding students of the rules that it was becoming a distraction from teaching, and learning.

Through a variation of what was described to Gript as “Chinese Whispers”, this became, in the hands of an excitable parent, and journalists eager to tell a story about men oppressing women, a tale about men being distracted by young girls.

“It’s been absolutely devastating for everyone in the school”, our source told us. “This is a small community, and the fact that the PE teachers were named in the facebook post as having dirty thoughts about young girls is devastating for them, and for their colleagues”

“The problem is that the suspicion doesn’t go away. The lie is halfway around the world before the truth gets its laces tied”

“Two issues are getting mixed up here. Some of the girls feel that they’re being singled out on the uniform because the boys get away with wearing tracksuit bottoms. But they’re all supposed to wear tracksuit bottoms. They’re not being singled out, like.”

“But even if they think they have a point on that, it’s a very different issue, and a very different complaint, compared to saying that (PE teacher) and the rest of us are perverts who can’t keep our eyes off their arses”.

“That’s just not true. It’s a disgusting lie. What they were told was that we are all driven to distraction reminding them of the uniform rules. And that’s absolutely true. The rest is bullshit.”

In recent days, almost every media outlet who reported the original claim have backed off it. You won’t now find a journalist in Ireland who is willing to report as fact that girls were told that their clothing was distracting male teachers. Because it’s not true.

It is worth recalling that this specific allegation was printed, and broadcast, in too many national news outlets to recite here. The Irish Examiner, the Journal, Newstalk, Today FM, and countless others repeated the claim as fact.

The primary source of the claim, for national media outlets, was journalist Kacey O’Riordan, who is, as she herself notes, an “award winning” reporter:

https://twitter.com/KaceyORiordan/status/1331224934199287810

https://twitter.com/KaceyORiordan/status/1331225517035577347

Note well that, in Ms. O’Riordan’s report, no witness is cited. The sourcing for all her original reporting is from “parents” – none of whom were in the assembly when the alleged comments were made. Even at the very beginning, this was a second hand story, sourced from people who had witnessed nothing. It is shameful journalism, and it is notable that those media outlets with genuinely strong editorial processes – for example, The Irish Times – did not repeat or pick up on the claims. But they were in a minority.

The person who spoke to Gript was unable to confirm whether staff members in the school are considering legal action against Ms. O’Riordan, but expressed hope that they would, as well as what they described as “anger” and “disillusionment” with the media.

“We’re just teachers. We’re all fairly middle of the road people, but we’ve spent the whole year listening to a constant barrage of comment on the radio and in print that we are lazy and workshy and all the rest of it. And now this woman comes down out of nowhere and decides to tell the country that we’re paedophiles as well? You’d start to wonder – if this is the way they report on us, how can you trust what they say about anyone else?”

“What they said about us was just lies. There’s no other word for it”.

Do you agree with a complete ban on smartphones in schools, as proposed by Minister Norma Foley?

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Providing the public with an independent forum

For resolving complaints about the press, 871/2021 - presentation college carlow and the nationalist.

The Press Ombudsman has upheld a complaint made by Mr Ray Murray, Principal and Secretary to the Board of Management of Presentation College Carlow, that The Nationalist breached Principle 1 (Truth and Accuracy) and Principle 2 (Distinguishing Fact and Comment) of the Code of Practice of the Press Council of Ireland. A complaint that Principle 4 (Respect for Rights) was breached was not upheld.

On 24 November 2020 The Nationalist published a front-page article under the headline “Anger at ‘body shaming’ of girls in Carlow school”. This was followed by a sub-heading “Teenage girls told not to wear tight clothing as it made teachers ‘uncomfortable’”.

Mr Murray, Principal and Secretary to the Board of Management of the school, wrote to the editor of The Nationalist stating that the article was “significantly inaccurate”. In particular, Mr Murray stated that it was completely untrue that teenage girls in the school had been told “not to wear tight clothing as it made teachers ‘uncomfortable’”.   Mr Murray also stated that it was untrue that  female students had been told “not to wear tight leggings to school as it was ‘distracting’ for their male teachers” and “not to roll up their skirts too short or to tighten up their jumpers and sweatshirts as this was also too revealing of their  body shapes”.  He sought a retraction of the article.

The editor of the Nationalist responded to Mr Murray stating that the newspaper had become aware of a petition posted on Facebook in relation to how female students had been informed that they “were not allowed to wear leggings or tight bottoms for PE as they cannot show off the ‘female anatomy’ and that it was distracting to staff at the school”. The newspaper said it also became aware of comments posted on social media by parents on the issue and had interviewed the parents of some of the children who had been informed of the clothing requirement. The editor further stated that The Nationalist had tried to get a response from the school in advance of publishing the article, but that the school did not respond. The editor stood over the accuracy of what had been reported and offered the Principal a right-of-reply which would consist of an interview with a journalist from The Nationalist, or a meeting with him to discuss the contents of the correspondence.

Mr Murray made a complaint to the Office of the Press Ombudsman that the sub-heading  referred to above “was completely untrue and therefore breached Principles 1, 2 and 4 of the Code of Practice.  He said that Principle 2 was also breached as the article had reported comments, rumours and unconfirmed reports as facts when they were not. He said that the school had declined to comment on the claims as it did not wish to “provide fuel for the fire of a ‘non-story frenzy’ circulating on social media”. He said the article published by The Nationalist had been based on a single posting on social media. He said Principle 4 had been breached as the character and integrity of the school and its teachers had been attacked and undermined in the article which was based on misrepresentation and unfounded accusations and that The Nationalist had not taken reasonable care in checking facts before publication.

The Nationalist made a submission to the Office of the Press Ombudsman. It claimed there had been no breach of Principles 1, 2 and 4 of the Code of Practice. It said it did not accept that the article was untrue or inaccurate. It said it had clarified the information with parents and pupils before publication. The Nationalist said that it had “multiple sources” for its story and that efforts had been made on a number of occasions to get comments from the school in advance of publication. It said it had spoken to parents and to children who had attended the assemblies and that it had no “reason to doubt the veracity of what we were being told by the parents and children”. The Nationalist also said that it was never the newspaper’s intention to cause “anyone upset or distress”. It added that had the school “responded to the numerous attempts to contact the school then this complaint may never have arisen”.

The school responded to the newspaper’s submission saying that there was no obligation on the school to respond to the newspaper’s request for a comment and the absence of a response did not confer legitimacy for The Nationalist “to run with a significantly inaccurate … story”. The school also stated that all bar one parent had been satisfied with the school’s clarification as to what had been said to the children.

As the complaint could not be resolved by conciliation it was forwarded to the Press Ombudsman for a decision.

Principle 1

The Nationalist published an account of what it was told happened in Presentation College Carlow in the implementation of school policy regarding uniforms. Some of what was published, whilst an accurate account of what appeared on social media, was subsequently found to be inaccurate. Principle 1.2 requires the press to correct promptly a “significant inaccuracy, misleading statement or distorted report”. This did not happen. Therefore, Principle 1 was breached.

Principle 2

The statements complained about in the article, including sub-heading, were unqualified and presented as fact. Principle 2.2 requires the press not to report as fact “comment, conjecture, rumour or unconfirmed reports”.  This was a breach of Principle 2.

Principle 4

This Principle requires the press to take reasonable care in checking facts before publication. The Nationalist based its report on social media postings and information received from parents and students. The Nationalist also sought a response from the school authorities. For these reasons I do not believe Principle 4 was breached. The fact that subsequent to publication inaccuracies in the social media postings were discovered cannot be taken into account in determining if Principle 4 was breached at the time of publication of the report on 24 November 2020

21 April 2021

Blog Control Decided by the Press Ombudsman