Crana College needs a new building now, an impassioned student’s plea for action

I am a fifth-year student in Crana College, and since I’ve been in first year, we’ve been hearing about the imminent arrival of a new school building.

It is now clear that I will be long gone from Crana College before the students and staff finally get the new building we deserve.

The situation reached a crisis point a long time ago, and the lack of progress has been frustrating for all of us.

Overall, I have really been enjoying my experience at Crana College, and my school life has been all positive, except for one big problem: the out-dated building.

Out of my 28 timetabled classes, 9 of them are being taught either in huts, prefabs, or in classrooms that are not suitable for the subject being taught.

One example of this is my art class. Our class has 4 hours of art per week, unfortunately, only one of those hours is in an actual art room. The others take place in a science lab, computer room, and regular classrooms.

This has a detrimental effect on our ability to work on our art pieces. We will be starting our Leaving Cert projects soon, which are extremely important to all of us, however the rooms allocated to art lack the space and resources we need to work to the best of our ability.

Furthermore, this issue creates additional concerns for our art teacher, who must ensure that all our resources are brought from room to room for each class.

Another very real concern is the phenomenon of ‘Sick Building Syndrome’, first identified in the 1980s and the subject of much research since then.

Sick Building Syndrome refers to symptoms such as headaches, fatigue, and respiratory issues suffered by occupants in buildings and rooms that do not have adequate ventilation.

Many of our classrooms and prefabs have a lack of ventilation and heating, which is impacting the health and wellbeing of our school community.

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In addition, the sheer number of students moving around the school between classes and at break means there is overcrowding in the corridors every day. This is a worry for teachers and staff members who must control the movement of this large number of students moving through the narrow halls every hour.

This overcrowding also causes the quick spread of germs and viruses around the school, especially in the winter season, meaning that many students and teachers are absent from important classes at this time of year.

Crana College is a great school, with a fantastic atmosphere and a vibrant school community, where both staff and students work hard each day. However, it is clear that our current building situation negatively impacts the day-to-day life of students, and this, in turn, hampers our educational outcomes.