Mission Statement
Old Bawn Community School is a community of learning and personal growth, which includes our students and their families, our teachers and staff, our trustees and our adult students. We have a role in the wider community and in the overall educational community
All parties to our school have their rights and duties within our structures.
Our commitment is to learning in its broadest sense and our procedures and practices reflect this. Respect for the uniqueness of each member of our community commits us to maintaining a caring working environment in which we all can achieve fulfilment.
Guiding Principles
The mission statement of Old Bawn Community School embodies the principles and values, which underpin the practises within the school.
Old Bawn Community School is a community school whose legal foundation rests on the Deed of Trust of 1971. This is the binding document by which the trusts for community schools are established. The Trustees together with the Board of Management (including the Principal) and the Minister for Education and Skills are legally obliged to ensure that the school is managed in accordance with the Deed of Trust. The Trustees are nominated by the Dominican Fathers and Dominican Sisters and the C.E.O., Dublin & Dun Laoghaire Education and Training Board. These hold the property in trust for the purpose of the school.
Old Bawn Community School is fully funded by the Department of Education and Skills and operates within the regulations laid down by it, and allocation of teachers and other resources is as defined by it. The curriculum and range of activities and programs within the school is provided by the Department of Education and Skills.
In addition to the context outlined above, Old Bawn Community School is also guided by the Education Act of 1988, the Education Welfare Act 2000, the Equal Status Act 2000, and the Epson Act 2004. Old Bawn Community School supports the principles of inclusiveness and equality of access and participation contained in this legislation.
Old Bawn Community School respects the concept of parental choice in relation to enrolments and also respects the diversity of traditions, values, beliefs, languages and ways of life, which exist in society.
The Board of Management also reserves the right to refuse to enrol an applicant if it is of the opinion that the presence of the applicant in the school would be detrimental to the interests of the other parties to the school as outlined in the Statement of Mission and the Deed of Trust.
Among the grounds for such a refusal might be the lack of resources and/ or capacity within the school to cater for the needs of the applicant or the belief on the part of the Board of Management that the applicant will be a threat to the health and safety of others. The Board of Management, in making such a decision will balance the rights and needs of the applicant with the rights and needs of the general school community.
