Five years of Trabolgan

We arrived in Trabolgan Holiday Centre, East Cork, for our annual school tour. Our school is for students with a moderate intellectual disability. This is the fifth year we’ve taken a group of students to Trabolgan. The students included those who will leave school this June.

It is a big change for them to move on to the next phase of their education. They have turned 18, and their time in our school, where they have been educated and supported, has come to an end. It is hard to know how much leaving school impacts on students with an intellectual disability. But one thing is certain: they will miss the peer group they have been with since they were four years old.

They love to go on school tour. We plan for it in the home economics room. We buy and prepare the food. We talk about the things we will pack in our bags and discuss safety. We assess the risks involved and plan for those too.

Cherryl, a teacher at our school, makes sure our group of seven students each has a lanyard with all necessary information on it, around his or her neck. We also make sure that we have good staff cover. As it involves after-school-hours, staff give of their time on a voluntary basis. This is paramount to the success of the holiday.

FIVE YEARS

For the last five years, Cherryl has been the lead teacher and organiser of the operation. I work closely with her, and we arrive with our cars packed with everything – almost including the kitchen sink.

There are special diets, medications, sun screen and so on. We are experts at the organisation at this point and perfectly in tune with the requirements.

Two other staff members – Willie and Donal – have been along for the five years also, so we have a boys house and a girls house. Others join us for days or nights, as required. We had Áine, Lisa, Jennifer and Monica giving us the necessary help this year.

There is nothing like the support of your colleagues who are similarly trained. A school staff is a bit unique in that way – and particularly a staff in the area of special needs. We trust each other to make the right decisions and work as a team. That means that collective responsibility is employed to keep the students safe and happy. That is always our primary concern and our duty.

CHERRYL RETIRES

This year is a bit different, because Cherryl has announced that she will retire in June. Her drive and organisation for this trip is exemplary. She is amazing. The rides and activities are all planned; where people sleep; who comes and who goes; pupil collections and deliveries; and so on.

So there was poignancy about this trip and, try as I might, everything felt different. I kept thinking this is the last time that Cherryl will lead all these activities. This is the last time we will sit out and eat pizza on rugs in the sunshine because Cherryl thought it was a good idea!

This is the last time that we will walk to the top of the hill to see the small castle – even if half of our students were complaining about the walk. Yet, once they were up there they loved the wind and the view out over the sea. We filled our lungs with the fresh air blowing around the east Cork coast.

Gulls dived and swooped in the distance. The sun shimmered on the waters, and we enjoyed the feeling making worthwhile memories for the students.

We took loads of photographs for them to remember. People with intellectual disability value photographs, because they understand images easily. They love to see photographs of themselves.

RISK ASSESSMENT

We never stopped counting: one, two, three, four, five, six, seven. Oftentimes, I’d hear one of my colleagues start a sentence with “Seven. What time are we going?” Because it was only at seven you could relax for a few minutes, knowing all were present and correct.

We went swimming in the pool that has electronic waves, and our seven students were enjoying the experience. All have different levels of competency in the pool. There were three of us in the pool and two by the pool’s edge.

We spotted a large group of 5th- or 6th-class pupils lining up to come in. We looked at each other and decided we’d be getting out fairly quickly. It turned out they had 43 students, with only three staff with them. To our amazement, no staff member got into the water with them.

It is my honest opinion that teachers take huge risks with a big number like that. One of their students got physically sick and two of the teachers were tending to her – leaving one staff member looking out for 42 pupils.

Risk assessment has to be taken seriously, and if the staff is not available to give adequate cover, then maybe a safer option should be chosen.

Luckily, we had no mishaps.

And so Cherryl will leave us, and the dynamic in our school will change. She has been a huge asset to our students with intellectual disability over many years. She is passionate about making them as independent as ever possible. She is innovative, artistic and diligent. She has led amazing Christmas pageants through the years and is a serious information technology nerd!

We’ve no idea who our “go-to” person for those queries will be next year. But someone will emerge, and a new dynamic will form that will serve our students equally well.

Change does motivate us to do things a new way. CL