01.09.2014
Historic Day for Pioneering Students as Temple Carrig School Opens
Today is a milestone day for the 133 first year students of Temple Carrig School in Greystones. The new secondary school, which is under Church of Ireland patronage, opened its doors for its first day this morning (Monday September 1) and the first years of 2014 are the pioneers of learning in the new institution.
The students along with their teachers and principal, Alan Cox, gathered in St Patrick’s Church in Greystones yesterday afternoon for a service of dedication of the new school at which Archbishop Michael Jackson presided.
In his sermon, the Archbishop told the students: “You are the people who will make Temple Carrig happen and within your number you have all the characteristics and personalities to do so”. He encouraged them to be happy, adventurous and distinctive.
“Every pupil, whether with or without any difficulties around schooling or around personal challenges, deserves the entitlement to flourish and the opportunity to contribute. Every pupil receives the chance of a lifetime to shape and to be part of the picture to the world that is Temple Carrig for the future. Every pupil … has the chance to learn to share and in this way to make sure that nobody is left out, nobody is left behind, everybody is included and partakes of the plenty that is there for everyone to enjoy. There is no waste; there is the energy of each and every one of you for each other and for the school that is truly yours from today: Temple Carrig. Please go and enjoy it – together,” he said.
Archbishop Jackson thanked Mr Garrett Fennell (Board of Management), the Reverend Baden Stanley (Rector of Bray), the Reverend David Mungavin (Rector of Greystones), Mr Alan Cox (Principal), Dr Kenneth Fennelly (Church of Ireland Board of Education) and the Board of Temple Carrig for all they had done to bring the school to is opening day. He also thanked the Department of Edcuation, its Minister past and present and the staff for running with the vision for the school. (Archbishop Jackson’s full sermon is reproduced below.)
Addressing the congregation in the packed church, the Principal, Alan Cox, said that the occasion was a milestone in the school’s journey. He paid a personal tribute to the Board of Management and the committee who put the Church of Ireland patronage bid together. He also thanked the staff for their relentless enthusiasm.
“This day is a milestone. But it is not just one, it is 133 milestones because for the first years of Temple Carrig it is a huge milestone. This is a service of dedication and blessing for the students who are starting school. The service is about you guys – not about us congratulating ourselves but about you,” he said.
During the service, which was attended by clergy from the surrounding parishes of Bray, Delgany and Powerscourt, Minister of State Simon Harris, Deputy Andrew Doyle and Cllr Tom Fortune, students brought objects representing school life to the altar. These included a Bible, bulbs and seeds, a blank canvas and paints, and old copy, blank copy and a textbook, sports equipment and a musical instrument and a lunchbox.
Photos:
Top – The Principal, Alan Cox (far left) and teachers of Temple Carrig School with Archbishop Michael Jackson (centre).
Bottom – First year students of Temple Carrig School in St Patrick’s Church.
Temple Carrig School, Diocese of Glendalough
Inaugural Service held in St Patrick’s Church, Greystones, August 31.2014
Reading: Ephesians 3.14–21
A sermon preached by the Archbishop
In the future there will be no waste, there will only be energy …
Today is a day for the pupils of Temple Carrig School. A new school is happening. A new school is opening. It would not be possible for it to happen or to open without you. Without the banging of doors, the running of energetic feet late for Class after Break, the losing of bits of homework and the finding of them again just in time – there simply is no school. Schools need pupils and pupils need schools. And that’s exactly why, during our Service today, some one of you will carry up to God a lunchbox. It is not possible to be a school without having food to eat. The lunchbox carries a meaning far beyond the food it contains.
The first thing, however, one of you will carry up to God is a Bible. The Bible carries within it a very helpful little story about a lunchbox. Jesus was teaching people who had gathered and were sitting on a grassy area and they were so interested in listening to what he had to say to them that they went past their lunch time without really realizing they were hungry. The Disciples came up to Jesus: What are we to do for these people? They have been listening to you for a very long time and they are now very hungry. What Jesus does is to ask a boy to bring to him the lunchbox which his mother has given him. In it are five loaves of bread and two roast fish. With the help of everyone else present Jesus encourages all the people to find their own lunchboxes which they have brought; to share their with everyone else – once Jesus has given thanks to the God who is his Father. There is not only enough for everyone but, even more, twelve baskets of food are remaining for others. Remember this story when you open your lunchbox day after day in Temple Carrig School please. It is a story of sharing, a story of plenty and a story of other people.
On this day I want to congratulate you and to encourage you. You are the people who will make Temple Carrig happen and within your number you have all of the characteristics and personalities to do so. I would encourage you to be happy: you and your teachers and your parents and members of the Board can and will make this a happy school, a place where you will be proud to be, proud to be yourselves and proud to be a new community. Other people will see and know that you are happy when they come to the school and see how you yourselves care for one another and enjoy learning, debating, making music, playing sports and simply being a community.
I would encourage you to be adventurous: you can lead the way for the pupils who, year after year, will follow you as you make your way through the school. You in particular will always be a model to someone as you will always be ahead of someone. It may be lonely for a while, rattling around in a building which is designed for many more people than your year group but quite soon it will fill up. Take the many opportunities which space offers to you! Enjoy your time and enjoy your friends! Please build up a good and strong relationship with your teachers. Do not be afraid to ask them questions when you get lost in any way. Talk at home about the new things which you are doing in school and the new people you are meeting and the new ideas with which you are engaging – and talk them through with courage and with vitality.
I would encourage you to be distinctive: it is very important to stand up and to stand out. You do not need to be, and in fact you should not be, pushy or selfish. You may be rather quiet, you may even be shy, you may be boisterous or you may be needy. You may be saying to yourself: What he is telling us is that it doesn’t matter. It does matter in the following way and for the following reason; it is because you need to be able to be: Be yourself. Let your character and your personality blossom. Do the things you are good at; try the things you have never tried before which Temple Carrig will offer you. Please be tolerant towards and accepting of all the unique individuals who are also being themselves in this community of teaching and learning. As well as being distinctive for yourself, please also be distinctive in building up and forming a community of place and of purpose, of care and of creativity, of enjoyment and of encouragement – in Temple Carrig – for the best of reasons, that it is a gift to everyone and you are the first people.
I myself should like to thank all of you for being here on the last day of your holiday to celebrate with me and with everyone else the beginning of the visible life of Temple Carrig. I should like also to thank Mr Garrett Fennell, the Reverend Baden Stanley, the Reverend David Mungavin, Mr Alan Cox, Dr Kenneth Fennelly and the Board of Temple Carrig for all you have done to bring us to this day and to enable this day to happen. You did all of the background work which helped in ways which nobody can calculate a secondary school of the quality of Temple Carrig to grow up here. And I should like to thank the Department of Education and Skills, its Minister past and present, and all of its hard–working staff for running with our vision and for helping us throughout the journey of delivering this vision of hope, of faith and of love. To all of you: Thank you!
In the future there will be no waste, there will only be energy …
It is a slogan I
saw one day walking down the tunnel into an aeroplane. To me it is suitable and
appropriate to today and to Temple Carrig. Every pupil, whether with or without
any difficulties around schooling or around personal challenges, deserves the
entitlement to flourish and the opportunity to contribute. Every pupil receives
the chance of a lifetime to shape and to be part of the picture to the world
that is Temple Carrig for the future. Every pupil, like the little boy with the
lunchbox, has the chance to learn to share and in this way to make sure that
nobody is left out, nobody is left behind, everybody is included and partakes
of the plenty that is there for everyone to enjoy. There is no waste; there is
the energy of each and every one of you for each other and for the school that
is truly yours from today: Temple Carrig. Please go and enjoy it – together.
Ephesians 3.17,
18: May you, in company with all God’s
people, be strong to grasp what is the breadth and length and height and depth
of Christ’s love, and to know it, though it is beyond knowledge.