The school currently enrols 33 pupils.
St Thomas' Special School in Coolock, Dublin has been recently notified that its funding will be cut, leading to its imminent closure this June.
Parents, students and teachers at the school, of which all 33 students are Travellers, have expressed great frustration with the sudden closure.
St Thomas' is currently the last segregated Traveller secondary school of its kind in Ireland.
It's a special school that caters exclusively for boys and girls from Traveller families. Originally established in Booterstown in 1981, St Thomas' then moved to its current location in 1983.
Commendable efforts are made by the school's management and staff to provide a supportive environment for the students, such as providing a breakfast and hot lunch to each student and a rewards systems put in place for good attendance.
And although it is highly specialised and orientated towards the Traveller culture, St Thomas' boasts an open-door policy to students of different backgrounds.
On Tuesday's edition of Liveline, Joe Duffy spoke to John, an English teacher at St Thomas' who found out just last week that the school is closing in June, with no phase-out period.
The teachers and parents of students received a letter from the Archdiocese to say that the Department of Education is withdrawing funds.
The school is being closed as part of an integration policy to help the Travelling and settled communities mix in the education system.
"It's just not right Joe, it's just not good enough," John said.
"It's very unfair that they have made all the effort, turned up for school every day – and now it feels like we are selling them out."
John and his colleagues have been trying to get these students to come back and do the Leaving Cert and have managed to get a cohort of kids to commit to the state exam. Two had committed to attempting the set of exams this year and three next year.
However, the general belief is that these children will not finish their education now that the school is closing.
"We know from speaking to them [the students] and the parents that they're going to basically cut loose Joe, and they're not going to have anywhere to go after this. They're not going to follow on through to finish off the Leaving Cert," John continued.
"The fifth years this year won't go on to finish off their Leaving Cert just because they don't feel comfortable going into a different school."
According to the school's
Whole School Evaluation (WSE) in 2007, St Thomas' had no record of any student transferring to a mainstream post-primary school to study for the Leaving Certificate.
In a statement released to JOE, the Department of Education said that it plans to phase out segregated education provision for Traveller children.
"Ensuring every child is supported and given the opportunity to reach their full potential is a key priority for this Government. The Department is committed to improving educational outcomes for members of the Traveller and Roma communities," the statement read.
"St Thomas’s Clonshaugh is a school with Special School designation dating from a period when separate education provision for members of the Traveller community was the norm.
"The phasing out of segregated education provision for Traveller children began in 2006 in accordance with Government policy which was developed in consultation with Traveller representative groups.
"The Department of Education and Skills has been engaging with the Patron of St Thomas’s for many years to progress the transfer of its student cohort to the mainstream school system in line with this agreed national policy."
Meetings are expected to take place at the school in the coming weeks, where it’s understood that political, religious, and Traveller representatives will speak to parents and students about their concerns.
The whole interview is available to listen on Soundcloud
here.
