A recently opened primary school in South Dublin has received a donation of €10,000 from the team at Amazon’s new delivery station in Rathcoole. Rathcoole Educate Together National School (ETNS) is a state-funded primary school with an ethos based on equality and democracy. Open to children of all backgrounds, the school is co-educational and takes a child-centred approach to teaching. The school is temporarily based in Saggart whilst it awaits its new building in Rathcoole village.
The school received the donation as part of the “Amazon in the Community” programme, whereby the company supports the communities around its operating locations. Rathcoole ETNS opened its doors in September with an aim to create a learning environment that is safe, inclusive, engaging and holistic for its pupils. The staff see the benefit of children being outdoors as much as possible and have created a beautiful garden area for the pupils to play and learn. The donation from Amazon has been used to purchase construction material for the school’s garden area and two coding robots, which will help the pupils learn early STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) skills.
Commenting on the donation, Sarah Jane Heffernan, Delivery Station Manager at Amazon in Rathcoole, said: “We are delighted to have opened our first delivery station in Dublin where Amazon’s 20+ years of operational expertise, technology advancements and investment in transportation infrastructure is enabling faster delivery for customers than ever before, seven days a week. We are pleased to make this donation to our new neighbours at Rathcoole ETNS and support their wholesome approach to learning. It’s a fantastic school that offers the best possible start in life for young boys and girls in South Dublin.”
Gemma Maher, Principal of Rathcoole ETNS, added: “We are excited to receive this donation and would like to extend a huge thank you to Sarah Jane and the rest of the Amazon team. The donation will help us to implement our hands-on curriculum and to source new learning and play materials for our pupils.”
Community donations are one of a number of ways in which Amazon is supporting communities during COVID-19. Amazon’s recently opened delivery station in Dublin has created more than 20 permanent jobs at the 6,500 square metre site in Rathcoole. Amazon in Dublin is working with ten independent delivery companies to provide the fast and reliable delivery Amazon customers love and trust. They have hired more than 150 drivers who will collect parcels from the delivery station and deliver them to Amazon customers in Dublin and the surrounding area.
Earlier this year, Amazon announced it was creating another 1,000 permanent jobs in Ireland over the next two years. The new, highly skilled roles will be based in locations across the company’s Cork and Dublin sites in Blanchardstown, Tallaght, the city centre, and north County Dublin, and will bring Amazon’s total permanent workforce in the country to 5,000 people over the next two years. This will help to support Ireland’s economic recovery following the COVID-19 pandemic.
Rathcoole ETNS is an equality-based, co-educational, child-centred and democratically run national school. To find out more about Educate Together and its unique model of education, visit www.educatetogether.ie.
