DSC is currently researching the issue of children with Ds who are assessed as being in the mild range of intellectual disability and the subsequent withdrawal of service which results from the delivery of such as assessment.

As we build the case and uncover the extent of the impact these diagnoses have on children and their families, we rreceived the following email sent by April Cronin, Prinicipal of St Catherine's NS www.stcatherinesns.net in D8.

"I am the principal of St Catherine's NS, Donore, Dublin 8 (south inner city). We have a Special Class for children with mild general learning difficulties and there are currently 5 vacant places in the class. We offer tailored small-group or one-to-one teaching as well as inclusion in our mainstream classes; we are a small, friendly, welcoming school with a long tradition and expertise in Special Needs education, and our class is under threat of closure next year if we do not fill it. Have you some way of letting the parents in your organisation know about us? I have information leaflets, etc., about the school and the class if it would be a help. Please feel free to email me  aprilmarycronin@gmail.com if you have any queries."

We would like to think that this special class will be able to offer support to some of the children facing into mainstream with limited SNA support and in some cases, no resource hours.

We hope this of help to someone out there.