04.04.2025
April’s Garden Dedicated in Memory of Much Loved Springdale NS Pupil
The community of Springdale National School in Raheny gathered today (Friday April 4) to honour April Banks, a much loved sixth class pupil who passed away last December. April’s classmates led a special assembly in memory of their ‘Superstar’ and the school’s patron, Archbishop Michael Jackson, dedicated a beautiful garden created in her memory.
April’s parents Katie and Grahame and her grandmother Sibhéal joined the assembly along with other sixth class parents and the Rector of Raheny the Revd Kevin Ronne and members of the Board of Management. The pupils read from the Bible [Matthew 6: 26–29], led prayers and recited poems. The school was a sea of blue which was April’s favourite colour.
Welcoming everybody, particularly April’s family, Sprindale NS Principal Lesley Cahill explained that while they remembered April every day in different ways, it was fitting to join together on this April morning to pay a special tribute to her. She said April was one of April’s busiest times each year as she got out and about raising funds for a charity close to her heart, Oscar’s Kids. Sixth class remembered their friend earlier on the week by marking the beginning of the month with a five km walk.
Archbishop Jackson described the occasion as both poignant and positive. He said everyone was clearly full of good memories of April, yet grieving very strongly. “What you have done in an amazing way is to give expression to both of those things here this morning in the presence of April’s family, Katie and Grahame her parents, and Sibhéal her grandmother, and all other people who carry April with them this morning,” he said.
The Archbishop thanked sixth class for leading the assembly and for carrying themselves and April as their friend throughout her years in this school, and teachers and staff members in the school for doing the same. He said that Kevin had told him of some of the amazing things that April gave to the school and that the school gave to her.
Having just returned from Amman in Jordan, Archbishop Jackson said he spoke to the principal of a school in nearby Zarqa at breakfast after church on Sunday morning about what he was going to be doing when he returned to Dublin. She offered to plant a tree in their school garden in memory of April. He hoped it would be an olive tree which can live for 2,000 years. “An olive tree is a visible sign of long life and my understanding of what April gave and what April was in the life of this school, and still is, is that in a short time frame she lived and gave a very full life,” he explained. He hoped that this could form a link between the two schools.
Outside in April’s garden, Ms Cahill explained the significance of each part of Springdale’s new garden which features some of April’s pixel art and her signature which came from the sixth class school hoodie. The Archbishop dedicated the garden.
