The 65 children who were withdrawn from Loughanure National School, Co Donegal, by their parents in October as a protest at poor health and safety conditions began classes in the Irish College in the village yesterday.
Following a meeting between the board of management and parents last Thursday, the parents were told that the Minister for Education and Science, Mr Dempsey, had approved a plan to relocate the children to the college.
This was one of the demands the parents made when they removed their children from the 1929 national school building.
The college facilities are being provided by Coláiste Mhuire.
The breakthrough in the dispute came just minutes before the meeting started on Thursday night, when Minister of State Mr Pat "The Cope" Gallagher called to tell the board and parents' committee of Mr Dempsey's approval of the move. Until that point the board had been preparing to tell parents that the expected response from the Department was that the children were to return to the school immediately.
The Department proposes to provide the national school with additional temporary facilities in the coming months, including additional toilets, storage facilities and rooms for resource teachers.
The children will remain in the Irish College until these are in place and other necessary works have been carried out.
The board of management and parents say they hope this initial breakthrough is just the first step towards more substantial works, including three additional classrooms. They are hopeful that the school will be included on the Department's list of schools to be upgraded, to be published in January.
On Sunday parents and teachers came together to move furniture, equipment and books from the national school to the Irish College. Two of the teachers will hold classes in the smaller hall, while a third class and resource teachers will be in the main building.
A spokesman for the parents said last night everything went according to plan for the return to school.
"Obviously the teachers and pupils will take a day or two to get properly arranged but at least the children are back in education after missing 13 school days.
"We're confident that this is the first step towards achieving the aims we set when we withdrew the children on October 8th," he said.