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To be honest I don't care what people spend on this. I wish they'd asked the parents how many of them thanked their schools for spending months preparing their children for the event. I also wish they'd asked if the schools hadn't have prepared them for the event whether they would have gone through with it. I also wish they'd asked these parents how they voted in the referendum on marriage equality and abortion. They're the kinds of questions that might make a difference. While there might be faux-outrage online about the costs and fake splutterings of shock about the average money these kids get, it's entirely meaningless.
8% increase in spending on Communion Day - survey
Parents spent an average of €929 on their child's First Holy Communion Day this year, an 8% increase on last year's spend, according to an Ulster Bank survey.2 days ago
..and how much time did non-participating 2nd class children spend colouring and completing useless worksheets?
The ancient Irish tradition of "notions" explains all the spending. In response to your other queries I'd say 0% 30% 65% 50%
Schools' double inspections help enforce changes #edchatie
I await the reports for these 11 schools with bated breath. More accurately, I await the newspaper reports about these 11 schools with bated breath.
www.independent.ie/irish-news/education/schools-double-inspections-help-enforce-changes-38242754....
Schools' double inspections help enforce changes
Schools are now being inspected twice, weeks apart, to ensure that they are living up to their responsibilities in areas such as child protection and the delivery of sex education class3 days ago
Inspectors are now concentrating on enforcing policies that insist on school documents being displayed on school notice boards with the designated personnel’s name appended. If the name is merely adjacent to the notice the school is deemed to not be in compliance with that policy! What about a course in common sense for inspectors??
They are up as of Friday last. The department issued a press release. Unless people want to give themselves palpitations I would avoid reading them before the end of the holidays! 😉
If there's anything we can take from this story, it's great to see a school listening to the students' voices. #edchatie
Granted, it's a big stretch comparing these kids to Greta Thunberg, and, granted, this is not the first school by any means to have a gender neutral uniform or gender neutral toilet, but they have managed to get into the national media to showcase a positive news story from a primary school.
www.independent.ie/opinion/comment/katherine-donnelly-pupils-have-given-us-all-a-valuable-lesson-...
Katherine Donnelly: 'Pupils have given us all a valuable lesson with their pragmatic move'
Out of the mouths of not quite babes, but primary school pupils, came the disarmingly pragmatic response to dealing with gender variance among their peers.4 days ago
Just about the gender neutral toilets, I tried this and the first year with 1st and 2nd it worked fine. This year with 2nd and 3rd the boys were peeing all over the place (even after signs up and corks for them to aim at in the toilets!) and the girls were complaining (totally understandable) so I had to switch back to separate girls and boys toilets.😕
Thanks, Minister, for launching something that's been happening in schools for years. #edchatie
www.independent.ie/irish-news/education/irish-to-be-taught-through-pe-classes-in-bid-to-improve-s...
Irish to be taught through PE classes in bid to improve schoolchildren's confidence in learning
Irish will be taught through PE classes in a bid to improve school children's confidence in learning and speaking the language.4 days ago
Really what an innovative approach (sarcasm)
Highlights how far out of touch our good leader is.
CLIL!
Nothing new about this initiative
Another PR stunt. Thank God for the eyeroll emoji.🙄
Mags Fitzgerald😂
Kathleen Feerick🤔
Wish there was a wtf button!
Dope
I must say I'm finding the coverage of this story a bit strange. #edchatie
I mistakenly thought this was the same school that was in the news last year when a principal resigned over discriminatory enrollment policies but I was corrected by an eagle eyed local (thank you)
I guess what is strange for me is that there are hundreds of schools in Ireland that already have gender neutral uniforms, or even better, have no uniforms at all. There are quite a lot of schools that already have gender neutral toilets too. Look, it's great that the newspapers are highlighting a positive thing happening in a school. It's a rare thing. I guess the next step is to fully remove the uniform to allow the children to fully express themselves as they wish.
www.independent.ie/irish-news/education/school-gets-negative-calls-over-genderneutral-uniform-pol...
School gets 'negative calls' over gender-neutral uniform policy
A Co Wicklow primary school says it has had "a few negative phone calls" after it announced a gender-neutral uniform policy to accommodate transgender pupils.5 days ago
Thanks for the comments, Lisa and Steph. I'm glad that you like uniforms for your own reasons. You might like to listen to my podcast all about school uniforms where I mention both your points. traffic.libsyn.com/forcedn/anseo/episode009-uniforms.mp3
We were a bit underwhelmed by this as a news story in our school. We’ve been doing it for years and not entirely sure what the fuss is about. Have yet to see a boy in a skirt but the choice is there.
I am in favour of uniforms. My daughter expresses her self through her clothes outside of school. She expresses herself through her hairstyles, accessories etc in school. I could not afford to keep her in outfits for school too. Neither could many other parents. Not to mention the pressure among peers to keep up with the trends.
I’m also in favour of uniforms. In our school it’s just a school tracksuit that every child wears. The navy jumper has the crest on it but the navy pants/shorts and blue polo shirt can be got from anywhere. I think it takes a huge pressure off families in the morning and it’s really comfortable for the kids to wear for the school day.