I won’t be voting for a party based on promises of reducing class sizes but it seems to be the thing that politicians believe is the number one issue in education. Ultimately, once one hits around 18 pupils, anything above that has little impact, i.e. the difference between 30 and 25 is negligible. Anyway, despite … Read more
The Labour Party released its education manifesto with so many promises, it was hard to believe them all. Given their performance in the past five years, it’s even harder.
Recently, The Irish Independent carried an article with the headline, Catholic Schools are as inclusive as any other type by Father Tom Deenihan, during Catholic Schools’ Week. However, not everyone would agree with this sentiment. What does being inclusive mean in the 21st century? We surveyed Irish primary teachers to ascertain exactly what happens in their schools. … Read more
As we come up to the General Election, I’m looking at the various parties and their stances on aspects of primary education. While I am personally very glad that religion in schools is top of the list in terms of public interest, I know that most primary teachers don’t believe it is the biggest issue facing us. … Read more
We have given a platform to any primary school teacher wishing to be on the Teaching Council to answer some tough questions. Last time Séamus O’Connor answered our questions and now it is Mary Claire Relihan’s turn. If you haven’t seen her on the posters in your school, it’s because she is running independently. She has not been … Read more
Over the coming weeks, we’ve decided to focus in on some of the issues facing Irish Primary Education in the run up to the General Election. In all the excitement, sometimes it’s important to set a context and thanks to Voices For Teachers and their members, a list of all the cuts to education are … Read more
I was talking to George Hook on Newstalk today about school uniforms and why I don’t think there’s much point to them. I think he went very lightly on me!
Every week ClassDojo run a chat based on some aspect of education under the hashtag #dojochateu. I type in my own thoughts to the questions that are asked and publish them on this blog. This week the topic was based on Parental Engagement. Q1 What works best for schools trying to increase family engagement? How do we … Read more
I’m going to use my Two Line Tuesday to promote one of the best conferences in education. It’s the CESI conference and you can find out more about it here.