There are so many rumours and myths about multidenominational schools, Educate Together ones in particular, it really was no surprise, to me, why many parents, even if they reject the tenets of the Catholic faith, will prefer a Catholic school to a non-Catholic one. I thought it would be interesting to list the myths I … Read more
Whatever our feelings on wellbeing in schools, it will become part of the new curriculum. I was lucky to be approached by Úna Ryan and Denise Enright from REMind Ed™ who shared their wealth of knowledge on wellbeing as well as chatting to me about their product Mind Moments.
The last story of 2022 concerned the reduction of religious instruction from 2.5 hours per week to 2 hours per week in the upcoming new primary curriculum. Lobby groups such as Education Equality and Atheist Ireland (and people like me) were unhappy that this tokenistic move was even newsworthy as it change almost nothing about … Read more
With the number of people in Ireland identifying as Christian decreasing in the last decade, (CSO, 2016), with notable increases in the population of Muslims and Hindus, (95% and 135.6% increase respectively since 2006), primary schools around the country now host an increasing number of pupils that do not celebrate Christian festivals, such as Christmas. … Read more
Don’t be put off by the title: to me, the Children’s School Lives reports are some of the most fascinating insights to primary education produced. This report focuses on the transition between preschool and primary education. In this episode I explore some of the things we should learn as primary teachers as well as learning … Read more
The long awaited IPPN report on their Roadmap to Sustainability was released at their annual conference in Killarney, Co. Kerry last week. I finally managed to delve into its 130+ pages and see what thoughts I might have as I read through it. Overall it’s a good report but there was one glaring omission, which … Read more
In part 2 of this exploration of the Finnish Education System, I discover just what it is that sets them apart from Ireland.
I fulfilled an educational ambition to visit Finland and learn about what’s known as the “Finnish Miracle” – that is, how did Finland become the best education system in the world. Over the next two weeks, I’m going to share what I discovered and why I think Ireland could easily be the best in the … Read more
In Part 1, we explored why Father Sheehy did nothing wrong when he preached from the altar and why what he did is no better than what isn’t taught in Irish primary schools – i.e. what I call sin by omission. Join me in Part 2 where I talk about why the Catholic Church still … Read more
Recently a sermon from a Catholic priest was live-streamed and recorded from a church in Listowel and it went viral. The sermon was from a priest called Father Sheehy and in his sermon, he decried same sex relationships, contraception, trans rights among other things that fall under, for want of a better term, the terms … Read more