People often give out about teachers’ working hours. We’ve heard it all – half days and long holidays, blah blah blah. Everyone that is a teacher or loves a teacher knows that the hours we have with the children tell about half the story. There’s not a lot of point in me talking about all … Read more
Becoming a principal can turn out to be a decision one might regret, as nothing can really prepare you for it. The idealist in you believes the advertisement that you will be a leader of learner, and in some ways, that’s sometimes true. However, the vast majority of the time, you end up filling in … Read more
Before I begin this opinion, a disclaimer: I worked for a private college of education for 6 years. Now, on to the article. Most people know that the reason a private college for training teachers was established was because there was a huge shortage of teachers. Almost two decades on, it is still the case, … Read more
Sometimes it’s good to change a long held tradition. Anyone working in infant classes will see that their job is completely different to that of someone in another class. The way the curriculum is going, with Aistear encompassing much of what infant teachers do these days, is it time to simply use infants as a … Read more
Special Educational Needs in Irish schools are a total disaster so this idea isn’t going to fix it. However, it might be a decent step in the right direction. When a child requires OT or SLT support, they join a very long waiting list and when they get an appointment, it’s generally during school, and … Read more
Really, we have to face it: we are failing at teaching Irish. We have a few passionate teachers who can teach it well, but overall, there’s something very wrong when most people come out of 14 years of education unable to string a sentence in Irish together, yet can almost be fluent in some European … Read more
It’s very likely that this post will be liked by most principals and hated by teachers on temporary contracts and nobody else in the middle will care too much. The Supplementary Panel is a good idea in theory. If you work enough time in a school (or schools) whether that’s subbing or temporary positions, you … Read more
Irish schools do not have established substitute panels. I’m not sure how common this is, but it would make a lot of sense of they were to be established. Since the online claims system (OLCS) has been set up, there must be a huge amount of data to establish how many absences per day are … Read more
Primary school teaching is most likely one of the least diverse professions in the country. A study in NUIG found that 99% of teachers identified as white and Irish and 90% of teachers identified as Catholic. Looking at the following 1969 video of the UK’s first black headteacher, it seems shameful that 50 years later, … Read more
Section 29s bring out the fear in principals. If you aren’t in the know, a Section 29 case can be brought against a school when they refuse to enrol a child into their school and it is appealed by a parent. It can also be used when a child is being expelled. I’ll deal with … Read more