The Anseo.net Newsletter features my thoughts on the Irish Primary Education System.
I was on the radio a few times in the last couple of weeks. I found myself discussing the removal of complex needs as a criteria for allocating support hours yet again but there seems to be no movement on the issue. I was on Lunchtime Live talking about voluntary contributions and managed to find out about the School Book grant. I seemed to find myself on news bulletins across the network on single sex schools thanks to BeatFM. I was also in the Irish Times discussing AI in education.
I always find it strange why we don’t look to our nearest neighbours when it comes to the role of religion in schools, given all the trouble it’s caused. It’s interesting to see people’s perceived problems of making schools offer equality.
Meanwhile one of the UK’s leading Catholic newspapers does look to Ireland’s system and makes some wonderful sweeping statements, which are worth a read in themselves.
Parents are waiting longer to send their children to primary schools, which is sensible even though we probably shouldn’t be starting primary school until a couple of years later.
There were two articles in the news about second level but are equally relevant to primary. The more things change, the more things stay the same according to Brian Fleming is the first article. The second article focuses on young people’s mental health after COVID. Perhaps things aren’t quite the same after all.
Finally, with the success of the hot school meals programme, an article here is pouring cold water on the scheme. It’s inevitable that the scheme is littered with problems given the structures of our system but it’s probably as good as it can be
Here are some X posts I enjoyed over the last couple of weeks:
- Helpful tips on Standardised Testing from Trina Golden (via @CatrionaGolden)
- Deadline beckoning for Different Families, Same Love (via @intolgbt)
- Someone was paying attention during the PMC day! (via @Deen_Von)
- I’m not sure why this is good news in the UK (via @GillianKeegan)
- Interesting podcast from Dr. David Kennedy (via @daviekennedy)
- Why would you call a glue stick Derek? (via @edutopia)
- What word do you think of when you hear Cosán? (via @CatrionaGolden)
