It’s a bit mad that well into the 21st century that we still get paper-based payslips. If the law states that we are entitled to a paper-based payslip, we need to change the law. All payslips need to be moved online where teachers can log into some sort of Teacher Portal and be able to … Read more
There are 11 discrete subjects in the primary curriculum and we have 25 hours per week to teach them all. It’s nowhere near enough to teach most of the subjects properly so there’s pressure to try and find ways to reduce the overloaded curriculum to make it easier for teachers to teach the full curriculum. … Read more
This is probably not the most serious article of the lot but does it annoy you a little bit when someone who is clearly not a teacher calls themselves a teacher? It’s probably the same for qualified counsellors and coaches who have worked for years with several degrees and Masters to earn their title and … Read more
Class sizes need to be a maximum ratio of 20:1. There’s really no more that can be said.
Special classes for children with autism account for over 80% of special classes in mainstream schools. Their original intention was to be a stepping stone from a special class to a mainstream class for children on the milder end of the spectrum. This is why there are generally a maximum of 2 classes in any … Read more
While a tad aspirational, it would be great to see how much paper-based content a school really needs. Obviously, subjects like Visual Arts couldn’t happen without paper but almost every other subject could limit itself a lot, certainly in terms of curriculum content. Is there really any need for textbooks at all when we can … Read more
The Irish Primary Curriculum is a beast with way too many subjects and far too little time to cover them all adequately. There are constant demands mainly made by outside agencies to slot in more and more into the finite space of time. A good example of this is SPHE, which gets 30 minutes per … Read more
The new Primary Language Curriculum was a result of the very odd 2011 Literacy and Numeracy Strategy, which was hastily put together after a small blip in Ireland’s PISA results, where it scored a little less than it had in the past. Within weeks, a new language curriculum was on the cards and the NCCA … Read more
If you’ve work in a primary school for over a decade, and you were asked what was the number one change in pupils since you began your career, it wouldn’t be a surprise if children’s mental health was top of the list. However, accessing services for mental health is almost impossible, leading to a deterioration … Read more
When it comes to Special Education in Ireland, we have a very interesting system, full of the right intentions but with a complete lack of investment. The government will trot out figures that there are over 1,000 special classes for pupils with specific special needs that are integrated into primary schools. At first glance, this … Read more