The Education Minister has (again) expressed her appreciation for the importance of offering a diverse choice in education. She has (again) engaged with stakeholders, namely bishops to demonstrate her commitment to this. She is also going to survey parents (again) to ascertain what they would like. The process of making Irish schools more diverse has … Read more
Nineteen schools in Kerry were granted €160,000 in funding for STEM projects according to most of the headlines in the media. This was on the back of the controversial decision of the Department of Education using a random number generator to offer out a STEM grant to a small number of the 2,700+ schools that … Read more
Research conducted by UCD for the Children’s School Lives report found that primary school children tend to experience increased anxiety as they progress through school, according to Carl O’Brien in the Irish Times. Parents had mixed feelings about tests used to measure academic progress, with some finding them useful and others noting their children were … Read more
It seems that we have christened our next generation of kids, Generation Alpha. I did wonder where we’d go after “millennials” and I guess it makes sense to start at alpha given we messed up in the 20th century starting with generation X! According to a Business Insider article, this generation of children is being … Read more
Today, we delve into an important topic that has sparked debate in recent years – the requirement of a Catholic Certificate in Religious Education for teaching positions. I’ll be sharing my thoughts on this issue and discussing what I would do if I were the Minister for Education. The podcast can be found here: https://anseo.captivate.fm/episode/ccre/ … Read more
I’ve been banging on about Droichead for the past decade and recently published a podcast series. I asked teachers to share their experiences, both positive and negative. Lorraine Dillon is a second level teacher who kindly offered to write an article to share her experience. If teaching were a prison, then I’m a Lifer. I … Read more
Somehow, I missed this announcement last week even so it contains 80 actions and sub actions to be completed before the end of 2018. I had a quick look through it. The trouble with these documents is that they are exceptionally waffle-ridden and really difficult to read. Themes, subthemes, actions, subactions, etc. etc. It would … Read more
The INTO, like many organisations, was formed in a time before the advent of technology. In order to ensure large organisations like them could make decisions on behalf of their members, a number of layers needed to be established so that leadership could ensure the message of its members could be heard. For example, the … Read more
Every January I try to predict what’s going to happen in primary education for the rest of the year and what the big issues and big stories will be. I’ll focus on a number of areas of interest to me. Please add your own guesses by commenting at the bottom of this post. For me, … Read more
Droichead 2.0 arrived today and the INTO almost immediately lifted the directive against cooperation. It’s obvious that the INTO aren’t knee-jerking in their reaction. They have known about this for months. It raises the question about the involvement of the INTO in the Teaching Council. I don’t believe unions have any place in the Teaching … Read more