Educate Together

ETEN The Electronic Newsletter from Educate Together
Vol. 7 No. 2 – March 2nd 2007

Campaign 2007
A big "Thank You" to all our readers who have signed our petition for reform of the new school opening process. The petition is still open, so if you or any of your friends have yet to sign, you can do so at web page below:
http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/new-schools-for-21st-century-ireland.html
For more information on the campaign please check out :
http://www.educatetogether.ie/2_campaigns/newschoolsfor21stcent.html

Launch of Educate Together’s Business Plan
On 29 March 2007 Educate Together will launch its new three year Business Plan. The Launch is taking place at 5.30pm at the Chester Beatty Library, Clock Tower Building, Dublin Castle, Dublin 2. The formal launch will be followed by a reception at the Library. There will also be access to the Sacred Traditions Gallery during the reception.

The staff, directors and members of Educate Together – as well as many workshop participants – have been working on this plan from the beginning of summer 2006. It has involved a full and detailed review of our role in Irish education, our resources, strategy and plans. We believe that we have come up with an exciting, realistic and fully worked out plan to significantly improve all aspects of our network in the coming years. We would also like to thank all those you agreed to be interviewed by our researchers or contributed comments to help our analysis.

Minister Announces Pilot Project for a "Community National School"
Educate Together welcomes the decision by Minister Hanafin, to sanction a pilot project to establish a community national school in Diswellstown, Dublin 15 under the patronage of County Dublin Vocational Education Committee. This historic move will see a VEC enter the primary education sector in Ireland for the first time and could be the beginning of a State sector of primary education in the country. The configuration of the school, especially its Board of Management, definition of ethos and approach to religious education and instruction has yet to be defined. The Minister and her officials have undertaken that Educate Together as well as other established primary patron and management bodies will be consulted on these matters before the school opens. The school is scheduled to open in this area of rapid population growth in Dublin 15 in 2008. Until this pilot is evaluated, the Minister has stated that it is not her intention to recognise any other VECs in the country as patrons of primary schools. Diswellstown is a Dublin townland immediately to the west of the Phoenix Park, between Castleknock and Coolmine.

DES Allocates 200 Additional Language Support Teachers
On the 21st February the Minister for Education and Science, Mary Hanafin announced the allocation of 200 additional language support teachers. Over the past number of years Educate Together has being lobbying for this and it welcomes the improvement of language services in schools. Previous to this announcement, schools were capped at a maximum of 2 language support teachers regardless of the number of children requiring support. In rapidly developing areas with large schools this cap was inadequate and unfair. According to the Minister, “These additional resources will ensure that children who require extra tuition in English have the language skills that will enable them to participate fully in all aspects of school activities”.

Update on Second Level Progress
In its upcoming three year business plan, Educate Together has set as a priority option the piloting of its ethos at second level. Funding has been secured to proceed with this option and the Board of Directors are progressing a feasibility study for such a development with Trinity College Dublin. Those interested in these developments should notify us with their contact details, area of interest for such a school and what issues that they think are important to be considered in designing such a development.

Educate Together Supports Campaign for Smaller Classes
Spokespeople for Educate Together have supported the current campaign on class size organised by the Irish National Teachers Organisation. It has been formal Educate Together policy since 1999 to call for a staffing schedule that will ensure that no classroom in Irish primary education has more than 20 children. The benefits to children of smaller classes has been overwhelmingly proven throughout the world. It is unacceptable that today - with Ireland's evident wealth - that class sizes remain some of the largest in Europe. Paul Rowe, CEO, spoke on behalf of Educate Together at the meeting in Leixlip on Feb. 12 and Chris Lennon, Director, spoke at a similar meeting in South County Dublin in the previous week. Further meetings are planned and we urge all our readers to support this campaign. Full schedules of meetings are available at the INTO website http://www.into.ie

Successful National Meeting of Educate Together held in Swords

The second General Members Meeting of school year 2006/2007 was held in Swords Educate Together N.S. on Saturday February 10th. Swords ETNS is a rapidly developing school based in pre-fabricated buildings in Applewood, Swords. The school opened in 2001 and is hoping to move into a permanent building very soon.
General Members Meetings are consultative opportunities for activists from Educate Together schools to get together to discuss matters of common concern, best practise and policy issues that need to be brought to the organisation for decision.

A fantastic welcome awaited everyone on the day from the Swords community. The turnout at the meeting was very encouraging with well over 100 representatives from Educate Together schools from all over the country attending.

The Agenda was as follows:

New Schools for 21st Century Ireland - Paul Rowe, Chief Executive, Educate Together, a presentation on Educate Together's 3-year business plan.
Campaign 2007 Jane McCarthy, Development Officer, Educate Together, the launch of Educate Together's campaign for reform of the new school process.
Optimal School Size for Irish Primary Schools - Jane McCarthy and Teresa Hagan, DCU School of Education, a review of policy of school size.
Practical Whole School Approach to Ethos Delivery - Niamh McGuirk, Teacher, Donabate-Portrane ETNS and Gerard Kelly, Principal of Swords ETNS. This was a presentation of how the Educate Together schools in Swords and Donabate-Portrane live out the principles of the Educate Together charter on a day-to-day basis.

The Notes/Handouts/Powerpoint Slides of all the presentations are available at
<http://www.educatetogether.ie/3_events/nationalforummeetings.html>
These presentations prompted lively debate and vibrant discussion from the members and the precedings were chaired by Chris Lennon, Director of Educate Together. To conclude we watched a short film of the children of SETNS singing their school song. Overall the atmosphere on the day was very positive and provided great opportunities for networking for all representatives.

Also on the day 'Our World, Our Future- a teaching resource on development for Senior Primary Geography, for 5th and 6th classes' was available for schools to take away. This valuable resource is published by Irish Aid, Department of Foreign Affairs. Copies are available from the Department of Foreign Affairs or from Educate Together Office.