All Blog Posts
St Patrick V St Brigid
- 16/10/2013
For the past couple of years, I've put together a Teacher Calendar highlighting the main religious festivals as well as general days of interest that teachers may or may not be aware of. These days fit nicely into the Learn Together e.g. World Refugee Day, Fairtrade Fortnight, Tree Week etc. The calendar has to reflect the six main world religions, as fairly or as near to fairly as possible, and...
Conference on Religious Education in UCC
- 20/09/2013
These conferences can often be made up of the usual suspects - ourselves included! But this really had an international feel, with delegates from Russia, the UK, Japan and Denmark amongst other countries. A speaker from Canada presented on the West's perception of Hinduism and other Asian belief systems. Basically, he argued that we in the West tend to have a very Judaeo-Christian view of...
Postgraduate Cert in Ethical and Multi-denominational Education
- 12/09/2013
Once again, we're running our postgraduate certificate in Ethical and Multi-denominational Education in St Patrick's College of Education, from September 2013. Last year's course was a great success with one of the participants commenting that the course 'really encouraged deep reflection on current ethical issues in education'. Modules deal with: Philosophies of Ethical and Multi-denominational...
Three New Schools Opening Next Week!
- 26/08/2013
Intensive work going on all week preparing for the three primary new schools due to open on September 2nd in Portobello (Dublin), Firhouse (Dublin) and Rochestown (Cork). Really hard work done over the summer and a lot more to do next week. Tremendous credit to the effort being put in by volunteers, the recently appointed Principals and teachers and our national office staff. Thanks also to the...
Remembering Seán Murphy
- 20/08/2013
Very sad to hear of Seán Murphy's passing away over the weekend. I first met Seán at one of the very earliest meetings for the Lucan Educate Together school. We had received a request from a residents association and I travelled with Deirdre O'Donoghue, our National Coordinator, to try an find an address in the new suburbs. It was the days of "Lucan Planning" there were no street names or...
CEO Blog: The Leaving Cert poorly prepares students for the realities they now face
- 15/08/2013
Once again this year, the sword of Damocles has fallen over a generation of young Irish adults. By now, the Leaving Certificate results have been published, tweeted and texted the world over. There have been whoops of joy and cries of angst as students examined their marks. This is a rite of passage that comes with an almost cathartic sense of relief from students and parents alike. It is time...
CEO Blog: Gender and Schools
- 01/08/2013
There was great news this week with the appointment of two more women Supreme Court judges in Ireland. One is Mary Laffoy, the judge who took a strong stand in the early years of the institutional abuse inquiry and resigned when the Department of Education stonewalled the inquiry’s demands for access to documentary evidence. This brings to three the number of female supreme court judges. Today in...
Wicklow ETNS filmakers Fís Film Festival entry!
- 01/07/2013
Damien, a teacher at Wicklow Educate Together, recently sent us a link to a video shot by his 3rd class students: I AM RAFAŁ. The class is submitting the video to the Fís Film Festival! Goodluck to everyone involved. What talents!! http://vimeo.com/69127849
A week of notable moments for the Second-level Programme
- 28/06/2013
It has been a really busy few weeks here in the Educate Together National Office as we hit major milestones on our journey to open our new second-level schools in September 2014. Today marks a really exciting point as we advertise the position of School Principal for Hansfield Educate Together Secondary School, Dublin 15. We recognise that this is a vitally important position in the leadership of...
Tralee Student Council Newsletter: Hot off the Press!
- 21/06/2013
Tralee Educate Together NS has produced its third Student Council Newsletter. The 14 Student Council members and 3 Committee members wrote articles for it. They did a great job! It has been circulated to the school community and is available on the school's website here. At the moment they are in the process of writing to the Minister for Education asking that an extra hour be allotted to PE...