DCU Alumni Awardee 2023 Kevin Shortall

Kevin Shortall is principal of St. Aidan’s Community School, Tallaght and an innovator and pioneer in education.

An early school leaver, he never believed then he would go to college or become a teacher. Four years later Kevin returned to do his leaving cert. and then completed what is now the B. Ed. and M. Ed. in DCU. He subsequently completed postgraduate studies in School Leadership at UL.

During his teaching career, Kevin was seconded to the support service for the Social, Personal and Health Education schools programme, worked as a Home School Community Liaison and was Deputy Principal of Old Bawn Community School. 

He was a co-founder of the Our Children’s Health campaign which was widely recognised as solving the medical card crisis for seriously ill children through the enactment of the Health Amendment Act in 2017

Kevin is passionate about the importance of pursuing equality in education, amongst schools and within schools. He stresses the impact that meaningful student voice and participation can have to make schools happier and more effective. 

In 2022 he became one of the founding developers of the SPOTLITE programme - Student Perspectives on Teaching and Learning in the Educational Space  - a unique and ground breaking model of student participation with the potential to transform education. 

He is also very committed to recognising and removing barriers to education, especially dispositional ones, which he describes as the most persistent but crucial to address. 

Kevin was awarded the Tallaght Person of The Year Award in 2022 for Education and Innovation. 

B. Rel. Sc. 1996

M. Rel. Sc. 2001