Newsletter June 2022

For the past two years we have said a virtual good bye to the final year students. This year it has been wonderful to have the students on campus. They had a busy year with course work, extended school placements, as well as periods of substitute work in schools. 

We wish the students every blessing as they register with the Teaching Council, and seek their first teaching positions. We greatly look forward to hearing their news and staying connected with them over the years ahead. 

Best wishes and goodbye to: 

Alex Kavanagh, Alison Hastings, Amy Anthony, Amy Buttimer, Beth Taggart,  Bethan Tennant, Caitlin Hendy, Chloe Payne, Daniel Bolton  Emily Hadden, Emma Glenn, Evana Barkley, Geoffrey O’Connor, Hannah Mc Hugh, Hazel Crowe, Helen Hudson, Jean Whiteford, Jessica Maguire, Joanna Codd, Lauren Burnby, Lorraine Neary, Orla Smyth, Rachel Kilroy, Rachel Webster, Rebekah Roulston, Sara Deacon, Sarah Mc Cullagh, Shannon Agar, Sophie Morton and Zara Bailey.

Each year Pairic Clerkin, the CEO of IPPN, and his colleague Maeve O’Mahony offer a live online workshop to our 4^th year BEd cohort giving them essential information on making applications for teaching posts, doing a successful interview and registering on both educationposts.ie and subseeker.  

The 4^th years were delighted to take up the invitation to attend this workshop on Wednesday 25^th May this year.  We held it in the late afternoon because so many of them are doing sub work in schools since they completed their assessment.  A number of them had submitted questions in advance, all of which were dealt with in a Q&A session.  

We wish all our 4^th years every success in their applications for teaching posts in the coming months and we also wish all our colleagues in our network of schools every success as they do the hard work of assessing applications and conducting interviews.  We are very grateful to IPPN for their wonderful support for our students at this point of transition, and to our schools.

A big thank you to all of our Placement Schools for hosting student teachers throughout 2021/22. Once again there were many challenges to be faced and overcome but it was wonderful to have student teachers once again in schools and classrooms. Tutors were also able to visit to see the student teachers teaching and interacting with the teacher and children in their host classrooms. It was lovely to meet principals and teachers once again.

During May and June BEd3 students may be approaching your school looking for a placement for next year. They will have a letter of explanation for principals describing the placements and an acceptance form which they return to college once a school has agreed a placement.  BEd placement dates commence in September and a school can agree to host a student for one or more of their placements.  BEd 1 will approach schools in September. 

We would be delighted if you could host a student for placement. 

From next year the name used for placement in the IoE will be Professional Placement. We will also be gradually adopting the language, terms and concepts from Céim: Standards for Initial Teacher Education (Teaching Council, 2020). For example, the term treoraí/treoraithe will replace co-operating teacher/s and the term ‘professional conversations’ will be used to refer to formal and informal dialogue which occurs between placement tutors, student teachers, principals and teachers, and between teachers  and their student teachers.

We are delighted to inform you of a new DCU professional development programme of modules which have been developed exclusively for staff in schools which host our DCU students on placement next year. An extensive suite of courses will be available free of charge to staff in our 2022/23 cooperating schools over the coming school year. We will also supply details of some international courses available which are also free of charge. These courses will be online and will be asynchronous as well as some we expect to be livestreamed. We will contact host schools with further details next September-October.

​Anna Sanders and Ella O’Rourke

Pamplona

Hola, Buenos Dias, The city of Pamplona is situated in the north of Spain and has been home to us for the duration of our Erasmus where we have been fortunate to make lifelong friends in Spain and be immersed in the vibrant Spanish culture. 

Falling in love with the Spanish way  of life and currently writing about our experience sitting in the Plazas de Castillos drinking some local wines that cost €2! We were fortunate enough to have the opportunity to study abroad together. We were so lucky that we got to study in Pamplona as it is a hidden gem i n Spain. In this city we feel really safe and

were able to settle in quickly. In this location of Spain, the people do not speak a lot of English so we had to speak in Spanish. At first this was challenging as the people spoke extremely fast but after a while we noticed how our language skills were improving.  We have been so lucky, and got the opportunity to travel around this beautiful country including San Sebastian, Barcelona, Mallorca and Madrid (just to name a few). What we really enjoyed was how we got to make friends from all over Europe. This experience was a wonderful way to embrace new cultures and share our culture with everyone as well, especially for me (Anna). I loved making cups of tea for all of our friends. Everyone was shocked when we told them the Irish drank tea with milk. 

We were both given the opportunity to teach in a Spanish school. We spent a total of ten weeks observing and teaching the children. This experience is something that we will never forget. The schools in Spain differ from Ireland in many ways. Their curriculum has similarities to the Irish curriculum. However, their methods of teaching differ greatly. The time I have spent in my Spanish school

has allowed me to appreciate the high level of education which we have in Ireland. This has been a life changing experience that we will never forget. Now we look forward to the reunions that we will have with our new friends that we have met! 

Eóghan Bateman

Belgium

Hello! My name is Eóghan and I have spent the last semester on Erasmus in Belgium. It has been an incredible experience in terms of my professional development as a teacher, broadening my horizons as a member of an intercultural society and social enjoyment. I had three weeks of school placement which differed greatly to my placement in Ireland. It gave me a flavour for a different school system where the same end goals are achieved, but often by different means. I am hopeful that this will enrich my teaching strategies.

 I also engaged in four international weeks, which involved meeting and working alongside students from a range of countries across Europe. It was both challenging and rewarding to merge our different ideas and methods of working. 

Adjusting to life here happened quite easily. The biggest challenge was the lack of fresh milk! My cereal never quite tasted right but I suppose there are worse things! It is a real joy to get to discover another culture and be immersed in a different way of living.

I thoroughly enjoyed the process of slowly learning more about Belgium, speaking with people about our

similarities and differences, and learning some of the language too! For any upcoming students out there, I highly recommend going on Erasmus.   

Lucy Condell

Louvain, Belgium

My name is Lucy Condell, I am in the third year of my bachelors of education programme. I was fortunate enough to be given the opportunity to travel to Belgium for my Erasmus. I attended a college called Haute École Léonard de Vinci in a university town called Louvain la neuve just outside of Brussels. This experience is one that I will never forget, the opportunities I had exploring different educational systems and cultures was so eye opening. This has given me a completely new perspective on education in primary schools and how the teaching in particular of languages is implemented in Belgian schools at such a young age. This has made me appreciate different teaching methodologies as well as different teaching systems.  I was lucky enough to participate in multiple international weeks across Belgium as well as in Vienna, where fellow educators across Europe came together to explore a main theme or topic. Examples of these themes I explored ranged from well being in the classroom to ways in which music and rhythm can be implemented into children's lives. These experiences of meeting fellow educators from different countries was amazing. Engaging in the Erasmus programme was an opportunity which allowed for myself to learn more about myself as an individual as well as learn more about myself as a future educator. I would highly recommend anyone considering Erasmus to take that leap of faith and do it! It was an experience I will never forget and will forever hold Belgium close to my heart.

Niamh Merrick

Hadersley, Denmark

I spent my Erasmus semester in Haderslev, a small city located in the south Jutland area of Denmark. The teaching campus and the city were small, making the transition between Ireland and Denmark easier. I studied in the Living and Learning Together programme at UCSYD (University College of South Denmark), where I attended modules in Nordic culture, playful learning and outdoor learning. The modules were incredible, and I have learned a lot of different teaching strategies and resources that I can use in my teaching. I did the programme with 18 other Erasmus students from Spain, Belgium, Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic. I am fortunate enough to say that I have made friends for life. During the programme, I got the opportunity to go on school placement for two weeks, getting to experience the Danish school system in person. I have visited some cities in Denmark like Aarhus, Ribe, Billund and Copenhagen. I was also lucky to have the opportunity to travel to Norway, Sweden, Germany and Iceland.  I have loved every minute of my Erasmus experience. I have learned a lot about different cultures, lifestyles, education systems, and even about myself as a person and a teacher. I am so grateful to have studied abroad through Erasmus. I would highly recommend doing Erasmus to everyone that gets the opportunity.  

Maire Kelly

Louvain, Belgium

Hi! I am just reaching the end of an amazing five-month experience based in Haute École Leonard da Vinci in Belgium. I was blessed to come over here with two of my good friends from Ireland, and I have enjoyed sharing my travel experiences with them. Over the course of my stay, I have lived in three different places in Belgium, attended four international weeks (3 in Belgium and one in Vienna) and travelled to five countries that I had never been to before - Italy, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria, and of course, Belgium. It has been a major learning curve for me, one that I am extremely grateful for and I would recommend Erasmus to anyone! Erasmus has simultaneously been busy and relaxing, and I have made so many new friends that I haven’t had time to miss home. I will definitely be keeping in touch with them and maybe travel to visit their countries! I have also become attached to the beautiful Belgium, and I hope to find myself back here in the future.

Alannah Rothwell

Belgium

This semester I have been on Erasmus in Belgium. It has been an incredible experience where I have had the opportunity to discover a variety of teaching methodologies, education systems and other cultures. 

As part of my Erasmus module I spent three weeks in a Belgian school. These schools had a similar set up to our Gaelscoils in Ireland. The children speak French at home but then learn through English at school. It was incredible to see how quickly their English vocabulary was expanded through this meaningful setting. 

I also had the opportunity to participate in four international weeks. International weeks are a week when university students from different countries come together for 5 days to learn about each other’s education systems and a specific topic focus. A highlight for me was a week that I spent in my Belgian home university learning about wellbeing. We focused not only on how to help the children feel well as they learn, but also on how to help teachers feel well as they teach. This was something that we hadn’t learned about before and it is something that I think will be really helpful as I continue on my journey as a teacher. 

I have learned lots in Belgium and I am looking forward to bringing my knowledge into the Irish classrooms.

Following a successful exhibition by ten primary schools in Christ Church Cathedral, all the material produced by the children in Athy Model School, St. George’s NS Balbriggan, St. Brigid’s NS Castleknock, Drumcondra NS, St. Matthew’s NS Irishtown, Kill o’the Grange NS, Kilternan NS, All Saints NS Raheny, Holmpatrick NS Skerries and Whitechurch NS was collated into a book entitled Living Faith Living History. The book was launched by the historian Dr. Ida Milne on the afternoon of Friday 1^st April 2022. Prizes were announced and awarded. Children, teachers, principals and some parents, from eight of the ten schools were able to travel to the Cathedral for the launch.  

It was wonderful to see so many of them present to celebrate such a huge achievement. Dr. Milne reminded them that they are now published historians who have documented the stories of their parishes, past and present.  Archbishop Jackson told the assembled crowd that the stories of their parishes could now be shared with people from across the world because copies of the book are on sale in the Cathedral shop.  Rev. Prof. Lodge praised all the children for their wonderful work – their artwork, their histories and stories, their interviews with parishioners and the humorous things they included in their chapters.  She also praised the teachers who had guided their classes to produce such wonderful work.  She thanked all the parish personnel and members who had been such a help to the children and their teachers with a special mention for Dorothy Hyland who had gifted her own photographs of Holmpatrick Church in Skerries to children in the school there who had done their project while in lockdown.

Two schools were unable to attend the launch, so the two editors of the book travelled to both Athy Model School and St. George’s NS Balbriggan the following Wednesday 6^th April to announce prizes and gift each school with copies of the book to which they had contributed. It was especially wonderful to bring copies of the book to Athy because the drawing done by one of the children in 3^rd & 4^th class in Athy Model School was used as the cover of the book. You can read more about the launch and the book online here:

https://dublin.anglican.org/news/202 2/04/04/young-historians-delve-into-parishes

https://www.ireland.anglican.org/ne ws/11284/young-historians-delveinto-parishes

You can read Living Faith, Living History online here: https://online.fliphtml5.com/velmy/bjhx/#p=10

The RE Cert was offered as an online course again this spring. 17 teachers from schools in Dublin, Kilkenny,  Wexford, Louth, Kildare, Wicklow and Cork participated in the course which was run in two groups over four nights each.  Teachers also attended the three RE webinars which were open to all schools.  

Congratulations and thanks to the dedication of the teachers who joined me on zoom on Tuesdays or Wednesdays, and completed the reflective assignments.  

The participants in the course were:

• Marie-Anne Kearns (St George’s NS, Balbriggan)
• Siobhán Kelleher (St Luke’s NS, Montenotte, Cork)
• Lynne Copeland (Gorey Central School)
• Sarah Kelly (Glenageary/Killiney NS)
• Katie Lenehan (Fermoy Adair NS)
• Miriam Donnelly (Dún Dealgan NS)
• Laura Watchorn (Delgany NS)
• Neisha Staunton (Delgany NS)
• Sinéad Lynch (Delgany NS)
• Emma Uí Shúilleabháin (Booterstown NS)
• Jennifer Bateman (Templebreedy NS)
• Sarah Byrne (St Andrew’s NS, Bray)
• Christabel Clifford (St David’s NS, Naas)
• Deirdre McMahon (Kilkenny Model School)
• Eleanor Bolt (Kilkenny Model School)
• Liam Morrison-Gale (Holmpatrick NS)
• Lorraine Dalton (Kilkenny Model School)

The course will be again available in 2022/2023, do contact me if you want to indicate interest.

Three webinars were run in conjunction with the RE Cert course. In February over 80 teachers/ schools joined a webinar on Digital resources for RE where I introduced a number of websites and online resources which may be useful to support the teaching of Follow Me. 

In March we focused on the topic of questioning in RE and this webinar included an interview with Archdeacon David Huss who talked about his experiences of answering pupils’ questions in Assembly. 

Finally, in May the webinar was on the topic of school assembly and included suggestions for listening to pupils’ thoughts about assembly and discussion on the welcome return to school assemblies in churches, halls and outdoors. 

Thanks to the teachers who gave up time to come to the webinars, who suggested ideas for topics, and who encourage good RE in schools and classrooms, it is always lovely to hear from you with your feedback.  

It is hoped to run more webinars like these in the spring term next year – ideas for topics are very welcome. In- school CPD slots will also be available to be requested by schools – contact Jacqui for further information and to book a date.

One suggestion in Webinar 2 was to create a Wonder Wall or Tricky Question wall for the classroom to allow children to articulate the big questions of RE. 

This is the Wonder Wall from Ms Staunton’s classroom in Delgany NS. Some big questions were raised and the rector came and helped the pupils discuss some of them.

Ballymoney NS in Ballineen recently received exciting news when they were selected as a Changemaker School by DCU. The DCU Changemaker Schools, established in September 2020, is a network of 19 innovative primary schools in Ireland on the island of Ireland who were chosen for their pioneering work in the development of the skills of empathy, creativity, leadership and teamwork. This social innovation initiative has one powerful yet simple ambition – to support students as Changemakers. A Changemaker is someone with the skills and confidence to lead change in their home, school and community.

Ballymoney NS first drew attention because of its creative approach to supporting its pupils during the pandemic. The students had daily zoom lessons for up to three hours per day so they were not isolated from their peers and they did not fall behind in their school work.  They had a baking week with daily videos to instruct them and they created a ‘Bottle Top Mural’ out of 12,400 plastic bottle tops. The collaborative artwork was intended to help to keep the two classrooms to feel connected to each other. Since then many other schools, youth groups and tidy towns groups from around the country have copied them and created similar murals, reusing thousands of plastic bottle tops.

Ballymoney NS in Ballineen, County Cork, is the only Church of Ireland School in the network. It is a small, rural school with 29 pupils. They were independently nominated to join the network, there was an initial interview with the directors of the programme, a school visit followed and members of their Board of Management and parents were interviewed. Being nominated for the network was a very proud moment for the school. Pupils’ voice is very evident in their school and they have an effective system of distributed leadership where everybody is included. Joining the network is a wonderful opportunity for the school to network with other creative and positive schools and to learn from their innovative ideas.

For a number of years now the students in our 5^th and 6^th classes have worked with two urban poets Colm Keegan and John Cummins. The students participated in poetry workshops with the poets to produce a fantastic array of poems. These poet visits were part funded by Poetry Ireland and the school’s Board of Management.  Over the years the children were asked to type out the poems.  Last year, in June 2021 and following Covid restrictions we invited the poets back to St Catherine’s Ns and we also found an archive of poems written by past students and thought we had a great opportunity to create a school poetry book. We approached our local Credit Union, Donore Credit Union looking for sponsorship of the publication and they were delighted to assist.

Many of the poems came from ‘Writers’ Workshops’ where students wrote drafts, edited, published and performed their work at our Poetry Slams.  Punctuation, grammar, capital letters and full stops in some of the poems is lacking or may be non-existent as the importance was getting the poetry out and down on paper to be performed.  Some of the poems are casual and more emphasis was placed on the spoken word and performance.  Therefore, the poems in the book have been published how the children wrote them mainly unedited by adults.  

The students were inspired and encouraged by the two poets and their teachers to write from their hearts. Many pieces are inspired by the life stories, pets, holidays and families of our students. The students were all were encouraged to use delicious words, all their senses and memories. 

The book has helped raise important and much needed funds for the school.  It can be purchased by emailing secretary@stcatherinesns.net. We hope you enjoy reading through this collection and who knows, you may even be inspired to pick up a pen and write your own verses!

Development of Primary School Curriculum:

Ballymore National School, Dunfanaghy, is one of forty primary schools across the country involved in plans to review and update the primary school curriculum.  Over the past two years, as a member of the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) Schools Forum, staff members have been attending workshops to plan the next phase of primary school education.

The proposed changes aim to enhance children’s learning in school and provide for even more relevant and meaningful learning. The development of a new primary school curriculum impacts everyone – children, parents, grandparents and teachers. It also has wider implications for society as the knowledge, skills, abilities and dispositions that children develop in primary school ultimately shape the kind of citizens they will become, and how they will interact and contribute to society in the future.

Pen Pal Project:

The children in the senior room of Ballymore National School, Dunfanaghy, are taking part in a new pen pal initiative with pupils in The Glebe National School, Aughrim, Ballinasloe. To date the children have exchanged numerous letters and also met on zoom.

Creative Schools is a flagship initiative of the Creative Ireland Programme to enable the creative potential of every child. Creative Schools is led by the Arts Council in partnership with the Department of Education and the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media. The initiative is also informed by the Arts Council’s ten-year strategy (2016–25) Making Great Artwork: Leading the Development of the Arts in Ireland.

St Luke’s, O’Mahoney’s Avenue commenced our two-year partnership in September 2020. There were three phases to the project: Understand, Develop and Celebrate. The Creative Associate, Ms. Fiona Lawton, the school’s Coordinator and the Principal planned sustainable child-centred arts and creative activities, within a set budget. Our Creative Plan involved as many voices as possible, pupils, staff, parents and artists. A pupil committee was set up comprising of two pupils from each class to facilitate a pupil voice. A podcast gave the pupils a channel to express what “Creativity” meant to them. There were many successful collaborative aspects of this plan, which included the formation of an outdoor classroom, creativity at home projects, a senior photography project, outdoor planting and the creation of an outdoor mosaic. This latter project invited each pupil and member of staff to imprint their own design onto a ceramic tile (20cm by 20cm). A botanical/ nature theme was chosen to integrate learning with the Green Schools Initiative. Artist Treasa O’Malley guided our project through each stage: designing, creating and the firing of all eighty-nine tiles. The outdoor area was prepared and the tiles attached. 

On Friday 20^th May we celebrated our creativity and expression and held a Creative Celebration Day displaying our finished projects to each other and parents. Pupils wore their personally designed tie-dyed tshirts (another project), performed a drama; created under a Teacher Artist Project, sang under the direction of Mr. Peter Stobart (Director of music in St Fin barre’s Cathedral, Cork) and played their tin whistles, with gusto. The culmination of the day was the cutting of the ribbon by Fiona Lawton to officially open our outdoor area and mark the end of our two-year projects.

A truly rewarding project, funded and supported by the Arts Council. An incredible creative and learning experience for each pupil.

Our School has changed significantly over the last number of years. We said goodbye to our wonderful Principal of 12 years Tina Noone, and welcomed our new Principal Teacher Kevin Toomey. We were delighted to open our first ASD Class, and welcome with open arms, 6 incredible new pupils who have embedded themselves into our school community. Our enrolment has grown significantly, from 18 pupils in 2019 to 61 pupils today.

We are also in the process of expanding our building also, which will more than double in size with our planned extension and renovation works. 

They say that change is good, but some things in St. John’s remain unchanged. The warm family atmosphere, focus on whole child development, and strong relationships among the school community are still among the values we hold closest to our hearts. We are a school with strong Christian roots, but provide for those of all faiths and none. 

Recently we had the pleasure of welcoming multiple families from Syria and Ukraine, and we are so thrilled to see them settle, integrate, and thrive! We have 12 nationalities among our 61 pupils and now, more than ever, we celebrate diversity and enjoy learning about many different cultures and ways of life.

On June 3^rd we invite anyone who may be interested to attend our 60^th celebration service, hosted by Rev. Kevin O’Brien, which will take place in the school building at 1.30pm. 

Anyone with pictures or stories from times gone by in our school, are asked to email principal@stjohnsnationalschool.ie or contact 085-7642135. 

https://www.stjohnsnationalschool.ie

Ash Wednesday

The CIC and DCU Chaplaincy held an ecumenical Service of Penitence and the Word at lunchtime in the All Hallows’ chapel to which all students from the Centre, students on other programmes and staff on the All Hallows’ campus were invited. The service was led by Archbishop Michael Jackson, students and staff did readings and prayers, and Rev. Prof. Lodge preached. We had a very good turn-out. All those who attended the service were invited for a light lunch in the All Hallows’ restaurant afterwards.

Protestants and the Irish Language webinar

Linda Ervine and Canon Gary Hastings both spoke about their experiences of learning Irish as adults in East Belfast. Linda also talked about her work as manager of Turas which offers Irish language classes and aims to re-connect Protestants in Northern Ireland with the Irish language. There were four respondents –Danny Kennedy, Chair of the UUP; Trevor Ringland who is a former Irish rugby international and is involved in crosscommunity peace-building sports initiatives and two academics – Dr. Ida Milne and Dr. Deirdre Nuttall who have both written about the experiences of Protestants in the Republic of Ireland. The presentations and conversation produced a fascinating and informative hour. The event was expertly chaired by our colleague in DCU Prof. Padraig O’Duibhir who directs the SEALBHÚ Centre.

You can read more about the webinar here:

https://dublin.anglican.org/news/2022/03/31/protestants-and-the-irish-language

https://www.ireland.anglican.org/news/11281/protestants-and-the-irish-language

The event was recorded and you can watch it on YouTube: https://youtu.be/pefZr_0v4AI

Preaching and Teaching Old Testament Scripture

We held a seminar in partnership with our colleagues in the School of Theology, Philosophy and Music on Tuesday 26th April 2022 in All Hallows’. We had expert inputs from Dr. Katie Heffelfinger of CITI, Dr. Brad Anderson and Dr. Peter Admirand both of the School of Theology, Philosophy & Music and Rabbi David Rosen who joined us by zoom from Jerusalem. The panel discussion at the end of a busy morning was chaired by archbishop Michael Jackson. The event was particularly targeted at those who teach religious education, religion/s or scripture in a variety of education settings as well as those who are ordained and lay people who preach, and those who work in chaplaincy. We recorded each of the expert inputs and these recordings are available on request to anne.lodge@dcu.ie.

You can read more about the seminar here: https://dublin.anglican.org/news/2022/05/25/perspectives-on-preaching-and-teaching