IPPN

No toys please – just shoes [schooldays.ie]

Published: 28 April 2011

With all this fantastic Easter holiday weather we are having, I haven’t even had to resort to the usual Emergency Entertainment Plan of a two-hour traipse around the local shopping centre. That is, until today.

It was time to get new school shoes for the boys. I couldn’t avoid it any longer. So, armed with two promises of absolute best behaviour and no requests for sweets or toys, we set out to replace the clumpy, sensible winter shoes which growing feet had been squished into for the last few months, with shiny, brand new, summer ones.

I quite like shopping for shoes for the boys. Without any justification for buying any new ones for myself (even if there is a Royal Wedding to be viewed from the sofa on Friday), buying shoes for the children which they absolutely, positively need and cannot possibly do without for a moment longer, satisfies my need to shop and provides a decent dose of retail therapy.

Full Story: www.schooldays.ie

Education system budget 'cannot be cut anymore' [schooldays.ie]

Published: 28 April 2011

The budget for primary and secondary schools in Ireland cannot be reduced any further, it has been said.

Pat King, general secretary of the Association of Secondary Teachers of Ireland (ASTI), urged the government not to take more money out of the education fund.

Speaking at the union conference earlier this week, he said: "There is no fat or waste in the education service."

Mr King went on to comment that schools are "run on a shoestring" and investment in the education sector is "pathetic".

Full Story: www.schooldays.ie

Mother of suicide teen calls for school-bullying law [Independent.ie]

Published: 28 April 2011

THE mother of a young girl who took her own life after a vicious campaign of abuse against her has urged the Government to introduce tough legislation to tackle bullying in schools. Leanne Wolfe from Carrigtwohill, Co Cork, suffered six years of constant bullying by a gang of girls up to her death, just two weeks after her 18th birthday on March 23, 2007.

Yesterday, her frustrated mother Colette Wolfe warned that other children were still at risk because the Government had failed to clamp down on bullies. She said authorities were not taking the issue seriously enough, unlike in the US. Following the tragic death of Phoebe Prince in Massachusetts last year, action was immediately taken and charges brought against six of Phoebe's classmates.

Full Story: www.independent.ie

Ban on filling posts 'puts pupils at risk of dropout' [Independent.ie]

Published: 28 April 2011

MORE pupils will be in danger of "falling through the cracks" and leaving education unless a ban on filling posts of responsibility is lifted, teachers warned yesterday.

Vulnerable students who are being bullied are also in danger of not getting the attention they need, according to a survey of school principals carried out by the Teachers Union of Ireland.

The results of the survey, which were unveiled at the TUI congress in Tralee, Co Kerry yesterday, show that often there is no longer anybody in a position in schools to intervene in a timely manner in cases of bullying or absenteeism.

But Education Minister Ruairi Quinn has said there will be no reversal of decisions already taken to cut services and that further cuts could be expected.

Full Story: www.independent.ie

Our early-years research does not contradict the government [Guardian.co.uk]

Published: 28 April 2011

Our early-years research does not contradict the government

We do, though, show it's a myth that bright poor children lose their talent as they develop.Allegra Stratton discussed our research into the development of the cognitive skills of young children from different socioeconomic backgrounds (Inside politics: Feinstein's theory, 14 April). "The central assumption of government thinking about social mobility might be statistically invalid," she said. "That is the striking conclusion of a new paper from the Institute of Education." But that is not what our work discovered.

Stratton went on to claim that our research meant that "the entire basis for the government's social mobility strategy is wrong". However, far from undermining the coalition's social mobility strategy, our study actually confirms the previous research evidence on which the strategy is based – which has shown that children from disadvantaged backgrounds have very poor cognitive skills compared to their richer contemporaries, and that this socioeconomic gap emerges early in childhood.

Full Story: www.guardian.co.uk