SNAs cap impacting on most vulnerable schoolchildren [meathchronicle.ie]
- Published: 08 April 2011
A cap on special needs assistants (SNAs) imposed in December's budget is impacting on the most vulnerable children in the education system, a local mother has warned.
Karen Halpin, from Hamilton Place in Trim, is mother to seven-year-old Luke who has Down's Syndrome. Karen and her husband, Ger, decided to send their son to a mainstream school, St Mary's Primary School in Trim, following an assessment which recommended this option, provided he had full-time support.
Luke had full-time access to a SNA and was doing well at school but when a new child with special needs started at the school in January, the cap on SNAs meant that Luke now shares the SNA with the other child, leading to safety concerns for his parents as Luke is a "flight risk".
She said: "It was working great. Luke was secure and very happy. We were happy and did not have to worry about his safety, Our only worry was, education-wise, that he would be able to keep up."
She explained that, after Christmas, a new child was starting school in Luke's class which meant the SNA had to be shared between the two children. "Straight away, the alarm bells were ringing as Luke is a flight risk and will run off."
Full Story: www.meathchronicle.ie
Bullies just do it because they can [NZHerald.co.nz]
- Published: 08 April 2011
A few club friends were sitting yarning after tennis on Wednesday night when the conversation turned to bullying. Why do they do it, somebody asked. Because they can, another answered. "Come on," I said. "Not every kid who is big enough to be a bully does it." "Okay," he replied. "I was only a teacher for 23 years, what would I know?" The rest seemed to think that was a fair point.
A little later he said school bullying was all about establishing a pecking order. "No it's not," I said. "The most dominant kid in class is not a bully, it's some loser who would like to be him."
Bruton hits out at Quinn over religion in schools [Independent.ie]
- Published: 08 April 2011
FORMER Taoiseach John Bruton has taken Education Minister Ruairi Quinn to task for suggesting that preparing children for sacraments should take place outside school hours.
Mr Bruton challenged his view that at least some of the 30 minutes a day teaching religion in primary schools might be better spent addressing declining literacy and numeracy skills.
The establishment of a forum to decide on how the Catholic Church should hand over some of the 92pc of primary schools under its control to new patrons has sharpened the focus on the place of religion in schools.
Fury over plan to claw back lost school days at Easter [Independent.ie]
- Published: 08 April 2011
SECOND-level principals are furious over plans for schools to sacrifice some of their Easter holidays -- or the February mid-term -- to make up for any days lost to extreme weather.
CESI Meet Spring 2011 [CESI.ie]
- Published: 08 April 2011
Here is advance notice of the next scheduled CESI
Meet<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTU3LlnYk98>
.
It will take place on Friday May 13th in Tipperary IT in Thurles.
Following the success of last year's partnership, this CESI Meet will form
part of Tipp IT's seventh ICT in Education Conference - this year's theme is
*Storytelling in Education <http://www.tippinst.ie/schools/>.
