Millionaire gives €7m for new school [Independent.ie]
- Published: 02 February 2011
WHEN a local entrepreneur approached a school principal in despair over the condition of his school with an offer of help, it was not an opportunity to be turned down in a hurry.
Tom Kelleher of Rolestown National School, near Swords in north Co Dublin, was sitting in his office one day fretting over the facilities when e-learning multimillionaire Pat McDonagh -- himself a former primary teacher -- dropped in.
"We were in dire need of a building and he simply said, 'If you organise it, I'll pay for it'," Mr Kelleher said.
The existing school was "falling apart", with serious heating and lighting issues and a lack of space.
Mr McDonagh, one of the founders of the Riverdeep educational technology firm, owned the site on which the school was built and the unique deal involved a series of land swaps and agreements involving Mr McDonagh, the Catholic Church, which is the patron body for the school, Fingal County Council and the Department of Education.
Full Story: www.independent.ie
Millionaire gives €7m for new school - Independent.ie
- Published: 02 February 2011
WHEN a local entrepreneur approached a school principal in despair over the condition of his school with an offer of help, it was not an opportunity to be turned down in a hurry.
Tom Kelleher of Rolestown National School, near Swords in north Co Dublin, was sitting in his office one day fretting over the facilities when e-learning multimillionaire Pat McDonagh -- himself a former primary teacher -- dropped in.
71 inspection reports published on Department's website [education.ie]
- Published: 01 February 2011
A total of 71 school inspection-reports were published today on the Department of Education and Skills' website. New inspection reports on the web today include
- 21 whole-school evaluations (WSEs) at primary level
3 whole-school evaluations (WSEs) at post-primary level, including 10 subject inspections - 35 stand-alone subject inspections
- 2 stand-alone programme evaluations
Since 6th February 2006, school inspection reports such as WSE and subject inspections are published on the Department of Education and Skills' website at regular intervals throughout the school year.
There are now 4,321 school-inspection reports on the website, representative of 1810 schools or centres for education.
WSE reports comment on the school's management, planning and management of resources, the effectiveness of teaching and learning, its arrangements for student assessment, supports for students, provision for minority groups and home-school links.
Depending on the size of the school, an inspector or team of inspectors visit the school for a period of time to evaluate management and planning; teaching and learning and supports for pupils.
Following this evaluation phase of WSE, inspectors discuss the findings and recommendations with school management and members of the teaching staff.
This is followed by factual verification of the report and a timescale is also built into the process for the school to respond to the WSE report.
Full Story: www.education.ie
Are social networks child friendly? [Herald.ie]
- Published: 31 January 2011
LIKE more than 500 million people around the world, I have a Facebook account.
My son, who is eight years of age, would like one too. Aside from the fact that his mother and I don't think it's wise for a child of his age to be surfing the internet, Facebook doesn't allow it. Most popular social networking sites, such as Facebook and MySpace, restrict the minimum age of their users to 13. But that doesn't stop pre-teens from setting up accounts by entering a false age.
Resourceful
A large part of the appeal of Facebook is its accessibility. It's ridiculously easy to set up an account. Just to prove it, I set up a page in my son's name. All I needed was an email address (which his mother and I have the password for) and when it came to entering his age, I simply wrote that he was five years older than he actually is. Simple. It takes less than five minutes.
"It's up to parents themselves," says Catherine Bolger, registered psychologist with DIT. "They have a responsibility to strictly supervise their children's and young teens' access to any internet sites -- not just social networking sites. It sounds obvious but parents need to know what their children are doing."
Full Story: www.herald.ie
TUI delays work reform vote until after election [IrishExaminer]
- Published: 31 January 2011
THE Teachers’ Union of Ireland (TUI) has taken the controversial decision to wait until after the election to ballot members on proposed work reforms in schools and colleges.
The decision of the union’s executive is likely to fuel further criticism of progress securing public service efficiencies and reforms under the Croke Park deal, which were to be given by unions in return for guarantees of no compulsory redundancies or further pay cuts.
While the Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI) is already balloting its 18,000 members on proposals for second level, including an extra hour a week for non-teaching duties, TUI leaders had also discussed reforms with the Department of Education about members who lecture at institutes of technology.
Both unions rejected the Croke Park agreement last summer, but entered discussions with the Department of Education in October, saying any proposed changes to terms and conditions that emerged would be put to a vote of their respective members.
At a TUI executive committee meeting on Saturday, it was decided to delay asking the 15,800 members for their views until after the election.
Full Story: www.examiner.ie
