IPPN

Published: 18 January 2011

PROFILE: ST KILIAN'S GERMAN SCHOOL, CLONSKEAGH, DUBLIN : Though tucked away beside the UCD campus, the windows of St Kilian’s in south Dublin look out onto Europe – and you don’t have to be German or speak the language to go there, writes JOANNE HUNT

DECIPHERING German newspaper headlines was recently the sport of choice for many Irish economists – but instead of thumbing dictionaries, they could have had a masterclass from children at one Dublin school.

Students of St Kilian’s Deutsche Schule, a kindergarten, primary and secondary school in Clonskeagh, learn German from the age of four. While we relied on pundits to translate the headlines about us in Die Welt, this school’s transition year class did if for themselves.

“We did interactive classes with the children during the IMF and ECB debate where we went online and read and discussed the headlines in German newspapers,” says deputy principal of the secondary school, Alice Lynch. Though tucked away beside the UCD campus, the windows of this south Dublin school very much look out onto Europe.

The school traces its origins to the Save the German Children Society, founded in Dublin in 1945 to give homes to orphaned and homeless German children after the second World War. But to refer to St Kilians as “the German school” is a label they are keen to shake off.

“There’s a perception that everything is taught through German, but it’s not,” says Sarah Finnegan, head of the primary school. “Or that you have to speak German or that one of your parents has to be German, but that’s just not true,” she says.

 

Full Story: www.irishtimes.com

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Published: 18 January 2011

It seems that, after years of the education system discriminating against girls, the reverse is now the case, writes ELEANOR FITZSIMONS

THE STRUGGLE for gender equality is one that starts in the classroom. Girls have long demanded that the education system afford them the same opportunities historically offered to their male counterparts.

However, recent trends, particularly evident in the reporting of results achieved in State examinations, consistently suggest that girls are now outperforming boys across the board. Instead of welcoming this as a positive development, we might examine whether it means, in fact, that we are failing our boys.

Data compiled by the State Examinations Commission shows girls achieving a greater number of As, Bs and Cs than boys across almost all subjects at both ordinary and higher level. Female students excel by the narrowest margin, of 1 per cent, in higher level maths, traditionally a male preserve not even offered in many all-female schools.

In my own school, my Leaving Cert class was the first to sit honours maths. Prior to that, we mathematically adept girls were expected to cross the road to the local boys’ school and sit with them – an unpalatable prospect.

These trends are repeated internationally and are generally attributed to the greater emotional maturity of 17- and 18-year-old girls, plus the fact that by their very nature girls tend to prepare more diligently for exams.

 

Full Story: www.irishtimes.com

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Published: 18 January 2011

TALKBACK: A scene in a television comedy shines a light on our adult illiteracy crisis, writes BRIAN MOONEY

MRS BROWN, the star of the new RTÉ comedy series Mrs Brown’s Boys isreprehensible in many respects. Listeners to RTÉ’s Liveline last week expressed concern about the bad language and general content of the programme.

That’s an issue for another day. But Brendan O’Carroll (as Mrs Brown) has performed a huge service to Irish education by handling the literacy issue in a very thought-provoking way in one key scene.

In the scene, Mrs Brown’s son, a plumber, has turned down the offer of a supervisor’s position, because he cannot read or write. Amid all the profane language and hilarious laughter, the issue of literacy is handled with huge sensitivity, and will hopefully reach out to many thousands of adults suffering daily from the tyranny of illiteracy.

And there are thousands suffering.

Isn’t it shocking that there may be hundreds of thousands of adults in Ireland, who have spent at least 10 years in our national education system, who can neither read nor write? They have never read a newspaper or a book and cannot even own a cheque book, as they may not even be able to write their own name.

Nothing I write in this column will directly touch the lives of those in Ireland who can neither read nor write, as they have no way of accessing my words. But those of us who have mastered the wonderful gift of literacy can do a huge amount to lift those with a literacy deficiency out of their ongoing predicament.

To reach out to an employee, a neighbour, a member of a local club or team, is ultimately an act of self-interest. Educational disadvantage disables the entire community, even if you live a relatively comfortable life seemingly insulated from such dysfunction.

 

Full Story: www.irishtimes.com

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Published: 17 January 2011

This morning (Monday 17th January), the email below was sent to all IPPN school Principals.  A recent survey revealed that Principals are becoming more concerned about rising levels of mental health issues and depression in young school children.  In response, IPPN has decided to encourage primary schools to engage in some ‘Positivity’ initiatives as a small gesture towards the well being of children.
 
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Email to Principals
In the weeks leading up to Christmas, a number of Principals posted on Networking@ippn.ie that their schools had engaged in a ‘Positivity Week/Day’.  The purpose of this focus on positivity, was to provide some balance to the pervasive news of economic gloom, bad weather and media coverage of international disasters, gang violence etc.  The reaction within their school communities was amazing, and all of them reported that they found the exercise to be very rewarding and enriching.  In particular, it was noted that the exercise had a very positive impact on staff and student morale and wellbeing.
 
As a result of this very positive feedback, not only from schools, but also from the general public at large, we are inviting you and your colleagues to consider promoting a ‘Positivity Week/Day’ in your own school sometime during the next few weeks.  Of course, this initiative is entirely optional for each school and is by no means prescriptive.  The basic idea is to get people to laugh a little more and generally be nice to one another.  A menu of projects to undertake, should you decide to ‘go positive’ include:
 
• Complement and encourage each other - young and old
• Paint a ‘Smile’ on your face – be brave, wear it to and from work
• School assembly -  name, identify and sing happy birthday to children and staff whose birthday is on that day
• Display photos of staff when they were children in primary school – Guess Who
• ‘Stand-up’ joke telling sessions in class or assembly
• ‘Homework–off’ vouchers for anyone ‘caught’ being positive by the Principal
• Chess and draughts knock-out ‘championship’ in senior classes
• Co-operative learning – use of team games to engage children to learn while having ‘fun’
• Fancy dress day for teachers and children
• Teddy Bears Picnic
 
Each school is invited to devise its own ‘Positivity’ initiatives with a view to promoting good humour and overall wellbeing.  If you would like to share your experiences of ‘Positivity’ initiatives, please send them to networking@ippn.ie.  It’s important that we as Principals can demonstrate to children that behind the role are human beings that can laugh as good as the rest. 
 
Is sinne le meas
 
Seán Cottrell and Pat Goff

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