Tutors needed for homework club [advertiser.ie]
- Published: 13 August 2010
A city homework club is looking for adults who have a few spare hours in the afternoon to help out with their homework club.
The community-run project helps children catch up with primary and secondary school-work. The programme cited nationally by Dept of Education Inspectors as one of the most innovative and effective community programmes in the country is now appealing to any adult with some time on their hands to help change a child’s life forever.
St John of God Order Sister, Mary Bourke, is a founding volunteer tutor working with the project at the Fr McGrath Centre on St. Joseph’s Road. Currently there is a long waiting list for the daily programme, restarting on September 14.
In a bid to attract volunteers, Sr Mary assured those thinking about partaking in the programme that they will be fully supported by FAS CE trainees and trained youth staff at the centre and only need to be able to read and write and have an empathy and patience with children to qualify.
“It is hard to comprehend the difference one hour each day is making in a child’s life on this programme,” said Sr Mary, a retired primary school teacher with the St John of God Order.
Full Story: www.advertiser.ie
55,000 downloads of ‘panic button’ on Facebook [businessandleadership.com]
- Published: 13 August 2010
The Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Centre has revealed that there have been 55,000+ downloads of its Facebook ‘panic button’ app. It has so far been used 211 times to report suspicious online behaviour.
Facebook has already been at the centre of cases around paedophile rings and murder. Last year the senior police officer in the UK responsible for child protection online, Jim Gamble, who leads the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre, warned that officers have seen a significant increase in complaints from parents and children reporting alleged paedophiles, bullies and hackers who are exploiting the site.
Original calls for a panic button had been rejected by Facebook but eventually the social network gave way and the ClickCEOP app was rolled out on 11 July.
Healy Eames calls for debate on school patronage [advertiser.ie]
- Published: 12 August 2010
A comprehensive and wide-ranging debate on the issue of school patronage is needed across Galway city and county, according to Fine Gael Seanad spokesperson on education Senator Fidelma Healy Eames.
The comment follows the recent publication by Tánaiste and Minister for Education and Skills Mary Coughlan, of a list of areas, including Ballinasloe, that could be looked at initially and that may offer potential for the Church to divest itself of patronage of certain primary schools. While welcoming the publication, the council for education of the Irish Bishops’ Conference moved to allay potential fears by stressing that there were no imminent plans for closures or significant changes in patronage. The Catholic bishops further explained that no changes will be made until an extensive consultation process is undertaken with parents.
Senator Healy Eames said this week, “The issue of school patronage is a complex one that we must examine carefully so that we can ensure the educational needs of all communities are, and continue to be, adequately met for future generations”.
“Minister Coughlan recently indicated, at a meeting I attended, that she would come to a decision regarding patronage in September. I believe this is too soon since some of the most important partners in the education process, the parents, have yet to be consulted in a comprehensive way.
Full Story: www.advertiser.ie
Birr Included In Scheme Examining Church Patronage Of Schools [midlandtribune.ie]
- Published: 12 August 2010
Birr is one of the pilot areas being examined by Department of Education & Skills for the possible divesting of patronage of Catholic primary schools.
Last week the Tánaiste and Minister for Education and Skills, Mary Coughlan, TD, published the outcome of work undertaken by her Department, at the request of the Catholic Church, to identify areas that may offer potential for the church to divest its patronage of certain primary schools.
The possibility of the Catholic Church divesting itself of certain primary schools was raised by the church with the Tánaiste's predecessor as Minister for Education and discussed at a meeting in November 2009 with senior representatives of the church.
At the request of those senior representatives, the Department undertook to identify possible areas where the demographics and existing school configuration was such that there might be potential for the Catholic Church to consider divesting patronage.
The Tánaiste and Minister for Education and Skills has made this information available on the website of her Department last week
Full Story: www.midlandtribune.ie
Facebook vows new security measures to combat alarming 'trolling' abuse trend [herald.ie]
- Published: 12 August 2010
Facebook, the social networking site, has pledged to develop new security measures to combat a growing surge in cyber bullying and abuse of strangers.
Engineers at Facebook are reportedly working on new systems to fight the trend of “trolling”, where anonymous online users “bombard” victims with offensive messages or abuse.
Reports have claimed a growing number of “tribute” pages had been targeted including those in memory of the Cumbria shootings victims and soldiers who died in Afghanistan.
In other extreme cases such abuse has led to some teenagers committing suicide.
At present users can only manually delete abusive messages. But in efforts to combat the growing trend, Facebook officials said they were working on new systems that automatically delete abuse.
Full Story: www.herald.ie
