Teacher strike action vote looms in Northern Ireland [belfasttelegraph.co.uk]
- Published: 27 October 2011
The majority of Northern Ireland's 1,200 schools could be forced to close next month if tens of thousands of teachers vote to go on strike in a row over pensions and education cuts.
All five teaching unions here - NASUWT, NAHT, INTO, UTU and ATL - have now decided to ballot their members on a mass walkout on Wednesday, November 30.
The decision to ballot members was taken after the Executive gave the green light earlier this month to proceed with proposed changes to the Teachers' Pension scheme.
Full Story: www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk
'Most SNAs' now in schools [schooldays.ie]
- Published: 27 October 2011
The majority of special needs assistants (SNAs) held back at the start of the year have now been deployed to schools around the country.
Taoiseach Enda Kenny stated that the individuals have now been placed into the systems, after cutbacks to the education sector drew protests in recent weeks, the Irish Examiner reports.
Around 475 SNAs were not assigned to children at the start of the school year, but were instead held back in order to cover any emergencies.
Mr Kenny said: "There were ten per cent held back for a very good reason, for cases of where sickness may occur or injury or new pupils."
Full Story: www.schooldays.ie
'Central role' for religion in schools - Michael Kelly [irishcatholic.ie]
- Published: 27 October 2011
Minister for Education and Skills Ruairi Quinn has said that religious education will continue to have a central role to play in Irish schools in the future.
He also criticised the fact that religious faith in modern Ireland is treated with ''a level of derision and contempt that it does not deserve''. While Mr Quinn described himself as a ''practising atheist'', he said that he has had ''an abiding interest in religion for all of my adult life''.
The minister was speaking at a conference at the Irish Centre for Religious Education (ICRE) at the Mater Dei Institue in Dublin, focusing on finding mutual ground on the debate about religious education and diversity in the provision of schooling.
Mr Quinn said: ''Modern discourse about religion does no service to what is actually happening in the sphere of religious education'' in Ireland where, he said, teachers are opening up very important debates around religion to young people.
Full Story: www.irishcatholic.ie
€15 million in Back to School allowance for underage children – McLoughlin [sligotoday.ie]
- Published: 27 October 2011
Fine Gael TD for Sligo/North Leitrim, Tony McLoughlin, has highlighted the provision of over €15 million to families of children who are not yet of schoolgoing age in the Back to School allowance scheme. This information was made available to Deputy McLoughlin in response to a parliamentary question by the Deputy.
“I find it surprising that €15 million of State funding is being spent on a Back to School allowance for children between two and four years of age. Over 63,000 children in this age group are being allocated money under the scheme despite the fact that most children do not start school until they reach four or five.
“The Supplementary Welfare Allowance (SWA) clothing and footwear scheme which replaced a previous Public Assistance Footwear scheme had been targeted at both school and pre-school children from the age of two years up. When the BSCFA scheme was introduced, the provision to pay the allowance to children from the age of two years up was retained.
Full Story: www.sligotoday.ie
105 inspection reports published on Department's website [education.ie]
- Published: 27 October 2011
A total of 105 school inspection-reports were published today (27 October, 2011) on the Department of Education and Skills' website.
For the first time, today’s publication includes WSE-ML reports for post-primary schools.
New inspection reports on the web today comprise:
- 32 whole-school evaluations (WSEs) of primary schools
- 4 whole-school evaluations (WSEs) of post-primary schools, including 3 WSE-MLLs which focus on management, leadership and learning
- 59 stand-alone subject inspections at post-primary level
- 6 stand-alone programme evaluations at post-primary level
Since 6th February 2006, inspection reports on schools and centres for education are published on the Department of Education and Skills' website at regular intervals throughout the school year.
There are now 5,050 inspection reports on the website, representative of 2,035 schools and centres for education.
WSEs are conducted in primary and post-primary schools.
WSE reports comment on the quality of the school's management and planning, teaching and learning, 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 a team of inspectors visits the school for a period of time to conduct the evaluation.
Full Story: www.education.ie
