Recession has failed to reduce fee-paying schools' popularity [IrishTimes]
- Published: 20 April 2010
STUDENT NUMBERS at some of the most expensive fee-paying schools in the State have dropped only marginally in the past year, despite the economic downturn.
New figures show that enrolment at many of the big-name fee-paying schools including Belvedere and Blackrock College – is holding up or even increasing.
But they also show the first signs of falling student numbers at schools like Alexandra College and Mount Anville in Dublin and Glenstal Abbey in Co Limerick.
Full Story: www.irishtimes.com
Call to abolish compulsory religious course for trainees [IrishTimes]
- Published: 20 April 2010
A MOTION to remove compulsory religious courses on teacher education programmes is to be discussed by the Irish Federation of University Teachers (IFUT) at their annual delegate conference in Dublin this weekend.
The motion calls for the abolition of compulsory religious courses for trainee teachers to be replaced with a common ethics course alongside optional denominational religious modules. Currently, those training to become a primary school teacher in Ireland cannot do so without taking compulsory religious education modules, regardless of their own religious beliefs.
Full Story: www.irishtimes.com
Almost 20% of schools refused repairs grant [IrishExaminer]
- Published: 20 April 2010
ALMOST 1,500 schools have been approved to have crucial repairs carried out during the summer holidays, it has been announced.
But another 380 schools have been left out in the cold after being turned down for funds for the essential upkeep of classes and buildings.
Education Minister Mary Coughlan announced details of €122 million earmarked for the Summer Works Scheme (SWS) yesterday while visiting her home county of Donegal.
But almost one in five who applied for the works grant were refused.
Read more: www.irishexaminer.com
Home and away help that’s a class apart [IrishExaminer]
- Published: 20 April 2010
MOLLY Kennedy details her Holy Communion dress with the delight of any eight-year- old looking forward to the occasion but while puffy sleeves, diamonds and flowers may be the order of the day, her illness is not.
She is one of fewer than 10 children treated each year in the Mercy University Hospital (MUH) in Cork city for one of life’s more invidious childhood diseases, acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL).
Diagnosed at the onset of the last school year and energy-sapped by her illness, she managed just one hour of schooling at St Columbus Girls National School in Douglas during the months of September and October.
Read more: www.irishexaminer.com
Ash cloud forces schools to suspend classes [guardian.co.uk]
- Published: 19 April 2010
Schools are being forced to suspend classes today and send homework to students overseas as hundreds of teachers and pupils remain stranded abroad because of the ban on flights.
Pupils and teachers on school trips were expected to return to the UK over the weekend, ahead of the first day of the summer term today. But many have been unable to travel because of the Icelandic volcanic eruption that has made flying perilous.
In Hertfordshire, 352 children are stranded overseas on school trips in 11 countries, from Iceland to Hong Kong. Some 40 pupils and four teachers from Orleans Park School in Twickenham, south London, are stranded in Shanghai, China.
Full Story: www.guardian.co.uk
