'There's too much junk food at school' [IrishTimes]
- Published: 20 September 2011
TBH: TO BE HONEST - An unheard voice in education
A PARENT WRITES . . . My children’s school claims to have a healthy-eating policy. We were told at the induction evening that crisps, sweets, fizzy drinks and other junk foods are not allowed. Unfortunately, the policy is not being followed, and some children seem to bring in whatever they want.
My children are always asking me why they can’t have crisps or chocolate bars or biscuits in their lunch box. When I tell them that the school doesn’t allow it they can list off all the different “treats” that their classmates bring into school, and they want to know why they can’t too.
It’s a difficult one to explain. Several children in their school are quite overweight. If I left mine to eat what they wanted, I think they would be too. One of my sons, in particular, would always choose bad food over good, and I have to say no to him often. He never takes it for answer: he wants to know why.
Full Story: www.irishtimes.com
Time to end this divisive debate on private education [IrishTimes]
- Published: 20 September 2011
Parents who send their children to Belvedere College are taxpayers. That they then spend more on their child’s education is their right, argues GERRY FOLEY , the headmaster of the Dublin school
ALL PARENTS SHARE a desire to give their child the best education possible. I can speak only of my experience at Belvedere College SJ, and the reality here is very different to the stereotype of fee-paying schools.
I have worked in both voluntary secondary and community schools in Ireland and in several disadvantaged schools in London. My parents sent me to the Christian Brothers in Tralee (not a rugby ball or a fee in sight), but it wasn’t my local school. I had to cycle six kilometres every morning to catch the bus to school every day. In choosing that school, my parents did what they thought was best. Every parent makes these choices, and in doing so they tap into the deeply held aspirations we all have for our children.
Full Story: www.irishtimes.com
In defence of fee-paying schools [IrishTimes]
- Published: 20 September 2011
GEORGE HOOK got his chance in life from his hard-working parents, who scrimped to give him the best education they could. That’s why he’s a passionate advocate of fee-paying schools
AS A CHILD, only a handful of my neighbours on Albert Road in Cork did the Leaving Certificate. In fact, most of them left school with only a primary education. They were condemned in 1950s Ireland to emigration at best or unemployment at home at worst. There was a word for unemployed young men. They were known as corner boys, because every day they congregated at the street corner, playing pitch and toss for a few pennies, or passed the time bullying young kids on their way to and from school.
We lived in a two-up, two-down terraced house with an outside toilet and no washing facilities. My father was a wages clerk with the bus company; Micheál Martin’s father collected his pay packet from him every Friday. (The supposed socially inferior bus driver Martin earned more than the white-collared Hook.) My father handed over his pay packet, unopened, to his wife, who gave him back something for cigarettes and pocket money and then worked miracles with the remainder to feed and clothe her family.
Full Story: www.irishtimes.com
Still waiting for a classroom [IrishTimes]
- Published: 20 September 2011
MY EDUCATION WEEK: Maria Brett, Fourth-year student, Coláiste Mhuire Marino
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 10TH
Last weekend in Kilkenny before I make the big move to Dublin and start knocking on school doors. I’ve been training at Coláiste Mhuire in Marino for the past three years, so it’s not exactly a new frontier, but I was a student then. I’m a jobseeker now.
Yes, I am aware that teaching jobs are not that easy to come by any more, but I’m from the Kelly Rowland school of career guidance. “Don’t let anybody stand in your way, girl!” If I could just get those sculpted arms and that high-gloss hair, what school wouldn’t want me?
I shouldn’t be watching The X Factor : I should be shining my shoes and ironing my CV.
Full Story: www.irishtimes.com
Many parents 'keen to see return of the cane' [schooldays.ie]
- Published: 20 September 2011
Concerns about falling levels of discipline in schools may be common among parents, as it has been revealed many people would like to see the return of the cane to classrooms.
A study conducted in the UK by YouGov on behalf of the Times Educational Supplement found 49 per cent of parents were in favour of corporal punishment in the form of caning or smacking, an opinion that was shared by one in five students.
There was also broad support for other methods of discipline, such as sending unruly pupils out of the classroom, after-school detentions and writing lines.
Full Story: www.schooldays.ie
