Martin addresses schools patron issue [IrishTimes]
- Published: 20 June 2011
CATHOLIC PATRONAGE of a school “does not on its own bring about a truly Catholic culture to a school”, the Catholic Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Diarmuid Martin, has said.
“The current discussion on changes in school patronage is not just about management or ethos or about numbers,” he said yesterday. “Catholic identity cannot be separated from the level of faith of the community within which the school belongs.”
His comments anticipate the Department of Education’s Forum on Patronage and Pluralism in the Primary Sector , which begins in Dublin on Wednesday and continues until lunchtime on Friday.
It will hear submissions from interested parties including three from Catholic church bodies – the Council for Education of the Irish Episcopal Conference, the Catholic Primary School Management Association and the Association of Trustees of Catholic Schools.
In a submission to the forum, the Catholic bishops have criticised as “very unhelpful” a suggestion by Minister for Education Ruairí Quinn that 50 per cent of primary schools under their control could be transferred to other patrons.
Full Story: www.irishtimes.com
School patronage debate 'is about quality of faith' [Independent.ie]
- Published: 20 June 2011
THE Catholic Church does not see this week's national debate on primary school patronage as being about the number of buildings it will hand over to other bodies, Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin said last night.
Speaking in St Colmcille's parish at Knocklyon, Dublin, Archbishop Martin insisted that bishops were concerned about "the quality of the faith life of the Catholic school".
He was responding to Education Minister Ruairi Quinn's call for the church to divest itself of 50pc of its 3,000 schools from its control to accommodate the growing non-Catholic sector. The debate opens on Wednesday in the Department of Education.
"The current discussion on changes in school patronage is not just about management or ethos or about numbers," said Archbishop Martin. "Catholic patronage of a school does not on its own bring about a truly Catholic culture to a school.
"For the church the discussion about schools today is not about the number of schools that may change patronage, but about the quality of the faith life of the Catholic school."
Full Story: www.independent.ie
In, or out, this summer? [schooldays.ie]
- Published: 20 June 2011
There aren’t many certainties in life, but surely one of the more reliable things has to be the un-reliability of the summer weather (sigh).
By the time the schools break up next week, we’ll already have had one of the summer months (I’m counting the months of June, July and August as the ‘summer’ for the purposes of this point – although others I talk to would argue that July, August and September are the summer months. Anyway, I digress and that’s another post altogether).
So, as we inevitably head into a summer of weather hokey-kokey, the issue of indoor games comes to the fore. And for many homes, indoor time means screen time: time spent on games consoles, the Wii, Kinect or computer - and I wonder whether this is a problem?
Full Story: www.schooldays.ie
Schools braced for special needs cuts [IrishTimes]
- Published: 18 June 2011
SCHOOLS ARE bracing themselves for possible cuts in the number of special needs assistants after a Department of Education report found there had been an “over-allocation’’ of assistants.
As a first step, special needs supports for pupils in junior infants appear vulnerable.
The department pointed out yesterday that special needs supports were allocated to schools in respect of most applications for junior infant pupils for whom behaviour was cited as the core need. This was “despite the fact that schools will not have had much experience of the cited behaviours, nor had an opportunity to take steps to address such behaviour through the recommended NEPS behaviour approach”.
Last night the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation expressed concern at the decision to cut back on special needs supports in junior infant classes. “When a child with special needs does not have those needs met in junior infants, every child starting school is affected,” said a spokesperson.
Full Story: www.irishtimes.com
Bishops challenge Quinn over transfer of school patronage [IrishTimes]
- Published: 18 June 2011
CATHOLIC bishops have criticised the suggestion by Minister for Education Ruairí Quinn that 50 per cent of primary schools under their control could be transferred to other patrons.
Ahead of next week’s opening of the forum on school patronage, the bishops describe the Minister’s remarks as “very unhelpful”, as it suggests to those involved in Catholic schools that “they will be forced into change against their will. ”
This, they say, will not be the case. “We are not involved in social engineering but in the voluntary transfer of patronage where there is demonstrable demand for such. ”
The comments are made in a formal submission to the three-day forum, which begins on Wednesday at the Department of Education.
The submission is one of four from Catholic education groups. All signal that Catholic Church representatives will take a tougher line at the forum than that articulated by Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin when he first raised the patronage issue three years ago.
Full Story: www.irishtimes.com
