Twitter and Droichead

There was a lot of talk about Droichead on social media over the last couple of months and I thought it might be interesting to analyse the data. I searched the hashtag #droichead to see if there were any patterns on Twitter. To be honest, the strangest thing for me was that the hashtag wasn’t used as … Read more

What is the biggest issue for Community National Schools?

The Community National School model is being lauded as the ideal solution for primary education in Ireland as a compromise to the near-monopoly that all churches have on primary education. Started by then Fianna Fáil Education Minister, Mary Hanafin in 2007, the CNS model is supposed to be a “happy medium” between denominational education and multi-denominational (now … Read more

What Vehicle will get us over the Bridge?

With the overwhelming majority of teachers voting to not cooperate with Droichead in its current format, I wonder how the Teaching Council are going to pick up the pieces and try again. I thought I’d use the following analogy to help them out. CEPP was the first incarnation from the Teaching Council. It took the form … Read more

What’s the difference between the CNS model and the Catholic model?

Another government, another disappointing day for education. Jan O’Sullivan has left her mark and I bet Ruairi Quinn is ruing the day he decided to address patronage in schools. Meanwhile Mary Hanafin is probably rubbing her hands in glee. It looks like despite all the flaws and all the secret deals with the Catholic Church that … Read more

Which dark stain will be removed in 2016?

Ask most teachers who the best education minister was and you’ll most likely hear the name, Donogh O’Malley. He has gone down in education folklore most notably for announcing free secondary education in Ireland. The timing of the announcement coincided with Ireland’s 50 year commemoration of 1916 and O’Malley is quoted as saying that the … Read more

Can the new NCCA Ethics Curriculum work in Ireland?

It always strikes me as odd the stories about primary education that get noticed by the media. The majority of primary schools are wonderful places and have been through a terrible time over the last number of years with severe cuts to resources for children and yet primary schools seem to be able to achieve fantastic … Read more

Why Pluralism in Education Doesn’t Work

I was listening to a debate on the radio about the Angelus last week. The argument comes up every so often in the media and usually goes along the lines of somebody suggesting RTE should get rid of it from TV and lots of people spending their money texting about why it shouldn’t. RTE have decided, … Read more

Should we be Celebrating the 1916 Rising?

Earlier this week, two army officials came to my school to present us with a copy of the Proclamation of Independence and an Irish Flag, which we will have to raise on March 15th 2016. This is all part of the 100th anniversary celebrations of the 1916 Rising. However, should we be celebrating the 1916 … Read more

Droichead: A bridge too far

Droichead is a new model of induction and probation for newly qualified teachers, which has been introduced by the Teaching Council, and is currently in a pilot phase. The model will replace the current probation process where Department of Education inspectors evaluate all newly qualified teachers and deem them satisfactory or not to be a … Read more

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