Educate Together

Raymond Swan, Gorey ETNS Principal: …

From Lynda in Donabate Portrane ETNS:

We …

GETNS held a special event to commemorate the 100th Anniversary of Titanic. Parents, children & staff arrived at school dressed in Edwardian clothing. See the pictures here!

Old McDonald had a farm! …… Baa Baa black sheep have you any wool?…… The Agri Aware Mobile Farm recently visited Thornleigh Educate Together!

Educate Together and County Dublin VEC have started the design and planning work for the building of the new Community College in Clonburris, South Lucan, Co. Dublin. The new Community College will open in September 2014 and this will provide a further 1,000 post-primary school places for the greater Lucan area.

Educate Together welcomes the publication of the final report of the Forum on Patronage and Pluralism and congratulates the expert group on their work. The group, after a detailed and thorough review refers to the situation as “urgent”.

Educate Together has consistently highlighted equality concerns over the Community National School model’s need to separate children by religious belief.

We welcome the publication of the UN Human Rights Council’s UPR recommendations. Although the Irish Government has not adopted all the recommendations, acknowledgement of the need to accelerate the establishment of multi-denominational schools is a positive step.

27 new primary school buildings and nine major extensions, plus up to six new potential second-level schools.

Educate Together has been appointed patron of brand new schools in Stepaside, Ballinteer, Tallaght and Carpenterstown in Dublin, Douglas in Cork, and Kildare Town.

Educate Together has announced three high profile additions from the technology industry to its Second-level Advisory Panel.

Midleton Educate Together National School celebrates the official opening of its new school buildings at 1.30pm today. The new school is located at Market Green in Midleton and will provide the space the school needs to grow in the coming years

On this date in 1975, a meeting was held in Ross’s Hotel Dun Laoghaire at which the formal documents for the founding of Educate Together were agreed.

Multi-denominational education patron Educate Together has announced two new members of its influential Second Level Advisory Panel. Peter McCreadie and Olwen Griffith are both highly experienced Principals of integrated schools run by the Northern Ireland Council for Integrated Education (NICIE).

Educate Together CEO, Paul Rowe, is training to run the Great Ireland Run to raise funds for Educate Together. He is looking for others to join him.. to run, jog, walk, or stumble 10k in the Phoenix Park on April 15th 2012!

Young scientists from the laboratories and classrooms of Balbriggan Educate Together National School made an impact at the 2012 RDS Primary Science Fair!

Young scientists from the laboratories and classrooms of Belmayne Educate Together National School made an impact at the 2012 RDS Primary Science Fair!

Young scientists from the laboratories and classrooms of Castleknock Educate Together National School made an impact at the 2012 RDS Primary Science Fair!

Young scientists from the laboratories and classrooms of Galway Educate Together National School made an impact at the 2012 RDS Primary Science Fair!

Young scientists from the laboratories and classrooms of Midleton Educate Together National School made an impact at the 2012 RDS Primary Science Fair!

Young scientists from the laboratories and classrooms of North Kildare Educate Together National School made an impact at the 2012 RDS Primary Science Fair in January!

Following a successful public launch of it’s pre-enrolment list in Ashbourne, Educate Together are hopeful that a new Educate Together primary school will be opened in the area in the near future.

Welcome to the Educate Together School Newsletter Archive.. full of the latest news from our schools around Ireland, as well as updates from the National Office on campaigns and educational initiatives that you’ll want to hear about!

Here’s a useful resource for any teacher to start off the new school term: a multi-faith and multifaceted calendar for the 2012 academic term! We’ve also compiled a list of all upcoming Educate Together events, training sessions and conferences for the year. Download both calendars here.

Young scientists from the laboratories and classrooms of 6 Educate Together schools are set to make an impact at the RDS Primary Science Fair this year!

Educate Together students in Galway and Balbriggan have scooped 3 awards at the Eircom Junior Spiders 2011!

Educate Together has welcomed the announcement by the Minister for Education and Skills of new school building projects in 2012. Five of the 56 projects planned will involve Educate Together schools. New Educate Together school buildings will be completed in Carlow, Waterford, Blanchardstown West and Holywell in Swords. Thornleigh Educate Together National School in Swords is scheduled for extension.

The last quarter of 2011 was very active on the lobbying front. Educate Together made its final submission to the Patronage and Pluralism Forum, made a detailed deposition to the Department of Education and Skills on enrolment policy and formally submitted its position on the Education and Training Boards Bill to the Oireachtas Select Subcommittee on Education.

Educate Together made a submission on school enrolment policies to the Department of Education and Skills in October 2011. The submission was drafted as part of the recent consultation process on school enrolment policy. The submission can download here.

The Joint Oieachtas Committee on Education and Skills has invited submissions on the Draft Heads of the Education and Training Boards Bill, 2011. As both a partner in education and a future potential receiver of services from the proposed Education & Training Boards, Educate Together has made a formal submission to the Select Sub-Committee on Education & Skills. That submission is available to download here.

There is currently one teacher on the Educate Together Main panel. We believe that this teacher will be redeployed very shortly. If you have a permanent vacancy in your school please contact the national office. You will more than likely be allowed to fill this vacancy in a fixed term capacity until the end of the school year (June).

The National Procurement Service (NPS) was established by Government decision in 2009 to ensure maximum efficiency in the area of public service procurement of goods and services. Following discussion between Educate Together and the NPS this facility is now available to Educate Together schools. The NPS uses information provided by participating groups of the public service community (including schools, local authorities etc) to bargain with service providers/ suppliers for a better rate for all involved.

On behalf of everyone in the National Office, we’d like to acknowledge and draw attention to the extraordinary work of the volunteers on Boards of Management. As we are at the end of the recent term of office for Boards, there are a number of people who will not be returning to their roles.

Welcome to Emma Grainger our new Ethos Development Officer who is settling in nicely after her first fortnight in the role! Emma has come to us from the Youth Work Service of Léargas and has a background in training and facilitation with children, young people and adults as well as Educational Research and Evaluation.

The first module of the Board of Management training is now available online. A letter has been sent to all boards of management advising them how to access the course. The letter contains your enrolment key which will have to be entered by each board of management member in order to access the course

The Minister for Education and Skills recently announced that capital funding was being made available to provide a primary schools minor works grant of €28 million for the current school year. This will come as great news for many schools as it was rumoured that the grant would not be paid this year.

On Thursday 24th November, A debate was held in the Senate Chamber of Stormont parliament buildings. This debate, hosted by the Integrated Education Fund, was about the future of integrated approaches to education in Nothern Ireland. Educate Together CEO, Paul Rowe, spoke at the debate, discussing Educate Together’s role in establishing multi-denominational schools in Ireland.

It’s that time of year again! This year, why not purchase these beautiful Seasonal Greeting Cards for friends and family, and raise funds for Educate Together’s schools nationwide.

We are circulating an online survey on values to all school Principals in the Educate Together network, entitled “Values in Educational Practice Survey”. Please spare five minutes to complete this survey.

There are currently three teachers …