Educate Together » Press Releases

Ashbourne Educate Together Pre-enrolment List: Click here

aoifemurray — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 08:00:00 +0000

Parents who wish to pre-enroll their children for the proposed new school in Ashbourne can click here

Following a successful public launch of our pre-enrolment list in Ashbourne, we are hopeful that a new Educate Together primary school will be opened in the area in the near future. As a result of the high level of interest from parents and guardians in Ashbourne, an Educate Together Start-up Group has been established in the area and will now proceed to make contact with the many parents who have expressed interest in setting up an Educate Together school.

Gerry McKevitt, our Regional Development Officer for Leinster said: “The demand we are seeing for an Educate Together school in Ashbourne is mirrored in other towns and cities across Ireland. We are looking forward to hearing the Department of Education and Skills plans for this area and are hopeful that the demand we are seeing will be addressed.”

Parents who wish to pre-enroll their children for the proposed new school can Click here to download the form and return it to:

Ashbourne Educate Together
213, Cluain Rí,
Killegland,
Ashbourne,
County Meath.

2012 Calendars

Luke — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 10:00:37 +0000

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!

Download it here.

We’ve also compiled a list of all upcoming Educate Together events, training sessions and conferences for the 2012 academic term:

Download it here.

Educate Together’s Scientists of Tomorrow!

Luke — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 16:57:39 +0000

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!

This week will see over 3,000 primary school students representing 120 schools from across Ireland displaying their projects at the Science Fair which is part of the BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition.

As usual, Educate Together schools are punching above their weight in the field of science – with a healthy showing at this year’s fair! The science fair takes place just a few weeks after Educate Together schools scooped 3 awards at the Eircom Spider Awards for web design!

Educate Together scientists are tackling the weird & the wonderful this year, with projects on topics such as: talking to plants, the strength of sound, visual puzzles, science in the schoolhouse, and the power of lemons!!

Look out for your local school at the exhibition. 40 primary schools are featured each day and the Educate Together entries are are:

Thursday 12th January

“Lemon power” – Belmayne ETNS
“Talking to plants: does it really work or is it just a lot of hot air?” – Galway Educate Together ETNS

Friday 13th January

“Visual puzzles” – Castleknock ETNS
“The supreme and strange strength of sound” – Midleton ETNS

Saturday 14th January

“How does your garden grow?” – Balbriggan ETNS
“Science in our school” – North Kildare ETNS

The Fair provides an opportunity for students to think about science in practical and fun ways and helps to develop their skills in communicating their interest and knowledge of science to others.

For further information on the RDS Primary Science Fair and a full list of participating schools and their projects, please visit www.rds.ie/primarysciencefair.

Educate Together Schools Win Big @ Eircom Junior Spider Awards

Luke — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 11:31:52 +0000

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

Congratulations to the students & staff in Galway Educate Together NS, who won ‘Best Website’ – getns.weebly.com

A massive well done also to the bloggers in Dan’s 5th Class, Balbriggan Educate Together NS, who scooped the ‘Best School Blog’ award and the ‘Mega Grand Prix’ award!!

Well done also to Carlow Educate Together NS for being shortlisted for an award. Michael’s Class Blog is another fine edition to Educate Together’s thriving online community!

Photos of the awards ceremony can be found here.

The eircom Junior Spider Awards were established in 2009 as an awards programme for students at primary and post primary school level. The aim of these awards is to:

Acknowledge the innovation amongst web creators in schools.
Provide an exciting programme that will encourage teachers/students to further develop their technology skills in web design.
Encourage the use of the internet to teach subjects on our curriculum.
Act as a catalyst for those students who wish to pursue a career in this sector by providing access to influential business executives.

New Schools, New Thinking – All Welcome

Luke — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 15:37:59 +0000

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.

Commenting on the plans Paul Rowe, Educate Together CEO, said ‘We are delighted that five more of our schools will have new buildings in 2012. If you include the three new schools and four extensions built in 2011, over 80% of Educate Together schools will be in permanent accommodation by the end of 2012.’

‘Ongoing investment in our educational infrastructure is vital for our children’s and our country’s future. The move by the Minister to have the OPW and National Development Finance Agency help accelerate the development of new schools from 2013 onwards is also positive news for the education sector’.

The Minister also announced a Post Primary School Design Competition to be managed by the Royal Institute of Architects in Ireland (RIAI). The results of the competition will be announced in September. Paul Rowe also saw this as welcome news. ‘Educate Together is campaigning that the physical layout and design of second-level schools support the reforms being implemented in the curriculum and methodologies for young adults. Our plans for our second-level schools will implement these reforms. It is good news for all second-level students to see the Department engage in forward thinking like this – all schools will be the better for it. I also specifically welcome the Minister’s initiative to open the design process to the widest creative input from the architectural profession. By doing this, the Minister has opened up the process to world-class standards of school design even though he has very restricted budgets to work with.”’

Today’s announcement is the first phase of a €2bn 5-year investment in school building projects. The Department of Education has plans to provide for 100,00 new school places in this period to cater for the rise in population.

The need for ongoing investment in education infrastructure is inarguable. As the Minister announced his 5 year investment programme the ESRI released research that shows we may be significantly underestimating our birthrate. Current Central Statistics Office projections assume 1.6-1.9 children per woman. The ESRI research shows this could now run to 2.2 per woman, as official figures do not account for the shift towards childbirth in later life. This could have great significance for educational planning over the next decade.

Government Submissions 2011

Luke — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 12:08:08 +0000

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.

All three submissions can be accessed here:

Educate Together’s Submission on School Enrolment Policy

Luke — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 12:04:19 +0000

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

The submission can be download as a PDF here.

Download Educate Together’s Submission on the proposed Education and Training Boards Bill, 2011

Luke — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 16:17:06 +0000

In October, the Joint Oieachtas Committee on Education and Skills invited submissions on the Draft Heads of the Education and Training Boards Bill, 2011.

The Joint Committee on Jobs, Social Protection and Education has been asked by the Minister for Education and Skills to examine the draft heads of the Education and Training Boards Bill, 2011 and report back to him by December 2011. The Joint Committee has mandated the Select Sub Committee on Education and Skills to undertake this task and produce a report for agreement by the Joint Committee.

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.

This submission gives our perspective on the scope of the Bill, the remit of the new boards and the needs of the education sector. We feel that the Bill as drafted is not meeting those needs, and that therefore it merits a fundamental review. This submission is made in two sections with the latter detailing the scope and scale of Educate Together’s role as a school patron body.

Redeployment Panel Update – 30 November 2011

Louise Daly — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 13:21:19 +0000

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 through a recruitment process until the end of the school year (June).

All schools may proceed to fill their fixed term posts in the normal way, (i.e. advertisement and recruitment) unless contacted by the DES regarding redeployment of permanent teachers.

The supplementary panel is no longer in action as permanent appointments (since November 7th) may only be made through redeployment of teachers from the Main panel. If the Main panel is clear, or all teachers have declined on the grounds of distance, schools are allowed to appoint teachers to permanent positions in a fixed term capacity until the end of the 2011/2012 school year.

Public Procurement – Now Available for Educate Together Schools

Luke — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 13:10:56 +0000

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.

NPS will initially invite energy suppliers to tender as part of a procurement competition for electricity supply. This competition will identify a better rate than currently available to individual schools because NPS will be able to negotiate on the basis that it is representing thousands of contracts for the suppliers. Having identified an energy supplier as a result of the procurement competition, NPS will forward contracts directly to schools by post or email. Further competitions will be available to schools in the near future- e.g. Natural Gas, Fuels, stationary etc.

Schools are invited to register with the NPS on the link below. By registering for procurement the Board of Management of your school consents to NPS managing a competition to source electricity on its behalf. NPS advises that when a Board of Management registers it commits for a minimum period of one year with the electricity supplier subsequently chosen by NPS.

The more schools that register for national procurement the greater the potential savings for all.

For more information please check out these documents from the National Procurement Service

Public Procurement Guidelines

Facilitating SME Participation in Public Procurement