Anseo.net - If I were the Minister for Education (Simon Lewis)

Primary school teaching is most likely one of the least diverse professions in the country. In this episode I explore why this is the case. I don't think there are too many surprises as to why but what can we do about it?

In this episode, I discuss the people that made it in 11th to 20th position in the Irish Times 2011 article and find out where they are now.

Show notes and links can be found on my Medium channel: https://simonmlewis.medium.com/the-50-most-influential-people-in-education-where-are-they-now-part-2-5-a2679e119641

In this episode, I explore a number of ways developing schools are screwed over by the Department of Education in terms of money and resources. Funnily enough, the NCSE get a bashing for doing the same thing. I also introduce "The Norma Foley Rule" and welcome the new Flourish Curriculum, I mean, Resource into your local Catholic schools.

In this special Christmas Special, I look back at our schools to find the highlights of the year where schools dominated the headlines - mainly in case there was a hint of them closing.

In this live recorded episode I run through the note released by the Department of Education releasing extra people into the system to cover the sub crisis. However, will it be enough, why did we get to this point, and how will we prevent it from happening again?

This might not sounds like the most interesting episode in the world but if you ever wondered why it takes so long for your school to fix a leaking roof or to buy your child a laptop, listen in as I explain why the tendering process slows down everything but also has a much larger effect on the local economy.

The Children's Lives Matter Report was published a couple of weeks ago. It is the third report, so far, in the series, and is one of the only reports that truly delves into the world of schoolchildren in Ireland. I love these reports because they venture into areas that others don't and give some facsinating insights to the education system.

Recently featured by Feedspot as the number 1 primary education podcast, visit some other primary education podcasts here: https://blog.feedspot.com/primary_education_podcasts/

My immediate-ish reaction to the news that Antigen Testing is coming to schools. Recorded on the evening on the announcement.

Ireland has a long, proud history of drama. Drama is the only literary arts subject in the primary curriculum that is a subject in its own right. Poetry has to resolve itself as a very minor player in the English language curriculum. The UK curriculum has long since absorbed the subject of Drama into its English curriculum where it sits with other literary arts. In this episode, I will be arguing that if I were the Minister for Education I would scrap Drama as a subject from the primary curriculum.

In soccer, everyone needs to know their position. One basic rule is that you can really only play in one position. In this episode I follow a yard time game of soccer and wonder what role does the union play in the team and argue that if I were the Minister for Education, I would remove all Union Involvement from Teaching Council

For the last decade, it has been next to impossible to get substitute teachers when someone is out of work. While there have been moves to address this issue in the last 3 years, in this episode I’ll be arguing that if I were the Minister for Education, I’d be properly resourcing supply panels.

I remember my classroom when I was in primary school - rows of seats, talking wasn’t really allowed, a lot of sitting down in the same place doing bookwork, everyone facing the blackboard. What will the new pandemic classroom look like and how will we have to teach the curriculum? In this part, I examine every subject and how we're going to have to teach it. Will technology save the day? 

For our Seachtain na Gaeilge special, I brought in some passionate Gaelgóirí to speak to me about the Irish language and the education system. I really wanted to delve in deeply to a number of areas and I hope you enjoy the outcome. In fact, we talked so much, we've had to divide the interview into two parts. Here is part 1!

You can find my guests here:

• Julian: @CnaG | @juleser1 | www.cnag.ie 
• Siobhain: @siobhaingrogan |
• Muireann: eolas@cogg.ie 

While one could never put the word "honest" in the same sentence as "politician", the concept of spin has never been more rampant. Even the word spin is spin for the word lying! Whether it's adjustments instead of cuts or the mantra that schools are safe during COVID19, it's hard to believe anything. The same goes for consultations and in this episode I'll be arguing that I would be transparent about them!

In this part of the episode, I'll explore whether we should keep direct email communication with families, virtual assemblies, soft openings and the reasons why we should finally stop sacraments being school events.

Does it annoy you when someone who isn't a teacher calls themselves a teacher? If you're in any way sensible, it probably doesn't. In this, less-than-serious episode, I'll be taking a break from serious issues and trying to find out whether we should trademark the title of teacher, or change it to something better. Lead Thought Classroom Evangelist, anyone?

Last week, I focused on the people that made lockdown and the reopening of schools a more tolerable experience. This week I'm focusing on the bad, and despite a very long list of candidates, only 1 organisation could really fit the bill. Find out which organisation who somehow managed to use the lockdown to make further cuts by stealth and left the education system in a worse place than it was before school buildings shut down.

Picture the scene. Ireland at the beginning of 2008. It was the height of the Celtic Tiger. The Fianna Fáil tent was dripping in champagne and helicopter fuel. The Builders were driving Mercs and laughing at teachers. And the following adorned the front pages of the newspapers: "The principals of about 1,700 primary schools are to get a 31.5% increase in their allowances, but are the only large group to gain from benchmarking in the education sector." And then all of a sudden the bubble burst. 

In this special episode, I do a live analysis of the new exemption from Irish circular that came out on 28th August 2019. I go through the changes, the effect of yet another offloading of responsibility to schools, and the expected increased workload for principals.

Last Friday evening there was so much thrown at us that you might have missed a very important circular sent to schools, possibly because it was Friday evening. I was one such person so I decided I'd have a look through it and respond to it live in this special episode. It's all about special leave for staff working in schools during COVID19 and it's super important.

At first glance, if you read the INTO documentation, the new PSSA finally achieves pay equality and benchmarking for principals. However, very quickly you realise, it actually doesn't. In this slightly unscripted episode recording in late January, I try and chart my thought process and nail my colours to the mast by the end. As usual with our union, nothing is as straightforward as it looks.

By 2015, it seemed like Droichead was going nowhere. The Teaching Council were doing their best to force schools to join their pilot, which almost nobody wanted to join and the INTO were doing their best to do the same. Already 3 years overdue, less than 5% of schools across the country had signed up. Something had to be done and many teachers on the ground had the answers. The thing was, would the Teaching Council listen?

In this episode, we continue our exploration of why the Pluralism and Patronage Forum didn't succeed as we move to Malahide, where the final nail in the coffin for divestment took place. 

In this episode, I examine the complex topic of teaching children about war, specifically focusing on the Israel-Gaza conflict. Drawing from my personal background and experiences, I explore the intricacies of discussing such sensitive subjects in the classroom.

After that, something completely different as I preview my interview with Paudie Moore, The Teacher's Coach, on maintaining teacher wellbeing.

I also touch upon the goal of achieving 400 multi-denominational schools in Ireland and the challenges involved.

Resources for Israel/Gaza can be found here: https://simonmlewis.medium.com/i-need-to-talk-about-israel-including-some-resources-for-your-classeoom-8435df4698dc

There are so many rumours and myths about multidenominational schools, Educate Together ones in particular, it really was no surprise, to me, why many parents, even if they reject the tenets of the Catholic faith, will prefer a Catholic school to a non-Catholic one. I thought it would be interesting to list the myths I have heard over the years about them, many of which were parroted during the Malahide fiasco to convince people that diversifying schools is a bad idea: all twenty-three of them! Some will require a bit of explanation, and others, let’s just say speak for themselves.

Technology and education have a strange relationship in Ireland. If a teacher said to a parent or another teacher or anyone at all that they really didn’t like Maths so they don’t bother teaching it or using it, there would be uproar. And rightly so. However, even in 2023, you’ll still hear teachers saying they’re not that into technology so they don’t really use it in their classroom and no one bats an eyelid. To me it’s incomprehensible that a teacher would not utilise technology in their classroom and, to be fair, it isn’t even true. It is so embedded in our practice that most teachers don’t realise they are using it. I don’t think there is a single teacher in Ireland that doesn’t use an Interactive Whiteboard for example. If the internet went down in school when I started teaching, people mightn’t have noticed for a couple of days. Now you hear about it in a couple of seconds. In the last few months, the world of technology has been rocked by the emergence of Artificial Intelligence, or AI, and I don’t think it’s a stretch to say it’s the next revolution, and will have as big an impact as the Internet did when it first came out. In this episode, I want to explore some of the things AI might do that will transform primary teaching and what I would do if I were the Minister for Education.

Links from the episode:

1. AI and Education (UNESCO)
2. Creating a unit of work in Canva
3. 30 uses for AI in the Classroom

Have you ever heard anyone give out about radio presenters with their cushy jobs only working 2 hours a day? In this episode I try to explore what teachers do with all their spare time after working their half days and their 6 months of holidays!! Seriously though, listen in and see if you agree that teachers should have a contract with a maximum number of hours per week.

The School Completion Programme is a scheme to prevent children from leaving school early. Up until recently, it was preventative in nature, but since Tusla have taken over it, you've guessed it, it's a mess. I have renamed it the Form Completion Programme. 

I also answer the question of which teacher influenced my life the most, a question I really don't like. I wonder if she'll be listening!

Twelve years ago, the Irish Times published an article, out of the blue, which listed the top 50 most influential people in education. It was compiled over four weeks and the journalists stated that key figures (without naming them) were asked to compile their own lists confidentially. The names that featured were the most prominent on the lists. I thought it would be interesting to see where these people are now.

Show notes and blog article can be found here: https://simonmlewis.medium.com/the-50-most-influential-people-in-education-where-are-they-now-part-1-5-fdfc5ea80528

In Part 2 of this episode, I chart the lost 20 years we had in Ireland from 1997 in terms of technology. Find out what the reason was, and no, you won't be surprised.

The long awaited IPPN report on their Roadmap to Sustainability was released at their annual conference in Killarney, Co. Kerry last week. I finally managed to delve into its 130+ pages and see what thoughts I might have as I read through it.

Overall it's a good report but there was one glaring omission, which may scupper the whole thing in the end.

In this 3-part episode, I interview Conor Bredin - teacher, podcaster and author. Conor will be well known to anyone who was at the 2022 INTO Congress where he received a standing ovation for telling his experience of being a gay teacher in Ireland.

However, Conor wears many hats and in this part I learn about his writing career and his podcast, which is all about storytellers. He's a great storyteller himself so I think you're really going to enjoy it!

🎙Listen and subscribe to this podcast on your favourite app here. 

📌 Voted the best primary education podcast in the world by Feedspot! 

After a month of bickering, taking sides and spinning public health advice, the unions and the DES got back to the table to try and partially reopen schools. Guidance was issued last night and I go through it page by page and figure out what has changed.

For our first episode I thought we'd start with a light, unemotive topic! In 2019, 97.5% of Irish primary schools have a religious patron body, with all but 3 of these schools under a Christian patronage. However, with Ireland already a diverse country, with 20% not falling under the Christian umbrella, and many people turning away from traditional Christian values, how is this still happening, and why?

Even more strangely, publicly the Taoiseach has stated he would like complete church and state separation, and even the head of the Catholic Church in Ireland has declared there needs to be more diversity in schooling in the country.

This episode explores the history of our education system before delving into why religion is so rooted in our primary school system. 

The National Educational Psychological Service (NEPS) is probably one of the most paradoxical. It is completely undervalued and under-resourced by the Department of Education but it provides one of the most important services for schools lucky enough to be able to get a hold of them.

The interesting thing is that NEPS, if it was better resourced, could effectively take over a number of agencies that simply are not working.

In the final part of this episode, we reach the end of the debacle where the partners agree to "pause" the process. I almost finish reading the INTO response before I can't take any more spin and give up and wish the whole thing was all a dream.

In this latest episode of the podcast 'If I were the Minister for Education', I explore the recent happenings within the Irish primary education system, discussing the aftermath of SET allocations and the implications this had on schools and teachers. The episode also delves into the issue of Irish school buildings being gifted to private religious bodies and assesses the impact of this decision. Finally, I explore why the Scottish see the Irish education system in such a positive light, primarily referring to Ireland's performance in PISA tests. Show notes available on Anseo.net

Christmas - a time for giving...each other the COVID19 virus. Yes, the lifting of restrictions did not pan out as the government had hoped with cases about to hit over 2,000 per day at this time of recording, hospitals beginning to near capacity, and testing centres are now beyond capacity so now you only get tested if you have symptoms if you are a close contact. It sounds like a perfect time to reopen the schools!

In October 2021, Teaching Principals were told that if they opened 2 special classes, they would become an admin principal. This decision affected around 30 schools. However, was it the right decision? In this episode I wonder why.

You might not know that if a principal relinquishes his or her position, they are relegated to the most junior member of staff in a school. This is different to every other postholder in a school. For example, if a deputy principal steps down from his/her post, they simply lose their allowance but not their seniority. While it’s a huge decision for anyone to step down from any position, the double-humiliation of then losing all seniority must be a massive deterrent for anyone, and it would seem very unfair. Crueller people than me might suggest that if there wasn’t a deterrent then principals would be resigning left, right and centre, and that isn’t good for the education system, so some sort of deterrent is needed. In this episode, I’ll be trying to explore the role of the principal and why when someone simply can’t do it anymore, that if I were the Minister for Education, I would provide them with a dignified step-down facility.

Welcome to another kind of experimental version of the show because I have decided that I'm going to try and extend the podcast to YouTube - you can check the video version of it at https://www.youtube.com/@Anseo

Show note are available on Anseo.net here: https://anseo.net/?p=19569

Topics covered:

1. Should School Summer Holidays be shorter?
2. Gifting Solar Panels to the Church
3. Having a go at Private Schools
4. School Uniforms and Rules
5. Making a Business from Smartphones in Schools
6. Dystopian Predictions for Future Classrooms

In Part 2 of this episode, I explain why Catholic Schools' Week is like having a Men Only Golf Club then celebrating Men's Week during the year. By the end of the episode I have a depressing realisation.

Whatever our feelings on wellbeing in schools, it will become part of the new curriculum. I was lucky to be approached by Úna Ryan and Denise Enright from REMind Ed™ who shared their wealth of knowledge on wellbeing as well as chatting to me about their product Mind Moments.

Teachers often tell me that they aren’t great on technology. I never understand this because in all aspects of their life, they use technology all the time. In this episode, I want to explore how we can change the way we look at technology as a tool and focus on it as a methodology. I also propose a way to outsource technology to education centres.

Don't be put off by the title: to me, the Children's School Lives reports are some of the most fascinating insights to primary education produced. This report focuses on the transition between preschool and primary education. In this episode I explore some of the things we should learn as primary teachers as well as learning what Irish parents think about primary education. I'm not often made speechless but I was shocked at some of the findings.

We are also always being told that schools are supposed to be centres of communities, especially in rural areas. If that’s the case, then it follows that services such as broadband would be centred around these places. So in this episode, if I were the MfE, I would be making broadband hubs around schools.

I fulfilled an educational ambition to visit Finland and learn about what's known as the "Finnish Miracle" - that is, how did Finland become the best education system in the world. Over the next two weeks, I'm going to share what I discovered and why I think Ireland could easily be the best in the world.

In last week's episode, (http://anseo.libsyn.com/we-need-to-talk-about-small-schools-part-1) we explored the history of small schools in Ireland and in this episode, we're looking at research. By the end I conclude what people like me are accused of all the time.

If you were to walk into any primary school and compared it to the classroom you might have sat in only a generation ago, apart from a big screen instead of a blackboard, the biggest difference you would see is the diversity of students in that room. One in four children in primary school have an additional need* and according to recent research over 45% of children with support needs are being failed in accessing their right to education. I have spent the last 15 years witnessing the slow collapse of services for children with additional needs in school. Join me over the coming weeks for 'Access Undone: The Collapse of Special Education,' where I explore what I believe is the 21st century’s educational scandal."

Sources: https://www.sensationalkids.ie/our-impact/facts-figures/ and https://inclusionireland.ie/news-events/department-of-education-removes-vital-resource-while-45-of-children-with-support-needs-are-being-failed-in-accessing-their-right-to-edu/

With all the talk about early childhood education in the media, I was interested in hearing about the sector and the differences between it and primary education. It became apparent very early that we share a huge amount in common in all sorts of areas including the complications of ownership of buildings, of all things! A huge thanks to Celine for taking the time to chat to me. I hope you'll enjoy the interview.

The AON Debacle and what it tells us

In this episode I cover the controversial Assessment of Need (AON) process which, to me, shows how the power of silence, supported by the illusion of partnership that representative bodies find themselves, brought us to a place where schools were forced to get the NCSE and the State out of a legal pickle.

This episode gives a single point in the scandal, which gives an example of how the State, supported by the corroboration of representative bodies and stakeholders, and with the silence of those in the service, ensures that services to children with additional needs continues to decline

Shownotes and Links:

01:45 The Assessment of Need Debacle

05:03 Schools' Struggles and NCSE's Response

10:21 Union Involvement and Teacher Reactions

12:39 Media Coverage and Public Outcry

21:07 The Aftermath and Lessons Learned

Dara Calleary Speech: https://twitter.com/Donnchadhol/status/1585234176412114945?t=8Fy3OyCIO9BCES035H7ygQ&s=19

https://anseo.net/subscribe - Subscribe to my newsletter

You will not be surprised to hear that my first podcast of the 2024-2025 school year is about religion in schools. It's a topic I'm always coming back to and it never ceases to amaze me of how many different angles you can find from it. But what I want to explore in this episode is what do most schools mean when they talk about religion. Maybe a better title would have been, "What we talk about when we talk about religion in schools."

Micheal Martin still insists that “schools are safe” and it's the movement of the million people getting to the schools that's the real issue. However, this is not the only dumbfounding thing he has said this week. Earlier when he announced schools would extend the holidays for 3 days, (not closed, remember!) he said that the 3 days could be used for principals to prepare for reopening and they would perform a SWOT analysis. Well, Micheal, here's mine.

On July 9th 2021, I was subjected to some racist abuse on social media from members of the National Party. In part 2 of this special episode, I continue to talk about the experience and how it paled in comparison to what I and many others go through every day in schools.

The NCCA are currently doing consultations on the plans for the new curriculum. I have major issues with the draft and I want to talk about them!

Since 2011, schools have been inundated with new initiatives from the Department of Education. However, other agencies have also dumped their workload on schools too. In this episode I point the finger of blame while proposing a solution that if a new initiative is to come into schools, one must be removed first.

The thing that has struck me most about the debate around the reopening and even the partial reopening of schools is the fact that everyone involved in the discussions, whether it’s the government, the union, or even the various advocacy groups is that all of them share the same goal to get schools open as quickly as possible by any means as if COVID19 doesn't exist. In this episode, I’m going to try and suggest a plan that takes the virus into account.

In this episode, I explore the landscape of primary education in Ireland, focusing on the outcomes of the INTO Congress, the ongoing conversations regarding gender identity in schools, and the looming uncertainties over the primary school book grant scheme. I delve into the controversies surrounding teacher compensation for overseas work, the dominance of religious control in education, and the societal response to gender identity within educational settings. Additionally, I express concerns over potential reductions to the primary school book grant scheme.

Before I even start, I realise that this episode will alienate a whole bunch of people. The reaction I’ll get to this episode will be more violent than any other episode I’ve covered so far. It seems I can rip apart the Catholic Church, the Union and others but this is probably the one that’s going to get me cancelled, as young folk say. However, I’ll try my best to talk through the issue and see if I do come to the conclusion that abolishing the supplementary panel does make sense.

There is an unprecedented shortage of primary school teachers in Ireland, according to an Irish Times article after a joint survey from the INTO, IPPN and CPSMA revealed there are over 800 teaching positions left unfilled at the moment and it’s due to get worse. So, where are all the teachers and what would I do if I were the Minister for Education?

Show notes: https://simonmlewis.medium.com

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With all the mixed messaging about schools, it has become very hard to believe what's being said. This is a real pity as we’ll see in this special episode where I argue we may have developed another virus and it’s potentially more dangerous.

October 23rd. A fairly insignificant date. But to principals this year, it was the date they couldn’t wait for as it was to signal mid-term break, and for most of them, their first day off work since mid-February when there was a small mutterings about a virus that had come from Wuhan in China and seemed to be causing problems in Italy where bunches of teenagers were skiing on their transition year school trips. However, for many school leaders having a break didn't happen. In this episode, I discuss the week charting one principal's journey through 6 cases of COVID19. 

The NCCA are doing some interesting work in the background trying to restructure the curriculum given the number of demands on our time. Everyone knows that it's impossible to fit everything into the few hours a week we get to teach and many subjects are simply not being taught enough or at all. In this episode, I'll be taking my shears and trying to find some low hanging fruit, including the sacred ones.

With the number of people in Ireland identifying as Christian decreasing in the last decade, (CSO, 2016), with notable increases in the population of Muslims and Hindus, (95% and 135.6% increase respectively since 2006), primary schools around the country now host an increasing number of pupils that do not celebrate Christian festivals, such as Christmas. However 95% of Irish primary schools are under the ethos of either a Catholic or other Christian denomination, where Christmas is taught as a religious and historical event. Even outside of Christian schools, such as Educate Together, Christmas celebrations “can be a sensitive issue,” where they must “attempt to strike a balance between celebrating Christmas, and taking care not to give it dominance over other religious festivals,” This has proved, in recent years, to have caused some controversy with the organisation feeling forced to provide clarification on how it provides lessons on Christmas. In this episode, I’m going to explore why Christmas is now becoming a bit of a controversial subject in schools and what I would do if I were the Minister for Education.

This episode is partially inspired by two news stories: one where a child hospitalised two members of staff and his expulsion was overturned through an appeal; and one where a study basically lambasted schools for shortening children's school days. 

In this episode I wonder how has it suddenly become acceptable in any way to be violent towards each other?

Did you know that up until from 1997 to 2012, there were never more than around 40 circulars produced by the Department of Education in a year? Since 201 5, it's never been less than 80. In this episode, I explore why we need to reduce circulars to one per term and how it's entirely possible to do so.

By 2013, The Teaching Council were in a sticky situation. The inspectorate had told them they would no longer be probating teachers but the Union were steadfast that teachers wouldn’t be doing instead. With chants of NEVER NEVER ringing in their heads, the Teaching Council needed to do something. In this part of the episode, I explore what happened next and how they managed to build that bridge and convince the INTO to come over it.

Ireland is the only secular country in the world where more then 2% of their primary schools are single-sex. How did this happen? The answer won't surprise you. Also, is there any truth to the notion that children perform better in single-sex schools?

In the final part of our chat, Conor and I discuss the INTO's support of the LGBT+ community. We talk about schools that raise the Pride Flag but do nothing more and then we talk about some resources that teachers could use in the classroom without "undermining" the ethos (not my words!)

Finally, Conor tells us what he would do if he were the Minister for Education.

The Departmental Strategy Statement (2021-23) was released this week with all sorts of goals for education. Listen to me grumble my way through this document and explode with rage at various points. Unlike the Department, I won't blame COVID19 for everything wrong. It was well-wrong before 2020 came along.

After a 10 year gap, I returned to the BETT conference and in this episode I explore some educational technology you might be interested in for your classroom or school.

Yvonne Cassidy is the chair of the Irish Ethical Celebrants' Society. They are launching two new ceremonies for children aged 8 and 12, which coincide with the ages that Catholic children make the Communion and Confirmation. In this interview I explore why they decided to do this and whether it is an Irish solution to an Irish problem.

It's no news to teachers that there aren't enough places for children with additional needs in specialised classes. If you have autism, there are almost 1,000 classes in Ireland, but it's nowhere near enough. However, if you don't have autism, you're goosed. Let's explore who's to blame and what I'd do if I were the Minister for Education.

This week we talk about the divestment of the first Catholic school to Educate Together, followed by the findings of the Grace report, indicating a discrepancy between the religious beliefs of teachers and their roles in Catholic schools. While one commentator blames the teachers, another blames the whole Catholic community.

Next, I discuss the Polish government’s ban on homework for primary students, questioning the relevance and format of homework in Ireland’s education system. I haven’t changed my stance since I recorded my podcast on the topic several years ago!

https://anseo.captivate.fm/episode/episode-39-scrap-homework

Lastly, I confess to warming to Minister Norma Foley’s stance against smartphones in schools, advocating for a broader approach that includes legislation to protect children from harmful content. While I don’t believe it’s the school’s role to lead on it, I’m very nervous of what the future generation is going to look like if we all don’t do something.

• 01:06 The Good Grace Report: A Deep Dive into Religious Control and Education
• 05:37 The Shocking Reality: Teachers' Beliefs vs. Catholic School Ethos
• 18:27 Rethinking Homework: Lessons from Poland's Bold Move
• 24:44 Smartphone Ban Debate: A Necessary Measure for Child Safety?
• 30:20 Wrapping Up: Reflecting on Education, Religion, and Technology

Episode 3: Those with the greatest needs

The episode examines the troubling history of the National Council for Special Education (NCSE) and its policies, including the controversial cuts to resources and the implementation of flawed allocation models. I discuss the systematic mistreatment and exclusion of special needs children, likening it to past societal scandals.

The episode dives into statistical discrepancies and the significant hardships faced by parents and schools, questioning the integrity and effectiveness of the NCSE and related political decisions.

At the end, I call on anyone working in the NCSE, especially SENOs to tell their story. Let's hope they do.

• 00:43 The NCSE's Role and Controversial Actions
• 05:21 Challenges Faced by Parents and Schools
• 14:43 The Set Allocation Model and Its Flaws
• 27:51 The SNA Toolkit and Its Implications
• 32:24 Conclusion and Call for Stories

In Ireland, about 12% of schools receive a grant to provide a school lunch for its pupils in a scheme that has changed little since 1914. Recently the government started a pilot to provide hot meals to 36 schools (about 1%) 

In this episode I chart the history of free school lunches and see who is doing what around the world. No surprises that Finland gives free school lunches to everyone of course.

In this episode of 'If I were the Minister for Education', I explore the current state of Irish primary education, particularly focusing on SET (Special Education Teaching) allocations. My research reveals that developing schools have been majorly overlooked in SET allocations, leading to a significant resource gap compared to non-developing schools. I discuss how there has been a minor increase in total resources but the allocation has inadequately catered to the growing student population in developing schools. I also discuss my findings from county to county and even delve into the effects on different schools depending on their patronage. Remember to subscribe at https://www.anseo.net/subscribe for more insights into the Irish primary education system and check out the data for yourself on anseo.net.

 If you have been listening to the first half of this episode where I covered the education stories from January to June, you'll notice that the first half of 2024 in schools was not exactly filled with hope. With special education slowly but surely been stripped away and the world falling apart with war. Could the second half of the year, bring some hope? Let see...

The most popular post I've ever published was this week and I didn’t even write it. It was from a principal who had a positive COVID19 case in his school and his experience of how it was dealt with. In this episode, I’ll be reading his experience and adding my own thoughts. I’ll also be talking a little bit about the DES requiring principals to be on call 24 hours a day and how inspectors have again forgotten the note that they are there to support schools.

In the last episode of this series on Droichead, I’ve been slowly building the story of how Droichead entered our lives. Last time I began to go through the very first iteration of Droichead, which was called CEPP, the Career Entry Professional Programme, which was launched in January 2012 as a consultation. I went through the in school part of CEPP in the last section but there was an out-of-school side to CEPP too and in this part I’m going to go through that and see if much has changed in the last 10 years.

The pandemic shone a strong light on the last decade of cuts to the education system and Congress is usually a time where members can voice their dismay at them with a hope that the media will help highlight these issues. Unfortunately, with the change in the vaccination schedule, all these issues were put to the side and the media ended up accusing us of jumping the queue and trying to kill our grannies. 

The NCSE was established in 2003 to "improve the delivery of education services to persons with special educational needs arising from disabilities with particular emphasis on children." It's rare to find an organisation that has achieved exactly the opposite of what they set out to do in such a short amount of time. What started off as a way to organise Special Education resources in Ireland has morphed into a bloated, bureaucratic body that answers to no one. In this episode, I explore what went wrong and what I would do if I were the Minister for Education.

This week, I focus on the significant challenges within special education. I cover recently published inspectorate findings, testimonies from school principals, and a detailed report by a group of parents on the deteriorating state of special education. I discuss the lack of adequate resources, bureaucratic hurdles, and the ineffectiveness of new initiatives, emphasizing the dire need for proper support and funding. I also and, finally, how a 13-year-old girl is most likely to be the one to save us.

In this summer episode, I go back to my roots in educational technology and offer you five tech tools that helped me in my job this school year. They are:

1. Gmelius - https://gmelius.com/
2. Sunsama - https://sunsama.com/
3. Voice over IP - https://www.3cx.com/ and https://explore.zoom.us/en/products/zoom-phone/
4. Clever.com - https://www.clever.com
5. Screencastify - https://www.screencastify.com/

Oh...and in the spirit of these things, there's a bonus one too: Profile Pic Maker: https://pfpmaker.com/

The job of the Teaching Principal is impossible yet over 1,800 people do it every day. However, how do we have a situation where all Teaching Principals became Admin? Is it even possible?

If I was the Minister for Education, I think I'd hire my guest this week as my deputy! If you don't know Annie Asgard, you are in for a treat. Annie and I could talk about anything but we decided to focus on EAL (English as an Additional Language) teaching. It's relevant always but in particular now with so many Ukrainian children arriving into schools over the last number of weeks. It's hard to believe but some schools are welcoming children without English for the first time! Annie shares her expertise with us with some fantastic tips but also some pitfalls to avoid.

🎙Listen and subscribe to this podcast on your favourite app here. 

📌 Voted the best primary education podcast in the world by Feedspot! 

Every May in Ireland, newspapers, magazines and radio shows are full of talk about Communion Season, as it seems collectively to be known. And during Communion Season, (I dislike that term), you hear lots of talk about getting the house painted and decorated, you hear a lot about dinner plans in hotels, you hear a lot about how dress fittings, hair appointments and in some cases spray tans - and that’s not the parents. When Communion Season comes along you hear about weight loss plans and seasonal colours for mother’s dresses.

You hear about house parties with bouncy castles, wads of €50 notes and the all-important must-have cupcakes with edible crosses on top. And this year, it seems that the most important fashion-accessory for many people is to admit they ticked the “No Religion” box on the census and celebrate their hypocrisy. In this special Communion Season episode (groan) I’m going to try and explain to you why despite the temptation to tell me otherwise, it is, in fact, my business.

This is one of the shorter episodes of If I were the Minister for Education so I also take time to review the INTO Congress in 2019. 

• News: 0:40 
• Minor Works Grant: 12:26
• Congress 2019 Review: 22:57

Back in my day, the only way we learned our tables was by learning them off by heart. The motivation of doing so was to avoid being humiliated by your teacher and class. Some of you are old enough to remember games like the “Stand Up, Sit down” game where the goal is to remain standing by answering a maths fact. Thankfully things have moved on but why was learning tables by rote such a bad idea? It worked, didn't it?

This is the story of one week in the education system, not an average week, but one which demonstrates the contempt that representative bodies have for teachers, school staff and children. In this part, we learn a little bit about the Assessment of Need debacle and why parents and school staff joined together to try and stop the NCSE from causing further damage to children.

This week there was an article in the Irish Times featuring two people that recently stepped away from principalship. In this week's episode I look at the evidence and analyse why so many principals are handing in the keys of the building and who is ultimately responsible.

In case you missed it, today has been designated GRMA day, a day dreamed up to make people say thank you to people working in schools over the last number of months. The idea is that at 11am on Friday, everyone in schools is being asked to play a video where various people are going to thank teachers, SNAs, secretaries, caretakers and anyone else that works in a school. In this episode I'll be trying to figure out why there's been no excitement around it but I'll thank someone by the end.

In the first of a two-part episode, I'm going to examine small schools. After a very disappointing Symposium on Small Schools, I want to really talk about small schools and how they are slowly but surely disappearing. I want to examine the role of the small school in the 21st century but not before checking out schools since 1824, nearly 200 years ago. 

Of all the most baffling aspects of church involvement in education, the one that bugs me most is when a secular institution actively supports it. Not only did DCU agree to allowing Protestants a different entry route to their Teacher Training course through separate CAO points, they actually requested for it to continue in 2018. (See how this works: https://bit.ly/caorace)

In this episode, I argue that while the government can probably argue historical reasons for the bind between church and state when it comes to education, DCU cannot, and this is one of the worst abuses of all.

As if the 1999 English curriculum wasn't bad enough, the new Primary Language Curriculum did the unthinkable and was even worse. In this episode, I discuss why we have the new Primary Language Curriculum and how it all went wrong from the very start.

The last story of 2022 concerned the reduction of religious instruction from 2.5 hours per week to 2 hours per week in the upcoming new primary curriculum. Lobby groups such as Education Equality and Atheist Ireland (and people like me) were unhappy that this tokenistic move was even newsworthy as it change almost nothing about the indoctrination of children in most schools. However, Dee from Raheny was not happy about the use of the word "indoctrination" and wrote a letter to the Irish Times denying any indoctrination occurs in her class. In fairness, Dee represents the vast majority of people in Ireland so I'm not picking on her. However, this episode is my response to her letter.

In this special look back at 2020-21, I'll examine some of the things we might keep once COVID19 restrictions end. This is part 1 and I'll be offering my thoughts on unexpected visitors, Christmas Concerts and why we don't need inspectors anymore.

Do you know at the end of a talk when the presenter asks does anyone have any questions, and the room goes silent? Well, I asked Facebook and Twitter that very question about blended learning and here's the result - the 3rd of 4 mini-episodes on blended learning. Think of them like the Appendix at the end of a Friday night DES circular.

On this week’s news show:

1. More calls to remove sacramental preparation from schools
2. Surprise, surprise - standardised testing causes stress
3. The prinicpal who encouraged his parish to vote Fianna Fail

This and tonnes of other stories including Sheila Nunan's prospects in the European Elections.

I was delighted to chat to Paula Galvin, a teacher of over 40 years. We discuss everything from the limitations of textbooks, why teachers are afraid to teach, and why the new SESE curriculum will be out of date when it’s released.