Reading Recovery Graduation

Reading Recovery Graduation

Congratulations to those who graduated from the Reading Recovery training programme last week in Cork Education Support Centre.

Reading Recovery is a school-based, short-term literacy programme designed for children in senior infants and first class (aged between five years nine months and six years six months) identified as the lowest literacy achievers following one year at school. It is a thoroughly researched and evidence-based early literacy intervention.

AsIAm’s Autism Friendly School Programme

Please see letter below from AsIAm.ie

We hope this letter finds you well and that your school community has had a positive experience settling into this new academic year. We are excited to announce that AsIAm – Ireland’s National Autism Charity, is opening applications to new schools to join our Autism Friendly Schools Project.

In 2019 /2020, the Autism Friendly Schools Project ran as a pilot programme and recruited 96 primary and post-primary schools across the country participate in this initiative. In 2020 / 2021, 50 of those schools returned to continue the project for a second year and 80 new schools signed up to join the project. Many of these schools have expressed a desire to continue their engagement with the project this year alongside new schools joining for the first time.

2022/2023 will be the fourth year of this exciting project, which will investigate ways in which we can further refine what it truly means to be ‘Autism Friendly’ in primary and post-primary schools across Ireland. The project will reaffirm good practice and support those wishing to foster a culture of inclusion of autistic students in their schools. The project covers 4 themes over 3 staff sessions, the first session will be in-person and two others which will be held online on the following dates throughout the year;

1) Leadership & Management / Building an Inclusive Culture – Thursday 24th November 2022 (online)

2) Teaching and Learning – Tuesday 7th or 8th March (in person - depending on number we may have two regional sessions)

3) Staff Development – Tuesday 9th May (online)

We have recorded an “Autism Friendly Schools Project Information Webinar” which any prospective schools interested in taking part in the project can watch to learn more about the development of the project over the last number of years and gain a greater understanding of the structure of the project for this year. The webinar is available at the hyper link that follows and is approx. 30 minutes in lengths: AFS info webinar

All schools taking part in the Autism Friendly Schools Project 2022 / 2023 will have exclusive access to an online toolkit which was developed for the purpose of the project and has been rebuilt to improve accessibility. This toolkit comprises of a self-evaluation tool which schools can use to evaluate the levels of inclusion for their students across different areas of school life. Schools taking part will also be allocated a community of practice group, where they will have a chance to connect with other schools on the project to share their practice and experience. Schools taking part in the project are asked to nominate 2 staff members (1 mainstream teacher and 1 SET / support teacher) to attend the 3 sessions and the principal or deputy principal must attend the first half of Session 1 on 24th November 2022. All staff in a school that has signed up to the Autism Friendly Schools Project will receive access to a 90 minute online course designed to develop their understanding of autism.

If you believe that your students, staff and wider school community would benefit from being part of AsIAm’s Autism Friendly Schools Project, and by doing so create a more inclusive school culture, please complete the following steps:

Fill out an application form here – https://asiam.ie/training-awards/autism-friendly-schools-programme/
Nominate 2 staff members to represent your school at 1 in-person and two online trainings.
Pay €300.00 participation fee before Session 1 – 24th November 2022.

All prospective schools should be aware that there will be a research element to this project, as there has been each year prior. All data compiled will be anonymized and no individual or school will be identifiable from the findings. The purpose of this research and analysis will be used to form a national perception on how primary and post-primary schools are currently engaging in autism friendly practice and explore the impact had on this practice by participating in the project.

We are both delighted and grateful to be working closely with the Educations Support Centres Ireland (ESCI) this year, a collaboration which we hope to grow over the coming months.

Finally, we would like to sincerely thank you for taking the time to consider participating in AsIAm’s Autism Friendly Schools Project 2022 / 2023. We would be delighted to hear that you wish to be a part of our project and are happy to answer any further questions you may have at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. You can also find a wealth of information and resources on our website www.asiam.ie

We wish you and your school community every success in the academic year ahead and look forward to working with your school in the future on our collective journey towards inclusion.

Sincerly Yours,

Adam Harris - Chief Executive Officer, AsIAm

Billy Redmond - Project Coordinator

Finbar Horgan - Education Training Officer

2022 National Arts in Education Portal Day

The 2022 National Arts in Education Portal Day will take place on Saturday, 5 November at East Quad, TU Dublin, in partnership with TU Dublin School of Art and Design and the Conservatoire of Music and Drama, and the Erasmus+ International Teacher-Artist Partnership (I-TAP-PD) PD Project.

Solo percussionist and composer, Dame Evelyn Glennie will be joining us for a special in conversation talk with Mark O’Brien, Executive Director of The Abbey Theatre. We are delighted to also partner this year with the Erasmus+ International Teacher-Artist Partnership (I-TAP-PD) PD Project who on the day will explore and share emerging learning within the Erasmus+ KA2 Initiative 2020-2023.

Ticket Bookings Open Online & Face to Face!

Programme: https://artsineducation.ie/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/2022NationalArtsinEducationPortalDayProgramme_English-Version.pdf

https://artsineducation.ie/en/2022/09/30/get-ready-for-the-2022-national-arts-in-education-portal-day/#:~:text=The%202022%20National%20Arts%20in%20Education%20Portal%20Day%20will%20take,TAP%2DPD)%20PD%20Project.

Minister Foley Announcement – Creative Clusters Initiative

Press release

Minister Foley announces 78 additional schools joining the Schools Excellence Fund – Creative Clusters initiative

From Department of Education

Published on 19 September 2022

Last updated on 19 September 2022

The Minister for Education Norma Foley today announced the creation of 21 new 2022 Creative Clusters comprising 78 schools. Creative Clusters is an initiative taking place as part of Creative Ireland and under the Schools Excellence Fund. The Department of Education’s budget for Creative Clusters in 2022 is €595,000.

Under this scheme to support schools to build capacity in creativity, schools in each cluster will enjoy access to a specialist facilitator, artist or creative expertise in whatever their chosen area of interest or theme might be. These resources will help the schools to build a project of learning and activities tailor-made for their students. As part of this funding allocation, a cluster may receive up to €15,000 funding to help bring their plans and ideas to fruition in 2022-2024.

Minister Foley said:

“Creative Clusters is an excellent initiative that supports students to develop their creativity, learn to adapt and collaborate and provides them with real opportunities to express themselves in a variety of exciting new ways.

“Today I am delighted to announce the 78 schools that are coming together to form 21 new Creative Clusters. I would like to welcome these new schools into this Schools Excellence Fund initiative, and I look forward to seeing how these exciting projects develop over the coming two years. This is a wonderful opportunity for schools to work together on a project of their choice. Schools are given complete freedom to design and develop their own project, with support from a local facilitator and their local education centre.

“This year has once again seen a very significant level of interest from schools applying to participate in the 2022 Creative Clusters initiative across the country. In the five rounds from 2018 to 2022, a total number of 1,276 schools have applied to participate in Creative Clusters, with 375 schools shortlisted and invited to participate. I hope that this exciting initiative will help schools to further enhance creativity in their classrooms.

“In addition, the new BLAST initiative I announced in 2021 will also provide opportunities for schools to collaborate with established artists, supporting our children and young people to collaborate and engage in creative and critical thinking – all crucial skills for their futures. Applications for BLAST 2022 will close on 30 September 2022 and I look forward to finalising the details of this exciting programme in the coming weeks.”

Notes

Details of new schools participating in Creative Clusters from September 2022.

Creative Ireland 2023-2027

The next Creative Ireland Plan 2023-2027 is currently in development and the Department of Education along with other departments are in the process of drafting actions that can be delivered as part of this new plan.

The Creative Ireland Programme is a culture-based, all of government initiative which places creativity at the centre of public policy, and is designed to promote individual, community and national wellbeing. Creative Schools and Creative Clusters are two of the key “in-school” initiatives developed and rolled out under Pillar 1 – Creative Youth.

Creative Clusters is a pilot initiative of the Department of Education, led by and in partnership with the 21 full-time education centres and funded through the Schools Excellence Fund. A Creative Cluster consists of between three and five schools collaborating on the design, implementation, evaluation and dissemination of an innovative arts and creative learning project which supports them to address a common issue or challenge, identified by that cluster. Clusters can consist of primary schools only, post-primary schools only or a combination of primary and post-primary schools.

the Creative Clusters initiative commenced in the 2018-19 academic year with 23 clusters established, comprising 68 schools countrywide.
in the academic year 2019-20, 21 Creative Clusters, comprising 76 schools were established
in September 2020, a further 72 schools across 21 Clusters joined the initiative
for the academic year 2021/2022 a total of 81 schools across 21 Clusters joined the initiative
an additional 78 schools across 21 Clusters will join the initiative in 2022 – one from each of the 21 full-time education centres in Ireland

The Schools Excellence Fund is an initiative of the Department of Education to encourage and recognise excellence and innovation in our schools. The Schools Excellence Fund operates in a range of areas. These are:

SEF – Creative
SEF – DEIS
SEF – Digital
SEF – Gaeltacht
SEF – STEM
SEF – Step Up

BLAST 2022

The BLAST programme (Bringing Live Arts to Students and Teachers) will enable up to 425 new Arts-in-Education Residencies in schools each year. The closing date for applications is 30 September 2022.

BLAST 2022 Application Form