(Gaeilge) Folúntas: Cúntóir Riachtanais Speisialta i gColáiste Mhuire, Baile Átha Cliath
April 28, 2015
Folúntais le COGG: Comórtas oscailte chun Oifigigh Oideachais a cheapadh
April 24, 2015
(Gaeilge) Folúntas: Príomhoide Teagaisc le Gaelcholáiste Dhoire
March 12, 2015
(Gaeilge) Folúntas Poist mar Phríomhoide ar Ghaelscoil nua i mBiorra fógartha
March 10, 2015
Letter to the Editor of the Sunday Independent re Irish-medium Schools
March 5, 2015
Re: ‘Parents, not priests, driving segregation’
Dear Sir,
Sarah Carey’s column, ‘Parents, not priests, driving segregation’ (March 1st, 2015) claimed that the Irish language is “the most substantial barrier to entry for immigrants” and that “up at the Gaelscoil, free from the critical eye of the Irish Times or anyone else, you’ll struggle to find a black child”. Ms Carey’s claims are unfounded and serve only to reinforce biased stereotypes about Irish-medium education.
Irish-medium schools cater for incoming children of all levels of proficiency in Irish, and none. The schools practice immersion education, a system which helps pupils become fluent in the language naturally by giving them daily experience of an Irish-speaking environment. Immersion education is suitable for, and available to, all children, regardless of their linguistic and social background or their level of ability, including those with special educational needs.
Irish-medium schools are inclusive and open to all pupils, and welcome the wealth of diversity offered by children and their families of all cultural, linguistic and ethnic backgrounds. A minority of Irish-medium schools’ enrolment policies give preference to children who speak Irish at home, who would otherwise be denied education in their native language. This, as with any other criteria in a school’s enrolment policy, only applies when the demand for places in the school exceeds the spaces available. The Department of Education & Skills criteria for the establishment of new schools, in place since 2011, has stymied the growth of Irish-medium schools, leaving many oversubscribed and unable to accommodate all applicants. The sweeping changes proposed by Ms. Carey are unworkable and to blame Irish-medium schools for the unenviable position many of them find themselves in is irresponsible and shortsighted.
National and international research has proven that the benefits of immersion education include deeper multiculturalism, greater tolerance and less racism, a broader exposure to and appreciation of the value of other cultures and better communication skills. A child who speaks little or no English is at no disadvantage enrolling in an Irish-medium school, as Irish is the language of communication for all school activities.
It does a great disservice to the parents of the 45,000 children who are attending Irish-medium schools at present to imply that their decision to enrol their child in an Irish-medium school may have been made for elitist reasons. It does an even greater disservice to those parents who have chosen Irish-medium education for their children despite having neither Irish or English as a first language, parents who appreciate that their children will start school on an even footing with other pupils who will also be learning through a language that is new to most of them, in a school where diversity is truly valued.
Le meas,
Bláthnaid ní Ghréacháin, CEO, Gaelscoileanna Teo.
Teenage App Developer Launches Free Irish / English Dictionary App “FOCAL.ie”
March 5, 2015
Free Irish Language App launched by Dundalk Gaelcholáiste student
Free Irish Language App launched by Dundalk Gaelcholáiste student
Last night, Wed 25th Feb, at an event hosted in his school – Coláiste Lú, Cormac Kinsella (14) formally launched his mobile Irish Language App “Focal.ie”. Cormac has developed both an iOS & Android version of this App to run on smart phones, iPads and tablets.
In a confident presentation to the Co. Louth Cathaoirleach and other County councillors, the Chairman and Treasurer of Conradh na Gaeilge Dundalk branch, his teachers, school board members and parents, Cormac described how he first conceived the idea for the App, how the App worked and the benefits that this particular App delivered.
Focal.ie is a clever App that allows a user to rapidly translate any word from Irish to English or English to Irish accessing the internet resources of www.focal.ie, the National Terminology Database for Irish. Cormac explained how he developed the App to access the database directly without requiring a web browser and without advertising links, thus reducing the number of keystrokes required and delivering very fast response times. He hopes that anyone studying Irish or helping with homework will find it useful.
Focal.ie is currently the only full dictionary Irish language App available to users completely free of charge. Cormac outlined that not only was web-based www.focal.ie recommended by his teachers, but all existing full Irish dictionary Apps charged to download. As a Gaelcholáiste student he didn’t see why he should have to pay, so decided to develop a free-to-use App accessing www.focal.ie. The result is a free App now available for Android phones & tablets on the Google Play Store and for iPhones and iPads on the Apple App Store.
It has already been downloaded by 500+ Android phone users and a couple of hundred Apple customers. Answering a question, he also stated that he would donate the App to the owners of the National Terminology Database if they so desired!
Oliver Tully, Cathoirleach of Louth Co. County, congratulated Cormac expressing both his delight that Dundalk had such a budding technical entrepreneur and his amazement that someone so young had created such a technically proficient product.
Deirdre Uí Liathain, principal of Coláiste Lú, also congratulated Cormac, forecasting a glittering future for him in IT and told him how useful she finds the App, particularly as it accesses such a comprehensive dictionary resource and loves the App’s fast response time.
Graham O’Rourke, Drogheda’s Coder Dojo organiser said “Cormac’s achievement in developing this app is awesome! He is a determined and gifted young coder that has the respect of all of his peers and the [Coder Dojo] mentors”.
Other
Cormac (14), is a 2nd year student at Coláiste Lú, Dundalk and one of Ireland’s youngest App developers. A regular attendee at the Drogheda Coder Dojo for the past 3 years, he has now developed and collaborated on several Apps.
Cormac was invited to be one of the 12 founder members of the recently founded Digital Youth Council of Ireland, part of a Europe-wide initiative whose objective is to encourage coding opportunities for all students – and provide a platform for them to influence the National Digital Strategy.
At the Dublin Web Summit in November last year, he was invited by Coder Dojo, along with his friend and coding partner, Cian Martin-Bohan, to showcase their social media management “OpenShare” App.
Details on the Focal.ie App are available at
Google Play Store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.releae.Focalgachait&hl=en
Apple App Store: https://itunes.apple.com/ie/app/focal.ie/id936341951?mt=8
as well as: http://mk-software.weebly.com/focalie.html
New leaflet published – Early-immersion Education in Irish-medium and Gaeltacht Schools
March 4, 2015
GAELSCOILEANNA TEO. has published a new leaflet on early-immersion education in Irish-medium and Gaeltacht schools. Further information on the early-immersion education model and its advantages are discussed here, and the leaflet can be downloaded as a PDF below. You can order a print version of the leaflet to be sent to you free of charge by emailing oifig@gaelscoileanna.ie
Early-immersion Education in Irish-medium and Gaeltacht Schools
(Gaeilge) Bunscoil lán-Ghaeilge nua le bunú i mBiorra, Co. Uíbh Fháilí, Meán Fómhair 2015
February 13, 2015
New Primary Schools in 2015 & 2016
February 5, 2015
The Department of Education & Skills have today announced the areas in which new primary schools are to open in 2015 and 2016. The press release is below. Gaelscoileanna Teo. will be acting on this notice by consulting with the Irish-medium schools in the surrounding areas to assess demand for new provision, as well as with prospective patrons and parents who have expressed an interest in establishing schools in those areas. Further information on our progress will be posted regularly on www.gaelscoileanna.ie and we hope that the process will give more children access to Irish-medium schools in the future. The Department hope to make an announcement soon about further areas in which new provision will be made through divestment of patronage, we will send out that information as soon as we receive it. If you have any queries, you are very welcome to contact us.
Press Release:
The Minister for Education and Skills, Jan O’Sullivan, TD, today announced that seven new primary schools are to be established in the next two years.
Announcing the new schools, the Minister said: “My Department is predicting a continuing increase in primary school pupils up until at least 2019 in parts of the country”.
“To meet the continuing growing population of our primary school going children, we will have to establish seven new primary schools as well as extending a number of existing schools.”
Of the seven new schools, four will open in 2015 with the other three opening in 2016.
Cork, Dublin, Galway and Wicklow remain areas of a high rate of primary school going children and this is where the new schools will be located.
There will be one school in Cork, four in Dublin, one in Galway and one in Wicklow.
The basic construction costs for the seven new schools will broadly be in the region of €24m. This level of investment by the State will support some 240 direct jobs and 48 indirect jobs.
Patronage for two of the schools starting in 2015 has already been decided under a previous patronage determination process. A patronage determination process will shortly be run for the other two schools starting in 2015. A patronage determination process for the 2016 schools will be carried out later this year.
These seven new schools will be in addition to 20 new primary schools that opened since 2011. The seven new schools between them they will cater for almost 3,000 pupils when fully developed.
The schools will be established in line with the arrangements and criteria announced in June 2011 for patronage determination.
Minister O’Sullivan said: “The establishment of new schools provides an opportunity for patrons to apply to run the schools. The criteria to be used in deciding on patronage of the new schools place a particular emphasis on parental demand for plurality and diversity of patronage. Parental preferences should be at the centre of considerations about the type of school to be recognised. The patronage arrangements in place provide that patron bodies proposing schools at either primary or second level will be asked to provide evidence of demand.”
Minister O’Sullivan continued: “This approach emphasises my commitment to ensure the implementation of the commitments in the Programme for Government on moving towards a more pluralist system of patronage at primary level. “It also builds on the work of the Forum on Patronage and Pluralism in the Primary Sector.”
The Department will be contacting patrons shortly to commence the patronage determination process for the 2015 schools concerned.
Details of new schools to be established in September 2015
• Carrigtohill, Co. Cork
• Pelletstown/Ashtown, Dublin
• The Knocknacarra area of Galway City
• Greystones, Co. Wicklow
A patronage determination process was previously run for the Dublin school and the Knocknacarra school.
Educate Together will be patron for the Dublin school.
Lifeways Ireland (Steiner Model of provision) will be Patron for the Knocknacarra school.
A patronage determination process will be run shortly for the Carrigtwohill and Greystones schools.
Details of new schools to be opened in September 2016
• Goatstown/Stillorgan, Dublin
• Cabra/Phibsborough/Dublin 7
• Drumcondra/Marino/Dublin 1
A patronage determination process for these schools will be run later this year.
Details on the arrangements and criteria for establishing new schools are available on the Department’s website
New Schools Establishment Group
The patronage determination process for new schools is overseen by the New Schools Establishment Group.
This Group was set up in 2011 to advise the Minister on the patronage of new schools following its consideration of a report prepared by the Department on the applications received.
The Group is chaired by Dr. Seamus McGuinness (retired senior lecturer in the Education Department at Trinity College Dublin) and also includes Ms. Sylda Langford (retired Director of the Office of the Minister for Children) and Prof. Seán Ó Riain (Sociology Department, NUI Maynooth).
Next steps
The Department will shortly inform patron bodies of the details of the 2015 schools requiring a patronage determination process. The patron bodies can then make applications for consideration. Department officials will draft a report based on the applications received for the consideration of the New Schools Establishment Group and it will submit a report with recommendations for consideration by the Minister.
Minister O’Sullivan announces seven new primary schools to be established in next two years
February 5, 2015
