Catholic school offers pupils alternative ethics classes
Eanáir 25, 2016
A Catholic primary school that is offering an alternative non-Catholic ethics and religious beliefs programme to pupils has said that schools interested in the idea should “go for it”.
Gaelscoil Dhochtúir Uí Shuilleabháin in Skibbereen introduced the programme two years ago. The school says it has been a resounding success with 37 of its 59 pupils opting for non-Catholic classes.
On Wednesday mornings children break into four separate groups. Two classes, divided into younger and older children, do the Alive-O Catholic programme.
Two other classes, with pupils similarly grouped according to age, study a multi-denominational programme.
Non-Catholic parents at the school told RTÉ News they did not want their children sitting in class during Catholic religious education.
More than four years ago the school moved religious education to the end of the school day and allowed non-Catholic parents to collect their children early or put them in a homework club.
But parents say this did not work out. Some parents could not collect their children early, others could not afford to pay for the homework club.
Two years ago the Board of Management approved the current system. Parents and staff at the school say the arrangement works very well and has become an ordinary part of the school day.
Principal Aisling Ní Néill says it means teachers delivering the Catholic programme can now do so wholeheartedly, knowing that every child in the classroom is there because their parents actively want them to participate.
She stressed that the school remained a Catholic one, with a Catholic ethos.
As the school is small, with only three teachers, one of the classes is taken by a volunteer parent, who is also a qualified teacher.
But the school points out that larger schools with more teachers should not have this problem.
The school uses a multi-denominational ethics and religious beliefs programme developed by multi-denominational body Educate Together.
http://www.rte.ie/news/2016/0125/762798-catholic-schools-multi-denominational/
