Skerries Educate Together

The Educate Together ethos is at the heart of all that goes on in our school.  In order to ensure that this is the case, and continues to be the case, we conducted a self-evaluation of our ethos during the last school year.  This evaluation covered both the lived and the taught ethos and we included all members of the school community: the children, the parents, the Board of Management and the staff in the evaluation.  The Board of Management have discussed the findings and we would like to share them with you.

Overall the feedback from all groups of the school community was hugely positive.

The key findings from the children were that they love their school; they feel important in school, they like their teachers a great deal and they are happy to have no uniform.

This positive view was largely mirrored by the parents. They like the school environment and they consider the teaching staff to be very approachable and professional.  Parents feel that their child’s identity is fully respected and they like the multi-denominational ethos of the school.

Certain improvement areas were highlighted to us from the findings and we are taking these very seriously.  We are currently working on them in order to improve our commitment to provide the very best learning environment for your child:

Learn Together Curriculum

Many parents expressed the view that they would like to know more about the Learn Together Curriculum.  In an Educate Together school two and a half hours are set aside each week to deliver the Ethical Education Curriculum (Learn Together Programme).  In order to support parents in learning more about the programme the teachers have got together and produced a brief yearly plan for each class level which details the topics to be covered.  This will be posted to our website over the coming days and is available in hardcopy upon request. A copy of the curriculum is available in the school and also from our patron, Educate Together www.educatetogether.ie

Communication

Our website has been operational for some time but we are delighted to report that we are putting the finishing touches to it now.  We are finalising some policy around it and we expect it to be up and running fully within the next few weeks complete with lots of the children’s school work on display.  We expect to use this as a major means of communication along with our newsletter, notes home and text-a-parent.

Early in the New Year we will be starting a new initiative when we will hold a joint meeting for the board, staff and parent members to come together.   This meeting will allow all these groups to plan and work together around school issues to ensure that we uphold the principles of our ethos as we move forward together.  The individual needs and general interests of the children will be central to this process. The student council will also participate to help make this a reality.

Clarity of Roles

In the ethos evaluation process many parents sought more information on the different groups that make up the school community and how they relate to each other. On our website the roles and members of each group within our school community will be described – The Staff, The Board of Management, The Parents Association and our patron body, Educate Together.  Again , a hard copy of this information will be available on request.

The School Yard

In collaboration with the children, the staff is working at improving the play and social opportunities of the school yard.  We are investing in resources that will enhance and encourage imaginative play and we are working on ensuring that the ethos of our school carries to the school yard also.

In conclusion, the Board of Management will continue to work on ensuring that the school runs according to the ethos as determined by our Patron, Educate Together.   We would like to thank you sincerely for taking part in our ethos evaluation.  Your input is very valuable to us and we hope that, with your continued support, we will make your child’s school days a happy, safe and stimulating experience.

If you have any queries with regard to our ethos please do not hesitate to contact us.

— Jean Timmins, Deputy Principal and Board of Management Member