Last Thursday March 13th we were delighted to invite Minister Ruairí Quinn to Dublin Bay North.
His visit allowed myself, Cllr Jane Horgan-Jones and local area representative Alison Gilliland to impress on the Minister the importance of some of the educational initiatives we are working on.
Raheny Special School:
Minister Quinn officially opened this facility which caters for 55 students with a variety of special educational needs. The atmosphere generated in the school from students, parents and teachers was truly remarkable and we are very thankful to principal Ms Downes for the invitation and tour.
Scoil Íde Raheny
Minister Quinn visited Scoil Íde Infant school in Raheny to inspect the old prefabs which are due to be replaced under his department’s ‘Prefab Replacement Initiative’. The children will shortly be provided with permanent classrooms.
Pictures from the day can be seen here: http://www.naiscoilide.ie/the-ministers-visit.html
Aodhán Ó Ríordáin TD, Minister Ruairí Quinn, Alison Gilliland & Cllr. Jane Horgan-Jones doing a Q&A with 2nd Class students in Scoil Íde
Darndale – ‘Preparing for Life Programme’ & Our Lady Immaculate School
The ‘Preparing for Life Programme’ is supporting and empowering parents in Dublin 17 from pregnancy onwards to give their children the best start in life. This programme is one of the ‘Area-Based Childhood’ Initiatives that are being funded by the Department of Children and €3million has been provided thus far.
Minister Quinn met with Noel Kelly and John Carr as well as participants and staff of the programme who all expressed passionately how much ‘Preparing for Life’ was making a difference to the area.
Alison Gilliland then showed the Minister her old school where she taught before becoming an INTO official. The children in the infant and senior schools were displaying their art and literacy work and older children gave a demonstration of what they had learnt through Eithne Kennedy’s ‘Write to Read’ initiative.
Minister Ruairí Quinn with Local Area Rep. Alison Gilliland & Aodhán Ó Ríordáin TD discusing the Preparing for Life Programme in Darndale
Dominican College:
Cllr Jane Horgan-Jones brought Minister Quinn back to her old school where we met students who participated in the recent Young Scientists Exhibition in the RDS. Dominican College have an excellent track record of involvement in the event which is a credit to them, their parents and their families.
Jane took time to share her memories of her school days and her experiences as a politician and barrister with the student council.
Mount Temple:
The visit to Mount Temple provided the Minister with the chance to view the new reformed Junior Cert in action with visits to domestic science, metalwork and business studies classes.
The Minister was also in a position to outline his support for the school building project which Cllr Jane Horgan-Jones elaborates upon here: http://www.janehorganjones.ie/mount-temple-building-work-fast-lane/
Aodhán Ó Ríordáin with Minister Quinn, Cllr. Jane Horgan-Jones and representatives from Mount Temple
Marino Teacher Access Programme:
This programme is a collaboration between myself, Marino Institute of Education and the Northside Partnership. The programme provides Irish language tuition for 25 students attending DEIS secondary schools in the Northside Partnership catchment area to assist them in attaining the requirements for entering primary teacher training.
There are hundreds of potentially excellent education role-models being lost teaching and the requirement for Higher Level Irish has been identified as one of the reasons.
These inspirational young people talked to the Minister about their aspirations to become teachers and how they want to give back to the communities from where they came.
Educate Together North Central
The final meeting of the day was with ‘Educate Together North Central’ who I have been supporting for a number of years now. The group explained to Minister Quinn their hopes to establish an Educate School in the Dublin 3 area.
Myself and Cllr Jane Horgan-Jones will continue to work closely with this group to ensure that their vision of inclusive education is embedded in this community.