Educate Together, opinions?

Ludo

Getting away from all the religion/fairy stories and stuff as this isn't really the forum for it anyway, I have a question (not really for this forum either but related to the subject)...when a church is the patron of a school what exactly does that entail these days? They don't provide the land, facilities or the teachers anymore I assume so what do they provide? Or do the church put up some money towards the funding and running of the school?
A few years ago a lot of the teachers in catholic schools would have been brothers or nuns but there aren't many of them these days really so what do they do? Is it purely an organisational/management thing?

Sleepy

In most existing cases it's that the church own the land and in some cases the building(s), I'm not sure what's entailed in them taking patronage of new schools though.

Nesf, what would your opinion be on the Department requesting patronage of new schools from the Church?

Nevyn

and on curhch owned lands they can enforce Cannon Law.
which includes people not being able to object or preach differnetly or disseminate information with which the church disagrees.

Fell foul of that one when I was in secondary school and nearly got expelled for putting up
the women's informations network number in 6th year class rooms.

The Dept already went back on having a V.E.C. primary school and asked the chruch to take on patronage when it had said it didnt' want to.

nesf

Sleepy wrote: »

Nesf, what would your opinion be on the Department requesting patronage of new schools from the Church?

I wouldn't hold a strong opinion on it because I think that over time we'll see a shift away from Church patronage over the next few decades regardless of who is being made patron right now so long as public rather than Church lands are being used for the schools.

Orion

larbis wrote: »

make a mistake focusing on the religious (or lack of!) aspect and that really is the smallest part of the ethos of the schools. The main focus is in child-centered learning and inclusivity. I think they're great!

People often make the mistake of thinking that religion is not taught in ET schools. In fact it is - it's a legal requirement that religion is taught in all primary schools. ET schools teach the exact same curriculum as every other primary school. The difference is that instead of religious instruction, there is a general religious education taught. The ethical and moral curriculum is a very broad based subject which includes information on all religions, codes, morals and ethics.

I send my 2 kids to an ET school. It's a brand new school set up by parents (including myself) under the guidance of ET as the patron. Parents have a huge say in the direction of the school and involvement is actively encouraged.

[edit]Someone else mentioned enrolment policies - nearly all ET schools operate a first-come, first-served policy so pre-enrol now. It's not a commitment to take a place - simply a reservation of a place should you decide to take it. If you're considering Maynooth ET pm me and I'll give you my email address to send the form to - I'm the pre-enrolment officer on the board of management for that school.

Orion

what2do wrote: »

An interesting point I heard recently about ET schools is that most are so new that they are still finding their feet and are so busy being "inclusive" that sometimes the eduacation can suffer??

This is just an opinion I heard and was interested what people think?

Some secondary teachers have told me that they can usually tell which kids went to an ET primary school. And it's usually because of their open-minded attitudes and the high level of their education.

Orion

stovelid wrote: »

Your call and more power to you. Every parent has the right to educate their children as they see fit. And respect the views of others.

Agreed. One of the parents of a child in my childrens' class is a theologian with a very personal relationship with God. Yet he sends his child to an ET school. ET is about choice not exclusion.

miss no stars

I think a lot of people here, through what they are saying (intentionally or not), are showing that it doesn't matter what the ethos of the school is, more what the actual school itself is like.

There are people slating catholic and CoI schools here while happily acting as if that is all that happens in religious schools (even if they know well that this is not the case). They are saying this based on personal experience and perhaps no experience outside of their own primary schooling. It's as if they're saying "Don't send your child to a religious school or they'll come back a zombie unable to tell the difference between fact and fiction". If that is so true, how is it that most people in this country function completely normally and most people also went to a denominated school?

This has turned into a mud slinging competition of the most outrageously childish order.

I went to a catholic primary school, my brother went to a different catholic primary school, a friend went to an educate together primary school. Here's a run down.

I had a happy education. I had no religious person "ramming faith down my throat". Instead I was instructed, as per my faith, on what the normal rites of passage, beliefs, rituals etc were. They were explained to me in a manner that I could understand. By the time I got to 6th class and preparations for my confirmation, I rejected my "faith" as I couldn't bring myself to believe in something that I just didn't believe in.
HOWEVER, this was insignificant really. I also received instruction in art, history, geography, computers, PE, maths, english, irish, science etc etc. Personally I would see the fact that I was able to say "I don't believe this" about my faith when I was 11 as an indication that there was no blurring of the fact/fiction line. Those that were not catholic were given time to do other things such as extra computer time/extra PE time as they were receiving RE elsewhere.
For me, religion classes were great. They were a break from "learning", offered an opportunity for discussion and got us out of the classroom and walking down to the local church. As we got older, we were also taught to question our own understanding. We had people like monks and priests come in to explain concepts in more detail. I remember one such time around 5th or 6th class when we were asked to think of our image of God. We then drew it and then when most people produced pictures of a man with a white beard we were asked why? It was then explained that God was more a concept than a person. We were then told that sometimes it's essential to simplify things to a level that people can understand, but that we should all form our own ideas of what God is and that the church would be there at every step to help us along our way. Is that really brainwashing?
The most important part of my primary education was when a teacher recognised the fact that I was highly intelligant and bored. My parents were given an application form for CTYI and in the mean time I was taught secondary school level maths and kept occupied. This was in a normal class of 30.
My Verdict: Good School

My brother had a not so happy education. Religion was NOT the deciding factor in this, rather it was the fact that a number of his teachers could eaisly be described as "Psychopathic" or "anti-children", stuck in the rut of "School Master" where they could stand at the top of the class with a cane as a deterrant. One teacher taught nothing but Irish for one full year. My brother is dyslexic. Go figure.
My Verdict: Bad School

My friend had a fun education. She is highly intelligant yet very dyslexic and the ET school she was at couldn't meet her needs so she was taken out for a few years to go to a special school that could meet her needs. Who knows whether this would have happened in a non-ET school. It quite possibly would have. She went back after a couple of years and still liked it and quite enjoyed being able to call her teacher by their first name and so on and proceeded onwards to a catholic secondary school where I met her.
My Verdict: Enjoyable to attend, didn't meet her needs. Not a good school for her, great school for others.

Basically what I'm saying is, you can't base it on one issue alone. Talk to parents of children in the specific schools you're considering. Ask them about how happy their child is, if the curriculum is followed, if their child is receiving adequate attention etc. I honestly don't believe that an ethos makes a school - the teachers make the school, as do the BoM and the principal, and very often the secretary.

Sleepy

miss no stars wrote: »

Basically what I'm saying is, you can't base it on one issue alone. Talk to parents of children in the specific schools you're considering. Ask them about how happy their child is, if the curriculum is followed, if their child is receiving adequate attention etc. I honestly don't believe that an ethos makes a school - the teachers make the school, as do the BoM and the principal, and very often the secretary.

Actually I agree with most of your posts (apart from attending CTYI meaning you're highly intelligent - half my class were invited to attend, though maybe the bar has raised these days? :P)

I don't disagree that a religious school can be a good school, I went to a combination of Christian and Patrician Brothers schools myself for Secondary level (moved county midway through hence two schools). Yes, the education system has done far more good than bad whilst in the hands of the Catholic Church. I think education is too important to be left in the hands of an organisation with an agenda that goes beyond educating our children .

Religious instruction goes against many of the elements of what I consider an education - teaching children to accept that some things 'just are' is selling them short. (On a tangental note, I actually had the same issue with parts of the Leaving Cert Maths curriculum myself - I was one of those 'but why?' kids!). Accepting things blindly is a sign of ignorance imho.

We're not a third world country. We've (arguably accidentally) managed to bring our country forward in leaps and bounds over the last two decades due in no small part to having a relatively educated population. If we want the progress to continue, the best chance we have is education imho. We should be aiming to get our universities to the top of world league tables, to engender a culture of research and innovation and that starts at primary school. And to my mind, there are huge changes required to get us there, removal of religion from the schools playing only a small part. I’d probably concede the point if the Catholic Church were prepared to make the investment required to ensure that no child would be going to school in a pre-fab, that schools were adequately heated, insulated, equipped, funded and staffed by talented, accountable educators (In a way I guess that’s how the schools were handed over in the first place).

But that’s not going to happen. The Catholic Church in Ireland can’t even pay it’s own compensation bills these days. So, it’s time for the government to step up to the plate, take the schools back and invest in them rather than seeing them as an expense on the profit and loss statement of Ireland Inc.

miss no stars

Sleepy wrote: »

(apart from attending CTYI meaning you're highly intelligent - half my class were invited to attend, though maybe the bar has raised these days? :P)

Which CTYI, out of curiosity. Were they invited to attend, or to to attend the talent search? You do get some boneheads there, though, but for the most part the people there are highly intelligent and floundering alone at the top (or bottom if they get too bored) of their class.

Sleepy

I can't rightly remember tbh miss_no_stars, I was in School in Galway when I was invited but I remember just thinking - no way am I going to nerd-camp...

A mistake in retrospect as I'd probably have enjoyed it immensely but most of those I've met who've attended have been given an over-inflated sense of their own abilities...

Nevyn

There are a set of test which a child has to reach a certain standard on for them to invited.

JC 2K3

Sleepy wrote: »

A mistake in retrospect as I'd probably have enjoyed it immensely but most of those I've met who've attended have been given an over-inflated sense of their own abilities...

Not to turn this into a CTYI bashing thread, but qft.

mountainyman

I am sceptical about the Educate Together project. The parents involved seem highly posessive of 'their' children. Though the same could I think be said about people who go out of their way to get 'their' kids a Catholic or C of I education.

It seems to me that Educate Together should really be called 'Educate apart' it is a means by which middle class refugees who have driven up the price of housing in formerly working class areas make sure that 'their precious little darlings' don't have to associate with normal children.


"What Tarquin and Iseult go to the local school? No way! I want them to go to a special school. But I want Mountainyman to pay for it"

We'll call it Educate Together because sectarian conflict is a massive problem in Dublin.


What is now needed is STATE SCHOOLING with religion as an optional class held after school. The religious orders should keep a voice in 'their schools' but just one voice and the main thrust of education should be secular with a religious add on.

None of the educate together crowd give a dam about the general education system though. As I say it is a trick or con game used by middle class people who can't afford to educate theri kids privately to keep little Oscar and Fionn away from the lower orders.

Nevyn

You don't pay any extra in taxes for a child going to an educate together school rather then a christian primary school and yes if we did have proper state schools then educate together would not have been needed.

Yes they do give a damn and lobby to try make things better for all children.

bored and tired

Ive been following this debate with a lot of interest, and i have to say im more confused about educate together now than before i started reading this thread,
santa bashing, religous indoctrination, and slating everyones opinions seems to be rife,

I always thought, from my own experience that schools had to take children regardless of their religion, that was based on the fact that i went to a catholic primary school in the 80's and had a friend who did not get her communion confirmation etc, and it was never a problem,
I stood up at the tender age of 12 against my teachers, parents friends and priest by refusing to take the pledge, which was scandalous at the time, and yet i was not brought into a little room and prayed on for being a heathen or possesed by satan, i simply explained that i did not believe i would keep it, so therefor it would be wrong of me to take it, It was accepted and i was not made partake in the religion classes preparing for the pledge so i did my homework instead.

My daughter is in a catholic primary school as well, different county and yet the same premise is there, it doesnt matter what religion or race you are, the school are happy to enrol all children in the area BECAUSE they have room.
ALSO I WAS NEVER ASKED TO PRODUCE MY DAUGHTERS BIRTH CERT.

in my innocence i thought that the problem in cities was that there was too many people applying to be enrolled into too few schools, so the schools had to start refusing people. i thought that the main criteria would have been, does the child have a sibling attending the school, the distance from the school, and when they were placed on the waiting list, I thought that the reason that we had a disproportanal rate of non national children being refused was because, they had a) no sibling already in the school, and b) they had came to the country recently so the child was not placed on the waiting list as early as other children, or did not know about waiting lists until they tried to get their child enrolled.
I genuinely hope that there is no school in this country who would turn down a child purely on racial or religious discrimination.

For me from reading this post, it seems there is a lot of anger about religion being taught or not being taught, educate together is being put forward in a dangerous light, as anyone reading this from start to finish could get the same feeling i did, that the parents sending their children to ET schools are overly zealous, and seem to focus more on the amount of cultural interaction and the way religion is taught rather than what most parents look for which is, class size, school results, resources and facilities available, permanent buildings or pre fabs,
For me it was much more important that my child attend a school with a good academic record, decent building, a library and some computers than what way they taught religion,

The real problem as i see it is that we are now heading into a recession and there are a large number of schools, regardless of being COI, ET or Catholic, both primary and secondary, which have inadequate prefabs, which cost an enormous amount to rent or buy, and in many cases the cost of the rent has exceeded the cost of a permanent building, old schools with drafty windows, no libraries, no special needs equipment, no PE facilities, Schools will stop being built and refurbished and extended because there is simply no funds available for these capital programmes, and i think the main reason that the government increased the class size numbers was so that the need for creating class rooms would be reduced.

These are the factors that i was concerned with when my daughter started school, and what i feel every parent should be concerned with, It should never be a choice of an ET school versus a catholic school or COI school, it should be a choice based on who has the best teachers, the best facilities, the best school.

Son of Jack

bored and tired, I agree with you wholeheartedly. Well done. Your last two paragraphs really hit the nail on the head.

Orion

bored and tired wrote:

I always thought, from my own experience that schools had to take children regardless of their religion, that was based on the fact that i went to a catholic primary school in the 80's and had a friend who did not get her communion confirmation etc, and it was never a problem,

Not fully true. Faith based schools are legally allowed prioritise children from that faith. If there is room after that they will accept children from parents of other faiths or none. In smaller communities they may have room but in larger ones they may not.

bored and tired wrote:

My daughter is in a catholic primary school as well, different county and yet the same premise is there, it doesnt matter what religion or race you are, the school are happy to enrol all children in the area BECAUSE they have room.
ALSO I WAS NEVER ASKED TO PRODUCE MY DAUGHTERS BIRTH CERT.

Different country - different rules. In Ireland all schools - faith based or not - require you to provide a Birth Cert. Catholic schools also require a Baptism cert if you are enrolling on the basis on your religion.

bored and tired wrote:

in my innocence i thought that the problem in cities was that there was too many people applying to be enrolled into too few schools, so the schools had to start refusing people. i thought that the main criteria would have been, does the child have a sibling attending the school, the distance from the school, and when they were placed on the waiting list, I thought that the reason that we had a disproportanal rate of non national children being refused was because, they had a) no sibling already in the school, and b) they had came to the country recently so the child was not placed on the waiting list as early as other children, or did not know about waiting lists until they tried to get their child enrolled.

There are many criteria. And all of them are valid. But you forget that a lot of people religion is a major factor above and beyond the others. ET have no such criteria - no catchment areas - it's quite simply first-come, first-served. This can cause issues if siblings cannot get in due to time of birth or pre-enrolment - and that is a serious problem - but nobody has come up with a fairer system yet.

bored and tired wrote:

I genuinely hope that there is no school in this country who would turn down a child purely on racial or religious discrimination.

You hope in vain. It happens. I know people who it has happened to on religious grounds - it's illegal to discriminate on racial grounds but not on religious ones in schools. See the Equal Status Act and the Employment Equality Act.

bored and tired wrote:

For me from reading this post, it seems there is a lot of anger about religion being taught or not being taught, educate together is being put forward in a dangerous light, as anyone reading this from start to finish could get the same feeling i did, that the parents sending their children to ET schools are overly zealous, and seem to focus more on the amount of cultural interaction and the way religion is taught rather than what most parents look for which is, class size, school results, resources and facilities available, permanent buildings or pre fabs,
For me it was much more important that my child attend a school with a good academic record, decent building, a library and some computers than what way they taught religion,

... snip (not relevant to my answer is all - Mac) ...

These are the factors that i was concerned with when my daughter started school, and what i feel every parent should be concerned with, It should never be a choice of an ET school versus a catholic school or COI school, it should be a choice based on who has the best teachers, the best facilities, the best school.

ET schools are as crowded as any other schools. They exist under the same rules regarding class sizes, teacher numbers, funding etc. There is no special treatment from the state for any primary school - ET, faith-based or other. All schools are under-funded, and too many are in crap accommodation.

So that negates those reasons for choosing one school over another. My main reason for choosing ET is the religious education. I am not hostile or angry about faith-based schools or religious instruciton - I just don't want my children to go to the former or receive the latter. I know that I can exclude them from religion class but that just marks them as outsiders and they would resent that. In ET there is no need for that - they will be taught about all religions in an educational way rather than and instructional way.

In case you don't know it is a legal requirement for religious education (half hour a week iirc) in primary school. That is the only area that is allowed to vary from the national curriculum: ET use that time for Ethical and Moral education and educate on all religions whereas faith-based schools use that time for religious instruction.

I also agree about choosing a school that has the best teachers etc. However there are two issues there:
1. There is a need to balance your child's education with their enjoyment/pressure in school. If the child of a non-christian is in school in a christian school there is pressure to conform (see above re: excusing children from religion classes). If a child is not happy in school then it doesn't matter how good the teachers are.
2. In smaller communities there is only one school and almost exclusively that school is Catholic-run. So where is the choice or decision-making there for your child?

shoegirl

I think the basic idea behind these is that no kid gets excluded, and they are a halfway house between traditional denominational schools and genuinely secular schools (of which there is but 1 and only 1 school in Ireland - Sandford Park in Ranelagh which is boys only still). The idea is good, but primary schools are still obliged to "teach religion." ET get around this by teaching a general comparative, factual religion class, but effectively they are not truly non-denominational, and I suspect neither are a lot of the people who send there kids there. They are however, fairly representative, of a modern, if maybe slightly individualistic approach.

I myself am in favour of totally abolishing the requirement to teach religion, and encouraging experienced professionals teachers (rather than potentially biased parents) to establish totally non-denominational schools that would then operate as pure educational institutions with a requirement to include people on the management boards who are non-stakeholders as well as stakeholders such as parents/teachers/other staff. I like the VEC system but I don't like the way in the past in which it was used to give nice handly little community numbers to up-and-coming county councillors.

shoegirl

bored and tired wrote: »

My daughter is in a catholic primary school as well, different county and yet the same premise is there, it doesnt matter what religion or race you are, the school are happy to enrol all children in the area BECAUSE they have room.
ALSO I WAS NEVER ASKED TO PRODUCE MY DAUGHTERS BIRTH CERT.

in my innocence i thought that the problem in cities was that there was too many people applying to be enrolled into too few schools, so the schools had to start refusing people. i thought that the main criteria would have been, does the child have a sibling attending the school, the distance from the school, and when they were placed on the waiting list, I thought that the reason that we had a disproportanal rate of non national children being refused was because, they had a) no sibling already in the school, and b) they had came to the country recently so the child was not placed on the waiting list as early as other children, or did not know about waiting lists until they tried to get their child enrolled.
I genuinely hope that there is no school in this country who would turn down a child purely on racial or religious discrimination.

For me from reading this post, it seems there is a lot of anger about religion being taught or not being taught, educate together is being put forward in a dangerous light, as anyone reading this from start to finish could get the same feeling i did, that the parents sending their children to ET schools are overly zealous, and seem to focus more on the amount of cultural interaction and the way religion is taught rather than what most parents look for which is, class size, school results, resources and facilities available, permanent buildings or pre fabs,
For me it was much more important that my child attend a school with a good academic record, decent building, a library and some computers than what way they taught religion,

The real problem as i see it is that we are now heading into a recession and there are a large number of schools, regardless of being COI, ET or Catholic, both primary and secondary, which have inadequate prefabs, which cost an enormous amount to rent or buy, and in many cases the cost of the rent has exceeded the cost of a permanent building, old schools with drafty windows, no libraries, no special needs equipment, no PE facilities, Schools will stop being built and refurbished and extended because there is simply no funds available for these capital programmes, and i think the main reason that the government increased the class size numbers was so that the need for creating class rooms would be reduced.

These are the factors that i was concerned with when my daughter started school, and what i feel every parent should be concerned with, It should never be a choice of an ET school versus a catholic school or COI school, it should be a choice based on who has the best teachers, the best facilities, the best school.

Thats actually a very good point, plus you rightly point out that there are now quite a lot of schools sharing very few resources, and correctly, that this can only get worse.

A real danger here, though, I think, is that in some areas schools are struggling to stay open as demographics push families out further away from cities and traditional conurbations, small "country schools" in once rural areas are now snowed under with huge numbers they cannot cater for, and at the same time, small community-managed schools like ET schools and others are appearing to try to take up the slack. The reality is that there is a very small pot to share, and with schools closing, schools will be forced to consider their viability.

A lot of schools for example in Dublin city central either closed or relocated to respond to these demographic changes. As we now well know demographic changes were not managed in any way (in fact the well known weekend long queues outside Loreto Swords bely the fact that quite a few local councillors for many years tried to block this relocation from Dublin city because of planning irregularities in the area that moving a school there only further facilitated). The danger now is if the population falls in once "fast growing rural areas" and the pupils are no longer there, but there are multiple schools to manage and support.

Secondly, one thing I notice very strongly, is there is a kind of doublethink surrounding religion with most people in Ireland. Only a proportion of people brought up as catholics actively practise it, but a large proportion of people still hang onto the trappings of their catholic past - they still want the weddings, funerals, first holy communions, confirmations, even though they have relatively little daily relevance to them. I don't think its just for the sake of the social occasion either, I think a lot of people still have a small level of emotional attachment to their religions, which I suspect they may return to later in life. So for a lot of people, I think ET is a genuine "halfway house." Whether its up to the religions to "reclaim their own" or for secularists to get people to totally question these beliefs openly is a debate for another day.

nazar

DOES ANYONE KNOW THE LOCATION OF THE EDUCATE TOGETHER SCHOOL IN GREYSTONES IS ? I KNOW THE ADDRESS IS BLACKLION - BUT WHERE EXACTLY ??? THKS

ebmma

It's just a couple of minutes down the side road from Lidl. My little niece goes there

lostexpectation

bored and tired it becuase the gov abdicated education to the church that the schools are such bad shape, perhaps thats what you should be conisdering!

embee

Folks,

The OP in this thread was looking for peoples experiences of ET schools. This isn't the place to spark off debates on religion or spirituality, nor general debates on provision of primary school education.

So, if you've got experience of sending your child to an ET school, have attended one yourself, teach in one or similar, then the OP would love to hear your experiences.

Otherwise, take it to the Religion & Spirituality forum/Primary and Pre-schools. There seems to be a lot of bashing of CoI/Catholic-run schools here which isn't what the OP was looking for at all. He/she wants to hear your experiences of ET.

Thanking you kindly.

Transfusion

I am also considering the option of an Educate Together School. There is a new school here in Midleton and am seriously considering sending my child there.
They are making a good impression in the town and know there are stiff competition from the other local schools.
What i hear is that the teachers are good and the children are happy. At the end of the day the happiness of the children is paramount!:)

byhookorbycrook

Transfusion wrote: »

I am also considering the option of an Educate Together School. There is a new school here in Midleton and am seriously considering sending my child there.
They are making a good impression in the town and know there are stiff competition from the other local schools.
What i hear is that the teachers are good and the children are happy. At the end of the day the happiness of the children is paramount!:)

I think they are in temporary accomadation? At the rate things are going could be in prefabs for the next 20 yrs!

Transfusion

Apparently Midleton is a recognised area with a need in the Dept of Education and the schools in the East Cork area will get buildings?
Are you part of the school community?

DinoBot

byhookorbycrook wrote: »

I think they are in temporary accomadation? At the rate things are going could be in prefabs for the nest 20 yrs!

Just to add, sometimes this temporary accomadation is to a very high standard. Id advise calling into the school and check it out. My kids have always gone to ET schools (3 different schools). One is secondary school. I have another enrolled as well.

Very positive experience tbh.

bored and tired wrote: »

These are the factors that i was concerned with when my daughter started school, and what i feel every parent should be concerned with, It should never be a choice of an ET school versus a catholic school or COI school, it should be a choice based on who has the best teachers, the best facilities, the best school.

Very good point !

But sometimes the choice of best school will include the way the school deals with the religious difference within the school community. Will your child be excluded from some classes ? Will there be trips your child cant go on ? (like mass at christmas) What is the education given about other religions ?

Its about ensuring your child goes to a school where they are not made to feel different or odd. My kids don't have a religion and I would not be happy with them learning about gods as facts. So, in a catholic school they would have to leave the class or what happens most of the time, just sit down the back and draw. They could not take part in communion and confirmation, which all happens during class time.
At least with ET schools no child is made to feel different, even if they are the only one of their faith in the class.

In my sons class most of the kids did make their confirmation, he didn't really notice because it all happened after school. It was more like an after school activity, some did it some didn't.

So for some the choice of best school will include the school where their child will be feel included.

Catari Jaguar

I student taught in an Educate Together school and just didn't like the atmosphere or ethos.

Very hippieish vibe, obnoxious and precocious kids given too much choice and responsibility too early. Full of their own self importance and certainly born with a silver spoon in their mouth. And they are seen as "different" by kids in the other local schools but I can't pin point it.

I don't think the school knows what it wants to be. Include all and teach all, but you can't tread on any toes??? Like you have to celebrate Christmas for the Christians but you can't because of the Jehovah's Witnesses. I felt as thought it was a school of ideology that wasn't practiced in the class i.e. differentiated work/ inclusion.

I didn't think much of the teachers either. Opinionated, judging and pretentious. I felt that the parents are too involved in the run of things, like policies. And god forbid if there's any little issue with one of their darlings, your head would roll...

You couldn't get me to teach there again or send my (non existant) children for love nor money.

Orion

DinoBot wrote: »

My kids have always gone to ET schools (3 different schools). One is secondary school.

Just to clarify - there are no ET secondary schools yet. I'm assuming Dinobot means that one child that went to an ET school is now in secondary school.

Lil Kitten wrote: »

Full of their own self importance and certainly born with a silver spoon in their mouth. And they are seen as "different" by kids in the other local schools but I can't pin point it.

TBH that sounds like any South Dublin rugby school (I know - I went to one). I've never heard anyone say that about an ET school before.

Lil Kitten wrote: »

I don't think the school knows what it wants to be. Include all and teach all, but you can't tread on any toes??? Like you have to celebrate Christmas for the Christians but you can't because of the Jehovah's Witnesses. I felt as thought it was a school of ideology that wasn't practiced in the class i.e. differentiated work/ inclusion.

If that's the case it's wrong or you're explaining it badly. ET are all-inclusive schools. While Christmas is a Christian institution the origin and meaning of it should be taught - as should Honnikah (sp?), Ramadan, insert any other religious festival/celebration/practice. The school doesn't celebrate them but it should include them as part of the ET curriculum.

Lil Kitten wrote: »

I didn't think much of the teachers either. Opinionated, judging and pretentious. I felt that the parents are too involved in the run of things, like policies. And god forbid if there's any little issue with one of their darlings, your head would roll...

In ET schools parents are very involved. That's part of the ethos of the schools. But policies are the proviso of the Board of Management - only two of which are parents. And parents on the BoM are there as parent representatives not representatives of parents. This is the same in every primary school in the country - ET or otherwise. 8 members: 2 patron appointees, 2 parent reps, 2 teacher reps (1 is the principal) and two from the wider community appointed by the 1st six. This board is the only party who decides on policies, hiring/firing of teachers, financing decisions etc. Parents/Parent's Association has no decision making abilities. Yes - the PA can make recommendations but the BoM has the final say.

Lil Kitten wrote: »

You couldn't get me to teach there again or send my (non existant) children for love nor money.

That's your choice. A lot of people don't want to send their children to ET schools for a variety of reasons. But at least in many places there now is a choice of an alternative ethos.