Anseo.net - If I were the Minister for Education

The thing that has struck me most about the debate around the reopening and even the partial reopening of schools is the fact that everyone involved in the discussions, whether it’s the government, t…

What a mess! The last few weeks have shown the worst examples of leadership from people who are supposed to look out for school staff, the pupils and their families. In this episode, I try to explore…

With one in 50 Irish people contracting COVID19 in the last 2 weeks alone, the tracing service unable to cope with demand and hospitals becoming overwhelmed with COVID19 cases, we need to seriously l…

This is a recording of a short talk I gave at the recent ISAG webinar on school closures, where I gave my experience about working in the system. Apart from having the complete inability to pronounce…

Micheal Martin still insists that “schools are safe” and it's the movement of the million people getting to the schools that's the real issue. However, this is not the only dumbfounding thing he has …

Christmas - a time for giving...each other the COVID19 virus. Yes, the lifting of restrictions did not pan out as the government had hoped with cases about to hit over 2,000 per day at this time of r…

Just what you need for your drive home for Christmas, another 2020 review! I've compiled 20 moments in primary education in 2020 and look forward to next year and my hopes for 2021.

Sit back, relax...…

This episode is about a school. A school where over 10% of their pupils have had a positive diagnosis of COVID19. A school where its Board decided that they needed to close the building to stop the s…

In case you missed it, today has been designated GRMA day, a day dreamed up to make people say thank you to people working in schools over the last number of months. The idea is that at 11am on Frida…

Back in my day, the only way we learned our tables was by learning them off by heart. The motivation of doing so was to avoid being humiliated by your teacher and class. Some of you are old enough to…

I often compare the Primary Education System to the decorations you find in the attic. Every time you try to untangle a knot, a new knot appears and after a while, you just chuck them over the tree a…

Primary school teaching is most likely one of the least diverse professions in the country. In this episode I explore why this is the case. I don't think there are too many surprises as to why but wh…

Does it annoy you when someone who isn't a teacher calls themselves a teacher? If you're in any way sensible, it probably doesn't. In this, less-than-serious episode, I'll be taking a break from seri…

There are some terms that give any teacher the fear. Put the letters WSE together and you’ll get a wave of panic. Drive-by does something similar. Principals also have another term that brings the fe…

Back in March/April, most schools had come up with a plan for remote learning with the schools closed and all. It only took the Department of Education 6 months to come up with a circular for communi…

It's probably be fair to say that education is no longer the sole function of primary schools these days. Over the last decade or so, schools have now taken on functions of meal-providers, counsellor…

October 23rd. A fairly insignificant date. But to principals this year, it was the date they couldn’t wait for as it was to signal mid-term break, and for most of them, their first day off work since…

Since 2011, schools have been inundated with new initiatives from the Department of Education. However, other agencies have also dumped their workload on schools too. In this episode I point the fing…

Schools are to remain open in Level 5 but can we do it safely? In this episode, I explore what's been happening over the last few days and ask the Twitterati what they think we need to do to keep sch…

If you work in a primary school, one thing you can probably be sure about is that the Department of Education will pay you. Well, that is unless you happen to be the school secretary or another membe…