Ballyhaunis Blog

Scoil Iosa in Ballyhaunis was damaged during a break in over the weekend.Y

THE JUNIOR SCHOOL ON ABBEY STREET REMAINS CLOSED TODAY, AS GARDAI ARE CARRYING OUT INVESTIGATIONS AT THE SCENE.

NO FURTHER DETAILS ARE AVAILABLE AT PRESENT

The latest Sunday Times list of the top Secondary Schools in Ireland was released back in February 2010 . They compiled a chart of the top 400 schools in Ireland based on the percentage of pupils gaining places in autumn 2008 and 2009 at one of the universities on the island of Ireland or at the main teacher training colleges, Royal College of Surgeons, National College of Art and Design or any English,Welsh or Scottish university or equivalent.

Without any publication of exam results in Ireland - or any meaningful , regular inspection of schools - this is the only type of measure of school performance available in Ireland.
Getting into third level education is not the only or the best measure of a school’s performance - but in the absence of any other meaningful data it is all we have.
(Now that we have Mary Coughlan as minister for education - it is hard to see things getting much better. )

Without published, monitored targets and results for schools how can anyone know how our schools , pupils and teachers are performing? The odd inspection every few years - when the teachers put on a good show for a couple of days - is not good enough. Any recommendations made in the inspections are never followed up by the Dept of Education - so bad teaching practices continue.
When was the last time a teacher ever got sacked in Ireland for bad performance in Ireland ? (The answer is Never).

Just for the record -

Ballyhaunis School came in at a pretty poor 361st in the table . All the nearby schools did better - with Mount St Michael, Claremorris 56th; ; Colaiste Cholmain, Claremorris 144; Dunmore at 281 ; St Joseph’s Secondary School, Claremorris, Co Mayo 288 ; Kiltimagh 226 ; Swinford 201 ; Castlerea 349 ; St Nathy’s College Ballaghaderreen 354th

There are about 740 secondary schools in Ireland - so I suppose getting in the top 400 is a good thing .

Full Table Here :

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/multimedia/archive/00681/The_top_400_seconda_681535a.pdf

Scoil Iosa, Ballyhaunis will re-open on Tuesday - after the cold spell seems to be over. For some reason the community school is staying closed for an extra day and opens on Wednesday. Hopefully the bus drivers will be able to get in OK.

Here are some of the schools opening dates after the “big freeze” - from Mid West Radio - looks like it’s in alphabetical order which is good

http://www.midwestradio.ie/school/index.html

After Minister Batt(y) O’Keefe announced he had changed his mind and it was up to the schools to decide if was OK to open - Ballyhaunis Community School have announced thay will be staying closed on Tuesday and will not open until Wednesday 13th Jan.

Won’t be long till the Mid Term break now !

Batt O’Keefe has seen sense at last and reversed his instruction to keep all schools closed until Thursday. He has said today that schools can now open if local management think it is safe to do so.

http://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/okeeffe-to-allow-schools-to-reopen-tomorrow-441478.html

The majority of roads around here are safe - some are still icy but passable. It will be interesting to see if Ballyhaunis Community School will decide to open - hopefully they will?
Over in the UK - conditions are worse and some schools are closed - but the UK Education Secretary Ed Balls is encouraging schools to open and not focus on the negatives. He said schools need to “take a balanced view and not to overstate risks like slipping in the playground, or having slightly less supervision. The important thing to do is, if at all possible, open schools, get our children learning, stop the disruption for working parents..”

Most - if not all the schools in the Ballyhaunis area were due to open on January 7th - but are now all remaining closed until at least Thursday January 14th by order of the Dept. of Education.
All schools in Ireland have been instructed to close next Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

While it is clear that some people in isolated houses will have problems getting out and about - this enforced schools closure is totally over the top . No other workplaces have been shut down - hospitals , shops , factories are all open - so why shut the schools?
Dangergous playgrounds could be fixed by having a few parents in to grit and remove the snow/ice.
I am sure most parents would rather have their children in school than at home. What about families where both parents work - what will they do? What if the weather is no better after Wednesday?
It is a farce.
With a bit of careful driving - the majority of people could get children to school - even in Ballyhaunis.
In Dublin - where most people probably live within walking distance of a school there is no need to shut schools.

I am all for the rights of workers to withdraw labour if they have been unjustly treated - but this planned teacher’s strike for November 24th is based on the assumption that the Budget is going to make cuts that affect teachers pay.
Having a strike about something that has not yet happened is ridiculous .
There are reports from teachers who thought the strike ballot was about taking action IF cuts were made in the Budget. See Here
It’s comical but worrying that some teachers don’t seem too sure what they voted for - and these people are teaching our children.
Even if there is a threat of cuts - no one knows where they will be and what they will be. How can anyone vote to go on strike about something that hasn’t happened? It’s not just teachers - all Public Service workers have voted to go on strike on November 24th 2009.
There is even talk of another day of Strikes in December too!

The the average male primary school teacher earns €64,000 per annum, while the average female primary school teacher earns €56,000 - hardly low pay. (and long summer holidays).

The OECD Economic Review of Ireland in November 2009 says the percentage of the entire Irish education budget spent on teachers’ pay at primary, secondary and third level – some 75 per cent – is well above average among developed states.
The argument that we have a “well educated workforce” is often trotted oout by government - but the reality is something different. (Many of the “educated workforce” are immigrants)
The OECD report says “Ireland is close to international norms in terms of educational attainment for the resources committed.” Overall, the education outcomes at secondary level are, it points out, good relative to the OECD average, but not as good as in the best performing countries. Performance in maths and science is, it says, below that of other high-income states.

It seems that teachers in the Teachers Union of Ireland (TUI) and the Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI), have imposed a ban on out-of-school-hours meetings with parents as part of a protest against education cuts.
Apparently - for the past 5 years - 3 parent teacher meetings a year were supposed to be held during out-of-school-hours. The teachers got a pay rise for this !

I am sure all this comes as a surprise to most parents in Ballyhaunis - where I don’t think there have been any parent teacher meetings that didn’t involve a half day closing of the school. So this work to rule will have little effect in Ballyhaunis.
The question though - is why were meetings not held after school as agreed with the Dept of education? They probably get around it by only having 3 parent teacher meetings a year - because they are allowed to have 3 a year during school time. (But did they still accept the extra money for doing meetings out of school hours?)

The out-of-school-hours meetings were introduced to make life easier for working parents and to maximise teaching time for students.
It means children don’t have to be sent home while the meetings take place, and working parents have a greater chance of getting home in time to attend.

These are things that the Principal and board of management in Ballyhaunis Community School must not think are that important.

The long school summer holiday is soon coming to an end and it will be time for pupils to go back and try and learn something useful. At least the holidays aren’t as long as they get in the Dail. The starting dates for the Autumn Term at Ballyhaunis CS are as follows :
Monday August 31st First Year Induction Day

Tuesday September 1st Transition Year Induction Day

Wednesday September 2nd 4th & 5th years return & LCA 2

Thursday September 3rd 2nd & 3rd years return

Monday September 7th PLC Registration & Induction, 9am