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This is the final in a four-part series of letters addressed to new Minister for Children, Disability, Equality and Integration, Roderic O’Gorman, on the future of childcare in Ireland. This morning we hear about the need for change in the after-school sector.
DEAR MINISTER O’GORMAN,
After-school provision is well established as an important mechanism for supporting, not only children’s learning and social development, but parental childcare needs, and indeed the emphasis has tended to be on the latter.
Recent experiences have demonstrated the true value of frontline, often underpaid, staff, as well as the importance of group and community connectivity and the challenges for families when these supports are removed.
We now have an opportunity to reimagine and create a new way of delivering services which recognise these factors and respond to the multiplicity of needs.
The Prevention and Early Intervention Network (PEIN) which I chair promotes and supports high quality, evidence-based policy and practice and our members include those delivering services to children and families across the country, as well as those involved in advocacy and research work.
Many of our members provide after-school services across the continuum of need. This includes universal provision, often offered through early years services; progressive universalism, where the service is offered to all children in a certain geographical area or target group; and targeted provision with specific anticipated outcomes and referral criteria such as pro-social behaviour interventions.
There is incredible work happening during the after-school period, whether that’s giving children a safe place to chill after a busy day or to do their homework; thematic provision such as arts activities; or services aimed at supporting children who have additional needs or vulnerabilities.
‘Inevitably Inconsistency’
Inevitably though, there is inconsistency. Why inevitably you might ask?
We have long known the value of high quality services for children, and the benefits subsequently reaped by their provision. We have learnt a great deal about what children need and how to implement effective services, and we have a creative, dynamic and highly skilled workforce.
And, yet, we are a long way from being confident that all children, in any location, have access to universal and targeted services which meet their needs.
The first standards for out-of-school provision came into effect in early 2019. Prior to that, there was no clarity and no agreed expectations on the quality, staffing or content of services provided to children in the after-school space. These standards were initiated following the development of a comprehensive action plan for providing childcare after-school.
However, this process was fundamentally flawed from the outset because it considered provision only in the context of supporting parental employment and did not focus on the ways in which after-school provision could, should (and often does) meet children’s needs.
Furthermore, the Department of Education and Skills remains clear that it has no function in or responsibility for the quality of provision in after-school services, regardless of their potential to enable positive educational outcomes. These two policy issues are fundamental to the difficulties in the sector.
We won’t be able to provide consistent, high quality, evidence-led services outside of school settings until there is recognition that educational needs are also met outside of class and that we must give at least as much attention to children’s needs as those of parents and employers.
Time for a ‘reimagined sector’
A reimagined sector for out-of-school services would be supported by a whole-of-government approach to meeting children’s needs, which recognises that children learn and develop in and out of school and that maximises all opportunities to enable them to maximise their potential.
We also need to ensure that parental employment needs are not allowed to take precedence over those of children and are managed through connected policy and stakeholder engagement.
Resource allocation should recognise that we need to provide ongoing opportunities for professional development, and we should also be creative about utilising the expertise already existing in the sector.
Minimum standards also need to be set that go beyond existing regulations to encompass the quality of relationship, parental participation and the provision of tailored, evidence-informed approaches.
And, as we continue to explore how to navigate the current pandemic, after-school services should be seen as an important, flexible and accessible mechanism through which we can enable children to relearn how to socialise and connect and re-establish a sense of community.
Marian Quinn is chair of the Prevention and Early Intervention Network and has previously worked in the Department of Justice where she had responsibility for children and families in the asylum process, and the Health Services Executive as Director of Children’s Services.
CHILDCARE CROSSROADS Investigation
Do you want to know the toll that the pandemic has taken on the childcare sector?
The Noteworthy team wants to do an in-depth investigation into this issue and examine how we can build a more resilient and reliable childcare system for Ireland’s future.
Here’s how to help support this proposal>
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Now all they have to do is invest.
You’ve got to wonder if the investing part, and the practical part – who’s going to teach these subjects ? Will schools have the equipment?
Or is this another example of Fine Gael empty promises
Isnt that great. The only problem is it’s all on that usual political rug that gets pulled the minute the economy falls
what investment – they are taking it out of the maths timetable. Sure aren’t they all the same! Not like we need pupils to improve on their maths skills after the increase in failures this years.
If only there was a subject that takes up a lot of hours that is pointless (hint: religion) or over-taught to the point of children dispising it (hint: Irish) that we coud reduce the hours to fit in something practical like computers.
And forget about taking the indocrination days from communion and confirmation years – you can stick your coder-dojo to the weekend, the church has first dibs on school days!
Maybe we should teach kids more philosophy so that they realise the prison of a society we’re living in and try and get the hell out of this cesspit of a country.
Investing part is easy it’s the teaching unions who will put a stop to this. Well the ASTI at least will
Philosophy = good. Running to a different cesspit = pointless
Ah yes, coding, without any decent broadband and hardware that is usually on its last legs. All very nice – but for me I’d go for resourcing schools so they don’t have to fundraise or look for contributions towards basics like heat and light for a start.
@Bríd Uí Mhaoluala: you can start programming on any old machine and interface it with an arduino or raspberry pi to get them up and running. The problem is the schools rarely have the IT skills to install linux on these, and instead depend on companies like typetech/wriggle to install windows 10, enterprise security and MS suite software for only €60 per child.
Places like CoderDojo would happily refresh any old machine to be a id-friendly programming one if they could have access to it during their classes. The pupils who attend their workshops would become competent to be the IT source in the school. But that would be working together for the benefit of pupils and the community, which would be a move too far for most schools.
Good auld alien8 talking absolute bulls##t as normal. The vast majority of teachers bust a gut everyday at work and then have to help with fundraising to keep the school warm and properly resourced. For this they get the pleasure of listening to muppets like you with a total ignorance of the education system talk complete crap
All sounds great but I’d love to how where the time to do coding etc at Primary level is going to come from. I’ve done courses on teaching coding and would love to implement it it but there is barely enough time to cover the maths curriculum as it is.
‘Barely enough time’??? Maybe if primary school teachers skipped the Friday morning DVDs, if they didn’t hand over their entire teaching duties to a student for 6 week stretches and actually had staff planning sessions during one of the days that fall during their 14 weeks off every year instead of giving children a day off, they’re not manage to ‘cover the maths curriculum’…..
Maybe if they got rid of religious indoctrination, they would free up some time for STEAM subjects, languages, philosophy etc.
Sacrament prep certainly takes up a huge amount of time in senior classes…way beyond the designated 2.5hrs per week
Grace..you’re way off.
Please elaborate…
Not much point Grace. Your assertions about teachers are so far removed from the truth its pretty clear you’re in no way receptive to learning what actually goes on in schools everyday.
Grace would you like to substantiate those pathetic allegations?? Or tell us what you work at?? Primary school curriculum is ridiculously overloaded as it is…can’t see where the time will come from.
As a mother of primary school children I can assure I am completely in touch with the truth. I am speaking from the experience as both a parent and as an IT professional who has taught courses in ICT for primary (and secondary) school teachers. If you think there’s no point in replying to what I said then that speaks volumes,
See above
So your children watched dvds every Friday in primary school did they? If so what happened when you complained about this practice? Where did you teach these courses to primary school teachers and share your wonderful knowledge as an “IT Professional?”
A parent and an IT professional..are you kidding me?? Grace I’ve put together the odd PowerPoint..it doesn’t make me an IT professional does it..nor would I dare to pretend I know what the job entails? Being a parent and facilitating courses after school hours in no way qualifies you to comment of the role of a primary teacher. When you’ve taught 12 different subjects in a cramped classroom to 32 twelve year olds including many with special needs, then get back to us and we’ll chat.
Yes, frequently, and nothing was done. Except that I did discover it is not unusual for teachers to play DVDS for children ‘as a treat’ And UL (specifically Mary Immaculate College) I am happy to share my contacy details by PM. Any other questions?
The odd PowerPoint? I am a computer programmer. I also lecture in ICT to teachers. So who’s pretending to know anything here? But first and foremost, I am a mother. Do you think that I don’t know what my children spend each and every day doing? They have had wonderful teachers. But also terrible teachers. They talk to me. I know what goes on in their primary school. I know, too, that there is massive room for improvement that does not require funding.
Grace you’re talking complete nonsense. There is no way your kids were watching dvds every Friday. The only time they are shown is on wet days at break time or on the final day of term. And what exactly were you teaching the teachers on these courses in Mary I who were blessed to be receiving the benefit of your IT knowledge?
Where do you “lecture” in ICT to teachers grace?? I must say I’ve never been offered a “lecture” in ICT during my 18 years teaching.
If you have issues with your childs individual primary school then take it up with them..your original comment was about the teaching profession as a whole and is beyond inaccurate. As for listening to everything your child tells you…we generally promise parents that we wont believe everything your child says goes on at home if you dont believe eveything your child says goes on at school!
It’s not nonsense – it’s a fact, you can choose to dismiss it all you want but it’s true. And to your other point – are you saying that teachers receive no IT training? Don’t many of the comments here verify that this training does exist? Do you think we make this stuff up? The point is that some teachers have pointed out that they don’t have time to teach what they know- not that they don’t know it.
Grace I’m surprised you allowed your children to remain in this school with such shocking standards. Surely as a concerned parent you should have removed them from the school and placed them in a school worthy of your kids. No teachers do not receive any IT training. Teachers very often attend IT courses or take courses online at night time or during their holidays. But none are “lectured” on IT as you claim to have done. You claim to work in Mary I yet you complained about teachers accepting these students into their classrooms to give them support and experience. Really you should stop concerning yourself with primary school education because you really haven’t a notion what you’re talking about. I’d safely say the plumber who fixes our broken down heating system on a regular basis knows more about it than you do
That’s sad – and wrong. Listening to and believing your children – thats psychology 101. I trust my children. I’m sorry that you have such a poor opinion of children, especially in your chosen career. As the vast majority of psychologists will concur, children don’t lie. But for what it’s worth, when it comes to movies my children have seen a lot of movies that they have watched in school, not at home, not with friends, do you think that they could invent movie plots? Get real!
Children don’t lie..ah hear! Time for bed.
Mother of God I’d say the teachers loved seeing you arrive in for parent teacher meetings!
My children’s school also show DVD movies every Friday so Grace’s school isn’t alone. I agree that along with religion it is a waste of their time
Mandarin? Why mandarin. Chinese are very motivated to learn English. Can’t see many Irish children getting proficient enough to be of any use in the Chinese business world. Look at how well we learn our own language.
A lot of the older generation of Chinese business people don’t speak English it can put someone at a massive advantage to be able to address them in their own language it’s along with coding the 2 best new subjects added in recent years
The other day I was just saying to someone that the Chinese generally have very good English.
@Margie Murph: With a bit of practice we can all be as good as Micheal Martin…. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6x5Rcc17eb8
Exactly, should be Java or C++. Something that is actually used at third level.
@Margie Murph: I understand the why of Mandarin – it’s bloomin obvious. I share your skepticism on the execution side of things though. If we had a track record of effectively teaching any language at all, then maybe. At present the only language kids get exposed to in junior school to any great degree is Irish, and after 14 years only a tiny minority can even formulate a sentence.
@Margie Murph: Sooner or later Australia, the US and Canada are going to stop accepting our economic migrants and other english speaking options are limited – we need to start teaching our kids languages or we’re going to have no where to send them when they leave school.
@Margie Murph:
We have to be prepared for what will be our new overloads in 20-30 years time.
@ktsiwot: I presume you mean overlords and I agree.
Everyone in my local chinese speaks perfect english.
@Margie Murph:
You’re right. They’re all learning English. We don’t even need any translators, if we need some we can import from the UK.
I really hope all this talk of coding and computer science is accompanied by the employment of full time ict personnel in each school. Even one full time qualified person would make a difference. Computers being used by hundreds of different users every day need dedicated support staff if they’re to be of any use. Plus it would be a wonderful employment initiative.
The best little SECTARIAN school system in Europe…
Now if we could get rid of religion and Irish
@P.J. Nolan: Have you no pride PJ? Tir gan teanga, tir gan anam.
@P.J. Nolan: Religious indoctrination – yes (unless in private, 100% fee funded schools). Religions of the world (that doesn’t involve a video explaining that this is what the Muslims believe and that they’re wrong, etc) is beneficial. Proper teaching of the Irish language is also highly desirable. Agreed it’s a waste of time as is.
@Richard: Yes, comparative religion is fine. Hard to understand literature, history, art etc without that.
Irish should be entirely voluntary at leaving cert level.
@Yenreit:
To use a cliché
Pride don’t put food on the table.
I think Richard summed it up best.
@Fred Johnson: Irish should be 1.5 hours a week. There is no problem learning it, but like everything else; unaturally forcing it down their throats at every turn makes the kids despise it. It should be taught as a proper subject from age 8 onwards, and then only for a short time, up to <2hours a week in 6th class. Watch as kids come out of primary fluent, instead of the two phrases they come out with now.
Minister is all talk and a lot of what he is saying is sh*te. Where is the funding? Put proper funding into what is there already without embarking on something new. Primary school capitation grant is paltry. Without the fundraising effort of our hard-pressed parents and the diligence of our excellent teachers the education system would collapse. Bruton is all talk and bluster.
Tackle costs first. 100 quid book list for low infants arrived in this week. Thats after nearly 100 on uniforms, PE uniform and the “voluntary Contribution” letter is still to come.
Also get rid of religion.
@phil: just wait for seocndary schools – unnecassary high end ipad for ebooks, but then you have to buy the physical books anyway and the quality is terrible (scans of old folens books). And they expire! Book costs for first year with wriggle.ie is >€750, and new books needed every year anyway. Ireland just doesn’t know how to do efficient, economical IT when the government (and to be fair, the IT companies claim that teachers haven’t got a clue in IT either).
And get rid of compulsary Irish!
“Computer science is set to become a Leaving Certificate subject” – ok, but when? Will my kids have finished school by the time it’s brought in?
@Steve B: No your grandkids…
I would have loved to have done computer science in school.
As long as these new subjects don’t come with more and more books then it’s great. Kids backs will be broke. Time to push forward with tablets for schools, for to take the place of all the heavy books
@niall: Given what the companies charge, their parents will be broke too. I remember being in school over 35 years ago and a very proud teacher opening the door to the brand new computer room so myself and a couple of friends could see the 6 or 7 computers inside.
Being genuinely interested in all things technology based I asked when we would be start using them. Oh boy. You’d think I asked which one would be best to deficate upon, the door was slammed shut and locked. We were told it was the NEW computer room and not for use. I never saw it again and, to my knowledge, neither did anyone else.
I love the idea of teaching coding – providing this will be done properly, it makes me wonder who’s going to do the teaching. As for Mandarin, anyone needing it will probably already be able to speak it. Surely more emphasis on European languages is more important, or are we to expect Arabic to be introduced next.
You’ve hit the nail on the head Rusty- you have to wonder if these proposals actually have any substance or its just going to be like your computer room – nothing really comes from it except to make the knob headed politicians look good for a little while.
@Rusty Balls: U lucky luck baastards…we had 1 computer…again only got to look…from afar…not to touch…
I dread to think what sort of politics Educate Together will be “teaching” the children of tomorrow.
Alan – yes, because a catholic dominated education system has given us FF and FG lead governments, another reason to remove the church’s from education.
@Alan Tright: Enlighten us with your guesses, perhaps ET will teach the good old fashioned catholic dishonesty of FF & FG?
@Alan Tright:
@Alan Tright: Correct me if I am wrong, but educate together have exactly the same cirriculum as every other primary school in Ireland? If your moral are defined by a catholic primary school, it may be time to reasses them.
Kenny looks like he’s bating those kids in that picture
@Nicola Keenan: The I is missing, is it, just joking.
It’s all well and good producing fancy looking new plans and throwing about buzzwords like “coding”, “short courses” and “entrepeneurship”, but when it comes down to it, our schools are already underfunded and underresourced and have been asked constantly over the last number of years to do more and more work with fewer and fewer resources.
Great, we’re finally moving in the right direction and going to teach what people need leaving school these days. I know I’ll probably get shot for saying it, but I’ve long thought that irish should be ditched for a language that would be more useful to people like Mandarin or Spanish
@Declan Moran:
@Declan Moran: I understand your rationale but all my nieces and nephews have decent grasp on it and seem to enjoy it. Tgey dont teach it ike they did with us and trust me once your language muscle is used the third is a sinch. Irish is beautiful, I hated in school but having learned 2 languages sonce I decided to give it a try on duo lingo and I was surprised how much I knew. Tg4 does some sterling programmes too which really help cement a language . I would be truly sad if we ditched Irish from our curriculum.
@Declan Moran: evidently I could review my English based on that last post. Big fingers, ridiculous phone.
I’d need 10 full pages to comment on this nonsense.
Ah, Dept. Of Education… More pilots than Aer Lingus!
Minister: ‘Industry is telling us we need to educate our kids for the 21st century!’
Sec. Gen.: ‘Of course, we could try a pilot in West Cork, to test that out?’
…. Time passes … Reshuffle of cabinet …
Sec. Gen.: ‘Ah, Minister… Congrats on your recent appointment. So, what would you like to achieve?’
Meanwhile fu*k all achieved. But sure isn’t a great little country to do business!
An understanding of our political institutions warts and all I hope. I’m excited to get stuck in, about time we educated our kids about the society in which we live.
@Ed Magnier: The children are wearing FG colours anyway ;)
Wheres Arabic on the list? Its important given the vast empire that is the arabic world that we learn to at least converse in basic phrases with them. Honestly it could also save a life in an acute dangerous situation. Met an American in Morocco a few years ago who was learning it. In hindright he was most probably an apprentice for the American CIA. His story and reasons for spending time there didnt add up but still it was impressive to hear him. He negotiated taxi fares and purchases like a local and prices were what locals were quoted. Always an advantage.
Coding is not solely linked to maths. Coding works with a variety of subjects, and its reductive to link it to maths alone.
Is that inda in an orange grove * Socrates will be rolling in his grave
Neo gombeens acting on behalf of advisers and goverment coordinators infiltrating our education system and corrupting our kids into thinking they are to be respected and cheered like leaders of our country . My child would of being kept of school if them corrupt political fraudsters were visiting overseen their future victims. Absolute madness .
Mandarin, really as China’s economy is on a cliff of no return and the time for that has passed and is gone. Chinas economy is based on exports and not really on any imports, so if anything happens the U.S. economically then China has stuck their eggs all in one basket.
Manufacturing jobs were sent from here to China at the expense of this economy as the last link shows?
Remember “Minister Flanagan urges Irish businesses to seek new growth opportunities in Asia” So creating unemployment here?
https://www.dfa.ie/news-and-media/speeches/speeches-archive/2015/july/min-urges-businesses-to-seek-asia-opportunities/
http://web.archive.org/web/20120711071849/http://www.gaa.ie/gaa-news-and-videos/daily-news/1/0607121657-croke-parkto-host-asia-pacific-ireland-business-forum/
What will the future be like. Here is an insight?
https://www.rt.com/shows/sophieco/359015-terrorist-attacks-political-crises/
First thought upon looking at that picture: The Three Amigos. Any competence is surely accidental.
The kids will remember the day the muppets came to their school.
Mandarin? I would have thought that they would be more likely to introduce Arabic into the syllabus.
far better kids learning something useful like coding, than being brainwashed by churches
have your say