Sample Letters against Flourish
The Flourish Programme is the new RSE programme designed for Catholic schools, which teaches children RSE from a Catholic lens. This means that it excludes relationships that do not follow the Catholic viewpoint of a relationship, i.e. between the marriage of a man and a woman. There are many other examples in this curriculum that […]
Different Competitions, Same Results?
The INTO LGBT+ Group is one of the notable success stories in primary education when it comes to issues of equality. When I became a teacher about 20 years ago, the group was anonymous. At that point, legally, a denominational school could discipline a teacher from the LGBT+ community for undermining its ethos. However, the […]
Why Lives Matter
The #BlackLivesMatter hashtag has created much noise on the Internet as Irish people, rightly, are appalled by the shocking coverage coming from America. Some are happy to put black squares as their social media profile to show solidarity and others try to hold a mirror up to themselves to try and be better people. There […]
Today should have been your Communion…
I feel I should set the scene for this post as some may feel that it comes across as being superior to those who celebrate sacraments in a particular manner. My entire career is restricted because of the dominance of the predominantly denominational education system. I cannot work in over 96% of schools in the […]
Catholic Schools interpretation of Admissions’ Bill not in the spirit of inclusion?
It seems that in all Catholic schools, the line: “Such-and-such NS is a Catholic school and may refuse to admit as a student a person who is not of Catholic denomination where it is proved that the refusal is essential to maintain the ethos of the school.” Have any of you any thoughts on this? […]
Why does your Catholic school not teach about same sex relationships in RSE?
There’s a lot of talk about Relationships and Sexuality Education in the news. As anyone who sends their child to a Catholic school knows, teachers are not allowed to teach children the full RSE curriculum. They cannot teach children about same sex relationships or contraception or anything else that goes against Catholic Church teachings. But […]
How do I opt my child out if I didn’t at the beginning?
Some parents don’t opt their child out of religion in Junior Infants. There are a number of reasons for this: Parents believe, even loosely, in the religion of the school Parents don’t know about the right to opt out Parents don’t want their child to be left out at such a young age Parents don’t […]
Things you can do with your opted out child during Communion
Your kid is the only one opted out in 2nd class. The rest of the class are talking about how wonderful it will be to be united in a special way with Jesus Christ, sharing in the body and blood of Christ the Saviour. In reality, most of them will be talking about how much […]
Can a Parents’ Association meeting start with a prayer?
This might be you. You’re not raising your kid with a religion but you’re the only parent who has opted him out of religion. All the other parents don’t really seem to believe in any of it but they just go along with things so their little one doesn’t feel left out. The school is […]
Does a school have to contact you if they are going to church?
While you are legally allowed to opt your child out of religion classes, does this right extend to anything outside of the 30 minute religion class every day? What if the school are going to the church for a visit or for a service? Does the school have to contact you to let you know? […]