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PODCAST

Anseo.net - If I were the Minister for Education

How many times have you said to yourself, "If I were the Minister for Education…?" Well I do! Rather than grumble to myself, I decided to podcast my thoughts on ways I"d change the primary education system in Ireland. Every episode I"ll take on a different theme, give some background and hopefully come to some conclusions by the end. simonmlewis.substack.com

education courses

All Episodes

37:57

Episode 033: Reassess Posts of Responsibility

Anseo.net - If I were the Minister for Education ·

2019/11/06

Posts of Responsibility are promoted posts in Irish schools. During the recession, a moratorium was imposed on these posts. When they were to return, we were promised they would be revolutionised and made more relevant to 21st century leadership. Instead, nothing changed except for new labelling. In this episode, I’ll be exploring how we missed out on a decent chance to examine the value of posts of responsibility and if I were the MfE how I would reassess these posts

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01:02:26

SPECIAL: The Inclusion Illusion

Anseo.net - If I were the Minister for Education ·

2019/10/30

The National Principals' Forum was set up in 2018 to try and work with Department of Education to reduce principal workload. They have been trying their best to get the stakeholders that are supposed to be representing principals to represent principals. The group surveyed over 900 principals around the area of Special Education Provision. In this episode, I examine the survey results and wonder how all the representative bodies would choose to ignore the results despite huge media interest. Do they

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41:34

Episode 032: Keep CAMHS and Carry On

Anseo.net - If I were the Minister for Education ·

2019/10/23

If you’ve worked in a primary school for at least a decade, and you were asked what was the number one change in pupils since you began your career, it wouldn’t be a surprise if children’s mental health was top of the list. However, accessing services for mental health is almost impossible, leading to a deterioration of behaviours and putting the health, safety and well-being of all children at risk. This week, I’ll be arguing that if I were the MfE, I would provide proper mental health services for

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32:22

Episode 031: Reimagination of Capitation

Anseo.net - If I were the Minister for Education ·

2019/10/16

Back in the recession, the capitation grant paid to primary schools was cut a low level of €170 per pupil per day, not even enough to cover their school books, insurance, swimming lessons and whatever else their parents have to dip into their pockets to fund their education, which, of course is supposed to be free. In this episode, I’ll be arguing that if I were the Minister for Education, I would be reimagining the capitation grant and how it would be used.

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49:52

Episode 030: No More Teaching Principals

Anseo.net - If I were the Minister for Education ·

2019/10/09

The job of the Teaching Principal is impossible yet over 1,800 people do it every day. However, how do we have a situation where all Teaching Principals became Admin? Is it even possible?

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30:10

Episode 029: Award Principal Benchmarking

Anseo.net - If I were the Minister for Education ·

2019/10/02

Picture the scene. Ireland at the beginning of 2008. It was the height of the Celtic Tiger. The Fianna Fáil tent was dripping in champagne and helicopter fuel. The Builders were driving Mercs and laughing at teachers. And the following adorned the front pages of the newspapers: "The principals of about 1,700 primary schools are to get a 31.5% increase in their allowances, but are the only large group to gain from benchmarking in the education sector." And then all of a sudden the bubble burst.

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33:52

Episode 028: Does Class Size Matter?

Anseo.net - If I were the Minister for Education ·

2019/09/25

Class Size seems to be a subject that has a universal agreement in terms of an answer - smaller class sizes are better - but is this true and are we even asking the right question?

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46:01

Episode 027: No Tolerance for Violence

Anseo.net - If I were the Minister for Education ·

2019/09/18

This episode is partially inspired by two news stories: one where a child hospitalised two members of staff and his expulsion was overturned through an appeal; and one where a study basically lambasted schools for shortening children's school days. In this episode I wonder how has it suddenly become acceptable in any way to be violent towards each other?

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29:45

Episode 026: Ban Fundraising in Schools

Anseo.net - If I were the Minister for Education ·

2019/09/11

To celebrate 6 months since I started this podcast, If I were the Minister for Education investigates the scandal in the public sector where firemen have to make reindeer food to pay the heating bills and judges in the High Court dress up as Disney Princesses to plug the gap in their fundings. It would never happen in a primary school, would it?!

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50:49

Episode 025: No such thing as a free lunch...except...

Anseo.net - If I were the Minister for Education ·

2019/09/04

In Ireland, about 12% of schools receive a grant to provide a school lunch for its pupils in a scheme that has changed little since 1914. Recently the government started a pilot to provide hot meals to 36 schools (about 1%) In this episode I chart the history of free school lunches and see who is doing what around the world. No surprises that Finland gives free school lunches to everyone of course.

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25:43

SPECIAL: Exemptions from Irish - Circular 0052/2019

Anseo.net - If I were the Minister for Education ·

2019/08/31

In this special episode, I do a live analysis of the new exemption from Irish circular that came out on 28th August 2019. I go through the changes, the effect of yet another offloading of responsibility to schools, and the expected increased workload for principals.

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42:11

Episode 024: Leaving Cert Points and Church Interference

Anseo.net - If I were the Minister for Education ·

2019/08/28

Of all the most baffling aspects of church involvement in education, the one that bugs me most is when a secular institution actively supports it. Not only did DCU agree to allowing Protestants a different entry route to their Teacher Training course through separate CAO points, they actually requested for it to continue in 2018.(See how this works: https://bit.ly/caorace) In this episode, I argue that while the government can probably argue historical reasons for the bind between church and state

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26:51

Episode 023: Copy the Welsh - Create Curriculum Content

Anseo.net - If I were the Minister for Education ·

2019/08/21

Why has the government or any of its agencies created so few resources to help us teach the curriculum, and if they did, what should they do? Episode 23 of If I were the Minister for Education explores how the government could provide teachers and students with adequate learning resources.

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40:22

Episode 022: So many subjects, so little time

Anseo.net - If I were the Minister for Education ·

2019/08/14

The NCCA are doing some interesting work in the background trying to restructure the curriculum given the number of demands on our time. Everyone knows that it's impossible to fit everything into the few hours a week we get to teach and many subjects are simply not being taught enough or at all. In this episode, I'll be taking my shears and trying to find some low hanging fruit, including the sacred ones.

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21:21

Episode 021: Scrap the new Primary Language Curriculum

Anseo.net - If I were the Minister for Education ·

2019/08/07

As if the 1999 English curriculum wasn't bad enough, the new Primary Language Curriculum did the unthinkable and was even worse. In this episode, I discuss why we have the new Primary Language Curriculum and how it all went wrong from the very start.

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35:04

Episode 020-part 4: We Need to Talk About Small Schools

Anseo.net - If I were the Minister for Education ·

2019/07/31

In this final part of this episode on small schools, I finally come to some conclusion around saving small schools. I take all the evidence I've built up over the month and see if anything that anyone else has suggested has any merit. Ultimately, it comes down to a change in mindset.

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34:35

Episode 020-Part 3: We Need to Talk About Small Schools

Anseo.net - If I were the Minister for Education ·

2019/07/24

In part 3 of this episode on the future of small schools, I analyse the Small Schools Symposium and lament what might have been. However, a newspaper report following the symposium gives me and small schools some hope of survival towards the end.

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51:59

Episode 020-Part 2: We Need to Talk about Small Schools

Anseo.net - If I were the Minister for Education ·

2019/07/17

In last week's episode, (http://anseo.libsyn.com/we-need-to-talk-about-small-schools-part-1) we explored the history of small schools in Ireland and in this episode, we're looking at research. By the end I conclude what people like me are accused of all the time.

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30:43

Episode 020-Part 1: We need to talk about small schools

Anseo.net - If I were the Minister for Education ·

2019/07/10

In the first of a two-part episode, I'm going to examine small schools. After a very disappointing Symposium on Small Schools, I want to really talk about small schools and how they are slowly but surely disappearing. I want to examine the role of the small school in the 21st century but not before checking out schools since 1824, nearly 200 years ago.

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26:14

Episode 019: Why aren't there enough places in...

Anseo.net - If I were the Minister for Education ·

2019/07/03

It's no news to teachers that there aren't enough places for children with additional needs in specialised classes. If you have autism, there are almost 1,000 classes in Ireland, but it's nowhere near enough. However, if you don't have autism, you're goosed. Let's explore who's to blame and what I'd do if I were the Minister for Education.

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