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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

01:27:56

Live Poetry Reading: IPPN's Roadmap to Sustainability

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

2022/12/01

The long awaited IPPN report on their Roadmap to Sustainability was released at their annual conference in Killarney, Co. Kerry last week. I finally managed to delve into its 130+ pages and see what thoughts I might have as I read through it.Overall it's a good report but there was one glaring omission, which may scupper the whole thing in the end.

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41:25

Lessons from Finland - Part 2

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

2022/11/24

In part 2 of this exploration of the Finnish Education System, I discover just what it is that sets them apart from Ireland.

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32:15

Lessons from Finland - Part 1

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

2022/11/17

I fulfilled an educational ambition to visit Finland and learn about what's known as the "Finnish Miracle" - that is, how did Finland become the best education system in the world. Over the next two weeks, I'm going to share what I discovered and why I think Ireland could easily be the best in the world.

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34:58

In "Defence" of Father Sheehy - Part 2

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

2022/11/10

In Part 1, we explored why Father Sheehy did nothing wrong when he preached from the altar and why what he did is no better than what isn't taught in Irish primary schools - i.e. what I call sin by omission. Join me in Part 2 where I talk about why the Catholic Church still had huge power, even in liberal areas of Dublin and what you can do if you're not happy about it.

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40:37

In "Defence" of Father Sheehy - Part 1

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

2022/11/06

Recently a sermon from a Catholic priest was live-streamed and recorded from a church in Listowel and it went viral. The sermon was from a priest called Father Sheehy and in his sermon, he decried same sex relationships, contraception, trans rights among other things that fall under, for want of a better term, the terms and conditions of Catholic dogma. It became national news with most of the population of Ireland calling him out from beneath the altar. Regular listeners to this podcast won’t need

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25:17

AON F-up Eile - Part 3

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

2022/11/03

In the final part of this episode, we reach the end of the debacle where the partners agree to "pause" the process. I almost finish reading the INTO response before I can't take any more spin and give up and wish the whole thing was all a dream.

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25:59

AON F-up Eile - Part 2

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

2022/10/31

In Part 2 of this episode, we look at the latecomers to the opposition to the AON debacle and wonder why it took them so long.

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39:24

AON F-up Eile - Part 1

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

2022/10/28

This is the story of one week in the education system, not an average week, but one which demonstrates the contempt that representative bodies have for teachers, school staff and children. In this part, we learn a little bit about the Assessment of Need debacle and why parents and school staff joined together to try and stop the NCSE from causing further damage to children.

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32:30

Live Poetry Reading: AON Information Note 20/10/22

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

2022/10/20

This rather innocent looking Information Note landed in principals' inboxes not more than a couple of hours ago. However, its sole job is to land more work on the desks of schools. Because the HSE can't do their job properly with Assessment of Need, a court order decided that to address the mess-up, a certain agency would be put in charge of it. Guess who they picked?

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41:32

Why are Principals Resigning?

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

2022/10/14

This week there was an article in the Irish Times featuring two people that recently stepped away from principalship. In this week's episode I look at the evidence and analyse why so many principals are handing in the keys of the building and who is ultimately responsible.

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42:54

Live Poetry Reading: Irish Exemptions

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

2022/10/06

The new Irish Exemption Circular was released to great fanfare back in 2019 with almost everyone annoyed at it for different reasons. Gaelgóirí were annoyed because it was too easy for anyone to get an exemption. Many parents were annoyed because it was now too hard to get an exemption. Schools were annoyed because they now had the responsibility for yet another job being passed onto them. With that in mind, the Department listened and the 2022 Guidelines for Irish exemptions came out, but are they

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35:36

Reaction to Budget 2023

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

2022/09/29

Like most children with an Irish mammy, I heard the phrase “self-praise is no praise” enough times to know that one simply shouldn’t do it because it makes the person sound conceited and, well… stupid. As we grow we learn that praise is earned not given, to use another Irish Mammy saying.Which brings me nicely along to Norma Foley and Josepha Madigan’s ridiculous description of the education budget which they are calling “innovative and progressive.” Welcome to my reaction to Budget 2023.

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39:14

How will you vote in the latest pay deal?

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

2022/09/20

In this special episode, I look at the two pieces of literature from the INTO and Glór about the latest pay deal that is supposed to deal with inflation and the cost of living. I try and look between the lines and figure out what is the most sensible way to vote. Can we trust the leadership of the Union or should we be listening to the grassroots? Why should we accept a pay deal that isn't in line with inflation and is it as simple as that? Finally, why you shouldn't vote until September 28th.

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36:28

The Story of Droichead: Part 7

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

2022/09/14

In our final part of the Story of Droichead, we reach 2017. With 91% of teachers voting to stop Droichead from entering our schools, you would think this almost unanimous vote of no confidence would finally put a stop to the INTO from trying to get Droichead over the line and put the Teaching Council back to the drawing board. However, as we’ll see, in this part of our story of Droichead, that isn’t what happened at all. A co-ordinated and carefully orchestrated set of plans was put in place

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26:09

The Story of Droichead: Part 6

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

2022/09/07

2016 was an interesting year in primary education, and for me, it was the year where our education system changed fundamentally. The NCSE published their new guidelines for children with additional needs paving the way for the disaster that we are seeing today. Sean Cottrell, the powerhouse of the IPPN announced that he was going to be retiring leading to a new direction for the organisation of partnership with the INTO and Department of Education. But even more importantly for the purposes of this

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25:23

The Story of Droichead: Part 5

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

2022/08/31

By 2015, it seemed like Droichead was going nowhere. The Teaching Council were doing their best to force schools to join their pilot, which almost nobody wanted to join and the INTO were doing their best to do the same. Already 3 years overdue, less than 5% of schools across the country had signed up. Something had to be done and many teachers on the ground had the answers. The thing was, would the Teaching Council listen?

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21:49

The Story of Droichead: Part 4

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

2022/08/24

The story of Droichead is littered with twists and turns and all sorts of unexplainable changes that if it were a real bridge, it would have collapsed. While its foundation was fairly solid, it had a number of issues, not least the fact that it wasn’t going to be properly resourced, and secondly that it was going to be very difficult to work from a HR and Industrial Relations point of view. However, the Teaching Council found itself with a very powerful ally - the INTO, the primary teachers’ union

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36:51

The Story of Droichead: Part 3

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

2022/08/17

By 2013, The Teaching Council were in a sticky situation. The inspectorate had told them they would no longer be probating teachers but the Union were steadfast that teachers wouldn’t be doing instead. With chants of NEVER NEVER ringing in their heads, the Teaching Council needed to do something. In this part of the episode, I explore what happened next and how they managed to build that bridge and convince the INTO to come over it.

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24:16

The Story of Droichead: Part 2

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

2022/08/10

In the last episode of this series on Droichead, I’ve been slowly building the story of how Droichead entered our lives. Last time I began to go through the very first iteration of Droichead, which was called CEPP, the Career Entry Professional Programme, which was launched in January 2012 as a consultation. I went through the in school part of CEPP in the last section but there was an out-of-school side to CEPP too and in this part I’m going to go through that and see if much has changed in the

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48:36

The Story of Droichead: Part 1

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

2022/08/03

If you were to ask teachers what was the most divisive initiative to come into the primary education system in the last decade, Droichead would be high on the list. Initially designed so that schools would probate their own new staff, it developed from a pantomime into a circus. In part one, we look at the beginnings of Droichead and how it eventually did exactly the opposite of what it was supposed to achieve.

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