Ms Davey and Ms T. Reilly recently completed a week of job shadowing in the town of Rosolini, on the island of Sicily. The school they visited had a kindergarten, primary school and middle school in one building. They got to experience a typical day in a Sicilian school. This included observing teachers in various class levels, meeting the Principal, conversing with the children, telling them about St. Ronan's and showing them our school website. They were very lucky to accompany the drama group to watch their annual performance of a Greek Tragedy in an outer amphitheatre high in the mountains. It was very interesting to note the similarities and differences in our educations systems. Ms Tully, Ms Newman , Ms Barrett, Ms Cunniffe and Ms Fowley had a fantastic learning experience, observing students and teachers and learning lots of new ideas in some primary schools in Italy. We observed STEM, Robotics, the school choir, English classes, outdoor learning, and all the different age groups.
We did cultural activities such as visiting a historical castle and learning about the Renaissance. We went to a multi-sensory park and brought kids into the community for gardening, woodwork, and art activities. We also got to try the local cuisine. On Friday, we went to a restaurant with Paola and some of her staff. It was a lovely evening, filled with great laughter. We are looking forward to sharing our new knowledge with members of the staff and implementing new ideas across the school. Over the Easter Holidays, Miss Lynch and Miss McKenna attended a project management course in Reykjavik, Iceland. They were introduced to the etwinning platform and to Erasmus projects that can be completed with schools across Europe. They also created and worked on an upcoming project with teachers from Spain and Germany. They thoroughly enjoyed the course and are excited to complete this project and hopefully many more. They also look forward to sharing their new knowledge with members of the staff and implementing it across the school. They also had a wonderful time exploring Iceland's main attractions. Ms Nestor, Ms Cassidy, Ms Lynch and Ms Cullen attended a course on ICT and outdoor teaching and learning from the 25th-29th March 2024 in Valencia, Spain. This course focused on how to include ICT in the classroom and provided the teachers with new knowledge on how to use a range of apps and websites, such as trello, AI and gamma. Outdoor learning was also a main focus during the week as a lot of time was spent outside visiting museums and participating in Tai-Chi in the Turia Gardens. The teachers are looking forward to sharing and implementing their new knowledge.
In February, six of our sixth class students along with 3 teachers traveled to Berlin, Germany for five days as part of our Erasmus Exchange Programme. The students spent two days visiting Charlotte Salomon Elementary school. During this time, the students got a tour of the school, participated in English lessons and visited a Technikmuseum with the students from the school. They really enjoyed chatting and spending time with the German students. They spent the rest of their time in Berlin sight seeing. Some sights that they visited were the Brandenburg Gate, the Berlin Wall and the Jewish Museum. The students had a fantastic trip and have great memories of their time in Berlin!
In October Ms. Brown, Ms. Harrington, Ms Higgins and Ms. O’Hare took part in a Job Shadow programme in Southern Spain in a town called Úbeda.
There they observed and learned about the Spanish education system and more particularly their provision for special education. They also enjoyed the good weather there! Course - Inclusion through the Arts
Three staff attended this course in Malta in August 2023 . We learned how to use different mediums within the classroom to include all levels , ability , ethnic backgrounds and diverse needs . Examples being watercolours, the use of clay, mandela art and dot art . We had a wonderful time and had two very enjoyable cultural days . It was lovely to meet everyone involved in the course and we would highly recommend these programmes. Ms. Lyons and Ms. Nestor attended a course on “Digital Tools for Collaboration, Communication, Creativity and Critical Thinking (4C’s)” from the 3rd - 7th of April in Lisbon.The focus of this course was to explore a vast range of digital tools to cater for students of all learning abilities. They learned that whilst digital tools are important to include in their teaching to promote the 4 C’s, they should be used as a tool and not used to completely replace organic teaching methods.
Ms.Higgins attended a training course on “Dyslexia and Inclusive Language” in Nafplio, Greece from 18th to 23rd July 2022.
The focus was on creating a more inclusive environment for students with different levels of Dyslexia. She learned to see Dyslexia not as a disability but a different ability. Connie, Ms. Brown and Brid Grady went to Finland for our Erasmus trip.
We learned about the Finnish Education System which was very interesting. We also discussed relaxation techniques for children and teachers in the classroom. Overall it was a very enjoyable course and the teachers were brilliant. |
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