Tag Archives: primary teachers

Minister for Education and Skills, Jan O’Sullivan has launched the first guide for primary teachers on homophobic and transphobic bullying. The guide, Respect: Creating a Welcoming and Positive School Climate to Prevent Homophobic and Transphobic Bullying in Primary School was developed by GLEN, the INTO and the INTO LGBT Group. Minister O’Sullivan said, “Every primary school classroom has children from a diverse range of backgrounds and family types. Every child needs to feel that they belong and that they are welcomed, respected and valued. “The Respect resource will support the whole primary school community in creating an inclusive and positive school climate, so that all children can flourish to the best of their abilities.” Sandra Irwin-Gowran, firector of education policy at GLEN, said,”Bullying is an issue for many children in our schools and for some this can take the form of homophobic or transphobic bullying. Encouraging respectful relationships across the school community is key to preventing bullying, particularly identity-based bullying. …

The Department of Education, in conjunction with Clare Education Centre, has approved two summer courses specifically designed for primary school teachers to run at the Loop Head Hedge School during July and August. Each programme is designed around the Loop Head natural environment and consists of a suite of ICT related workshops,  covering the Loop Head coastline, pathways into folklore writing and a combination of creativity workshops designed to incorporate literacy, numeracy and ICT across all curricula areas. The programme has been developed and approved in response to requests from primary teachers,who have attended the Loop Head Summer Hedge School modules over the past two years. The programmes are delivered by artist, author and habitat researcher, Carmel Madigan together with author and masters graduate in writing, Patricia Byrne.