Excellence in education
Our Community
Scoil Sinéad Patronage is prides in its excellence in education, equality, respect and community centredness. Our schools provide equal opportunities for all students within the communities we serve ensuring high quality education that centres around strong supportive, positive, responsive and respectful learning environments. Our themes are linked to the different activities within the local and wider community we serve. This ensures that all students can respect, care and fully participate in the community and recognise the good work others do in their community. Parental involvement is vital. Regular opportunities for teachers, children and parents to engage with the school community and the wider community creates a sense of togetherness.
Cradle to Graduation
Scoil Sinéad has form – from Cradle to Graduation. Achieving this is only possible by our involvement with our community. Community engagement helps to create an inclusive educational environment where all students feel seen and valued. There is an instilled a sense of pride in family, school and community. As our schools become increasingly diverse, actively involving the community can help schools to bridge the cultural, socioeconomic and experiential gaps that can otherwise alienate students. Inspiring educational talks are organised for the students through our community programmes run in conjunction with the local authority and Entrepreneurship local industry. This provides the students with a sense of pride of place and understanding, enhanced and supported through their curricular work.
Secondary School
At Secondary School simply ‘ramping up’ the same activities they undertook in primary school is not enough. We have introduced a new subject strand called ‘International Development Strand’. Students will now begin to understand that they are also citizens of, not just the town but the country, the continent and the world. To bring this about, we travel. First year sees them going to an activity centre and staying overnight. It helps bonding and brings about skills of planning, organising, budgeting etc. By second year, it is overseas to the UK. This enhances skills of behaviour, self-regulation, planning and now the requirement to save and fundraise kicks in. In co-operation with the Irish League of Credit Unions we facilitate this and develop lifelong skills. By transition year, they are ready to visit Europe and the European structures of Government and Industry. They will visit the European Parliament and the Commission in Brussels. They meet industry and education specialists and all of this feed into their subject curriculum and develops the skills we said were necessary to succeed in an ever-changing world. Our partnership with the European Commission education team and the Irish Institute for European Affairs in Louvain make this happen.