Open Night at Donabate Community College

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Last Tuesday 11th September, Donabate Community College held their annual Open Night for incoming first year students.The night was a huge success, as a result of a huge collaborative effort from staff and students.

Prospective students and their parents were warmly welcomed and were introduced to several of the key aspects of the school including the use of digital devices in teaching and learning.

5th Year student, Jake O’Toole detailed the work being done in the school for the promotion of positive mental health and 2nd year students Daniel Stanford, Ronan Doyle and Niamh Neville, all spoke about their many experiences, and highlights of their first year in the school.

We would like to give huge thanks to the students, teachers and members of the Parents’ Council, who had a hand in making the night the huge success that it was.

 

 

Lucan Community College Open Evening 2018

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Lucan Community College will host their 2018 Open Evening on September 27th 2018, 4pm to 5.30pm. This special event is for all 4th, 5th and 6th class students in Lucan who are considering attending the college.

The Open Evening has proven to be a very popular event with prospective students and their parents getting the opportunity to explore the college, meet the teachers and get a flavour of the wide and varied subjects on offer.

Contact the College directly for further information at Ph: 01 6282077 or email: admin@lucancc.ie

 

 

DDLETB Festival of Music 2018

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Imagine the initial disappointment of having to cancel the Festival due to the snow on Wednesday Feb 28th after all the preparation by the students, teachers and organisers. From the auditions in November to the three choir rehearsals everyone had worked so hard. On contacting the National Concert Hall a few days later, we were delighted to be able reschedule for Tuesday Mar 13th.

It is a fantastic tribute to all involved, students, members of staff of Head Office, the schools and the National Concert Hall that all was ready for the Festival for the new date. What a night it was! The talent of all the students who took part was plainly evident. But talent will only get you so far. What the students and their teachers did by their hard work and practice resulted in a concert of high musical and performance standard. Soloists, groups and school choirs were an absolute joy to listen to. The massed choir of the DDLETB was outstanding demonstrating their talent and ability to perform various different styles of music. Those 180 students and their Musical Director, Ms. Vanessa Butler, deserve the highest praise. The choir offers the only possibility for students from across the DDLETB to perform together and that is a magnificent opportunity.
Paul Kingston, Carmel O’Neill and Aoife Staunton

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar visits Luttrellstown Community College

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Luttrellstown Community College had a visit from Taoiseach Leo Varadkar on Friday April 20th 2018. He helped to celebrate three significant milestones in the history of the school: the opening of their Aonad, Colaiste na Tulcann, in August 2018; the launch of the Leaving Certificate Computer Science programme – the school were one of 40 schools selected by the Minister for Education and Skills to study the programme from September 2018 as part of his STEM Strategy and Action Plan for Education; and the quick progress of phase two of their schools building extension which will bring the school capacity to 1,000 pupils and is expected to be completed by Summer 2019.

FAI ETB graduates Boyle & Horgan on Ireland call-ups

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MARTIN O’Neill’s decision to name Dundalk duo Andy Boyle and Daryl Horgan in the provisional squad for Ireland’s FIFA 2018 World Cup Qualifier against Austria has gone down well with those who worked with the pair as youngsters on the FAI ETB courses.

Harry McCue, FAI ETB Co-Ordinator, is particularly pleased to see the pair included in the wider squad for the game in Vienna on November 12 as they are the first graduates of the FAI ETB programme to win senior call-ups.

“I am delighted to send my congratulations to the two lads. It’s a great achievement for both of them and hopefully the start of many caps,” said McCue.

“It’s a great boost for all FAI ETB courses and the SSE Airtricity League as they’re the first lads from the courses to make the senior panel. Daryl was at Salthill Devon and Andy at Shelbourne when they both started on the courses in Castlebar and Dublin respectively.

“They were both very dedicated and focused and deserve all the honours they’ve received. They’ve been very consistent in recent seasons.”

Dundalk are in St Petersburg, Russia, today preparing for tomorrow’s their UEFA Europa League Group D Matchday 4 against Zenit St Petersburg. They were pictured outside the Church of the Savior in St.Petersburg.

The FAI in partnership with a number of Education and Training Boards throughout the country and supported by the European Social Fund are operating Local Training Initiatives that provide a unique blend of educational and football development for talented young footballers.

The renowned programme enables participants who are interested in developing a potential career in football or the sports and leisure industry as well as their level of education enhancing their job opportunities.

Kishoge C.C. named ‘Best Educational Building’

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Kishoge CC was named ‘Best Educational Building’ at the LAMA Community and Council Awards 2017 held on Saturday 4th February.This is a national award organised by all of the county councils in Ireland. Kishoge CC had strong competition from the other shortlisted buildings from Wicklow, Cavan and Cork.

Principal Niall Hare, speaking on behalf of the school community, expressed delight at winning the award:
‘The school community – students, parents and staff – are very conscious of how fortunate we are to have a beautiful, state-of–the-art educational facility. We believe that the design team of McCullough Mulvin Architects have brought a lot of imagination to bear on the design of the building.
We like the brightness: no opportunity to bring light into the school was lost – big windows, ground-to-ceiling glass panels, skylights.
We like the modern design – the funky tilts and twists of the corridor ceilings, the creative uses of concrete in pillars and walls, the attractive signage, the clever use of wooden panels.
We like the generous proportions of the social spaces especially our soaring PE hall. This sense of proportion is added to by the height of ceilings, width of corridors and size of internal doors.
We like the way in which outdoors and indoors are blended, indoor spaces wrapped around the sensory garden and internal courtyard.
We find that the building contributes to an environment that supports high-quality teaching and learning.”

Mr Hare thanked Cllr William Lavelle, South Dublin County Council, for nominating the school for the award and Deputy Principal, Maeve Joyce, who took to the red carpet on the night to collect the award

Grad day at Gormanston Army Camp

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The ‘Employment Support Scheme’ was a joint initiative run by the Department of Defence, the DSP and DDLETB Baldoyle Training Centre.

Twenty-five learners aged 18 – 24yrs from the wider Dublin North area and Drogheda area took part.  This involved 10 weeks of residential training which included a variety of formal and informal learning and facilitated learners enhancing their skills for life.  Learners graduated on 26 August 2016 in Gormanston Army Camp.

Minister of State Mr Finian McGrath TD presided over the parade, addressed the participants and both the Minister and Mr Paddy Lavelle, Chief Executive of DDLETB presented certificates to the graduates.  The Mayor of Drogheda Oliver Tully was also in attendance.

iTunes U service for schools, further education & training

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Pupils and students of Dublin & Dún Laoghaire Education and Training Board across 16 schools, colleges and further education centres will benefit from a new approach to learning with the launch of iTunes U Site on Monday 7th
December 2015. https://vimeo.com/149277581

DDLETB’s iTunes U courses are now live on iTunes. This new education platform was launched at an impressive exhibition of digital learning projects in Tallaght involving students from Community National Schools, Colleges, and Further
Education centres who are piloting the initiative.

iTunes U is Apple’s collaborative learning app which can house multiple resources in a streamlined learning environment. An initial group of over 70 teachers in 16 centres of learning have undertaken professional training in using iTunes U to
create, edit and manage entire courses for the iTunes U platform. They are also sharing their ongoing course work with each other.

A library of iPads has been made available for teachers to use. Resource materials prepared specially by teachers will form the content of the iTunes U Courses. Students will be taught using a mix of traditional and digital means. Teachers and students can collaborate in an open learning environment.

iTunes U provides user-friendly technology with a wide choice of options to suit the needs of a class. Courses on the app can vary in length depending on the needs of the learner. Teachers can deliver classes in an organised and streamlined manner with a new easy-to-use app which learners can access on their iPads. iTunes U allows users to access courses and notes at any time, receive course updates directly onto their iPads and submit assignments to their teacher and get direct feedback.

Paddy Lavelle, CEO of the DDLETB launched the programme and said: “This is exemplary of the forward looking approach to skills development that we want to see for every pupil and driven by our teachers. It’s truly exciting to be at the
forefront of the merging of traditional teaching methods with advanced digital technologies that will underpin and support the skills of our teachers and are easy to use for our students. It’s going to be really interesting to see how students react
to the initiative and the long term results iTunes U will impact on teachers and students”.

The iTunes U project is now running an initiative in maths and science in 7 schools across DDLETB. If you are a 1:1 school or an iPad class set school and are looking for a virtual learning environment please contact sconroy@ddletb.ie.

Visit the DDLETB iTunes U Site
https://itunes.apple.com/ie/institution/dublin-dun-laoghaire-education/id1004374997

DDLETB Further Education Colleges and EUCOPP

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Teachers from our Further Education Colleges are currently involved in a European project with education partners in Norway and Estonia.  The project known as EUCOPP (European Communities of Professional Practice) aims to build communities of professional practice for teachers within DDLETB and at a European level.  The focus of the project is on the Healthcare and Childcare vocational areas and includes examining how our European partners incorporate core non vocational subjects into vocationally specialised courses.  The project was launched in October 2017 and in November, teachers from 8 DDLETB colleges became involved in the first stage of the programme.

EUCOPP is a two-year project during which teachers from Estonia and Norway will visit Ireland to spend time job shadowing our teachers in a number of different FE colleges.  Teachers from DDLETB will travel to Trondheim in Norway and Haapsalu in Estonia to learn about vocational education in these countries and observe teaching methodologies and practice.

On the 13 th  of November a group of seven teachers and managers from two vocational colleges in Trondheim, Norway (Kristen Videregående Skole Trøndelag (KVT) and Orkdal Videregående Skole) came to Dublin for a three-day job shadowing visit with our FE colleges. During the visit, teachers exchanged a lot of ideas and information about their specialist vocational areas, their teaching practice and of course, their students.

Before their departure the Norwegian teachers thanked DDLETB for the warm welcome they received and the quality of the programme planned for their visit.  They reported positively on what they had learned from practice observed in the classes they visited and were particularly impressed with the relationships evident between.

Adult Education Service pilots tours of local library services

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As part of a new national protocol for co-operation between LGMA/ County Library Services and ETBs, students and staff of South-West Dublin, Adult Education Service have been attending tours of the County Library Tallaght. This protocol is still in its pilot stage, but already the Tallaght Library and DDLETB Adult Education Service have benefited from staff and students becoming members of the library and increased usage of the library to
facilitate adult education classes.