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Climate change is becoming far more visible in our local area. We are experiencing more storms, heavier rainfall, flooding, and unpredictable weather patterns. School closures and delayed openings due to severe weather are now common, something we never experienced as children. These warnings can cause stress for pupils — some worry about their homes, while others rely on school as their safe place for routine and hot meals. This year alone, we had weeks of wet‑play days, which affected pupils’ behaviour, learning, and overall well‑being.
One recent storm had a direct impact on a pupil when a tree fell on their house. The family had to be rescued, and the child missed school while staying elsewhere. Our principal and class teacher checked in with the family to offer support, which aligned strongly with our SSE focus on well‑being.
In the Infant classroom, these weather changes provide meaningful learning opportunities. Through SESE, we explore weather using stories, observations, nature walks, and simple recording activities like daily weather charts. Programmes such as Incredible Edibles help children learn about sustainable living, and our Green Team promotes recycling and energy conservation. Children love having “jobs,” and they often bring these messages home. Initiatives like Walk on Wednesday also encourage pupils to think about their carbon footprint.
Three actions to slow down climate change:
- Promote recycling and energy conservation in school (lights off, doors closed, proper waste sorting).
- Encourage sustainable travel, such as walking or cycling to school.
- Grow food locally through programmes like Incredible Edibles to teach children about sustainable living.
These are practical, achievable actions within my role that help pupils understand climate change and feel empowered to make a difference
Development Education strengthens our School Self‑Evaluation (SSE) by promoting active learning, inclusion, global citizenship, and environmental awareness throughout the curriculum. It supports reflective teaching and helps create meaningful learning experiences that build children’s understanding of sustainability, empathy, and their responsibility for caring for their local community and the wider world.
This is so true Andrea, the more severe weather is more apparent as it is affecting the children’s lives, one of the children in our school had a tree fall on their house and they had to be rescued by the fire brigade, which is quite a traumatic event for a child and it caused quite a stir among the children in the class when a picture of her house appeared in the news.
Through this module, I became aware of several local supports in Dundalk that I hadn’t known existed. The Cultúr Migrant Centre offers direct support to migrants and refugees, including English classes, a women’s group, and job‑coaching. The Louth Volunteer Centre has a New Communities Support Officer who helps families connect locally through volunteering and welcome cafés. The Louth County Council Integration Team also works in Dundalk to support international protection applicants and programme refugees. These are valuable resources, and it would be ideal for schools — especially the Home School Liaison teacher — to link with them to support families.
In school, teachers play a key role in helping pupils feel welcome. I prepare my class before a new pupil arrives, encourage open discussion, and assign a buddy for class and yard time. SPHE lessons also help promote friendship, inclusion, and cultural awareness.
Whole‑school initiatives like a Cultural Day would celebrate diversity through stories, music, food, and language. Open mornings for parents and optional English classes could further support integration. All of this aligns strongly with SSE by promoting equality, inclusion, and intercultural awareness within our school community.
The use of visual supports and structured supports within the class are beneficial to all pupils so it is a form of including all without drawing attention to new pupils in the class.
We would find the use of a buddy system also worked well in our school. In other situations we found that pupils from older classess who may have been from the Ukraine, helped settle in the younger pupils when they started as they could speak to them in their own language.
I would explore Goal 13 – Climate Change, as children are increasingly aware of how it affects their lives both locally and globally. In Ireland, we are seeing noticeable changes in our weather patterns, from unusually hot summers to more frequent severe storms. Many pupils still remember Storm Ophelia, which brought dangerous winds and heavy rain. Experiences like this help children understand that climate change is not something happening far away — it is already impacting their own communities.
To encourage children to take meaningful action, I would involve them in projects focused on caring for the environment and making responsible choices. This links naturally with Goal 12: Responsible Consumption and Production, as children can learn how reducing waste, recycling, reusing materials, and conserving energy all contribute to climate prevention. Working with the Green Schools Committee would give pupils real opportunities to lead initiatives and see the impact of their efforts.
These activities empower children to recognise that their actions matter and support ESD to 2030 Priority Action Area 5, which emphasises accelerating local‑level action. This module has highlighted the importance of teaching children that everyone has a role in protecting the environment and that creating a more equal, inclusive world begins with understanding our shared responsibility.
The Step Forward Game was a very effective activity for older classes. It clearly showed pupils how people’s opportunities can differ and how inequality affects individuals in real ways. As the gaps widened between characters, pupils quickly recognised that not everyone starts from the same place. It sparked strong discussion around fairness, privilege, and the impact of circumstances beyond our control. Overall, it was a simple but powerful way to help children understand inequality and think about how they can make their school and community more inclusive.
I would agree with Michelle this is a very sustainable goal as it is something all the children observe in their daily lives.
From my experience in the Infant classroom, many children start school already influenced by gender stereotypes — especially around colours and toys. Each year you can see it clearly: pink and purple bags for the girls, blue and black for the boys. I often hear comments like “You can’t use that crayon, it’s pink,” which shows how early these ideas form. Society reinforces this, even during the back‑to‑school shop.
Aistear has made a real difference. Through play‑based learning, children naturally explore roles that break stereotypes. It’s lovely to see boys pushing baby dolls and girls wearing hard hats and building. When given freedom, they quickly realise that jobs and activities are for everyone.
Development Education supports this by encouraging children to question stereotypes and understand equality. Inclusive resources help too. One example is Prince Cinders, which the children enjoy — it gently shows that boys can also be central characters in fairy‑tale roles.
As educators, we need gender‑neutral classrooms that promote inclusion and equality, which links strongly with our SSE work. Emma Watson’s speech on gender equality is powerful and age‑appropriate; it highlights messages all pupils should hear as they grow.
Overall, promoting gender equality in the early years helps children develop confidence, empathy, and a sense that they can be anything they choose
This is so true, I found the biggest shift in my mindset was with the introduction of Aistear in Infant Classes, gone was the idea that the blocks were only for boys, or dolls for girls. It was great to see the boys and girls having ownership over their toy choices. I know this is only a small step but it goes along way.
After beginning the article “The Role of Global Citizens in Today’s World,” my mind immediately went to Martin Luther King Jr. and his “I Have a Dream” speech. Seeing him referenced later in the article only reinforced how urgently global citizenship is needed today, especially in light of the protests and social movements we’ve witnessed in recent years. The article felt particularly relevant to the multicultural classrooms we all teach in. Our pupils come from a wide range of backgrounds and life experiences, and it is essential that we, as educators, address these issues in an age‑appropriate and meaningful way.
Global citizenship begins within the school environment and extends outward into our local communities. As educators, we play a central role in shaping young people’s understanding of fairness, kindness, and their responsibility to others. I agree that there have been promising developments in tackling racism, as noted by Eric Ehihie, though I feel these changes are most visible among younger, more educated generations — which highlights just how powerful education truly is.
One quote from the article stood out to me:
“Hence, focusing on the more immediate task of improving ourselves incrementally and acting in accordance with the aspirations we have for our local community, and the global community, is the sufficient starting point in embracing our role as global citizens.”
This captures the essence of development education. It reminds us that promoting kindness, empathy, and solidarity begins with small, intentional actions. As part of teaching pupils to be global citizens, we must also help them understand the past — not to instil fear or guilt, but to ensure harmful patterns are not repeated and to promote equality. We need to nurture care and empathy, and help children recognise that everyone has both privileges and disadvantages, but none of these make one person better than another.
Although huge progress has been made, there is still much work to do. In Infant education, we already embed kindness, compassion, and acceptance into daily routines. However, with the increasing inequalities children encounter, it would be valuable to have a bank of resources to support this teaching. Books, in particular, are powerful tools for exploring social issues in an age‑appropriate way. As part of SSE, I would propose compiling a list of high‑quality children’s books that address themes such as diversity, fairness, empathy, and global citizenship.
In my AP2 role, I oversee the Green Schools Committee, and I see a natural link between environmental stewardship and global citizenship. Introducing the concept of global citizens to the Green Team could help promote these values across the school, encouraging pupils to see themselves as active contributors to both their local environment and the wider world.
Development education is not an add‑on — it is central to preparing children to live with empathy, fairness, and responsibility. As educators, we have a powerful opportunity to make the world better for everyone, starting with the pupils in front of us each day.
I teach in an Infants School, but the Senior school had a cultural day in June. The children from different cultures came into school wearing clothes from their country if different and brought in their food, the children learned lots about all the different cultures through this.
This is so true Eimear, it is a must in this ever changing society. The majority of our classrooms are all multi-cultural and the curriculum needs to reflect this. Although I agree with it needing to be incorporating into the day, the curriculum is already packed without adding to it, but in some ways we are teaching/ promoting parts of this in SPHE, Geography etc,
