Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
I agree that inclusion needs to begin from the moment a child enters the school. Your emphasis on clear routines, visual supports and supportive classmates shows how small practical actions can help a new pupil feel safe and valued. I also like your use of SPHE, circle time and stories to build empathy. Linking this to SSE could help ensure that welcoming practices are consistent across the whole school community.
<p class=”PDq2pG_selectionAnchorContainer” data-start=”567″ data-end=”894″>In North Mayo, organisations such as Mayo North East and WIN Mayo work with refugees, Ukrainian families and other people who have recently arrived in Ireland. Mayo North East has an office in Belmullet and provides support through its social inclusion and Ukrainian community programmes.Our school could support refugees by creating a genuinely welcoming environment for children and their families. Pupils could help design a multilingual welcome booklet showing important places in the school, daily routines and useful words or phrases. We haveA buddy system helping newly arrived pupils develop friendships and feel included during lessons and yard time. The school could also invite a local support worker to speak to staff and pupils about migration, while ensuring that individual children are never pressured to share difficult personal experiences. We would need to ensure that this isnt just a tick the box activity and that inclusion and awareness are part of every day life in our school Students could also take action by creating welcome posters, collecting suitable books in different languages and examining whether the school library represents children from diverse cultures and backgrounds. Linking with Mayo North East could ensure that any action responds to what families actually need rather than making assumptions.</p>
<p data-start=”1800″ data-end=”2070″ data-is-last-node=”” data-is-only-node=””>This module could contribute to SSE by helping us examine pupil belonging, inclusion, communication with families and access to the curriculum. Pupil and parent voices could be gathered to identify what the school does well and what could be improved.</p>Hi Aisling,
I agree that educational inequality can strongly influence children’s confidence, opportunities and expectations for the future. Your suggestion of using stories, inquiry and links with other schools would make global inequality more meaningful and relatable for pupils. I also like your emphasis on moving beyond awareness towards action. Connecting this work with SSE could help ensure that equality, inclusion and global citizenship are embedded consistently throughout the whole school.
I would focus on sdg 4: Quality Education, particularly the gender inequalities that prevent many girls around the world from receiving an education. In some communities, girls are expected to stay at home, care for younger children, work, or marry at a young age, while boys’ education is prioritised. Conflict, poverty and unsafe journeys to school can create further barriers. This means that many girls are denied not only an education, but also future opportunities, independence and the ability to participate fully in society.This isn’t far removed from Irish history and boys education being prioritised over girls.
I would use the Step Forward activity from the module, giving pupils different roles and reading statements such as, I go to school every day, and, Nothing stops me from going to school. This would help children see how gender, poverty and location can affect opportunity. I would also use the unequal tower-building activity to show that people do not always begin with the same resources or chances.For local action, pupils could create posters about every child’s right to education, write letters to the Taoiseach or present their learning at assembly to younger or even older classes. This could support SSE by encouraging pupil voice and examining how our school promotes equality, inclusion and high expectations for both girls and boys.
I agree that gender stereotypes can influence children’s choices from a very young age, often without them realising it. Your example of the boys avoiding knitting and bracelet-making shows how quickly activities can become labelled as ‘for boys’ or ‘for girls’. Development Ed provides valuable opportunities to question these assumptions through discussion, stories and shared activities. I also like your link to SSE- as a whole-school approach would help ensure that messages about equality and inclusion are reinforced consistently.
Gender stereotypes can affect children’s confidence and sense of belonging from a very young age. I witnessed this during yard time when some of the girls decided that they no longer wanted to play football. They explained that the boys rarely passed the ball to them and sometimes said that ‘girls are no good at sport’. Although this may have seemed like a casual comment, it was clearly affecting the girls’ enjoyment, participation and belief in their own abilities. It also reinforced the idea that football belongs more to boys than girls.Development education methodologies could help challenge this by giving children opportunities to question stereotypes rather than simply being told that they are wrong. A class discussion, role play or scenario-based activity could encourage pupils to consider how exclusion feels and whether opportunities are being shared fairly. Cooperative games, mixed teams and agreed rules about equal participation could also help change behaviour in practice. Exploring examples of successful female athletes would further challenge assumptions and show that sporting ability is not determined by gender. The aim would be to help all pupils recognise unfairness and take responsibility for creating a more inclusive environment.
<div class=”” data-turn-id-container=”9a084009-bceb-42a3-9611-70145ca66e3f” data-is-intersecting=”true”>I agree that one of the strengths of Development Education is that it can be embedded across many areas of the curriculum rather than taught in isolation. I also like your point about linking learning to real-world issues, as this helps children see why their learning matters. Whole-school approaches, such as cultural awareness events and embedding Development Education within SSE, are a great way to ensure these values become part of the everyday culture of the school rather than one-off activities</div>
<div class=”” data-turn-id-container=”2bd2e69e-50bd-4b2c-ab56-34f9d106b4a8″ data-is-intersecting=”true”>I often wondered what difference one person like me can really make when so many problems in society feel much bigger than anything I can change. Ehigie’s paper made me think differently about this. Her idea of the “system of self” suggests that change can begin with examining our own attitudes, choices and actions, while also joining with others who share the same values.This is why Development Education is important. It can help children understand that they are connected to other people and that issues such as poverty, racism and inequality are not completely separate from their own lives. In my classroom, I would use stories, discussion and age-appropriate real-life issues to encourage empathy, questioning and small meaningful actions.I would also encourage colleagues to plan activities together so that this becomes part of school life rather than a once-off lesson. Through SSE, we could look honestly at our resources, pupil voice and whole-school practices, then choose one realistic area to improve. That feels more manageable and meaningful than trying to solve everything at once.</div>
