In April 2022 we were successful in our project application “Meeting the Needs of All.” This project ran from April 2022 – August 2023 and provided our school with the opportunity to send 30 staff members on courses around Europe.
Staff applied internally to the Project Coordinator. Staff selected a course and a location that fulfilled our project aims.
The aim of this project is to send staff on European courses to learn about and investigate new and better strategies for all learners in our school, investigate teaching and learning methodologies and acquire, receive training and create resources. This will in turn help create meaningful and manageable inclusion and differentiation in our classrooms.
It is hoped that having explored models of best practice in Europe, teachers will return to Ireland abreast of the most up-to-date teaching models and promote new thinking and valuable discussion amongst colleagues. In the long term, our project will inform school curriculum, policy and practice as well as nurturing in teachers a willingness to share and collaborate with colleagues on a national and international level.
We have a Teaching and Learning committee in our school. All resources and best practices will be brought back to this committee and disseminated to our staff at staff meetings as well as department meetings. New practices will be reviewed annually and staff will provide feedback.
A bank of resources is available to all staff on our staff shared drive. Staff have access to all resources from the current project in addition to all resources from our previous project 2019-2020. This drive is updated with all new resources once participants complete their course.
Digital Literacy - Tenerife February 2023
A group of 4 staff completed a course in “Digital Literacy” in education in Tenerife, Spain with iDevelop. The course was 5 days in duration and our staff have obtained invaluable knowledge and resources which will be shared across our school staff to enrich our students and their learning.
Modern technology is a crucial part of our everyday teaching and learning in Mount Sion. Every staff member has access to laptops, projectors, don view screens, Chromebooks and many other technologies across all departments.
During lockdown we were teaching explicitly through technology with remote teaching and learning. The reason for selecting this course was to ensure we are getting the best use from technology in our teaching and learning, investigating European standards and practices of digital literacy and obtaining resources to implement in our school and classrooms.
The course was very informative to our staff who have received training on new websites and resources for example Edpuzzle a digital resource which can be used to add questions into existing videos. This can be used as a pre-teaching resource which mirrors a flipped classroom.
4 C’s Collaboration, Communication, Critical Thinking and Creativity - Seville February 2023
A group of 6 staff completed “Collaboration, Communication, Critical Thinking and Creativity” in education in Sevilla, Spain with iDevelop. This course was 5 days in duration as well as theory our staff participated in activities that will be put into practice with our students in different subject areas to promote collaborative work, better communication, inspire creativity and critical thinking and problem solving.
Multiculturalism and Inter-culturalism - Tenerife April 2023
3 of our staff members used their Easter breaks to travel abroad to attend a CPD course in Tenerife. The opportunity to attend courses abroad was made available to our school and funded by the Erasmus Plus KA1 grant. We need to say another massive thanks to everyone at Léargas Ireland for their help in applying for this funding and continued project support.
Our school has over 40 different nationalities so learning best practices in catering to all of our students and learners from all over the world was the focus of this course for our staff. All of our staff who attended courses have brought invaluable knowledge and new practices which will be shared across our school staff to enrich our students and their learning.
