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Deis Primary School Support

  • 07-09-2019 7:37am
    #1
    louloumc89
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 321 ✭✭


    Hey - I'm looking for some information about supports for deis school teachers. My friend is a teacher in a deis band 1 school.

    If you haven't heard of deis, the variables involved to class a school in deis band 1 or 2, with one being the highest, are:
    parental unemployment
    % local authority accommodation
    % lone parenthood
    % Travellers
    % large families (5 or more children)
    % pupils eligible for free books

    She loves her class, and she literally gives her life to making their school hours as productive, helpful and wholesome as possible. It's difficult as you can imagine for a child coming out of a home where the parent, or parents might be shooting up, overdosing etc.. before the child comes in to class in the morning. And yet, she fiercely defends these children to me, telling me that some of the kids in her class, despite their backgrounds, are scoring STen (standardised testing) scores in the top 5 percentile.

    Deis schools get a grant yearly so that they are able to provide some food to kids, breakfast clubs etc. However I know in rural Ireland, where I grew up, despite being classed as an underprivileged area, we had 91% of kids go to a main 3rd level education institution last year from the local secondary school. These primary schools are feeding the local secondary schools, and her kids will have a 5-20% chance of going to a main university after leaving the school system. By aged 17 there's a pathway carved that is much different that mine was.

    So - here's the advice I'm looking for (please!) - My friend spends a lot of money to give incentives (pencil cases, school supplies, treats, novelty stationary) as rewards to motivate the children, and sometimes to give them because they just don't have those things. My friends and I are going to run a fundraiser to help her and some of the other teachers out with resources to give them art/school supplies etc. Most kids in the class won't get pencil crayons etc going into the start of the year. Their grant money covers the school year start fees, or book rental fees that most schools get parents to cover. But these kids need a lot of extra help at school to give them a proper chance in life. In some cases the parents are amazing and encourage their education, but of course not in all cases. From how she talks about these lovely kids, I am absolutely inspired to see what I can do to help.

    Questions:
    Are there charities/organisations which exist to support teachers in disadvantaged schools?

    If no charity exists for the purpose of supporting teachers, i.e. a place teachers can apply for grants for, do you know if there is a reason for this?

    Does anyone have any similar experiences and advice?


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