NPCpp Conference
By Paul Mooney President of NPCpp and member of COMPASS Executive
The 31 st National Parents Council post primary conference was held in November 2016 at Tullamore County Offaly . The main Theme for the conference “ New thinking on the art of learning ” ( teaching in old money ) is sweeping the world and Ireland is at the coalface of this change .
The conference had plenty of relevant important topics of interest to parents to hear about and discuss .
New Junior Cycle
The words New Junior Cycle are innocuous sounding words heralding this change and in the process causing ructions and division amongst some teachers practicing their craft in secondary schools with some wishing to maintain the old system expressing the view " it was good enough for me when I was at school so why change " and expressing concerns , questioning maybe we might be throwing out the baby with the bathwater . Yet other teachers depending to which union they belong are embracing these new exciting ways of engaging pupils and parents using new active collaborative learning methodology . We in the NPCpp believe collaborative child centered learning is of tremendous extra benefit in this new age of technology and artificial intelligence .
Dr . Padraig Kirk
Director of Junior Cycle Training for Teachers
Parents who were able to attend our conference would have heard Dr . Padraig Kirk Director of New Junior Cycle Training for Teachers tell us of innovative developments already in practice and in store for our children attending 1st , 2nd and 3rd year in our schools and how we are in fact metaphorically holding onto the baby as we change the bathwater . He showed how the new curriculum is concentrating on the Art of Learning for our children employing essential life skills some old and some new .
Still top of the list are the literacy and numeracy skills i . e . the three R ' s ; Reading wRiting aRithmetic , however in recognition that our children are infinitely more complex than adding machines and regurgitations of learned off pages of information as in the old system the new curriculum is designed to develop in our children key skills for life today . Key skills of Creativity , Working with others , Communicating , Managing information and thinking , Staying well and Managing myself , all part of the subject of wellbeing … core skills essential to your child ' s happiness and educational success .
Whilst Dr . Padraig Kirk gave us a wonderful overview of the theory behind The New Junior Cycle Noreen Ryan Principal of St Paul ' s school Waterford gave us a wonderful helicopter view of the way the system works in practice at St Paul ’ s . Successful pupils happy and challenged and enjoying it … It was most definitely not like this as I remember .
NPCpp fully supports the new junior cycle in all its aspects and looks forward to the continuing roll out of the learning methodology into the senior cycle .
I urge you to please view St Paul ' s school Waterford website -
http :// www . stpaulswaterford . ie / and to check out another two further information websites www . jct . ie and www . curriculumonline . ie