Week in Review

Staff Picks:

Inside third level

Teachers must come from all sections of society

 

Higher & Further Education News & Views

Minister snubs key education reform plan

Where science meets business

Farmers battle college grant plans

IT Sligo appointment to Higher Education Authority Board

Flying the Galway flag in the US

CIT strike off after last-minute talks

Pupils pit wits against language puzzles

News diary from 1916 in DCU media history collection

Shakespeare scholars to defend the Bard

Students look past recession towards hi-tech horizons

CAO points scramble strategy doesn’t add up

New science chief is all fired up

 

Disability Headlines

Harsh cuts loom for the intellectually disabled but there is a smart option

Where the horses are the healers

Blue is the colour for World Autism Awareness Day

Duffy and soccer stars to saddle up and raise funds for autism

‘Macbeth’ to come to life for audience with sensory impairments

Let us have new MS treatment, plead sufferers

‘Without him my life wouldn’t be the same’

Teenage autism crusader leaves powerful legacy

General Education Stories

Strong differences persist over school patronage

More than 200 teenagers take part in triathlon as part of school year

Four questioned over violent incident at Ennis school

Pick up skills in lifelong learning week

Surge in uptake of higher-level LC maths

Project Maths is not the answer to tough question

Music helps children learn maths

 

Mental Health in the Media

‘Walk In My Shoes’ mental health drive

Lynch to meet group to discuss anti-depressants

Stars step up to support mental health campaign

Can Goldie Hawn make Irish children happier?

Debate on antidepressants needed

Rugby star O’Driscoll urges men to open up

 

Employment Features

50 leading social innovators to participate at Change Nation event

WAM (Willing Able Mentoring) Programme Briefing

 

Week in Review

Staff Picks:

Your child has dyslexia? She could grow up to be a star. . .

Exploding the Lecture

Is this place accessible?

Educating Irish people to live and work success

 

Higher & Further Education News & Views

National Moot Court winners

Retail ‘legend’ honoured at DIT ceremony

Quinn refuses to rule out blanket cull of postgraduate grants

Student registration fees to rise for four years in row

Future of VECs and SOLAS explained at Oireachtas Committee meeting

Middle-class schools tighten their grip on college places

MY EDUCATION WEEK: Gary Redmond President, USI

UL medical school chief to earn €240,000 per annum

Huge salary ‘out of our hands’ says UL

Cuts ‘will perpetuate two-tier school system’

Irish shy away from EU study scheme

What courses does the ‘Free Fees Scheme’ actually cover?

Report: Academic standards slipping

Students to stage ‘funeral’ protest

Flagship DIT site to proceed if planning granted

Students pay respects to education

Senior figures in education echo Hunt’s view that there is no case for more universities – technological or otherwise

Private backers for DIT campus

 

Disability Headlines

‘I know where I’m going, who I am – that makes me strong’

Opening doors to the disabled

When Popular Novels Perpetuate Negative Stereotypes: Mark Haddon, Asperger’s and Irresponsible Fiction

Guardian wins people’s choice award for excellence in disability journalism

Insulin pump access limited

Fertility clinics may offer embryo genetic screening

Rise in autism ‘may be linked to clever parents’ say scientists

Hearing tests for newborns at Waterford Regional Hospital

Stroke survivors honoured for courage

Special Olympics Ulster awarded almost £2.3m of government funding

Boy’s education ‘impeded by layers of bureaucracy’

Department of Justice withdraws 2012 funding for People with Disabilities Ireland (PwDI)

Is the changing role of women in our society behind the rise in autism in the past 30 years?

Cut closes disability organisation

Boy denied HSE care costing just €300 a week

 

General Education Stories

School principals call for overhaul of board structures

Galway literacy plan linked to ocean race

Court to hear case for tendering out school bus scheme

Will our fee-paying parents be squeezed until the pips squeak?

‘I was lectured on my sexuality’

Study guides – who’s best?

Education: It’s a question of faith

Failure to grasp nettle on maths a national shame

No fees, full marks: secrets of school success revealed

Protestant school pupils lose bus appeal

How the Inter Cert’s domestic goddess is making a comeback

In My Opinion: Ministers, do your homework and extend free pre-school scheme

 

Mental Health in the Media

‘Cuts will fuel long-term social issues’

Rise in number of people seeking suicide counselling

 

Employment Features

Teaching union orders members to refuse intern scheme job offers

€200k start-up scheme at core of jobs plan for South-east

Experts call for privacy on personal genetic testing

Over 100 jobs set to be created in technology sector

Statutory sick pay could form part of social welfare system reform, says Burton

 

Week in Review

Pick of the week:

The points system fails students and the country, so replace it with a lottery

Higher Education News & Views

Mature students feel let down by ’empty pledge’

Colleges clamp down as students copy and paste their way to degrees

Colleges should be free to ‘hire and fire’

College president defends €100,000 spent on taxis

Universities should be free to ‘hire and fire’ and set pay

Warning over lack of funding at third level

WIT asked for report on spending

Quinn intervenes in reappointment of college chief

WIT board refuses to extend term of president

Mature student, 91, set for second term at university

Disability News & Views (General)

How my cousin Aimée, the first Down’s TV star, made me smile through the tears. . .

No fear of going to school with iScoil

Mum of autistic boy ‘in shock’ over stem-cell centre closure

Survivors’ group to protest against use of electroshock therapy

Does it work? Can flower remedies help with autism?

Teaching parents to accept

Hardest Hit march brings disabled people out on to the streets

Dear parent: why your dyslexic child struggles with reading

Ring finger length link to disease

Boy who can hear again hailed as medical miracle

Taking the long view of ageing in Ireland

Baby left deaf by meningitis can hear again

 

General Education News

Fee-paying schools lose building grants

Govt announces 15,900 extra training and education places

Keeper of the school gate

End is in sight for roll calls as schools face the future

Radio Captioning And Its Relevance To Education

 

Mental Health in the Media

Cost and stigma barrier to people seeking help with mental heath issues

Prospects for new Central Mental Hospital ‘hopeless’

Irish Examiner wins health award

Alcohol consumption has ‘significant’ influence on suicide rates

Bitter pursuit of debt ‘causing suicides’

Spate of teen suicides over May weekend

Listeners urged to ‘mind their mates’

Students rewarded for suicide campaign

Mental health fears for children in care

Remarks on suicide and debt welcomed

Bankers hit out at Honohan’s ‘emotive’ remarks on suicide

‘The most important thing is to reach out’

 

Week in Review

Hello everyone,

the last of the four day weeks for a while! Well at least until the June Bank Holiday weekend 🙂

First up this week, make sure you check out AHEAD in the News! Ann Heelan Director of AHEAD featured in the Irish Times Education Profile. You can read the article in full here: Disability is not a bar to learning

We are also delighted to provide a link to Sinead Kanes interview with Ryan Tubridy during the week. Sinead is a current WAM Participant and a graduate of UCC. Sinead has also spoken at GET AHEAD events in the past.

You can listen to the interview here: https://getaheadblog.wordpress.com/2011/05/06/sinead-kane-on-2fm/

In other news, I’ve grouped articles together under some loose headings to make the post easier to browse! Hope this helps! I’ve also added my own personal favourite at the top of the list!

Personal Favourite:

Our daughter has a right to an education, like every other child

Higher Education News & Views

Higher education harmed by political system

John Drennan: Quinn to axe points race by 2014

Third-level heads asked to put forward proposals on reform

Waterford institute spending review

We should ensure there is not too much of an overlap in provision of courses

Graduates to get degree status under alliance

CAO apologises for posting med applicants’ test scores online

Galway’s educational institutes sign up to partnership

Disability News & Views (General)

McDonald’s to improve outlet accessibility

Helping more disabled people get into politics

Transitioning From Primary To Secondary School

Comic’s €250,000 donation is no joke

Teenager with cerebral palsy awarded €3.5m

Disabled man’s quad bike stolen from outside his flat

Mental Health in the Media

Suicide statistics ‘brushed under the carpet’

49% do not seek help for mental problems

One in five social network conversations focus on ‘negative’

Just 50% of people with mental health issues seek counselling

Family calls for more research into anti-depressants

Only 9 cells for mentally ill prisoners, claims POA

General Education News

Online learning bridges the gap from class to the digital world

Teacher’s Pet – Tues May 3rd

Minister on collision course with gaelscoileanna

Yes, we teachers just don’t know how privileged we really are

Our education failures cannot be put on backburner

Other articles of interest

Dragon’s Den judge Gallagher confirms presidential ambition

4th National APA Conference

Concerns at overuse of sedatives in hospitals

Cheap rates not for all

Arts and Disability Awards Ireland 2011

Want to know even more? Then check out the BBC Ouch! blog which has compiled a list of relevant links from the BBC this week: Disability around the BBC this week

 

Happy Easter!

On behalf of all the staff in AHEAD we would like to wish all our fanbook fans, twitter followers and fellow bloggers a very Happy Easter! 

Our week in review is below so you can catch up on the latest news and reviews over the long weekend! Or you could scrap the computer and hit the park for what is promised to be a beautiful weekend! Eagle eyed readers might notice the picture below is from one of my favourite spots – Fitzgeralds Park in Cork!

AHEAD would also like to take this opportunity to congratulate Citi on winning the AHEAD Disability Inclusion Award at the GradIreland Awards which took place last week.

Week in Review: 

The iPad way to fight autism

Institutions ‘use drugs to subdue residents’

Gene link identified in ADHD

IHF: state spends just €120 on rehab per stroke victim

University employment practice criticised

Still a champion of people with intellectual disabilities after 50 years

Cuts taking their toll on teens with intellectual disabilities

Time for an end to exclusion Ireland

Banks ‘should share profits with suffering charities’

I feel as if I’ve beaten cancer of the mind

Hundreds take part in Job Shadow day

Website snaps up student who turned profit on his study notes

Mature Matters: Depression

Ex-store manager awarded €84,000 for dismissal

Education system needs to reflect our diversity

Six-year delay in regulation of sector

The gradireland Graduate Recruitment Awards 2011: a positive outlook for graduates.

 

World Cafe Event Video

AHEAD invited students with disabilities from all over Ireland to the Kilmainham Hilton Hotel where we asked them ‘what would make your education amazing?’ We did this with Chris Chapman (Change Exploratory) as a facilitator who used the World Cafe technique (theworldcafe.com). The evening before the World Cafe we invited successful professionals to have dinner with students so that they could find out more about different professions in an informal setting and make connections for the future. Guests included Caroline Carswell, Lucy Fallon Byrne, Brian Mooney, Tony Ward, Dermot O Sullivan, Sinead Kane, Aoibheann Gleeson & Viv Rath.
The event was a huge success thanks to all the students who took part and shared their experience and stories so openly with us. We look forward to bringing those stories to policy and decision makers in 2011. This video is the start of that – it is a brief look at what happened on the day with contributions from students. It was first shown at the AHEAD AGM on the 14th December 2010.

 

Feedback on Charter for Inclusive Teaching and Learning

Hopefully you’re here because you have gotten a letter from our director Ann Heelan, enclosing our Charter for Teaching and Learning. We’re really keen to see as many people as possible use this and to find it useful!

If you’d like to sign up as a supporter of the Charter, please go to the comments and leave your name, department and college. If you don’t want to leave your name in the comments you can email us at ahead AT ahead.ie (just put “supporter of the Charter” in the subject line)

You can tell us about any innovative examples of teaching and learning practices here too. This helps us to stay up to date with what’s happening all over the country and to share your experiences with others which may help them in their work.

If you have any questions about it or any other matter please contact us.