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A Brief Insight Into The School In Action
Stated briefly, the aims of the school are to enable each student to reach his full potential and to equip him to do a job of work commensurate with that potential. More explicitly, the aims of the school are:
1. to develop the student's self esteem, self worth and overall competence so that he/she can function as fully as possible in the life of the community
2. to provide an environment of preparation towards economic efficiency and worthwhile use of leisure time
3. to assist the student to achieve his/her potential in the aesthetic and creative, ethical, intellectual, linguistic, mathematical, moral, physical, scientific, social and political, and spiritual areas of the curriculum
Emphasis will be placed on the psychological needs of the children rather than on the acquisition of knowledge.
Children who attend this school have the same human needs as other children. They go through the
same stages of development, in the same order, but at a slower than average
rate. Since they do not benefit to the same degree as do average children
from the learning opportunities afforded by the home and by the environment
generally, they often have to be taught what other pupils acquire incidentally
or through maturation. Children in our school do not constitute a homogeneous
group: even those of apparently the same developmental age will not progress
through the various stages of development at the same rate. They often have
a limited ability to generalise, or to transfer skills acquired in one situation
to another similar one. A single overall measure of a child's performance
such as an Intelligence Quotient or Social Quotient may conceal wide variations
as between discrete aspects of his/her functioning. Taking cognizance of
this fact, our school endeavours to provide an individualised, highly structured
prescriptive type programme, catering for the requirements of each child's
needs as a pupil as well as his long term needs as an adult.To draw up an individualised programme requires a considerable amount of expertise and experience by the school staff. They draw upon the collective wisdom of reports from the child's former teachers, school inspector, psychologist, parents, medical officer, speech therapist, social worker etc. These reports are analysed and the key findings are incorporated in a statement setting out the child's various needs. This statement is subsequently translated into curriculum objectives.
Our curriculum objectives are statements of ways in which the knowledge, cognitive abilities, skills and interests, values and attitudes of our pupils should change if our curriculum is to be effective. Pupils would, of course, change in many important ways if they remained in their own schools or even if they had not received any schooling or curriculum intervention. Our curriculum is a contrived, artificial instrument which claims to bring about, accelerate and control change that would not have occurred otherwise. We specify objectives and define exactly what these changes are and how they can be recognised. Our objectives spell out in detail the more observable outcomes of the programme of instruction. Teachers in this school sometimes use the following sequence in a teaching situation:
1. Specify the learning task clearly.
2. List the sub-skills necessary to master the objective in logical teaching sequence.
3. Test to ascertain which sub-skills the pupil can clearly perform.
4. Teach the next skill in the sequence.
5. Evaluate to determine the degree of mastery.
Our teachers are constantly striving towards the setting of more clearly defined objectives, more finely graded learning sequences, and towards an improved sytem of evaluating teaching strategies. Clearly stated objectives facilitate the selection and organisation of content and in many ways suggest the type of pedagogy to be used. When specified in both behavioural and content terms they make possible the evaluation of curriculum outcomes.
rather to describe a series of detailed developmental sequences which would enable the teacher to take account of the learner and his learning characteristics. In devising these sequences the concept of task analysis was found to be useful. Essentially, this involves dividing complex instructional tasks into a series of less complex components.
It is important to know to what extent pupils are actually moving forward. Regular checking is necessary because confidence depends on success. This indicates a kind of built in evaluation in which every lesson needs to be planned with a stated aim, and end with an assessment of its success in pupil's active response. Relevant and frequent assessment of the progress of individual pupils is vital, both for pupil and teacher satisfaction and also as a way of judging the realism and relevance of the programme.
Assessment of individual progress in some areas of development, such as language, reading, spelling, mathematics, social maturity or social and emotional adjustment can be made periodically by the use of standardised tests and behavioural questionnaires which relate to average measurements in the whole population of children. These 'normative' tests could be criticised as they compare children in this school with the average and therefore could be discouraging. Nevertheless, they can be used as measures of progress without too much emphasis in relation to the norm. Such tests need to be supplemented by 'criterion referenced' tests; they are directly related to specific objectives of recent instruction, can measure much smaller increments of progress than standardised tests. Every test is an experience likely to affect learning, especially if the resulting success or failure is immediately made known to the learner.
Evaluation is not confined to assessment of individual pupils but is concerned with the effectiveness of the school as a community. If evaluation is valid and effective the curriculum will not be static; it will change and develop. We realise that a well planned written curriculum does not guarantee effective teaching but we believe that it is a major step towards it.
St. Ita's & St. Joseph's School is facilitated by the concentration of scarce resources - a highly qualified teaching staff; text books and teaching aids (including the most modern computers) on par with the best available anywhere; well appointed classrooms and assembly hall; specialist rooms for Technology/Art; Home Economics; Computers; P.E. and Music.
The school is large enough to allow children to be placed in classes where the age range is not wide. This makes the teaching process more effective for the pupils. It also obviates the resentment often felt by older pupils when they are placed in a class with younger children. Since our school is co-educational, it provides an added advantage for its pupils.
In St. Ita's & St. Joseph's School, no invidious distinctions are drawn between the various classes within the school. The school caters specifically for all its pupils: other schools may cater well for the needs of a specific group, such as the academically gifted, while catering less well for the slower students. The raison d'etre of our school is to meet the needs of a specific group of students viz those who have mild general learning difficulties. The sheltered environment of the school lessens the effect of the 'rat race' mentality and allows the child to develop at his/her own pace. It is analogous to a green house where half hardy plants are placed until such time as they are fit to survive in the outside environment.
The school caters for boys and girls from the age of five to about eighteen years. It is divided into a junior and a senior section. About one third of the school's pupils are in the junior section (i.e. those pupils of primary school age) while about two thirds of the school's pupils are in the senior section (i.e. those of secondary school age). In the junior section the students take the usual primary school subjects while the in the senior section the students follow the post-primary curriculum for the Junior and Leaving Certificate.
If on re-assessment, a psychologist finds that a child's progress warrants his/her return to an ordinary school, the child is transferred without delay. It occasionally happens that a child in our school would be more suitably placed in Nano Nagle School or St. Francis School, Beaufort. On the recommendation of a psychologist and with the consent of the parents the child can be transferred without difficulty. Psychologists also act in an advisory capacity to teachers; run courses for parents and councel them; and undertake vocational assessment on students about to leave school.
The school's special curricula, facilities and multi-disciplinary staff are geared to meet the needs of the individual pupil. At St. Ita's & St. Joseph's School each pupil receives a more individualised form of teaching that cannot usually be given in the ordinary school.
Physical
Education, Swimming, Athletics, Drama, Music, Art and using computers are
very high on the list of educational priorities in the school's curricula.
Miss Audrey O'Carroll B. Mus., H. Dip in Ed., teaches music in the school
on three days each week. The school has a range of musical instruments and
students may learn to play a musical instrument such as: piano, guitar,
keyboard, drums etc. Miss Jane Ryan teaches Art/Craft and Design to Junior
Certificate level and Art to Leaving Certificate level. Her students have
participated in numerous art competitions at both local and national level
and have won many prizes. A number have achieved an 'A' grade at Higer Level
in the Junior Certificate examinations.Extra Curricular Activities
It is school policy to encourage the students to participate in extra curricular activities.
· The school choir competes in inter-school choir competitions.
· The school has an under 14 and an under 18 football team. Over the past year they have played numerous games at home and away to teams from Cork, Limerick, Ennis, Cashel and Waterford.
· The school has an athletics team which competes annually in an inter-schools sports meeting in Cork.. A number of our ex students have represented Kerry with distinction in cross country competitions.
· Members of the school swimming team trains weekly in Tralee Aquadome. The team competes annually in a swimming gala in Cork.
· The school's Quiz team participates each year in inter-school's competitions in Munster.
· Our senior girls' basketball team won an all-Ireland basketball competition last year. Over thirty schools participated in the competition.
At a local level, students from the school participate in inter-schools' concerts and attend exhibitions of works of art from time to time. The extra curricular activities outlined above are deemed very important for the development of our students.
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