I've been writing about religious control of schools for well over a decade now, and I found that people tend to throw the same arguments out to me every time I talk about it. And there's a lot and lots of different arguments out there. The most common of which I think. And I could be wrong on this one, but the one that I'm hearing most of all these days is the argument that parents want Catholic schools, to which I'm always wondering what parents are they talking about because I'm a parent and I know lots of parents who don't want their children being being formed in a faith that isn't theirs.

But that is not what I'm going to be talking about in this podcast, because another argument that I've heard and it gets thrown around, is Catholic schools internationally. And they often say that Catholic schools in England are well very sought after so we shouldn’t lose Catholic schools in Ireland.

We often hear the argument that the Church is determined to keep its grip on education. But if the sacraments were removed from the school day and shifted to after-school parish programmes, I’d argue the Catholic Church wouldn’t be the ones who’d lose out the most.

There are, after all, a lot of people with a vested interest in keeping things just as they are.

In this episode I explore who the real losers might be during Communion Season and then shift into another theory as to why divestment and reconfiguration can’t work

As educators, I wonder do we think much about the research that is done about education. I spoke with Paula Korsnakova and Eliane Segers from the IEA (International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement) to talk about educational research, with a focus on reading from digital devices.

The following links may be useful if you'd like to learn more:

• https://www.iea.nl/publications/teacher-resources/teaching-reading-comprehension-digital-world : Link to the new volume of Research for Educators on digital reading
• https://www.iea.nl/publications/iea-teachers-snippet/digital-reading-comp : Link to the new Teacher Snippet connected to the new book
• And if you think these would be handy for listeners too:
• https://www.iea.nl/publications/iea-teacher-snippets : General Teacher Snippets page
• https://www.iea.nl/publications/iea-teachers-snippets/iea-research-educators-more-book-series : General Research for Educators book series page
• 
  

With the new MFL curriculum coming up, I thought I'd speak to someone who knows a thing or two about teaching languages. Róisín Brady from LanguageNut joined me to explain how she thinks the curriculum is going to work out.

Find more: http://languagenut.com/

In this episode, I explore the issue of underfunding in Irish primary schools, using the example of Sacred Heart Junior National School in Killinarden, Dublin, which announced it would operate remotely due to financial constraints. I delve into the history and structure of funding for primary schools, highlighting how the Department of Education's capitation grants have not kept pace with rising costs, such as electricity, gas, and wages. As usual I critique the patronage system and propose that the Department of Education should be directly responsible for the financial management of schools to address these ongoing challenges.

All shownotes and data available on: https://simonmlewis.medium.com/a-school-may-have-to-close-due-to-lack-of-funding-how-has-it-come-to-this-9392b568977b

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• 00:43 Case Study: Sacred Heart Junior National School
• 03:01 Funding Challenges in Irish Primary Schools
• 03:48 Detailed Analysis of School Funding
• 06:31 Impact of Rising Costs on Schools
• 09:29 Historical Context and Comparisons
• 27:51 Proposed Solutions and Conclusion

 On this week's show, I'll be talking about solar panels and schools, but maybe not from the angle you might be expecting. As many of you might know, the government decided that every school in the country would be given a set of solar panels. And the main talk from those in the profession has been why The decision was made that no matter what size your school is, you'll be getting the same number of solar panels.

So very tiny schools will be getting the same number of solar panels as a very big school, which of course doesn't make any sense. However, I don't think I'd be able to make an entire podcast out. of that. And instead, I want to look at the solar panel issue from a different perspective. And that is who's going to own them.

🗒️ Show notes are available on my Medium Blog: https://simonmlewis.medium.com/who-will-own-the-solar-panels-in-primary-schools-and-why-does-nobody-care-c12cf9ae1c20

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Rob Barnett is the co-founder and Chief Product Officer of Modern Classrooms Project, a really interesting project which, at its core, tries to use technology for better human interaction and relationships in the classroom. Rob is a hugely impressive educator as you will hear in this episode but you can also watch him at this TEDx talk.

Rob has also written a book, Meet Every Learners' Needs and has developed a very interesting tool called Insta-Lesson. I'd recommend you look at both!

Despite my detective work, it looks like I was completely wrong about who the next Minister for Education was going to be and it's Helen McEntee who is our education minister.

Join me as I write a letter telling Helen McEntee what I would love to see happening in the education system as she takes over from a depressing almost-decade of neglect.