Athy College teaching leads the field

Yet again, Athy Community College is at the cutting edge of exciting innovations in education. Trinity graduate, Natalie O’Neill, a teacher at the College has been invited to speak before world renowned educational thinkers in Toronto later this month. A teacher of science and biology for the past 10 years, Natalie will attend The Quest for Increased Student Achievement from November 19^th to 21^st at the invitation of the York District School Board. Natalie along with fellow teacher Karen McLaughlin from St. Brigid’s in Callan, will be showcasing an innovative project which both have been working on in their schools in conjunction with the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment. Co-incidentally, Karen is a past pupil of Athy Community College, and a graduate of NUIMaynooth.

With the help of her students , Natalie has been working on integrating the key skills of information processing; critical and creative thinking; communicating; working with others and being personally effective into the teaching and learning in her classroom. Natalie will be part of a team travelling from Ireland including Anne Looney, CEO of the NCCA who is a keynote speaker, Majella Dempsey, Key Skills Project leader and Karen McLaughlin. Natalie and Karen will tell their stories of developing key skills in the Irish classroom. Students have not been forgotten! Their views on the project have already been captured on an exciting DVD to show to the 1000 delegates expected to attend the conference.

The NCCA key skills project has been running in 9 schools across Ireland with 30 teachers involved. The project is looking at how key skills can be developed in different subject areas and to date all schools have reported that students are more engaged in the learning process as a result of participating in the project. One of the aims of the project is to help senior cycle students become effective learners in a world where the important skill is not how to memorise, but how to analyse and find the essentials in vast amounts of information coming at them at breakneck speed. The Canadians first came across the project when Anne Looney of NCCA spoke about it in Toronto last year. They were so impressed they wanted to learn more, and invited and paid for the teachers to tell their story. Principal Richard Daly, who was at the forefront of developing the Leaving Cert Applied Programme when it was initiated, said that he was delighted that the innovative work being developed in Athy Community College was getting global attention! He noted the honour that both Natalie, a ground-breaking and gifted teacher, and Karen, a past-pupil, are bringing not only to the school but to their country.

Natalie and a teaching teaching colleague, Deirdre Murphy have also been working with the NCCA in further innovative curriculum development at Leaving Certificate level. The Flexible Learning Programme which they will help to develop and pilot will look at expanding the width and depth of the traditional Leaving Certificate nationally.