About Educate Together

EDUCATE TOGETHER schools are set up and developed by groups of parents in a local area, who wish to send their children to a national school that is multi-denominational, child-centred, co-educational and democratically run.

The schools are fully recognised by the Department of Education, are non-feepaying and operate under the same rules applying to all national schools.

MULTI-DENOMINATIONAL

Educate together schools from the outset respect all ethical and religious traditions. Every families background and ethical preference is respected and cherished within the school. The school does not teach any particular faith or creed but facilitates any group of parents to organise religious instruction for their children outside the main school programme. However, this does not mean that Educate Togetherr schools avoid issues of ethics and morality. Educate Together schools have well developed ethical education programmes which teach children core values of appreciation of and respect for social, cultural and other human differences, health and safety, social responsibility and rights and other features necessary to inform a child’s developing mind to live in our rapidly changing society.

CHILD CENTRED

Whi le covering the curriculum set out by the Department of Education for all national Schools, the educational programme of an Educate Together school is developed creatively through genuine dialogue between teachers and parents for the common good of the children.

CO-EDUCATIONAL

All Educate Together schools are co-educational and have active programmes to counter gender stereotyping and inequity in all aspects of school life.

DEMOCRATICALLY RUN

As all Educate Together schools are set up by groups of parents, parents have unparalleled access and involvement in the running and development of the school. The patron body (a struct.ure that is insisted upon by the state) is a charity set up by the parents in the locality which is governed bya constitution, and whose decisions are controlled by general meetings and whose officers are regularly elected. This body allocates its representatives on to the Board of Management (the body that handles the day-to-day running of the school) in a democratic fashion that respects parents wishes. This, in addition to directly elected parents representatives, ensures that parents have a huge influence in school affairs. This unique level of parental involvement can only develop properly if it fully recognises and respects the professional role of the teacher and builds a genuine partnership between the professional and the parent to produce the maximum educational benefit to the children.

PARTNERSHIP IN EDUCATION

With their unique ethos and democratic structure, Educate Together schools deliver a tremendous opportunity for parents, teachers and children to develop an educational community which provides an optimal environment for children to develop their intellectual, academic, social, cultural and physical life. Because they are so rooted in a living community, the schools can and do become important community resources making their facilities available in an appropriate way outside school hours.

EDUCATE TOGETHER

Educate Together is the national association of the Multidenominational National Schools in the Republic of Ireland. There are currently 28 such schools in the Republic and permission to open six new schools next September has been received. Each school is self-governing with its own patron body. Educate Together represents these bodies in negotiations with the Department of Education and other national organisations. Educate Together received some government assistance but is dependent on charitable funding. Its national officers are elected annually from the school communities and work in a voluntary capacity.