Nuacht - Cork Education Support Centre

NEPS Introducing a Trauma Informed Approach - The Stress Factor, Getting the Balance Right

NEPS are delighted to invite you and all your staff to complete our new free eLearning training course on Introducing a Trauma Informed Approach - The Stress Factor, Getting the Balance Right.

This training course focuses on stress and its impact on learning, behaviour and wellbeing. Familiar and new approaches based on research and the experience of NEPS psychologists are used to guide thinking, planning and action. The training aims to support school staff to build resilience for all including children and young people with additional needs and those affected by trauma and adversity.

· It has been designed for all staff and promotes a whole school approach to trauma informed practice.

· The format has been developed to allow for self-directed, self-paced learning. Schools may also choose to undertake the training together through blending the e-learning modules with follow up in-school reflection and action planning sessions.

· The course consists of 7 short modules, each comprising video presentation, and downloadable reflection activities and information handouts. The online course can be completed in approximately 2 - 2 ½ hours.

Following completion of the course we hope you and your staff:

· Use the resource called ‘Walk Through’ Model, to highlight strengths, needs and actions for your class/school.

· Discuss with colleagues how best to embed the learning in this training in classes and in the school community.

· Access further advice/support around embedding the learning through the school’s assigned psychologist, if required.

Register here: Wellbeing - Introducing a Trauma Informed Approach: The Stress Factor – Getting the Balance Right - NEPS (education.ie)

Call-Out for Artists / Creative Practitioners for the Teacher-Artist Partnership+ CPD Programme

Announcing a wonderful opportunity for Artists (all art forms/creative practises) / Creative Practitioners to broaden their practice, receive training and project fees, develop creative partnerships with teachers, and transform the lives of children in every County in Ireland

CALL OUT FOR ARTISTS / CREATIVE PRACTITIONERS for 3^rd to 7^th July 2023

The TEACHER-ARTIST PARTNERSHIP+ CPD programme (TAP+)

is a Creative Ireland, Department of Education led and approved Summer Course offering:

FULLY PAID TRAINING AND IN-SCHOOL RESIDENCY OPPORTUNITIES FOR ARTISTS / CREATIVE PRACTITIONERS

TO WORK WITHIN PRIMARY SCHOOL SETTINGS & AND DEVELOP PARTNERSHIPS WITH CREATIVE TEACHERS

- Open to artists / creative practitioners, working in any art form / creative practise, who are committed to sharing their practice with children and teachers in a modern primary school environment

- Specialist, week-long training (3^rd – 7^th July 2023 based in Gaelscoil Uí Ríordáin to prepare the artist / creative practitioner for the unique requirements of working harmoniously in partnership with a teacher within the modern Irish classroom

- A training allowance of €150 per day over the initial 5-day training/induction week (€750 in total), plus travel with daily lunch provided.

- Brokerage and development of partnerships with creative teachers, in schools committed to contemporary arts learning, practice and creativity.

- Guarantee of a paid, follow up in-school-residency within a local primary school (€1,100 Fee total inclusive of €200 Travel) to carry out a 20-hour project (14 contact hours plus 6 hours planning, preparation and evaluation) in partnership with your teacher partner throughout the 2023/2024 academic year

- Artists / Creative Practitioners are required to complete at least one or two TAP+ in-school Residencies following participation on the TAP+ Summer Course.

- As you will be a TAP+ trained artist/creative practitioner, you will also be eligible to participate in the forthcoming 2023/2024 BLAST in-school residencies. If you are available, we would be obliged if you could complete at least one or two BLAST in-school Residencies. Please use the following link for more information on the BLAST initiative: BLAST Information

- Information, learning and networking opportunities for further freelance work within the education system.

Artists / Creative Practitioners must

· have a track record of a minimum of three years’ professional practice in any art form / creative practise

· demonstrate an interest in / commitment to: the principles of Arts and Creativity in Education and to enhancing the lives of children through arts/creative practice

· be willing to learn about modern classroom culture and to work in equal partnership with teachers

· Combine a sense of fun, joy and collaboration with professional dedication and high artistic/creative vision

· Be willing to undertake child protection training as part of the induction week, and undergo standard Garda vetting before taking up project placements.

Artists / Creative Practitioners can apply to be part of the scheme via expressions of interest along with an application. These should be sent to the Director of your local Education Support Centre: https://www.esci.ie/ no later than 5pm on Friday 23^rd June 2023.

Expressions of interest should be in the form of a letter of max 600 words, accompanied by a CV or short Bio with links to images or samples of relevant work.

The letter should set out:

1. Where you trained

2. A very brief description of your practice

3. Why you might wish to work in partnership with a teacher and with children in a school setting

4. What you think qualifies you to take up this opportunity

Places on this national Creative Ireland CPD initiative are limited to four Artists / Creative Practitioners per full-time Education Support Centre area. Final decision on offers of places will be taken by the Director of the local Education Support Centre in collaboration with the Local Authority Arts Office. Any queries in relation to the Teacher Artist Partnership+ CPD Summer Course should be directed to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Summer Courses 2023

The full range of our EPV approved Summer Courses is now available for booking!

You will find all of the details in the Courses tab above or by clicking here: https://cesc.ie/cpd-courses.html

Minister Foley announces call for applications from schools for BLAST 2023 and Creative Clusters initiatives

From Department of Education

Published on 23 March 2023

Last updated on 23 March 2023

The Minister for Education Norma Foley TD today invited primary and post-primary schools to apply for the arts in education initiative, Bringing Live Arts to Students and Teachers (BLAST) 2023.

BLAST will be running in 2023 for the third time. The 2023 programme will enable 425 new arts in education residencies in schools over the course of the year.

The aim of BLAST is to provide pupils in schools all over the country, time and the space to work with a professional artist on creative, imaginative and fun projects.

These innovative classes are designed and developed between the artist, teacher and the school under the coordination of the Education Support Centres in Ireland (ESCI) network of 21 full-time education support centres.

Minister Foley said:

“I am extremely proud to announce the launch of BLAST 2023, which builds on the great success of the BLAST 2021 and 2022 Programme.

“When I first launched BLAST in 2021, I had hoped that it would open up the minds and the hearts of our children by providing new and creative collaborative experiences and opportunities for our children and young people and for our schools. The evidence over the past two years has shown that school communities have embraced BLAST beyond our expectations. Creating an environment and putting arts and creativity at the centre of education is important not just for developing creative capacities and skills but for encouraging social responsibility and personal qualities such as resilience, empathy and a capacity for collaboration.”

“In 2022, BLAST ensured over 15,000 students could benefit from this experience along with teachers and schools. Some of the trained artists available to schools covered topics such as multimedia, fine art, mosaics, stained glass sculpture/animation and performance art.

“From my many school visits I have seen firsthand a myriad of colourful, collaborative and creative projects that have transformed and indeed illuminated so many spaces in our school communities.

“BLAST has shown that school is a fantastic environment for children to have new and different experiences, to make new friends, to be creative and importantly to have fun while learning.”

Further information on BLAST, guidelines and the application form will be available from Gov.ie/Blast and from the 21 full-time education support centres’ websites. The application process will open on 23 March 2023 and will close on 19 May 2023.

The Minister has also invited primary and post-primary schools across Ireland to apply for Creative Clusters, an initiative taking place as part of Creative Ireland and under the Schools Excellence Fund.

Under this scheme to support schools to build capacity in creativity, schools in each cluster will enjoy access to a specialist facilitator, artist or creative expertise in whatever their chosen area of interest or theme might be. These resources will help the schools to build a project of learning and activities tailor-made for their students. As part of this funding allocation, a cluster may receive up to €15,000 funding to help bring their plans and ideas to fruition in 2023-2025.

Minister Foley said:

“Education is going through a critical time of unprecedented change and reflection. There has never been a better time for us to embrace the arts and creativity in our learning environments and to embrace joy. This is a wonderful opportunity for schools to work together on a project of their choice and schools are given complete freedom to design and develop their own project, with support from a local facilitator and their local education centre”.

“I hope that this exciting initiative will help schools to further enhance creativity in their classrooms. It is important that our children are enabled to express themselves and learn to adapt and collaborate. ‘Creative Clusters’ gives students of all ages the opportunity to develop these essential skills, enjoy and explore artistic and creative expression.”

To date, the Creative Clusters initiative has seen schools around the country work together to develop creative projects and collaborate on new ideas based on their local experience and unique perspective.

The Schools Excellence Fund of the Department of Education sets out to encourage and recognise excellence and innovation in our schools. This initiative will help deliver on the Creative Youth pillar of Creative Ireland, which sets out a commitment that every child in Ireland has practical access to tuition, experience and participation in music, drama, arts and coding.

Further information on Creative Clusters is available from the Department’s website: https://www.gov.ie/en/publication/f0342-schools-excellence-fund-creative-clusters/

The application process will be open from 23 March 2023 until 12 May 2023.

Notes for Editors

How will this BLAST Arts in Education Residency initiative work?

The Education Support Centre

Schools will apply for a BLAST Arts-in-Education Residency to the full-time education support centre in their area. The Register of Approved Artists in each education support centre will be arranged by artist and discipline, include relevant required and approved training experience, examples of previous work and examples of relevant or related experience in an educational and community context.

The Artist

Artists from any artistic discipline who have been trained in partnership working with schools will be registered with each of the 21 full-time education support centres. Artistic disciplines include visual arts, crafts, music, dance, drama, literature and film. Creative disciplines will be expanded as the BLAST Residency Programme develops over the next number of years.

The artists on the Register of Approved Artists will have been previously trained and have engaged in school residencies under Teacher-Artist Partnership CPD and Residency initiative or the Arts in Junior Cycle Programme which are both approved and led by the Department of Education. Artists are currently trained and registered on the Online Register of Approved Artists managed by the education support centre network nationally. Garda Clearance for artists for successful school applications will be sought by the education support centre. The education support centre will also arrange for payment of the artist which will further remove the administrative burden on teachers and schools.

The School

The school must be in the catchment of the local full-time education support centre. Schools may submit only one application.

This initiative encourages:

• Schools, primary and post-primary, that have not recently had an opportunity to participate in such creative initiatives.

• Schools supporting inclusion and enhanced arts-in-education engagement with students from disadvantaged backgrounds and SEN.

• Schools that have a track record in teacher-artist partnership working in the classroom and school.

• A whole-school commitment to the project, but it is a requirement that in large schools’ engagement with BLAST is recommended to take place in one or two classes. However, in small schools, it may take place as a whole school initiative.

• Projects should have regard to the relevant school curricula where appropriate and have a focus on process.

BLAST Arts-in-Education Residency funding

The artist’s fee is €1,100 (inclusive of €200 travel) per residency, funded by the Department of Education via each education support centre. The education support centre will pay the artist. The artist will be funded for 20 contract hours including six hours’ planning/development/review time and 14 in-school contact hours. Approved funded residencies can be delivered throughout the academic year, commencing in September 2023.

This initiative is supported by the ESCI education support centre network, Teacher Artist Partnership CPD programme, Arts in Junior Cycle, NAPD Creative Engagement Programme and the Arts in Education Portal.

Further information on BLAST, guidelines and the application form will be available from Gov.ie/blast and from the 21 full-time education support centres’ websites. The application process will open on 23 March 2023 and will close on 19 May 2023.

Creative Clusters– Schools Excellence Fund

Creative Clusters is an initiative of the Department of Education, led by and in partnership with the Education Support Centres Ireland (ESCI). Creative Clusters provide schools with access to creative people, skills and resources that will support them to draw on their own skills and experiences and those within their wider communities. Creative Clusters is an initiative under Creative Youth 2023-2027 which was launched on 28th March 2023 as part of the Creative Ireland Programme.

The new Creative Ireland Programme is a five-year programme which connects people, creativity and wellbeing. It is an all-of-government culture and wellbeing programme that inspires and transforms people, places and communities through creativity. It is an all-of-government, culture-based initiative that emphasises the importance of human creativity for individual, community and national wellbeing. It is led by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sports and Media. The programme is grounded in the belief that every person has creative capacities, the development of which contributes to their personal wellbeing as well as to the general wellbeing of our communities.

The programme consists of five pillars:

1. Our Young People

2. Our Communities

3. Our Cultural and Creative Infrastructure

4. Our Creative Industries

5. Our Global Reputation

Reading Recovery Graduation

Reading Recovery Graduation

Congratulations to those who graduated from the Reading Recovery training programme last week in Cork Education Support Centre.

Reading Recovery is a school-based, short-term literacy programme designed for children in senior infants and first class (aged between five years nine months and six years six months) identified as the lowest literacy achievers following one year at school. It is a thoroughly researched and evidence-based early literacy intervention.

NEPS Introducing a Trauma Informed Approach - The Stress Factor, Getting the Balance Right

Call-Out for Artists / Creative Practitioners for the Teacher-Artist Partnership+ CPD Programme

Summer Courses 2023

Minister Foley announces call for applications from schools for BLAST 2023 and Creative Clusters initiatives

Notes for Editors

Reading Recovery Graduation

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