Newsletter June 2023

Our final year students began in Covid times and missed out on placement opportunities in their first year and had much of their second year on line. We welcomed them back to in person lectures and placement in third year. As our final year students, we take this opportunity to wish them every blessing as they anticipate their exam results and then hopefully move to register with the Teaching Council,  and seek their first teaching positions. We greatly look forward to hearing their news and staying connected with them over the years ahead.

Best wishes to:

Adam Hanlon, Alanna Ashe,

Andrew Arnopp,  Aoife Finnan

Arlene Kinch, Claire Shekleton

Emily Whittle, Glenn Jacob, Hannah Gilmer, Jennifer Hade, Kren Soden, Laura Mc Clean, Lauren Hunter, Robyn Griffin, Niamh Marriott, Erin Mollison, Ella O Rourke, Alannah Rothwell, Claudia Farrar, Anna Sanders, Eoghan Bateman, Niamh Merrick, Maire Kelly, and Lucy Condell

The Church of Ireland Centre, DCU, looks forward to hosting in conjunction with the General Synod Board of Education (RI), a conference event on a Saturday morning in October 2023. 

This event will be hybrid so that those who cannot make it in person will be able to engage with the live streamed via YouTube.  The latter will only be available live.  We encourage people to attend in person if possible as part of the benefit of these events is the networking and social engagement. 

The theme is 'the Care and Development of the Child in the Church of Ireland School'. 

Speakers will include: 

* Jacqui Wilkinson of CIC who will report on the findings of her research into Anglican school ethos and pupil voice

 * Caroline Quinn of NABMSE will discuss setting up special classes in mainstream schools.

* NCCA personnel will present on the new RSE curriculum in primary schools. 

* Rachel Harper of St Patricks NS, Greystones will speak about the 'It takes a village' initiative. 

We will circulate details to schools at the start of September and extend an invitation to all teachers and Board members.

From our current students:

BEd 4Placement:  Alanna Ashe

BEd4 was a whirlwind of a year! During semester two, we completed two school placement experiences. I was very fortunate to have gained positive and valuable learning experiences from my two placement settings.

School placement during BEd4 was a particularly exciting experience as we had the opportunity to put our theory from lectures and seminars as well as our skills from previous placements into action. I learned so much from the advice and support of all the staff, in particular, my cooperating teachers and all the children in my classes.

Throughout placement, I particularly enjoyed putting my self-study project research knowledge of thematic learning into practice. My classes and I had great fun! We were planting, growing and investigating different types of seeds in science, discovering what life was like on farms in the past from first-hand accounts from my family members in Co.Donegal, along with composing reports about ladybugs and bumblebees in literacy.

Although my time on the BEd has now come to a close, one of the biggest lessons I learned on placement was to find a positive in each day - enjoy and laugh with the children in your class. I wish all the very best to those undertaking school placement in the upcoming academic year and thank you to all schools for the opportunity to do so!

BEd 4 Placement : E¨®ghan Bateman

I have recently completed my BEd4 school placements and can testify to the positives of learning in the placement setting. While these placements were very demanding, being immersed in school life and experiencing the ins and outs of daily teaching was invaluable in consolidating my theoretical learning. These placements were my first real taste of what it's like to be a full time classroom teacher. 

My placements were in a senior infants class and a multigrade 5th and 6th class. Firstly, I found it fascinating to observe my cooperating teachers since every teaching has their own unique style. The most significant piece of learning from these placements came from teaching the full school day. Rather than just teaching individual lessons, I had to consider transitions, and timings to ensure the whole school day fit together and the children were able to engage with and benefit from every lesson. Our detailed lesson planning allowed me to be very intentional about the purpose of my lessons and what I wanted the children to achieve. My placement schools were very accommodating in letting me try new things, both encouraging me and giving helpful feedback. I appreciated being treated as a coworker and being given the opportunity to develop my skills as a teacher. I think school placement is an essential aspect of teacher training since it is only in practice that I could see what worked and didn't work as I explored writing and delivering my own lessons. 

I am very grateful to the schools that gave me the opportunity to work alongside them and am looking forward to beginning into the exciting career of teaching!

BEd 2 Placement :Molly Shannon

My name is Molly Shannon and I recently completed my second year placement. While placement can be a stressful time for student teachers, the opportunity to learn from fellow teachers in real-life classroom environments is next to none. This year I had the privilege of completing PP2 in a third class and the environment I experienced was full of fun, community, and excitement about learning. This made the placement experience that much more enjoyable and welcoming. Being able to teach a class of students who genuinely wanted to learn and were willing to listen allowed me to engage with the children and introduce fun activities that the whole class could enjoy. I was able to use ideas from our lectures and also come up with some new ideas of my own. The classroom that I entered for my placement became a safe space for me to try these new ideas. Some of the time they work and some of the time they don¡¯t, but putting myself to the test in an environment where I know I am safe to learn from my mistakes and where I have the support of qualified professionals is the best learning experience I could ever wish for. 

Favourite Spot in the Church

By Jacqui Wilkinson

In May 2023, classes from 32 Church of Ireland primary schools participated in a project to find favourite spots in their church. They visited their church and chose a favourite spot ¨C identified it with a blue star and took a photo.  Please find here the link to the video made from all the images sent in by schools in response to the project.

https://youtu.be/FKrxkM1FEMA

It was great to receive so many images and to hear stories of schools having enjoyable visits to their parish church - thanks too to the clergy/ parishioners who facilitated the visits. It was so interesting to see what items received the most 'blue stars' -  stained glass windows, organs and pulpits!

Four schools were randomly chosen from the names of the schools who sent in images.  Fairgreen NS, Belturbet; St John the Baptist NS,Midleton;  Carysfort NS, Arklow;  and St James¡¯s NS Stradbally. These schools will receive a delivery of some RE books for their school. 

The CIC Chapel in the All Hallows¡¯ Campus has been busy during Semester 2.  On Ash Wednesday, 22^nd February, there was a joint ecumenical service for staff and students of the University and for the members of the neighbouring Drumcondra North Strand parish.  The preacher was Rev. Dr. Edwin Aiken, the Dean¡¯s Vicar of Christ Church Cathedral and the service was led by Archbishop Michael Jackson.  Attendees were invited to a light lunch in the All Hallows¡¯ Dining Hall afterwards.

There was a service of Holy Communion in the chapel on Wednesday 9^th April, for BEd2s, BEd3s and BEd4s.  This provided opportunities for year groups to pray together and then to share hospitality.  It gave the student cohorts the opportunity to ask questions and share experiences about School Placement and the Research Project.

Each of these services with students was co-led by Rev. Prof. Anne Lodge and Dr Jacqui Wilkinson.  The chapel was also used for the closing Service of the Word for the part-time RE Certificate in Teaching the Follow Me programme on 22^nd April 2023.  The service followed a tour of the neighbouring historic church and graveyard of St. John the Baptist Drumcondra.

´ó·¢ÌåÓýÔÚÏß_´ó·¢ÌåÓý-Ͷע|¹ÙÍøings from a Doctoral study completed by Dr. Jacqueline Wilkinson

It has been a very busy year in our home! In the midst of moving house, I was also completing my doctoral thesis, alongside my lecturing role in Dublin City University, working with student primary teachers. My challenge in this article is to summarise 80,000 words in 750 words!

The study was entitled The ethos of the Church of Ireland primary school: The student voice. I trained as a primary teacher, and now I lecture student primary teachers and conduct CPD courses for teachers and so I knew the Church of Ireland school context well. The initial research question to explore school ethos turned into a large-scale student voice project ¨C the first of its kind in this school sector. I received great support from the General Synod Board of Education, from school patrons, school principals, class teachers, parents, and especially from over 3000 children.

Having investigated the literature around Anglican primary school ethos and analysed hundreds of school ethos statements, I had clarity on what everyone thought the Church of Ireland primary school ethos was like. I ascertained that the individual school has certainty about its Christian identity, promotes inclusion, regards parish-school links as important, values worship and religious education, and holds to a set of core Christian values.

Then the work really began as I listened to the voices of the children. I was delighted that 92 Church of Ireland schools from all parts of the country took part in the project in 2019. That amounted to 3,249 surveys completed by pupils from 4^th, 5^th, and 6^th classes. The survey gathered information on the pupils themselves, their religious practices and their wellbeing, and their attitudes towards the ethos of their school, and towards Christianity. After interminable hours of inputting data into spreadsheets and subsequent analysis, results began to emerge, and I now have a picture of the ethos of the Church of Ireland primary school, as voiced by its students.

The children responded to over 60 statements relating to nine elements of school ethos. The analysis tells me much about the positive experiences children have in school. The statements that received the most positive agreement were: ¡®School is really welcoming¡¯, ¡®The teachers care a lot about the school¡¯, ¡®The school teaches the students to respect other people¡¯, and ¡®The school teaches the students to care for the world around them¡¯. Most students also agreed that their school treats every child with respect and kindness, and that their school is a friendly school. It is encouraging to see the student positivity towards their schools, especially in terms of their experience of school life and their relationships in school.

The student voice about ethos has also given me much food for thought, as elements of school assembly and R.E. showed that the student experience was not always as positive as we would wish. Only about half of the pupils said they enjoyed singing in assembly or liked prayers in R.E. As 90% of schools held and value weekly assemblies, it is envisaged that a core output of this research will be further resources for assemblies. Already, the detailed data about the student experience of R.E. is enabling the targeted consideration of key areas, as new resources to support the Follow Me programme are planned.

The children demonstrated an overall very positive attitude toward Christianity. I explored factors influencing this attitude, and concluded that family and practices such as church attendance and personal prayer have the greatest impact on children¡¯s religiosity, and on the Christian nature of the school. This serves as a stark reminder that, although we provide assembly and R.E. in school, the greatest impact on the children¡¯s attitudes toward Christianity and therefore the Christian ethos of the school is definitively the home.

As you can imagine, there is much scope to explore further the data from this study and to publish articles, but primarily, it is hoped the research will have an impact on conversations about the ethos of the Church of Ireland primary school and what we want to sustain or improve. When asked to summarise the impact of the research, I said it has enabled me (and potentially all school stakeholders) to move beyond aspirational phrases about the kind of ethos we expect in our schools, to clear descriptive and meaningful statements about the lived experiences of the children and how they perceive the ethos of their schools. Their voice matters in all parts of school life¡­.including school ethos.

This research study was generously funded by the Church of Ireland Centre Advisory Council.

This article originally appeared in the Cashel Ferns and Ossory Diocesan Magazine in May 2023.

The Church of Ireland General Synod Board of Education has entered into a Service Level Agreement with the Catholic Primary School Management Association (CPSMA) which involves CPSMA providing a range of supports and advisory services to primary schools under Church of Ireland patronage. In this regard, Susan Ellis, formerly on secondment from her post as principal of St Columba¡¯s Church of Ireland National School, Tullow, Co. Carlow to CPSMA, has accepted a full time post with CPSMA. Susan supports both Church of Ireland schools and Catholic schools as part of this new role and also assists Dr. Fennelly in servicing the needs of the RI Board.

If chairpersons or principals would like to discuss a matter relating to the leadership or management of their school, they are welcome to contact Ken or Susan.

Ken may be contacted at 01-4125609 or ken.fennelly@rcbdub.org

Susan may be contacted at 01-6292462 or susanellis@cpsma.ie

The RE Cert was offered as an online course again this spring. 24 teachers from schools in Roscommon, Donegal, Dublin, Kilkenny,  Wexford, Louth, Kildare, Wicklow, Limerick, Laois, Tipperary and Cork participated in the course which was run in two groups over three nights each.  An in-person final session was also held on Saturday 22 April in DCU All Hallows¡¯ Campus which included a visit to Drumcondra Church (see photo), and it was great that 15 of the group were able to travel to that day. It was so good to meet face to face after the online sessions and to share resources and ideas. The remaining members attended an online final session. The teachers on the course also attended the three RE webinars which were open to all schools. 

Congratulations and thanks to the dedication of the teachers who completed the course.  The hybrid version that has been developed has meant that teachers from all parts of the country are able to attend.

The participants in the course were: Kathy Armitage (Kill o¡¯the Grange NS), Ellen Daly (Templebreedy NS), Jackie Henderson (Holmpatrick NS), Isaac Porter (Gorey Central School), Se¨¢n Dunk (Gorey Central School), Sarah Russell (St. Mary¡¯s NS Templemore), Niamh Huane (Ballinlough NS), R¨®is¨ªn Buckey (Kildare Place School), Mair¨¦ad Doran (St. Michael¡¯s NS, Limerick), Courtney Watkins (St Andrew¡¯s NS, Bray), Sabrina Owens (Boyle NS), Ellen Friel (St Andrew¡¯s NS Bray), Kathleen Bane (St Mary¡¯s NS Templemore), Sarah Thompson (St Columb¡¯s NS, Moville), Emma Kidd (Gorey Central School), Eimear Durnin (Whitechurch NS), William Duddy (St Michael¡¯s NS, Limerick), Sarah Walsh (Greenlanes NS, Clontarf), Joanna Ross (Dunmanway Model School), Karl Lawless (Drumcondra NS), Catherine Finnegan (Greenlanes NS), Aimee Harper (Abbeyleix South School), Aisling McMahon (Old Borough School), and Shane Dowd (Ballinlough NS).

Since 2014 there have been 138 participant teachers on the RE Cert (Follow Me) courses. 77 teachers completed face to face courses from 2014-2019. 61 teachers have completed hybrid/online courses since 2021. The course will be again available in 2023/2024, do contact me if you want to indicate interest and I will be in touch later in the year.

Religious Education Webinars

Three webinars were run in conjunction with the RE Cert course. In February, teachers/ schools joined a webinar on Storytelling in RE Pupils from classrooms in St Michael¡¯s NS, Blackrock in Cork presented a video based on their favourite Bible stories. Thanks to Laura Welch and Josie Bowden and their classes for all the work on this.

In March we focused on the topic of preparing to teach Easter in RE, and all participants received a folder of ideas for teaching the story of Easter in creative ways.

Finally, in April the webinar was on the topic of Outdoor Learning in RE and church visits. Castleknock NS pupils presented a wonderful video showing many options for class visits to churches. Thanks to Emma Furney and Kelly Caldbeck and 5^th class, for working so hard in producing this video.

It is planned to run more webinars in the spring term next year ¨C ideas for topics are very welcome. In- school CPD slots will also be available to be requested by schools ¨C contact Jacqui for further information and to book a date.

Students on the Church of Ireland Centre¡¯s pathway study the B.Ed programme along with their classmates in DCU.  Certain elements of the programme are unique to them. 

• The CIC students do the majority of their School Placements in Protestant primary schools. 
• They study the RE Cert to prepare to teach the Follow Me religious education programme used in Protestant primary schools and learn about the ethos of those schools. 
• They take modules that study Christianity from a reformed perspective, look at world faiths, explore social and moral issues, and study the RE programmes and cultures of all types of Irish primary schools.
• They follow the specialism to prepare them to teach in small schools and multi-level classes.  The aptitudes learned in this specialism benefit all those studying to be primary teachers.  There are four modules in this specialism:

*teaching in multi-level classes

*inclusive classrooms

*project-based learning in the classroom and the school

*teaching and leading in small schools

APPLICATION:

Application is made via the CAO.  Applicants need to include DC004 in their CAO choices by 1^st February on the year of entry in order to be considered for eligibility. 

ELIGIBILITY:

Students on this pathway need to demonstrate a knowledge of, and willingness to support, the Protestant ethos of these primary schools.  Such knowledge and connection can include attendance at primary or post-primary schools under Protestant patronage, active engagement in a range of social and other clubs and activities (e.g. GFS, BB, GB, Church youth club).  It can also include engagement with a parish or church or religious network in any of the Protestant traditions .

Eligibility is assessed by a separate application form sent out from DCU in the Spring.  References will be sought to  assess eligibility. 

GENERAL INFORMATION:

There are a maximum of 32 students per year given places in this stream in 1^st year.   The published points vary from year to year due to the small number of places on offer.  This means it is impossible to pinpoint accurately from year to year.

Erasmus Experience by Amy O'Connell B.Ed 3 2022-23

Hej! (Hello!) My name is Amy and I have spent the past few months living the Hygge life, in a country renowned for its colourful Lego bricks and houses! Denmark, a country which has blown me away by its variety of landscapes and charming towns, is a place which has been easier to settle into than I could have imagined. I live in a small city located in the south Jutland area of Denmark, called Haderslev. I am studying the Living and Learning Together programme at UCSYD (University College of South Denmark). I have certainly lived and learned from 24 other Erasmus students, who are from places such as Switzerland, Germany, Netherlands, Spain,  Czech Republic, Belgium and Austria. Together, we have learned about various teaching strategies, pedagogical thinkers, outdoor activities, methodologies and useful resources, which can be implemented into our own classrooms. I was fortunate to have the opportunity to undertake a 1 week school placement, where I got to witness the Danish school system, a very beneficial and inspiring experience indeed. I am returning to Ireland with an album full of photographs from the places that I have travelled to, such as Aarhus, Fano, Esbjerg, Vejle, Odense, Svendborg and Copenhagen in Denmark, as well as Hamburg in Germany and a very memorable road trip around Sweden! My Erasmus experience has been more than incredible and I am so grateful to have been given the opportunity to study for a semester in Denmark. I have learned and grown so much as a person and a teacher. I look forward to reuniting with the friends that I have made, as well as to take all of my new knowledge into the classroom. For any student teachers asking ¡°Should I do an Erasmus?¡±, I would reply, as they say in Denmark, ¡°Ja!¡± (Yes!)

Planting our Living Willow Structure was the successful completion of a project which took seed in 2021 when we, at Shillelagh No.1 N.S., attempted to celebrate 200 years of teaching on this site.

Restricted as we were, we undertook a little history project and one of our parents brought to our attention that in Australia, a past pupil of ours, Hannah Tutty (n¨¦e Driver) was herself celebrating her centenary! The children wrote to Hannah and her son and daughter shared their stories and good wishes with her. What an amazing life, spent almost in thirds, in Ireland, England and Australia! Hannah very kindly shared part of her President¡¯s Bounty with us and the BOM agreed that a willow structure would be a suitable investment of this donation. We sought guidance from the Heritage in Schools Programme and firstly partook of a workshop with Beth Murphy, weaver, in September 2022. Beth¡¯s holistic view of life shone through that day as she introduced the Second to Sixth Class pupils to working with willow.

As we engaged in this crafting, introducing ourselves to the willow rods, ¡°cutting the spite¡± out of them and simply working with nature, there was a real sense of living in the moment. 

Later that day the children chose a site for the living sculpture. Indeed, Beth did return in March, laden with rods of different willow species. We drew out a plan, planted the rods, guided and shaped them to produce a beehive type structure which smacked strongly of an ancient monk¡¯s cell. Being a tiny school, all the children could just fit inside! 

Canon Brian was delighted to bless the structure. Standing in the shadow of Shillelagh Parish Church the little den seems a most appropriate addition to our playground, tying together a past pupil, our Celtic roots, our sense of play, the gift of creativity and God¡¯s blessings.

I think to enable children to find faith we must awaken their sense of awe. There was much about this journey which may, I hope, have done so.

By: 6^th class pupils

On Friday, 3rd March, we celebrated the opening of our new library.  We began with a whole school assembly where we were joined by Revd. Lesley Robinson and our former Principal, Ms. Stella Downes. The Students¡¯ Council entertained us with an acrostic poem that they had written themselves about reading, and a quiz based on well-known book characters. Revd. Lesley Robinson led us in prayer and blessed our new library.

In true Springdale style, the whole school sang a lively rendition of ¡®The Bare Necessities¡¯. As we couldn¡¯t all fit outside the library, we watched a live video of the cutting of the ribbon by Ms. Stella Downes. Together we counted down from 10 to 0 and she cut the ribbon to the sound of a big cheer.

After the assembly, Ms. Downes had storytime with each class one at a time in the new library followed by juice and biscuits. Thank you to the Students¡¯ Council and Ms. Lenehan for all their hard work and to Ms. Stella Downes and Ms. Lesley Robinson for joining us on the day.

Since then, we have set up a whole new library lending system on Aladdin, the classes have a timetable for visiting to borrow books and the colourful welcoming space is used by small groups also throughout the day. The shelving and tables are multi-coloured, and there are amazing images on the wall of all our favourite books and characters. There are even some ¡®Where¡¯s Wally¡¯ images hidden around the library and in the corridors too.  The students have been taught how to scan books in and out when children borrow and return them. 

We look forward to many years of reading in the wonderful surroundings of our new library!

By: Tara Jordan (principal)

Ballinlough National School, Co. Roscommon, a small rural school that has changed so much during its time in existence, is celebrating its 185^th anniversary this academic year.

In its most recent history there has been a complete change in staffing. Tara Jordan has taken on the task of filling the rather large shoes of her predecessor of 22 years, Geraldine Kelly, as Principal teaching the Senior side of the school. Mr. Shane Dowd is the newly appointed Deputy Principal, teaching the Juniors. Ms. Niamh Huane is the EAL teacher working with all of the children learning English, while Ms. Brigid Forde supports as SNA. Our part-time teaching staff are Ms. Breda Kean, Ms. Sandra Ganley, Ms. ?ine Daniels and Mr. Padraig Costello, who are working in both SET and EAL roles. The change of staff and increase from two Teachers has encouraged the school in a new direction; using new teaching methodologies, materials and ideas to bring the best out in all the children. 

Not only did we have a change of staff during the course of the year but we have also had many new faces join us.  Children from Brazil, Sweden, Kenya, Pakistan, India, Hungary and Ukraine have come to enrol with us at Ballinlough National School. Each of the children bring a new dynamic and challenge, creating a very exciting learning experience for all members of the school community. The children have all integrated very quickly, building friendships and learning new things.  The teaching staff supports the inclusion and learning of children from 10 foreign countries, who bring 12 different home-languages to our school.

Over the past twelve months the school has grown from 16 pupils to 45 on roll today, doubling in size overnight as families from Ukraine came to enrol with us during the Easter Holidays in 2022.  We welcomed them and helped them to find safe refuge within the local community.  Since then 26 Ukrainian children have passed through the gate.  Some have stayed, some have moved on but we will always do our best and provide a safe, caring environment and a warm welcome for any child who comes to our gate.

Both Ms Niamh Huane and Mr Shane Dowd were participants on the RE Cert course this year.

Have you a   good news story to share from school?  Are you a graduate who has experience teaching in a different context or working alongside teachers in a different role?

Please do consider writing for this  newsletter which is sent to all schools linked to the Church of Ireland Centre, DCU?

Contact Jacqui

jacqueline.wilkinson@dcu.ie

by Sophie Ray (BEd 3 2002-2003)

My name is Sophie Ray and I am the youth leader of the ¡®Lighten Our Darkness by Numbers¡¯ biodiversity initiative.¡®Lighten Our Darkness by Numbers¡¯ is a faith-based visionary initiative led by young members of All Saints Parish in Mullingar. It aims to build a movement of Christians repairing our world by using faith as a compass to transform over 1,000 acres of churchyards all over the island of Ireland into oases of biodiversity.

This youth-led project emerged from humble beginnings in 2020 when my Rector, Canon Alastair Graham, saw an opportunity to bridge the gap between Church youth involvement and tackling biodiversity loss and that's when ¡®Lighten Our darkness by Numbers' began its journey. I was honoured to be asked to lead this initiative as climate change was an issue I felt anxious about but, like many, I didn't know what to do to make a real difference. 

A carefully chosen team of tutors got involved to establish our dramatic presentation that aims to communicate our call to action in a dramatic, multisensory and ultimately inspiring way, with notable figures, including David Attenborough, endorsing its relevance. Interest has continued to flood in since our presentation at the Church of Ireland General Synod 2023, whereby its century old traditional schedule of events was changed for  ¡®Lighten Our Darkness¡¯ to share its goals of:

* Raising awareness about the damage done to the world.

* Looking at climate change through the lens of faith

* Encouraging communities to help in conservation.

The initiative is still growing and we are all still evolving as stewards of the earth with lots more exciting work to come. Personally, I am beyond grateful to have such an uplifting leadership role in this initiative. It has had a life-enriching impact on my perspective towards the power of community commitment, shown me the change that is possible when young people are given a voice and has inspired me to continue to share the ¡®Lighten Our Darkness¡¯ message as I embark on my primary teaching career this coming year.

Congratulations to Sophie and the young people from Mullingar. As an attendee at General Synod I can confirm this was truly a memorable presentation which received a standing ovation! It was wonderful to see one of our students using her talents in this way. Hopefully the video of the presentation will be made available to schools to watch. (Jacqui Wilkinson)

by Rev. Prof Anne Lodge

Dr. Jacqui Wilkinson and Rev. Prof. Lodge attended the annual conference of the Educational Studies Association of Ireland in Stranmillis University College Belfast from

Thursday 30th March until Saturday 1st April. Both presented papers at the same session. Jacqui Wilkinson gave a paper based on part of her PhD Exploring the relationship between student attitudes toward school ethos and student wellbeing: A student voice study in Church of Ireland primary schools. Rev. Prof. Lodge gave a paper entitled: ¡®The ¡®Interfaith Interpretations Podcast Project¡¯: constructing authentic interfaith discourse in a range of voices discussing shared moral and ethical concerns.¡¯ Both papers were well received and resulted in lively questions and answers and discussion during the session itself and afterwards.

On Sunday 4th June, a report by Rev. Prof. Anne Lodge on the mission, ethos and values of Christ Church Cathedral was launched in the cathedral as part of the Patronal Festival. You can read the report at https://christchurchcathedral.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Final-repor¡­

Interfaith workshop for chaplains

On Saturday 15^th April, CIC organised an interfaith workshop for the DCU Chaplaincy students in collaboration with the Dublin City Interfaith Forum.  The workshop took place in Marsh¡¯s Library and included a tour of St. Patrick¡¯s Cathedral, a demonstration talk on some of the historical religious books relating to a range of world faiths by Sue Hemmens, the Deputy Director of Marsh¡¯s Library and a workshop led by members of Dublin City Interfaith Forum. 

Wishing all teachers a restful, safe and happy summer break