Supports / Tacaíocht
The Who's Who at Ennis Community College and Gaelcholáiste an Chláir
There are many people at your child's school who are there to help your child learn, grow socially and emotionally, and navigate the school environment. Here's a selected list of who's who at your school: the teaching and administrative staff. You might want to keep this list handy all year long.
Subject-Area Teacher:
Students now have different teachers for each subject. Secondary school teachers specialize in a specific subject, such as English or history, or even career-oriented ones like cooking or wood. Like Primary school teachers, secondary school teachers work with school counselors and with special education teachers on Individualized Education Programs (IEPs). Whenever you have a concern about your child's academic progress, you should seek out your child’s year head or teachers involved.
Special Education Teacher:
Special education teachers help children with learning disabilities and their families over an entire academic career, starting with the IEP, which sets personalized learning outcomes. They work closely with general education teachers to coordinate students' individualized educational experience and develop specific steps to prepare students with disabilities for jobs or further study. You may use the special education teacher as a resource, too, in learning what to do at home to support what your child is learning at school.
EAL Teacher:
English as a Second Language Teachers specialize in helping non-native students master English language and culture, and may also support instruction in reading and basic content knowledge, such as science or history facts.
Brian O’Donoghue Principal:
Mr O’Donoghue the school principal, sets the academic and administrative expectations for the school. The principal is responsible for ensuring the school meets the high expectations for teaching and learning. Principals meet with teachers, work with staff, talk with parents, report to the school board, and, if needed, discipline students. Principals are the school's decision maker and chief public representative. You may speak with the principal about your child, such as his or her class placement, as well as about school issues that concern you.
Yvonne Walsh & Niall Murphy Deputy Principals:
Ms Walsh and Mr Murphy help the school principal by becoming primarily responsible for several administrative areas of the school. Ennis Community College and Gaelcholáiste an Chláir also has several assistant principals. Assistant principals often handle student discipline and attendance issues, recreational programs, and health matters. For example, if your child must miss school for an extended time, perhaps because of an illness, you may work with an assistant principal to decide how your child will keep up with schoolwork and how the absence will impact your child's academic record.
Moira Murrihy & Aine Meehan Guidance Counsellors:
Ms Murrihy and Ms Meehan help students with social, behavioural, and personal challenges to develop the life skills to succeed. At secondary school level, counsellors provide increasingly more vocational and academic counselling, including helping students evaluate their own interests and abilities. Ms Murrihy and Ms Meehan also help students plan their post-graduation experiences, by advising them about college admissions, resume writing, apprenticeships, and more. You may want to speak with the counselor about your thoughts on your child's post-graduation opportunities.
Literacy and numeracy teams:
The schools literacy and numeracy teams aims to improve literacy and numeracy instruction across all classes, by helping teachers of all subjects to include skill-building work. The team also assesses how well the school teaches literacy and numeracy skills, and develop school-wide programs.
SNA’s:
SNA’s offer support in a number of ways, often extending the individual attention that can be given to students. SNA’s work with special needs children, helping them participate successfully in a general classroom. You may want to speak with all of the educators who regularly work with your child to stay informed of your child's progress.
Conor O Brien Home School Community Liaison Coordinator(HSCL):
Conor is responsible for encouraging your involvement in your child's education and in school activities. The HSCL is a member of the school staff, and is a source of support, information, and contact for parents about school policies and programs. HSCL’s may be able to direct parents to other interpreters or staff who can help provide information and answer questions in a parent's native language. You can contact Conor directly on 086 6009137.
Linda Dinan, Georgina Reidy & Catherine O’Donnell School Completion Programme:
The School Completion Programme (SCP) is an initiative that aims to have a positive impact on retention for young people in school. in doing so improve the numbers of pupils who successfully complete the Senior Cycle, or the equivalent. This is achieved in a number of ways utilising a range of innovative, creative as well as tried and tested interventions. In our school Linda Dinan, Georgina Reidy and Catherine O’Donnell are your SCP staff. They aim to retain young people in education, to improve the quality of participation and educational attainment for your son/daughter with, In-school support, After-school support, Out-of-school support and Holiday support.
Linda O’Callaghan Special Education Needs Coordinator:
Ms O’Callaghan ensures all students have access to the curriculum. She ensures a safe, healthy, and supportive learning environment for all. She collaborates with teachers, parents, and school personnel to address students' learning and behavioral problems and growth. If your child is identified with special learning needs, either disabilities or giftedness, you may meet with Ms O’Callaghan to help plan his or her education.
Lisa O'Brien BFL Teacher:
The BfL programme teacher works with identified students, individually or in small groups, on BfL programmes that are designed to meet their social, emotional, behavioural and academic needs, so they can achieve and succeed in school. It also works on a whole- school basis- promoting positive behaviour among the entire school and supporting staff to deal with challenging behaviour.
Resource teacher:
A resource teacher provides reading services across the curriculum. For example, the teacher may work individually with a struggling student, as well as work with the literacy and numeracy teams to manage the support services provided at the school.
Shirley and Phyllis School Secretaries:
The school secretary manages the administrative work of the school, ranging from registering students to scheduling appointments with the principal, from answering phone calls to monitoring attendance. When you call or visit the school, Phyllis or Shirley will help you reach the person you need.
SEN - special educational need
What is the process if your child has an additional need?
If you have identified on your application form that your child has an additional need, then the SEN coordinator will be in contact with you to discuss your child's needs.
Together you will complete the transitional planning form link.
In normal times, you and your child would be invited into the school prior to the start date of school reopening. However, this year this may not be possible and so we have put together a meet your SEN resource teacher video, along with a video clip of all the teachers who may teach your child in first year, and you will receive a phone call.
In some cases your child may have an individual education plan(IEP) which will be discussed during our meeting and is designed to support your child.
Once your child starts in school, we will be keeping a close eye on how they are getting on and should any issues arise, we will meet again and discuss how we can best support them.
SST - Student support team
The SST is often the first step a parent can take when they have a concern about their child’s progress in school. The purpose of the SST is to design a support system for students having difficulty in the regular classroom.
The SST is a group formed within the school to further examine a student’s academic, behavioral and social-emotional progress. The SST team can propose interventions for the student. The team consists of the Principal, Deputy Principals, Guidance counsellors, SEN Coordinator, BFL teacher, SCP and HSCL.
The SST meeting provides everyone with an opportunity to share concerns and develop a plan. The year head usually makes a referral in consultation with the parent. The interventions agreed upon will vary depending on the child's educational needs.