Simon Lewis
@simonlewis.ie
👨🏼🏫 If I were the Minister for Education Podcast Subscribe ➡️ https://Anseo.net/subscribe 📌 About me: http://simonlewis.ie 🖋 Views mine, no one else would
1/9 If you grew up in Ireland, January 6th was untouchable. The Feast of the Epiphany marked the true end of the holidays for Irish primary schools. It was not debated, negotiated, or questioned. Schools were closed because the Catholic Church said they were closed.
Did you know until 2014, Irish primary schools never opened before 7th January as the 6th is a Catholic Holy Day of Obligation? The history of how the church ceded control after some schools rebelled is an interesting one.
I have a few thoughts about this article but would be interested in hearing what stuck out for you www.irishtimes.com/ireland/edu...
Ireland’s outdoor primary school: ‘Children spend less time outdoors than prison inmates’
The Outdoor Primary School (TOPS), in Greystones, Co Wicklow, functions outside the Department of Education’s remit, but staff and parents rhapsodise about the benefits of such an education
irishtimes.com
iPads or Chromebooks? I made this interactive quiz to help you decide for your school www.arukas.ie/whichdevice/
Irish Education Podcasts to Listen to in 2026 📌 The Irish education podcasting world really took off in a big way in 2025. Here are 9 podcasts worth adding to your playlists. (10 if you include mine!)
Ho hum... I guess we should start the year as normal with the **most** important educational story people seem to be able to think about. Any hopes schools will be treated as anything other than childcare by the media remain the same www.independent.ie/irish-news/...
Flights cancelled at Dublin Airport and school reopenings under threat as Arctic blast to bring snow, ice and lows of -4C
Ireland is set for an Arctic blast as temperatures will sink close to -4C over the weekend – with some northern areas facing snow, ice, freezing fog and h...
independent.ie
On the Disappointment of Almost Meeting my Hero and a Story of a Plastic Cup This is a story I wrote in 2022 that has nothing to do with education. I hope you enjoy it. Happy New Year. simonmlewis.substack.com/p/on-the-di...
A clip from my annual review of primary education in Ireland. Listen to the full episode here: pod.fo/e/36e0c5
The National Convention for Education is going to happen this year thanks to an announcement from Helen McEntee in July, that probably surprised her civil servants. I decided to write a jingle for it.
The Department of Education tried a catchy slogan back in July to try and convince people to choose teaching. I covered this in my review of the year. Full episode: pod.fo/e/36e0c5
Read the final few sentences of this article and you'll see how out of touch the Department of Education is. www.irishtimes.com/ireland/edu...
School withdraws appeal for toilet rolls from pupils but funding strains remain
Primary school principals say balancing books is ‘impossible’ without seeking parental donations
irishtimes.com
School leadership is basically spinning plates while someone keeps handing you more.
@NotebookLM has added a new feature called Infographics, which creates really interesting graphs and images based on published sources. I thought I'd try it out with Religious Control of Irish Primary Schools. This is what it got:
I made interactive flow charts based on the ones in the Child Protection Procedures. Here's a demo of how they work. They come free with every plan on schoolpolicy.ie www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7Q...
Child Protection Reporting of Concerns Flowchart
I created an interactive version of the flowchart on page 57 of the Child PRotection Guidelines (2025) which you can use to help with reporting.This form is ...
youtube.com
10 years ago today, Ireland nearly shifted on school equality. Ten years later, with AI to help dissect the debate, it’s remarkable how much was said… and how little changed. My take on the 2015 Dáil exchange: 🔗 simonmlewis.substack.com/p/ten-years...
I was on the radio today speaking about Herzog Park. I'm the second speaker in. www.rte.ie/radio/radio...
Should Herzog park be renamed?
Callers got in touch about if Hezog Park should be renamed
rte.ie
🧵 The Primary Ethos Survey is missing one very important option in all three questions. It's the option of "I don't care." I think this is a massive omission and here's why.
1/ It's the end of November, which can mean only one thing in Ireland. It's the annual barrage of claims that Christmas is being attacked by secularists and our culture will disappear if we don't reclaim "our" Christian culture.
1/12 Fr. Paddy has a long running column in the Laois Nationalist. His articles are usually harmless messages of love and hope from a Catholic perspective, universal values that everyone could relate to, even if they don't share his faith. However, this week they took a turn
1/ Less than a week ago, Helen McEntee told a thousand principals she was fully invested in education because her own child starts school in September. A few days later she was gone. No goodbye.
Very proud to be part of this series from Speaking Volumes. My poem from Breaking Ground Ireland is one of 15 pieces of work from diverse Irish artists. I hope you enjoy it. Please follow Speaking Volumes on their various channels. www.youtube.com/watch?v=KnJ...
BGI - Simon Lewis
Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.
youtube.com
Really impressive talk from Anne Looney at #IPPN25. I'm much more positive about the upcoming National Convention in education.
Expo_sing Schoolpolicy.Ie for the first time. Come upstairs at IPPN and win a free year subscription
The school staff portal for the Primary Ethos Survey was released today. The only interesting thing about it will be the results when they are divided out between those already in denominational schools and those in multidenominational schools. Why is that?
This is a brilliant article about the primary ethos survey. A must read. www.irishexaminer.com/opinion/com...
Another survey — but still no change for children who opt out of religious instruction
If the Government is truly committed to equality and inclusion in education, it needs to move beyond surveys and start legislating for it, writes Aoife Cassidy
irishexaminer.com
