Ms Noreen Duggan:

We have benefited hugely from the support of the SESS through the years. We did the co-teaching module and use it a lot in schools. It works very well.

There are a few small issues. With regard to the initial teacher training, we have had people in observing in the special classes. It is worthwhile. However, we had a big argument about it last week. We have young teachers who do not have experience in the classroom, yet at times they are actually put into a special class when they come into a school even if they have only had the two weeks' training. They get involved with the teacher and all the rest, but it is a huge job. I believe it is a disservice to any young teacher to put them straight into a special class. Not only do they have to manage the children, but they also have to manage SNA staff. It can be very difficult and daunting for young teachers. However, there are young teachers who have done it and have done it so well.

We had a student teacher whose mother I knew well in our school. She was in and was very successful in her work. She was doing the learning support plus observation. However, she was in one of our classes and she said to her mother that she would hate to be doing teaching practice in our school because of the challenging behaviour that she experienced in mainstream classes, because she would definitely fail her teaching practice. That is what she observed.

As we were talking about the shortened day, I want to mention two children we have on a shortened day in our school at present. One child joined our school in October from another school because relationships had broken down completely with that school. The child has huge emotional behaviour issues. None of us has identified exactly where he is coming from but his parents are very co-operative and have worked very closely with us. When the honeymoon period ended, all hell broke loose. He has assaulted many members of staff and other children have been injured as well as a result of his actions. The child is totally caught up within himself and he is exhausted after one of these episodes.

We have to call in his parents when this happens. His father is doing night duty and his mother is a full-time student. Often, it involves a wait of an hour and a half. The child can do a lot of damage in that time. We tried to get him into a space in which he could either not hurt himself or others in that period. We then asked the father to stay with him in school because we thought it was very important that the child stay in school. The father has been trying his best, but when this happened two days in a row, he said that he could not continue to do it because he needed to get his sleep. We do not have the extra facilities. The child has not yet been assessed by a psychologist. We have no facilities for this child, so we are left with a shortened day. His mother and father now bring him to school in the morning and collect him one hour later. That is really sad, but we cannot answer the problem. I have been injured by him and so have many of the staff. That is one example.

Another example is two little children who joined our school last May. The are lovely children, both almost seven years of age. They immigrated to Ireland and do not have a word of English. They have never been in a school because in their country they do not start school until they are seven years old. In our school, it is not appropriate to put them into junior infants. Therefore, they joined a senior infants class with 29 children in it already. The little girl has been fabulous and has settled in just grand. She is able for it. They are twins. The little boy is totally not able for it. He has no English and we do not have Slovakian. We have tried to get some of his peers to translate for us. The other child finds it all too much. He is on a reduced day because he is not able for our classroom experience. We have one English as an additional language, EAL, teacher but we have probably 130 children with English as their second language. We cannot ignore those children. That is the reality. On the ground, we need more personnel and resources to answer those needs. I would love to have both of those children in school for a full day. However, that is just the reality.

We have great buy-in and our teachers work very hard to get things going and get things right. We do not put children on a shortened day lightly, but sometimes it is the only answer. That is a really emotional response, but I would not be truthful to the situation if I was not relating it. We have had children on reduced days and, bit by bit, the day has increased until they are doing a full day. We have had children in mainstream who totally did not cope. Eventually, we got a diagnosis for them and they moved into a special class. Now, at fifth or sixth class level, they are back in mainstream full-time, with the support of the special needs unit. It is so good when it works well, but we do need the resources. That is the big thing. Safety for children and for staff is a huge issue for us.