Ms Kate Lehane:

My name is Kate Lehane and I am the Fingal representative on the Comhairle na nÓg national executive. Our survey asked students about their experience of teaching and learning in school. One student from County Waterford asked, "Have teachers been more energetic, enthusiastic and less monotone?", although this only applies to certain teachers because some teachers already do this and make learning easier. Some 76% of students feel that other students get more attention than them. This is worrying as only 24% of students are satisfied with the attention distributed around the classroom. One student from Monaghan said: "Not all students are the same. One size does not fit all." This sums up perfectly the fact that less than 50% of students say they learn best when they read from text books and only 30% of students say that teachers make learning interesting and fun.

Another issue arising from the survey is that only 36% of students agree that teachers allow students to explain themselves without conflict. Our survey asked students if they could change the teaching of three subjects in their school, which three would they pick. Maths came out as number one, followed by Irish and then English. This is a concerning but very important finding as they are the core subjects taught in Irish schools. However, not all the findings were negative. One first year student from County Cork said: "The teachers in my school are brilliant." This shows that there are teachers doing it right with positive results, but we need to make it more widespread.

Kate Lancaster-Ryan will now discuss section 2 on feelings about school.