Dr. Niall Muldoon:

I had the great honour of going down to St. Joseph's national school to meet the teachers and children who are working this way. Essentially they have taken a programme from the United States, I think. Forgive me but I do not have all of the details. The idea is that throughout the school the children are taught as groups to be caring and kind, considerate of each other and to believe in each other. They are taking a holistic approach in the primary school education system to send the children out with a much broader understanding of who they are and who each other is. It was very clear that all of the children have grown in confidence. I saw children on the stage from junior infants upwards singing and dancing.

It is not just this. It is also that the message they are putting forward is very positive. Essentially growth mindset is this idea that, as Deputy Buckley spoke about, we will make mistakes but our job is to learn from them. It is about progress and not perfection. It is this idea. If we teach our children this in our education system a lot more can be done. They will not be worried about having to be perfect or getting an A or a H1. They will be worried about being as good as they can be, which may not be as good as or may be different to the person beside them. They may be better than the person beside them but everybody is equal. It is a very refreshing approach in education.

St. Joseph's is doing this very well. I do not know how many other schools throughout the country are doing it. To be fair, the primary education system is much better in this direction. It is much more holistic and growth-oriented than post-primary education. It is moving in the direction of doing what the child needs as opposed to what the curriculum needs. This is very impressive. To be fair to St. Joseph's it is probably five years ahead of where many other schools will start to follow.