Results 13,981-14,000 of 19,621 for speaker:Norma Foley

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Reopening of Schools, Cork Life Centre, School Bullying and the Impact on Mental Health: Discussion. (21 Sep 2021)

Norma Foley: I want to acknowledge that impressive body of work. I will take on board many of the recommendations in the report. We will continue to engage with the committee and with the Chair on an ongoing basis.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Reopening of Schools, Cork Life Centre, School Bullying and the Impact on Mental Health: Discussion. (21 Sep 2021)

Norma Foley: I will respond in the first instance the question of the Cork Life Centre. I appreciate the Deputy’s positive contribution and his acknowledgement that this has been a long process of consistent engagement, discussion, debate and sharing of thoughts and ideas between the officials of the Department, Cork Life Centre and the ETB. I acknowledge the generous spirit of openness and...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Reopening of Schools, Cork Life Centre, School Bullying and the Impact on Mental Health: Discussion. (21 Sep 2021)

Norma Foley: This was resourcing to put the additional staffing in place. No principal should have the burden of carrying out the contact tracing. Public health has made very clear that if a child is diagnosed that child is then out of school. The HSE is automatically informed of the diagnosis and the HSE will come forward.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Reopening of Schools, Cork Life Centre, School Bullying and the Impact on Mental Health: Discussion. (21 Sep 2021)

Norma Foley: I want to be very clear that the advice we offer is the advice we get from public health. This is as a consequence of the ongoing engagement we have with public health. Throughout the summer we continued to engage with it and we continue to do so now. The advice from public health is that children should stay at home if they are unwell. It is a precautionary measure. There is the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Reopening of Schools, Cork Life Centre, School Bullying and the Impact on Mental Health: Discussion. (21 Sep 2021)

Norma Foley: To be fair, I would have to say to the Deputy that the advice our principals and our parents and guardians are being asked to follow is the advice that has been provided by public health to the Department. This is the advice that is disseminated to the schools and organisations. There has been an enormous body of work in terms of getting this information out to parents in a variety of...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Reopening of Schools, Cork Life Centre, School Bullying and the Impact on Mental Health: Discussion. (21 Sep 2021)

Norma Foley: I thank the Deputy for relaying the very positive remarks he has received from principals in both sectors. I will make a quick remark on the view expressed on delays in contact tracing once a child has been positively diagnosed. I want to repeat to the Deputy what has been repeated by public health. It states once a child is diagnosed as Covid positive the HSE is automatically informed and...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Reopening of Schools, Cork Life Centre, School Bullying and the Impact on Mental Health: Discussion. (21 Sep 2021)

Norma Foley: As the Deputy has acknowledged, the hot meals programme is under the remit of the Department of Social Protection. Particularly in the past year, significant funding has been made available to schools for whatever minor works they deem necessary. In fact, there were two tranches of minor works funding paid to schools. For the first time, minor works grants were paid to second level schools....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Reopening of Schools, Cork Life Centre, School Bullying and the Impact on Mental Health: Discussion. (21 Sep 2021)

Norma Foley: Since the reopening of our schools last year, and again this year, the emphasis has very much been on well-being. I ensured in the budget that 120 guidance posts and 17 additional National Educational Psychological Service, NEPS, posts would be made available. I am pleased to be able to state a well-being platform is being provided whereby all the resources required for schools are on a...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Reopening of Schools, Cork Life Centre, School Bullying and the Impact on Mental Health: Discussion. (21 Sep 2021)

Norma Foley: I thank the Deputy. I appreciate his opening remarks. On CLASS, this is the third aspect of the support programme for children, as we have said previously. The important aspect of the CLASS initiative is that it is for the benefit of all students. There will be targeted teaching hours made available to schools. For example, a post-primary school of 800 pupils will be entitled to an...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Reopening of Schools, Cork Life Centre, School Bullying and the Impact on Mental Health: Discussion. (21 Sep 2021)

Norma Foley: It is important to acknowledge in the first instance that excellent work is already being done in our schools. For example, this week the roll-out of the incidental inspections is taking place. An integral part of those inspections will be an opportunity to review best practice in our schools currently. Coming from that, there will be a composite report of all of that best practice which...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Reopening of Schools, Cork Life Centre, School Bullying and the Impact on Mental Health: Discussion. (21 Sep 2021)

Norma Foley: I thank Deputy Ó Cathasaigh. I appreciate the positive feedback. I have had the opportunity to visit a number of schools over the past number of weeks. I share the Deputy's view that there has been a very positive reaction to the return to school. That is across the board - from parents and guardians, school staff and, very importantly, the students themselves. In terms of class...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Reopening of Schools, Cork Life Centre, School Bullying and the Impact on Mental Health: Discussion. (21 Sep 2021)

Norma Foley: I appreciate and acknowledge the huge body of work that this committee has been involved in on bullying. The report was published just last month and I am in the process of working my way through it. I am very positively disposed towards working with many of the recommendations. Specifically, it is important to make a first step. That is why it will be a very positive learning experience...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Reopening of Schools, Cork Life Centre, School Bullying and the Impact on Mental Health: Discussion. (21 Sep 2021)

Norma Foley: In the first instance, I take exception to the remarks about complacency in our schools. There is nothing complacent about our return to school. As I have said, we have consistently engaged right throughout the summer and put funding in place of €57 million alone for this first term for the return to school. There is no sense of complacency and, in contrast, there is a sense that a...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Reopening of Schools, Cork Life Centre, School Bullying and the Impact on Mental Health: Discussion. (21 Sep 2021)

Norma Foley: I thank the Deputy. She raised a case involving high class numbers at primary school level but pupil-teacher ratios, as a consequence of work done in previous budgets, are at an historic low. I am not au faitwith the specific case raised by the Deputy but, in general, where there are exceptional positions in schools or whatever, there is an appeals process for teacher allocations. It is...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Reopening of Schools, Cork Life Centre, School Bullying and the Impact on Mental Health: Discussion. (21 Sep 2021)

Norma Foley: I know from experience that the day of leaving certificate results can bring great joy for some and great disappointment for others. The day the course points are published can also bring great joy and disappointment as well. I have already outlined that this past year and the previous year have been extraordinary and that extraordinary circumstances prevailed. The class of 2021 had an...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Reopening of Schools, Cork Life Centre, School Bullying and the Impact on Mental Health: Discussion. (21 Sep 2021)

Norma Foley: I thank the Senator and acknowledge the various points she has raised. There has been significant progress on the Cork Life Centre and I acknowledge the work of the officials of the Department, the Cork Education and Training Board and the Cork Life Centre, which has engaged so positively and proactively in being able to progress matters. On the Senator’s specific question on other...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Reopening of Schools, Cork Life Centre, School Bullying and the Impact on Mental Health: Discussion. (21 Sep 2021)

Norma Foley: I will be very happy to keep an open mind and study many of the recommendations it contains.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Reopening of Schools, Cork Life Centre, School Bullying and the Impact on Mental Health: Discussion. (21 Sep 2021)

Norma Foley: I thank the Chairman. We will look at all of the positives we have learned from Covid and all of the measures we implemented during the pandemic. It is my intention that we look at all of that information. We will also look at the potential of any measures we are in a position to implement, that have been of benefit to our school communities and our students in particular. That is part of...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Reopening of Schools, Cork Life Centre, School Bullying and the Impact on Mental Health: Discussion. (21 Sep 2021)

Norma Foley: We are in a very different scenario now than we were then because we have the vaccines. Between 86% and 87% of our students over the age of 12 have been vaccinated.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Reopening of Schools, Cork Life Centre, School Bullying and the Impact on Mental Health: Discussion. (21 Sep 2021)

Norma Foley: I make the point on vaccination because we are in a situation in which you do not have to isolate if you are vaccinated. I appreciate the point the Acting Chair makes, however. We will be looking at all of the measures, with a view to learning from them and seeing what potential we have going forward.