Integrated Education BRINGING YOU NEWS FR OM THE NORTHERN IRELAND Winter 2012 COUNCIL FOR INTEGRAT ED EDUCATION... Clare and Sota at the NICIE AGM Inside this issue... AGM & Annual Seminar Principals, Governors and Trustees started in 1987 and incorporated in EIEA came together at the 23rd Annual Gen- 1989. We hope that there will be a eral Meeting of NICIE, which took ‘living history’ on the website.” Facing the Past: Sharing place on Friday 16th November at The AGM paid tribute to the work of 5.00pm in Riddel Hall, Stranmillis Colm Cavanagh standing down as the Future Website Road, Belfast, followed by dinner. Chair of the Board of Directors of The highlight of the evening was the NICIE. The first President of NICIE SC:DL launch of the new NICIE website. was appointed and the meeting was This is a major development for NICIE. pleased to ratify Colm Cavanagh as its Baroness May Blood Included for the first time on the first President. Colm has devoted website is a history of NICIE and the many years to the promotion of Inte- Trusts that support the development of grated Education, both in Derry and on Nominated for Award Integrated Education. NICIE is also a regional basis. We are honoured that linking its website in with social media, he will continue this work in this new Connecting Classrooms linking it to Facebook and to Twitter. role. The website includes sections for Noreen Campbell, Chief Executive of Dates for Diary parents, staff and students and gives NICIE, in her report paid tribute to his details of the different projects with work. She highlighted the challenges International IE Week which NICIE is involved and the of Area Based Planning, arguing that training programmes that NICIE offers NICIE should have had greater School Jotter, News to parents, teachers and governors. involvement in this process. We hope that the website will be a Noreen Campbell also welcomed the from around the schools useful and accessible resource for contribution of the appointment of parents and schools and those wishing Associates to NICIE to support Sporting News from to further the development of schools in the Area Based Planning integrated education. Process and other work. Integrated Schools Lorna McAlpine, Senior Development Officer at NICIE, said: “NICIE was Northern Ireland Council for Integrated Education www.nicie.org [email protected] 25 College Gardens, Belfast, BT9 6BS Tel. 02890 972910 Fax. 02890 972919 1 memoration of a decade of anniver- grated Education Movement through saries 1912 -1922. Noreen Campbell some difficult times, concluding by say- commended the work of Sheelagh ing: “Integrated Education would have Dean and Carmel Gallagher in this been a much in a much poorer place” important project. without him. Colm Cavanagh, the outgoing Chair- After the formal business was conclud- person of the Board of Directors, ed, including presentation of financial thanked the staff of NICIE. He also reports and Standing Committees, the paid tribute to Corporal Channing Nitty Gritty Theatre group, under the Day, a former pupil of Strangford IC, direction of Andrea Grimason, enter- who was killed while serving in Af- tained the delegates with short drama Noreen reported on a busy year for ghanistan in October. piece on 1912 in Belfast. NICIE, including the inaugural Interna- Colm also highlighted the difficulties of tional Peace Education Conference in integrated education in countries like This year the NICIE Annual Seminar, March in Belfast. Teachers from Israel, Israel and Croatia, further complicated 'Alternative Routes to Integration' was Bosnia-Herzegovina, Macedonia, Cro- by language difficulties. “The act of held in QUB on Saturday 17th Novem- atia and Cyprus as well as academics separating children makes them think ber. Participants from a wide range of from Germany, the USA and Northern there is a difference,” he emphasised. backgrounds, including: teachers’ un- Ireland attended, which focused on ions, integrated, controlled, main- ways of educating together young tained, nursery, primary, post primary people from different cultures in a con- and special schools attended. There text of division and conflict. were also representatives from the Noreen also highlighted the work of RTU, UNICEF, Educate Together and the Sharing Classrooms, Deepening the IEF as well as founders of Trusts Learning project, which works across and integrated schools, associates of a range of schools and NICIE’s Global NICIE and Directors. Initiatives, with Connecting Class- rooms in Iraq and the Global Schools The CEO set the scene with an over- Partnerships link in Sri Lanka. view of the challenges facing integra- In October, the ‘Facing the Past: tion. Shaping the Future’ website Marie Cowan presented Colm (www.facingthepastshapingthefutur Cavanagh with a beautiful sculpture, in e.com) was launched, funded by the recognition of Colm’s major role in the Department of Foreign Affairs, Dublin development of Integrated Education (DFAD) in 2011-12. The website pro- throughout Northern Ireland, noting vides easy internet access to a range how he “thought nothing of travelling of innovative resources and approach- throughout the country” and “never tak- es which will assist schools in the com- ing no for an answer”, steered the Inte- Paul Bell, Principal of Botanic prima- ry school; Geri Cameron, Principal of NICIE is delighted to announce that Loughshore Educational Resource Centre, and Paul Rowe CEO of Edu- Colm Cavanagh has been appointed cate Together, gave short presenta- as its first president. Colm is tions focusing on the diversity in their schools. This was followed by standing down as Chairperson of the round table discussion. Conversa- Board of Directors after many years tions around the tables were inter- esting, productive and challenging. of long and dedicated service to the cause of Integrated Education and The participants from outside the integrated family welcomed the op- to NICIE. NICIE was honoured to portunity to talk with NICIE and appoint him, at the AGM, to the some suggestions for moving for- ward were advanced. position of president, enabling Colm to carry on his sterling work for In the New Year we will explore fur- ther possible next steps in taking NICIE and in the promotion of forward the discussion. Integrated Education. PAGE 2 2 Enniskillen Integrated Primary School our town. One of those who joined up teachers and other support staff, who was honoured by NICIE (Northern Ire- was John Maxwell, no stranger to trag- visit the school, universally comment land Council for Integrated Education) edy at the hands of terrorists, having on the positive, inclusive attitude dis- at The Wellington Park Hotel on Fri- lost his son Paul in 1979 in the explo- played by the staff, which is shared day 16h November 2012 at 12.15pm sion that took the life of Earl Mountbat- and often exceeded by our greatest in a ceremony to mark the Excellence ten and two others. John’s vision, asset, our children.” in Integrated Education Award. along with the late Bill Barbour and others was the ideal of shared educa- Mr Jardine also paid tribute to the work tion between the two sides of the reli- of the Governors, Parents’ Council, gious divide. In the face of much oppo- teaching and non-teaching staff and sition and occasional vitriol, money the Principal, Adele Kerr, MBE. was raised, premises were found and in September 1989, Enniskillen Inte- “We, as a school, and I as its Chair of grated Primary School accepted its first Governors, are equally humbled, pupils and our school was born. 64 thrilled and proud to accept this recog- pupils and 3 staff started off on that nition from our peers and can assure day on a journey which, as with most you that this will not be simply viewed journeys, had its fair share of ups and as a well done pat on the back, but as downs and more than one diversion a spur to drive our vision of teaching along its way. and learning on an equal, inclusive, The EIEA Awards ceremony was part child centred basis onwards and up- of the APTIS conference, which was “Twenty three years on, our school is wards.” opened by a choir from Millennium In- firmly established within the local com- tegrated Primary School. The award munity, a vibrant catalyst for the The Excellence in Integrated Education was presented by Joanne Stuart, OBE change that is required to move for- Award provides a self-evaluation tool from the Science Park and STEM ward to a better future. In 2007 we for schools which wish to explore, in a (Science, Technology, Engineering finally moved into our new permanent more meaningful fashion, how integra- and Mathematics strategy). Noelle building, with full enrolment across tion informs ethos, management, gov- Buick, the Chief Inspector of the Edu- every year group. For the past 10 ernance and learning and teaching cation and Training Inspectorate (ETI), years, we have been oversubscribed within the school. It is based on the was among the speakers. for both nursery and primary 1 intakes, four core principles of integration, to the extent that parents were no long- namely: equality, faith and values, pa- The children from Enniskillen Integrat- er applying for places because the rental involvement and social responsi- ed Primary School entertained those word on the street was “the integrated bility, and provides schools with a present by singing and telling what is always oversubscribed, sure you’ve structure through which a comprehen- their school means to them. no chance of getting in there”. This sive school-wide review can take place. Neil Jardine, Chair of the Board of Governors of Enniskillen Integrated NICIE believes that the Excellence in Primary School, said: Integrated Education Award scheme contributes to school improvement “On the 8th November 1987, a bomb through strengthening ethos and that exploded in the Reading Rooms in furthermore it complements the cur- Enniskillen, opposite the town’s War rent Department of Education initiative Memorial, where a crowd was gather- of ‘Every school a good school – a ing to honour the sacrifice made by policy for school improvement’.