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Try it out

simon — Wed, 06 May 2026 14:39:50 +0000

Featured Insight

Dee O'Toolewebsite

Time allocations in the PCF are the elephant in the room for literacy instruction. 39 minutes a day at infant level, rising to 57 mins for stage 2, then dropping sharply back down to 45 mins at stages 3 & 4. This was not thought through. Most teachers spend more time than thi…

Featured Insight

Aileenwebsite

We need to ensure all children have access to structured literacy based in the science of reading . Without that chikdren are being failed . We need a prioper evaluation of why we are still throwing so much money and resourcing into reading recovery in irish classrooms

Featured Insight

OP Childhoodwebsite

Because many children’s needs are not being met, there is almost no training in SEND, and it blocks access to learning even when their impairment is not cognitive. This is exactly why so many parents deregister their children and their children get much better results outside of …

Karenwebsite

instagram

Literacy is taught throughout the day. Is the concept of integration in existence in schools anymore??

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instagram

Using screens instead of cards or books for learning

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Michelle Cartyfacebook

Because we are having to take groups of up to 6 children for literacy intervention when many of these learners need one to one instruction five days a week. We need more SET teachers.It also has to be the right kind of instruction for the particular learner's needs. Some children…

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Angela Higginsfacebook

Could it be possible that we are not oriented enough towards the sciences of teaching and learning, together with a very extended curriculum that may include too much focus on events without stronger focus and discipline on and for, learning. Here I am thinking of discipline as i…

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Aisling O'Connell Martinfacebook

Too many in the classroom . Too much on the syllabus-simple Back to basics needed

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Brid Mc Leanfacebook

Dec Parkr Time given to the three r’s is being eroded daily. There are constant distractions and continuous entertainment in primary schools now. Too much emphasis on IT assisted learning. Back to the traditional methods and old style methods. Standards being dumbed down. It need…

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Ní Bhuacháin Ammersfacebook

Mary Moran Some also may not be getting adequate support at home. Time is limited at school and what's covered needs to be reinforced at home. Parental support makes a huge difference.

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Rachel Darbyfacebook

How about parents starting by reading to them at home???

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Anseo.net #33 Newsletter 📌 Hopes are pinned on a 15-year-old

simon — Sat, 17 May 2025 15:47:46 +0000

Hi, {{ contact.FIRSTNAME }}

A very big welcome to the 200+ new people who joined my mailing list this week. Last week I launched an app that creates a school calendar along with job shares. I’d love your feedback so I can make it even better.

If you’re new to this newsletter, it is divided into a number of sections, some of which will be of interest to you and some which won’t. You can skip the bits you don’t like but, in general, it’s divided up like so:

Appearances in the Media

A Podcast

My Thoughts on Education News Stories

Social Media I liked

Technology

Please forward on this newsletter to your friends and please encourage them to subscribe by clicking on the button below so it comes to their inbox every 2 weeks.

Subscribe to this newsletter
(if you haven’t already!)

A Brand New Podcast

AI has revolutionised everything and one tool I’ve really loved is Notebook LM from Google. It takes documents and other content and turns it into an easy to listen podcast. This week I decided to check out the Small Schools Report and compare it to the study done in 2004 by IPPN. Listen to what AI thinks. How much has changed in 20 years? Listen Now

I had a quiet couple of weeks in terms of the media though I was due to go on to talk about uniforms on Newstalk last week but was dropped for a story on bunking off work due to the weather.

However, I was thrilled that my first ever publication in an American journal was accepted, an article about the complexities of being Irish and Jewish. While it isn’t an educational piece, it very loosely and subtly touches on it.

It’s been an extremely quiet fortnight in the primary education sector with only smatterings of news about the education system.

Children with additional needs continue to be failed by the system with our hopes pinned on a 15-year-old girl, Cara Dermody, who tells Mary Regan, since she started campaigning 4 years ago, “nothing has changed. In fact, it is getting even worse”. Of course, who do the Department of Education’s inspectors blame? You got it…. schools.

The rise of religion in schools in the United States reads as shocking to most people but is completely normalised in Ireland as a debate in the Dáil decended into the usual tropes.

The Social Democrats offered that the government re-establish its commitment to opening up 400 multidenominational schools (a mere 12%.) I can only hope it was a ploy to highlight the madness of it. But don’t take my word for it, even judges are joining in.

Thankfully the INTO are on the case setting up a taskforce on the subject, of which all members are white, Irish, and work in Catholic schools.

You can read all the stories I found interesting here!

Social Media has become a place of toxicity in recent years. Here I pull up some posts, threads and other interesting tidbits from X, Instagram and other platforms.

One job I used to hate doing was creating a school calendar every year. You’d think such a regular job would be easy to find but, alas, short of copying and pasting a PDF, converting it to Excel, and manually trying to make sure the 182 days were covered, never mind sorting out Job Shares – nothing existed. So I made one myself through Vibe Coding!

Essentially, I used ChatGPT to create HTML, CSS and Javascript code to design a webapp that takes in dates in a school year and then creates a printable calendar to send to families.

It’s inspired me to try and make other tools that might be useful to teachers and principals and I’m going to share them here when I’ve made them.

If you have any ideas for a simple tool that would save you time, let me know by replying and I’ll try and create it.

Try the 2025-26 Calendar Generator

If you’ve enjoyed my newsletter, pass it on to your friends and ask them to subscribe by going to: https://www.anseo.net/subscribe

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Anseo.net #32 Newsletter

simon — Thu, 01 May 2025 16:18:27 +0000

Hi, {{ contact.FIRSTNAME }}

I hope you enjoyed the bank holiday weekend. The INTO Congress feels like a distant memory so this newsletter will remind you of the highlights, the outcomes and why it matters.

I’m also going deep into AI territory with a tool many of you might use. Google’s Notebook LM has become my latest obsession and I thought it might be interesting to get it to publish this month’s podcast.

In this newsletter:

In the Media
The NCSE’s Relate Document
Education Stories over the last few weeks
Some threads
Getting AI to produce Carousels

Please pass on this newsletter to your friends and please encourage them to subscribe so it comes to their inbox every 2 weeks.

Subscribe to this newsletter
(if you haven’t already!)

If you were the Minister for Education…

What would you do?

Latest Podcast Episode
Notebook LM is a tool from Google, which is becoming my new obsession. Its biggest draw, for me, is its ability to make a podcast from a number of documents. In this AI generated podcast, you’ll get a 15-minute summary of the NCSE’s latest document, called Relate. Let me know what you think.

Listen Now

One of the big stories from the INTO Congress was the underfunding of primary schools. I was on The Hard Shoulder discussing this topic.

The INTO Congress came and went with debates on underfunding, recruitment, and burnout. However, the story that seemed to have the media most interested was only 4% of teachers believe they should be responsible for teaching sacraments.

Yes, the results of INTO’s survey and the work of their taskforce was published. The first thing I did was look at the names of the people chosen for the taskforce to see if anyone on it was from a minoritised background. It was worse than I thought.

Thankfully, Minister McEntee, (who, to her credit, did a great job at enamouring herself to teachers), announced a National Convention. It seems the Citizens’ Assembly won’t be happening.

Since then, the topic of religion in schools has been kept in the media. I had some thoughts on the why the word secular is harmful for those of us that want equality. However, when Helen McEntee said she believes parents should have more choice, a highly non-confrontational thing to say in 2025, the backlash from politicians was surprising, and depressing. I wrote to Cathal Crowe to express my disappointment and rather than have a conversation, I was chastised for it.

Unfortunately, Ireland may end up being the pioneer for religious control of schools as the United States look like they’re going down that road now. The future is not looking good for minoritised people.

You can read all the stories I found interesting here!

Given how “threadful” X has become, I’ve decided to focus on anything I can find on social media that might be of interest. Some of them I’ve found and some of them I’ve made. Let me know what you think.

* Sometimes I think I’m the only person that doesn’t speak outside both sides of my mouth (X)
* Social Democrats being more conservative than I’d hoped (Instagram)
* Really good opinion from Barry Hennessy about radio shows reading texts dismissing an entire report on one of the teachers’ union conferences with the usual tropes about our perceived easy life (X).
* Map Geeks – you can thank me later! (x)
* It might be too graphic for classrooms but what is cows ate humans? (X)

I use Twitter/X, LinkedIn and some of the smaller text-based platforms a lot for producing opinions but I find Instagram is much harder for this because it’s mainly a visual platform. However, I have seen carousels being used by many people to show more long form text. I tried it and found it was taking quite a long time so I asked AI to make me a web app that will take my long form text and turn it into carousel posts. Here’s what it produced for me. If you want the code so you can personalise it for your own platform, just reply and happy to send it to you.

ChatGPT decided to call it Slidenest. (I think jobs are safe for the moment and I have no idea why they used an emoji of a goose the logo!) In any case, the bones of a good app is there for you to play around with if you have access to an AI platform. I’ll do up a tutorial as soon as I can!

Try Slidenest

Don’t forget you can access my Code without Coding courses by clicking on the button below!

Access Code without Coding

If you’ve enjoyed my newsletter, pass it on to your friends and ask them to subscribe by going to: https://www.anseo.net/subscribe

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Anseo.net Newsletter #31 📌 Scared of the new MFL Curriculum?

simon — Tue, 15 Apr 2025 16:21:12 +0000

Hi, {{ contact.FIRSTNAME }}
I hope you are enjoying the spring/Easter break. Just before the INTO congress kicks off, I’m recapping on a fairly busy couple of weeks in primary education. I was away last week and developed an app to help me plan each day of my holiday. You can have the source code so you can plan your own holiday or you can adapt it to make a yard duty timetable! In this newsletter: In the Media Are schools in worse a financial situation than before? Education Stories over the last few weeks Some threads How to generate a comic book strip Please pass on this newsletter to your friends and please encourage them to subscribe so it comes to their inbox every 2 weeks. Subscribe to this newsletter
(if you haven’t already!)If you were the Minister for Education…What would you do?Latest Podcast Episode On this week’s show, I’ll be exploring the dread I’m feeling for the new Modern Foreign Languages curriculum and getting less and less worried as I talk to Róisín Brady from LanguagenutListen NowI’ve been listening to the Seán Moncrieff Show since it began but I was never on the show, until now. I was talking about why there are so few male teachers.

PromotionThe Teacher Promotion Club, led by Orla Dempsey, is a monthly membership program designed to help teachers advance their careers. It offers exclusive online training modules, personalised 1:1 support via the Voxer app, and tools for filling in Assistant Principal (AP) posts to accelerate professional growth. Members gain access to expert interview tips, enhancing their ability to showcase their skills effectively under pressure. The Teacher Promotion Club aims to boost teachers’ confidence and competence in securing leadership roles.Find Out More

I couldn’t quite believe that in the space of a couple of weeks, there were two articles in the media about teacher burnout and how we need to do something about it. Firstly Dermot Ferriter quoted Francene Cunningham who suggested “in many cases it would be more appropriate for a child to bring a Valium, instead of an apple, for the teacher.” Shane Hegarty adds that he feels teachers are undervalued. Sympathies to the profession extended to the financial crisis facing schools with the number of schools needing financial crisis help increasing by 540% in two years. However, the sympathies stopped where Micheál Martin chastised the school in Tallaght for writing to its parents to express its crisis. Meanwhile, Norma Foley is continuing in her role… I mean Helen McEntee… it’s hard to tell the difference. The underwhelming continues as McEntee spouts the same spin as her predecessor. Honestly, I sometimes yearn for Richard Bruton’s targets. I have to admit I have issues with the Yellow Flag Award, mainly because it conveniently ignores two areas of discrimination in the education system – that of gender and religion. Speaking of which, girls are fighting to wear trousers in 2025 (not 1925) in schools, and most of the religious orders are refusing to pay compensation for abusing young women. Finally, here are some Canva AI tools for teachers.You can read all the stories I found interesting here!Given how “threadful” X has become, I’ve decided to focus on anything I can find on social media that might be of interest. Some of them I’ve found and some of them I’ve made. Let me know what you think. I liked this carousel from Playful Classroom on being a teacher (Instagram)I couldn’t resist… (X)Just here for the toxic comments. Damned if you do… (X – where else?)For those of you that enjoy blasphemy for Easter: from Sean Moncrieff on Bluesky I can’t even get one face while looking, never mind the whole thing blindfolded (Instagram)I went to Barcelona last week to watch some tennis and for a bit of a break. I like to plan what I do on holidays but I always change my mind when it comes to the itinerary. I looked for a web site that lets you make an itinerary and then lets you change your mind but couldn’t find one, so rather than relaxing in the evening, I spent a week developing a web app for the holiday. I was fairly happy with my efforts and rather than let it go to waste, now that I’m back, you’re welcome to have it and adapt it to your needs. Of course, there has to be an education element to this – why not let your pupils design their itinerary by changing the code to suit their perfect city break! I’ll do up a tutorial as soon as I can!Travel Timetable AppDon’t forget you can access my Code without Coding courses by clicking on the button below!Access Code without CodingIf you’ve enjoyed my newsletter, pass it on to your friends and ask them to subscribe by going to: https://www.anseo.net/subscribe

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Anseo.net #30 Newsletter 📌 A free app for you

simon — Tue, 01 Apr 2025 16:24:24 +0000

I’m very excited to offer you two gifts to celebrate my 30th anniversary. The first is an app I created using an AI tool that might be useful if you use social media. The second is a new video showing you how you can use image generation for Gaeilge. In this newsletter: In the Media Are schools in worse a financial situation than before? Education Stories over the last few weeks Some threads How to generate a comic book strip Please pass on this newsletter to your friends and please encourage them to subscribe so it comes to their inbox every 2 weeks.
Latest Podcast Episode On this week’s show, I’ll be exploring whether the school that threatened to close its doors was in worse financial trouble than they would have been before and what are we going to do about the financial pressures that schools are under?Listen NowI was very happy to appear in the Sunday Business Post Connected Magazine. I don’t have a link to the article but it’s all about technology in primary education.

Like most people, I watched the Netflix series, Adolescence, and like most teachers, I wasn’t shocked or surprised by it. There’s already too much commentary trying to find some gotcha so I won’t add to it but I think this is one of the stronger articles written about it. In other unsurprising news for teachers, Smartphone bans in isolation in schools don’t have any positive effects. The upcoming new curriculum was also in the media this week focusing on RSE and Modern Foreign Languages. Both try to sell us a pup. The obsession with trying to clickbait people into thinking the new curriculum will be all about gender-identity shows no signs of slowing down, despite the fact that it is definitely not going to be on the curriculum. We’re also introduced to a school that has nailed Modern Foreign Languages even before the curriculum is released. We are gluttons for wanting to be the best boys and girls in the class. Back in 2001, I taught as an unqualified teacher. Thankfully since the Teaching Council was formed, the practice of hiring untrained people to be teachers has disappeared…. oh wait. Almost all Irish primary schools employed unqualified substitutes in last academic year. The meme, “you had one job” comes to mind. Helen McEntee continues to underwhelm in her position as the Minister for Education but ensuring all students get a placement in special education is at least the bare minimum. She manages to introduce that bare minimum and the media and social media commentators treat it like a revolution. You can read all the stories I found interesting here!Given how “threadful” X has become, I’ve decided to focus on anything I can find on social media that might be of interest. Some of them I’ve found and some of them I’ve made. Let me know what you think. Another day, another debate on religion in schools (X)My blog post about Different Families, Same Love and why Catholic Schools can easily enter it (Medium)Reframing Failure with Roger Federer (Instagram)An Irish Mammy is “red-pilled” (Instagram)Killing Nostalgia or Fake News? (X)As someone that uses social media quite a bit, I was looking to make an app that converted my text-posts into Instagram carousels. I was going to do this with ChatGPT as my guide and show you another Code without Coding course but the AI world has been going on about a tool called MANUS. Apparently MANUS could not only do all the coding but it could also host the app for me! I tried to get on to the beta testing and I was successful. Sadly, I only got 3 days of testing before it wants to charge me but I did get my app done, and you can use it too completely free. Let me know what you think.Try Text-to-InstagramI also heard that ChatGPT has released its next generation of image generation! The Internet is going mad for it so I thought I’d join in. Here is my video on generating comic-strips as GaeilgeDon’t forget you can access my Code without Coding courses by clicking on the button below!Access Code without Coding

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Anseo.net #29 Newsletter 📌 I used to make Top Trump Cards from Cereal Boxes

simon — Tue, 18 Mar 2025 19:01:35 +0000

I hope you had a good St. Patrick’s Weekend. I’m delighted to release a second free online course and this time it comes with a follow along video. Scroll down to access it.

I send a newsletter every two weeks, and I know you won’t agree with everything I write, but I hope you’ll agree there’s something for you each fortnight.

In this newsletter:

In the Media

Who Will Own the Solar Panels?

Education Stories over the last few weeks

Some threads

My Second Free Course

Please pass on this newsletter to your friends and please encourage them to subscribe so it comes to their inbox every 2 weeks.

Latest Podcast Episode

On this week’s show, I’ll be talking about solar panels and schools, but maybe not from the angle you might be expecting. This episode is all about cognitive dissonance.

Listen Now

After years and years of sporadically trying, I finally got a letter published in the Irish Times. Unsurprisingly it’s about the role of religion in schools but it’s more about how we don’t see the role of religion in schools while judging a country that does.

I was also briefly on RTE Drivetime talking about a headteacher removing mirrors in his school because the kids were spending too much time in the bathroom. Is there a thing in the UK where principals are competing to be the must inhumane to their students? (Interview from around 26:30)

A survey of over 21,000 parents revealed that seven in ten of them think Covid education shutdowns hampered child’s social development. By “complete” coincidence, a study in Mary Immaculate College revealed that children were less ‘ready’ to start school and have more emotional problems since pandemic, according to surveys from Junior Infant teachers.

Could it be the pandemic made kids’ less developed or is there something else? In the UK, could the reason lie in the fact that schools are now expected to supervise the brushing of children’s teeth? Perhaps Denmark’s banning of phones in schools is where we’ll find the reason? South African schools are simply going to take it on themselves.

Meanwhile, RTE shocked everyone by revealing there are some schools where enrollments are so low, there are more staff then pupils. Emma O’Kelly explored why very small schools don’t close down. However, it’s not just small schools at risk of closing. Because of chronic underfunding, a school has said it will close soon if they don’t receive emergency funding.

You can read all the stories I found interesting here!

Do you remember the card game, Top Trumps? I used to love it. When I was young, I used to make my own sets of cards using cereal box cardboard….

To access the course, all you need to do is click the button below. There’s no sign in, passwords or anything like that. It’s all yours to share with whoever you like. Now, wasn’t it worth sifting through my mad thoughts on the education system?

Access Code without Coding

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Anseo.net #28 Newsletter 📌AI Ideas for your School

simon — Tue, 04 Mar 2025 19:01:21 +0000

Anseo.net #28 Newsletter AI Ideas for your School

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Here for Irish Primary Education

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Hi, {{ contact.FIRSTNAME }}

It’s been lovely hearing your feedback about my Code Without Coding course. One teacher got in touch to say he’d starting developing an app which logs when students leave the classroom and all teachers in the school can see the same. I’d love to hear of any of your app ideas.

I’m working on a new app which should be available in the coming months. It is aimed at school leaders and Boards of Managements and I’ll be letting you know more about it as I make progress.

I send a newsletter every two weeks, and I know you won’t agree with everything I write, but I hope you’ll agree there’s something for you each fortnight.

In this newsletter:

Interview with Rob Barnett

Education Stories over the last few weeks

Some threads

My First Free Course

Please pass on this newsletter to your friends and please encourage them to subscribe so it comes to their inbox every 2 weeks.

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If you were the Minister for Education…

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Latest Podcast Episode

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I interview, Rob Barnett, the co-founder and Chief Product Officer of Modern Classrooms Project, a really interesting project which, at its core, tries to use technology for better human interaction and relationships in the classroom.

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With the dust settling on the annual cluster-bomb that is SET Allocations, the stakeholders were predictably silent on the ridiculous toll it takes on school leaders. I am not a representative of anyone and I received three phone calls from principals a few days after the allocations were announced with one of them crying over the stress of them. The only group to do or say anything were, also predictably, The National Principals’ Forum.

Alan O’Ceallaigh spoke on The Tonight Show about the crisis in Special Education, as a group of parents planned to have a sleep out protest outside the Department of Education. Ironically the sleep out will take place close enough to where the current Minister for Education, Helen McEntee did her famous walkabout claiming the streets of Dublin were safe.

Two articles were published about violence in classrooms, one from a Northern Irish perspective and the other from a Republic of Ireland perspective. Interesting to see the angles from our different media.

Finally, I was interested in how teachers in Cork are outraged about being asked to attend Communion services on a weekend but not being outraged that they are being forced to prepare the children for the Communion.

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I’d like to think that courses don’t only provide the participants some new knowledge, they also provide new knowledge for the person giving the course. This is what I always loved when I was giving courses regularly. While I still believe we get much more from having face-to-face interactions because that’s where knowledge is best shared, online courses also have their place, and it doesn’t stop ideas flowing two ways.

This is why I love getting feedback from anything I present. Code Without Coding will hopefully inspire you to try out some different projects but it has already inspired me to write some more courses. While I mentioned the participant who has gone off to complete a rota app for students leaving the classroom, I got other feedback, which, to put it bluntly, told me to SLOW DOWN!

Writing a course takes a lot of time but I’m hoping to release a more simple course using AI as an assistant using familiar tools like ChatGPT and Canva. If you have any other suggestions for things you’d like for me to create, I’d be delighted to hear from you. In the meantime, here is my first course, if you haven’t seen it already.

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If you’ve enjoyed my newsletter, pass it on to your friends and ask them to subscribe by going to: https://www.anseo.net/subscribe

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Anseo.net #27 Newsletter 📌 A Free AI Course For You

simon — Tue, 18 Feb 2025 02:01:25 +0000

Hi, {{ contact.FIRSTNAME }}

I’m really excited about my first ever online course. I’ve always toyed with the idea but never found the time or motivation. The advent of AI is giving me the same excitement as Interactive Whiteboards did when I first saw them over 20 years ago. I think AI has the potential to transform teaching in the same way.

A very big welcome to over 100 new subscribers that joined this week. My newsletter consists of my thoughts on primary education in Ireland so if that isn’t interesting to you, you can skip to the end to get access to the course!

I send a newsletter every two weeks, and I know you won’t agree with everything I write, but I hope you’ll agree there’s something for you each fortnight.

In this newsletter:

In the media

Throwback podcast

Education Stories over the last few weeks

Some threads

My First Free Course

Please pass on this newsletter to your friends and please encourage them to subscribe so it comes to their inbox every 2 weeks.

Subscribe to this newsletter
(if you haven’t already!)

If you were the Minister for Education…

I was on Pat Kenny talking about the Modern Foreign Languages Curriculum and it got me thinking about it and how on earth it’s going to work. More on this here.

All Episodes

Latest Podcast Episode

Last week the SET Allocations were released for 2025-26 and the usual carnage went on with principals screwing each other over. However, Complex Needs were again dropped as a criteria for allocations and last year I recorded a podcast to find out more.

Listen Now
With pressure on the Department of Education to get information out earlier, the dreaded Cluster Games were announced last week, with principals scurrying around like pigeons after breadcrumbs. It’s the second year that Complex Needs have been dropped as a criterion for allocations but there was no outrage this year from the advocacy groups.

The summer programme was also announced with the media more interested in the fact that the kids doing it, will get lunch.

Meanwhile the new Minister, Helen McEntee seems to be blindly following in Norma Foley’s footsteps. It’s disappointing for such a senior member of Fine Gael not being brave enough to reverse some of the very poor decisions made by Fianna Fáil.

Finally, on World Safer Internet Day, it was revealed that 82% of 8-12 year olds are using phones unsupervised in their bedrooms. By complete coincidence, a number of schools in Clare closed down due to a bomb threat, which turned out to come from a child. Word is, he was hacked by bullies. But sure the mobile phone pouches in schools will sort that out! (Yes, Helen McEntee is still going to push ahead with those too.)

You can read all the stories I found interesting here!

You’ve finally made it to the course and you haven’t pressed the unsubscribe button. Well done.

I have been really busy developing my first ever online course on my own platform. (I have designed several courses for other providers in the past.) As I said AI is really exciting me and I want to help teachers use it well and not as a piece of magic for generating generic lesson plans.

For me, if there’s any “magic,” it was looking at AI as a personal assistant rather than something that generates things. I began using it to help me code a number of projects over the last two years and I decided I would share that with you.

Access Code without Coding

If you’ve enjoyed my newsletter, pass it on to your friends and ask them to subscribe by going to: https://www.anseo.net/subscribe

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Anseo.net #26 Newsletter 📌 The most pressing issue for the new Minister?

simon — Tue, 04 Feb 2025 07:10:19 +0000

Hi, {{ contact.FIRSTNAME }}

I hope you had a lovely bank holiday weekend. This week my podcast is a “love letter” as in what I’d love to see the new Minister for Education tackling in the primary education system.

In this newsletter:

l Latest episode of the podcast
Education Stories over the last few weeks
Some threads

Don’t forget, you can read all of my previous newsletters on Anseo.net. Please pass on this newsletter to your friends and please encourage them to subscribe so it comes to their inbox every 2 weeks.Latest Podcast Episode Whenever I talk to teachers, they often say they agree with about 80% of what I talk about when I talk about the education system. I always know what they mean so I don’t think my list of things I’d love for the new Minister for Education to do will be any different. Listen in and see if I’m right!With Helen McEntee ready to start her new portfolio as the Minister for Education, it was interesting to read what the media had to say. Emma O’Kelly listed a number of important issues on her RTE “blog” and Jess Casey also wrote well about education issues in the Irish Examiner. Meanwhile, the Irish Independent decided that the most pressing issue for McEntee was ending the infant hour as it is a pain for parents and their childcare arrangements. Just when you thought education was being taken seriously! I was also interested in a story that has been rumbling below the surface, that is the portrayal of Jews in Irish school textbooks. It was covered by Newstalk with Maurice Cohen speaking about it. It was timely, in some ways, due to a controversy at the Holocaust Memorial Day service. Given I’m the only principal in the country from a Jewish background, I thought I’d investigate with the help of AI. I get a daily feed of education stories from the media, and almost every day, there’s a story from a UK tabloid where a mother is giving out about being fined for taking their child out of school during term time. There’s something distasteful about it, in my view. At least in Ireland, we give people their dignity even when their situation is far far worse than Whitney in the Sun. My favourite thing about St. Brigid’s Day, apart from the new bank holiday, is the annual debate about whether spring starts in February or not. For those of you who agree with 80% of what I say, you’ve guessed it, I’m on March’s side! I’m still developing videos on my YouTube channel to summarise articles and opinions using AI. This fortnight I created a guide to starting a social media account for a school. I’m using an app called Pictory to do this. While I like Pictory, I do have a couple of niggles with it. The big big problem is that it doesn’t have any Irish accents, which is very annoying so I’ve had to go with a pleasant sounding Australian guy. However, it is the simplest way to create AI generated faceless videos I’ve found so far but unless they get the Irish accent sorted, I’ll be moving on.
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Anseo.net #25 Newsletter 📌 Who will be the next Minister?

simon — Wed, 22 Jan 2025 12:19:53 +0000

Anseo.net #25 Newsletter Who will be the next Minister?

Here for Irish Primary Education

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By the time you read this, the new Minister for Education is likely to have been unveiled and, out of the blue, Helen McEntee might be grabbing to post from favourite Patrick O’Donovan. She wasn’t in my top ten possibilities for the job!

In this newsletter:

Latest episode of the podcast

Education Stories over the last few weeks

Some threads

Subscribe to this newsletter
(if you haven’t already!)

If you were the Minister for Education…

What would you do?

Latest Podcast Episode

Join me as I meet Muireann Sadlier from Cyber Smarties Ireland where we talk about technology, namely how to keep children safe when it comes to social media. We have a really good chat and she leaves me with plenty to consider!

Listen Now

I’ve had a busy time in the media over the last couple of weeks. I briefly spoke on RTE Drivetime about the Schoolbook scheme. It was a pre-record so they didn’t air my line that every time an independent bookshop closes, I curse the Minister for Education!

I also got to visit Newstalk’s studios for the first time in many years as I happened to be in Dublin that day. I met Anton Savage to talk about Sweden ditching iPads for textbooks.

While we are waiting for the next Minister for Education to be announced, I decided to pick through the Programme for Government in terms of primary education. After reading it, we badly need a good Minister. It’s a very weak document.

The Programme for Government seems to have quietly dropped the target of 400 multidenominational schools which caught the ire of the Community National Schools who were named in the last two programmes as preferred patrons. Yes, the patronage model doesn’t seem to be going away so I decided to blame it for both the recent snow and the school meals’ programme .

In a surprise to no one except the green hoodie wearing hooligans and their supporters, gender identity isn’t going to be part of the new SPHE curriculum. Naturally, the moral panicking crew don’t believe it and are creating a conspiracy theory as we speak. There are plenty of issues with the new curriculum and this was never one of them.

In another surprise to no one, there’s been a massive increase in Irish exemptions being granted. The outrage that 20,000 of them are studying another language is also predictable.

Meanwhile, a report from the Department of Education states relationships between teachers and SNAs can be filled with tension. In a bizarre turn, SNAs are described by teachers as having a motherly role, which not only reeks of sexism, but must be news to the male SNAs.

It’s been quite a busy two weeks in education so a brief mention of other stories from here and around the world:

You can read all the stories I found interesting here!

I’ve been developing some videos on my YouTube channel to summarise my articles and opinions using AI. I created a guide to buying Chromebooks and the video below might help. I’m using an app called Pictory to do this. While I like Pictory, I do have a couple of niggles with it. The big big problem is that it doesn’t have any Irish accents, which is very annoying so I’ve had to go with a pleasant sounding Australian guy. It also takes me about 20 minutes to produce each video as one has to pay $99 per month to use their API model. Unless I’m getting millions of clicks, that’s just not an option. However, it is the simplest way to create AI generated faceless videos I’ve found so far but unless they get the Irish accent sorted, I’ll be moving on.

If you’ve enjoyed my newsletter, pass it on to your friends and ask them to subscribe by going to: https://www.anseo.net/subscribe

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