No Consultation with Students on Reopening Schools Plan
ISSU Statement: No Consultation with Students on Reopening Schools Plan
"I am extremely disappointed..."
The Irish Second-level Students’ Union (ISSU) believes that announcing a full reopening of schools, with a two-day notice, is rushing school leaders to put in adequate risk-mitigation measures to ensure a safe return for students.
Additionally, the department's announcement has not responded adequately to the shortages of school and teaching staff, and student absenteeism.
The ISSU notes the high levels of disruption that schools and students have experienced in the last term, and that any return to in-person learning should be done on a phased approach, whilst prioritising exam year students and students with special educational needs.
The ISSU is continuing to call for an open and solution-oriented discussion with all education stakeholders on how to minimise disruption of teaching and learning.
ISSU Statement: No Consultation with Students on Reopening Schools Plan
The Irish Second-level Students’ Union (ISSU) believes that announcing a full reopening of schools, with a two-day notice, is rushing school leaders to put in adequate risk-mitigation measures to ensure a safe return for students. Additionally, the department's announcement has not responded adequately to the shortages of school and teaching staff, and student absenteeism.
The ISSU notes the high levels of disruption that schools and students have experienced in the last term, and that any return to in-person learning should be done on a phased approach, whilst prioritising exam year students and students with special educational needs.
6th Year Student, Quinton Kelly, said;
“As a sixth-year student myself, I am extremely disappointed in the Department of Education's decision to have a full reopening of schools.
With case numbers rising and school attendance depleting, I am not assured that each student will receive the same standard of education. If we see extreme absences this week while having in-person teaching, it leaves no room for online learning equivalents for absent students.
With a substitution crisis in place, the cover needed for absent teachers simply does not exist. From my own experience, I am not confident that the new measures in place will make an effective change in time for a sudden full return to school”
ISSU Uachtarán Emer Neville, after attending a briefing with the Department, said;
“Last nights’ briefing has left students in a position of major uncertainty, and schools will have little time to assess their absences and plan adequately for reopening schools safely.
With the high levels of close contacts and COVID-19 infections currently affecting the country, many students will either be unable to return to school or will be welcomed back to school on Thursday by classes without a teacher or substitution.
Disruptions will remain a major issue for teaching and learning, which leaves students, particularly those in exam years, at an acute disadvantage.”
Furthermore, ISSU Education Officer Jack McGinn, who was also in attendance said ;
“The ISSU has always engaged with the Department of Education positively and were disappointed that students were not consulted, but briefed, on this issue. We note that it is rash to reopen schools as planned and the lack of consultation with all stakeholders on this proposal demonstrates a lack of concern for the voice and safety of students, teachers, caretakers, secretaries and other members of the school community.”
The ISSU further notes students were not consulted on this announcement. This demonstrates a disregard for how important the voice of students is in this discussion, as an equal stakeholder in education. This approach to finalising the return to school without consultation comes as a surprise, considering a very productive and close relationship between a wider pool of stakeholders with the Department of Education in recent months, in response to the challenges that the pandemic has brought about.
The ISSU is continuing to call for an open and solution-oriented discussion with all education stakeholders on how to minimise disruption of teaching and learning. The union is calling for:
A phased return to school, starting from Monday, January 10th, prioritising in-person tuition for exam year students and students with Special Education Needs (SEN).
The urgent sourcing of HEPA filters for all classrooms.
Additional adjustments to be made to the Leaving Certificate and Junior Cycle exam papers for 2022.
The ISSU is urging all stakeholders in school communities to adhere strictly to public health regulations in order to ensure the safety of schools for all students and staff.
The union has noted that whilst Public Health Representatives have said there is no rationale to not re-open schools, the Department of Education have disregarded the disruption that this rushed reopening will cause to students. With high teacher absenteeism and substitution shortages, schools are under-resourced. The current plan that has been proposed allows the possibility of specific class groups in each individual school to be sent home from school if deemed necessary. This causes significant disruption and uncertainty for students, with the possibility of many students not knowing if they are going to be in school the next day. This also raises concerns about whether individual classes could miss out on in-person learning compared to other classes and what position that will leave students completing state examinations.
The Irish Second-Level Students’ Union (ISSU), expresses major concern at the lack of consultation with students on the return to school. The representatives of students were not consulted at a meeting held on the reopening of schools on January 4th, as they believed they would be, instead, a briefing was held to inform the ISSU and other stakeholders of the decision that had already been made.
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For more information, please contact:
Joanna Siewierska ISSU Communications - 01 443 4461/083 1305583
Students Should Not Be Forced To Sit State Exams During Medical Emergencies
The Irish Second-Level Student`s Union (ISSU) is calling on the Department of Education & Skills and the State Examinations Commission (SEC) to put in place a provision allowing students who are experiencing medical emergencies at the time of their Leaving Certificate exams, so that they have the option to defer the exams and sit them in July along with students who deferred exams due to bereavement.
President of the ISSU, Ciara Fanning commented on the issue, saying “We at the ISSU want students to be able to reach their true potential in the education system. This means allowing students to be in a fit state mentally and physically, whilst sitting the exams that are the culmination of 6 years of second-level education. In no way should students still be feeling the effects of medical emergencies or strong anaesthetics whilst sitting the exam. We are calling on Minister McHugh and the SEC to change this and change it fast so no more students are forced to sit their exams during medical emergencies. These students deserve empathy for their situations and respect in the way they are treated.”.
Ms. Fanning noted that there are many stories of students who had to sit their exams while experiencing medical emergencies. The ISSU has been told stories of students who have been forced to sit Leaving Certificate exams having just given birth, having been in a car crash and having undergone serious operations.
The ISSU recently released a video featuring one of these students, Amy Richards, who sat her Leaving Cert this past June ( Video Link: http://tiny.cc/nex89y ). Amy underwent emergency surgery for acute appendicitis at 1am on the morning of English Paper 1. The surgery lasted four hours, finishing at 5 am. Moments prior to beginning her English Paper One exam she was informed that she was in fact lucky to be alive, being told she had a blood infection, a gangrenous appendix and a large abscess in her stomach.
Having undergone a serious operation during which she was under general anaesthetic, it is clear that Ms. Richards was not in any state, either physically or mentally to sit a Leaving Certificate exam. It is cases like this that the ISSU wishes to cease from happening. Students experiencing serious medical emergencies during their exams must be shown empathy, and the respect for their health that they deserve. This can be done through the extension of the July deferral scheme for bereaved students to those who are experiencing medical emergencies.
Check out the video with Amy Richards here: http://tiny.cc/nex89y
English - #LC2017 - Sarah Connolly
Sarah Connolly - Ratoath CollegeI sat my first leaving cert paper this morning and it's safe to say that I was nervous going in! I woke up at 4am convinced I was late!! But I wasn't and I got to school for our usual pre-exam breakfast (despite not being able to eat any of it because of allergies!). It was a grand paper, with no curveballs thrown in there. I did the Question A from text 1 which was a lovely piece about poetry. It had a lovely 15 mark question about why poetry benefitted you in there as well which suited me lovely! I was delighted to see a question like that. I got the question A done on time (which was a first for me!). I did the Question B of text 2 which was a fabulous piece about people's reliance on online news sources. I was dead chuffed with that as we are supposedly in a “fake news” era so it was very easy to pull ideas together for that.
Leaving Certificate Applied Maths
Liam - Higher Level 
Questions that I did: 1, 3, 4, 5, 8, 10Applied Maths. The last exam. The end of LC'16. This finale could not have come sooner in my opinion. The exam was okay, some questions needed more time than the exam permitted, other questions were grand!I stared off with 8, just to get the moment of inertia proof out of the way, it was for a rod so it was reasonably simple and the following question was good too! 10 took a few minutes to comprehend, and I took my normal maths teacher's advice, if you don't understand, draw a graph. And so I did! The questions weren't the worst, but then I got onto question 1.I usually love question 1. Usually. It was one where I kept coming back to it , don't even know why! It was tricky out. 3 was okay too. The first part I thought okay , but again, timing out me off getting it properly. 4 and 5 were okay I think. I got them so that's good… right ??Overall , it wasn't perfect my any means, but long live attempt marks… eh?Thanks so much for reading my and every one else's blogs over the course of LC 2016, hopefully we helped you get closure over the exams after them and now we can forget ALLLLL about them. Live long and prosper folks!
Cárthach - Higher Level 
Okay, so this was an extra subject. Glad to be done. I found it extremely difficult.Forgetting my calculator was a first mistake, but it was only outside the door so my examiner allowed me to go get it! So despite being off to a bad start, I managed Question 1. (I) but the rest, I thought, were questions that were challenging and very tricky to understand, and almost misleading.After speaking to a few people, nobody was a fan of the paper...and the different style question 4(a) and tricky 'a' parts all around.It was an extra subject for me, but overall, it's main benefit was that it helped with honours Maths!Congrats on everyone who finished today! As I'm writing this from the sesh; I have walked a long road to freedom, and added a good few miles by choosing this subject, it was a painful pleasure!-Cárthach Ó Faoláin out!Please note: blog posts reflect the opinion of the author and not necessarily the opinion of the Irish Second-Level Students’ Union. Blogs are updated daily by 6.30 pm on scheduled examination dates.Zeminar is an event for Generation Z, particularly those aged between 15 and 19, and their parents, teachers, mentors and coaches. It will take place from 11th - 13th of October 2016. For more information see www.zeminar.ie
Leaving Certificate Japanese
Klara - Higher Level
Japanese, my last exams and possibly one of the better ones!The minute the exam started I went straight to the last section to see what essay titles came up. I was most worried about the essays as you never know what could come up. However, over the two years of the course the amount of vocabulary you build up really helps to deal with any essay title that comes up - even if you've never written about it before. The short essay was a choice between writing a diary entry on a hiking trip or on a film festival. For both you had to talk about how the event went and what you did straight afterwards. The long essay was the first email you would send to a Japanese pen pal in which you would describe your family, Irish weather, food, your area, your daily routine in school and what they they should bring with them if they came to Ireland.The reading comprehension were easy overall, however, it took me a long time to work out some of the katakana readings. I had to read them over and over in my head to try and understand the meaning.The grammar questions were actually pretty good too; changing into the positive and particles came up. The kanji that came up were also pretty easy and there was no obscure kanji compound.The listening was also quite easy but I found parts of the last section challenging to understand.Overall, this was a great exam and I can safely say that my Leaving cert has ended on a high note!
Please note: blog posts reflect the opinion of the author and not necessarily the opinion of the Irish Second-Level Students’ Union. Blogs are updated daily by 6.30 pm on scheduled examination dates.Zeminar is an event for Generation Z, particularly those aged between 15 and 19, and their parents, teachers, mentors and coaches. It will take place from 11th - 13th of October 2016. For more information see www.zeminar.ie
Leaving Certificate Music
Liam - Higher Level 
As I woke up this morning I felt a great wave of relief. My final exam, music. I've always struggled with the theory side of music but I wasn't nervous whatsoever for this exam, as all I could not think about was finishing this bloody leaving cert.
The first paper was the listening paper. I thought it went brilliantly. The question on Mozart, Sea Changes, Berlioz and the Beatles were all excellent. The essay went terribly however. I did the one about Irish song tradition but thankfully it's not worth many marks. We then had a fifteen minute break before paper two. I tried to study during this but I was just not able to.
Paper two was such a relief. I did question 1 and question 5 (the ones everyone do). They went very well. With just fifteen minutes left I finished. With a sigh of relief I handed up my paper. No more leaving cert <3 No more school <3 Finished at last <3
Emma - Higher Level 
Music!! The listening paper for me was a fail! The Mozart was so unexpected and that threw me for the rest of the paper! The written had two minor harmony and melodies and that's what I chose! They were quite nice and I was so HAPPY to see everyone else got C minor too!
Hopefully the listening won't affect me so much!! I'm so happy the leaving cert is over!!
Klara - Higher Level
The music listening paper could not have been better. At first when I saw that the third movement of Mozart's piano concerto came up as a long question I was really worried because it was the one I knew the least but the questions were actually very easy and general. Even the dictation type question was okay as they gave you options. The Berlioz excerpt was the idée fixe from Un Bal with questions on instrumentation and how it is used in the work. Next was a question on the Beatles' "When I'm 64". One of the questions was to differentiate the given verse (verse 2) and the first which is not included in the excerpt, I found this one difficult but the rest were fine. Deane was the fourth question with an excerpt of the main melody. I really dislike Deane and was dreading this question but I think it went ok. Again, we had to differentiate this section from when it is first heard in the piece and we also had to identify the percussion instruments.The Irish listening went pretty well overall. The essay titles were great. I was especially happy that an essay on O'Riada came up.The unheard listening was a bit different from the other years, as all the excerpts were from the same piece, as opposed to being from different pieces. The questions were also quite easy although I wasn't too sure about the last one which was to show how the music conveys the time of death. Overall, it was a very good paper.I wasn't as happy with the composing paper though, unfortunately. Both Q1 and Q5 were in the minor key, with an anacrusis. The melody wasn't too bad though as it was in 3/4 time. The Chords and Bassline question was pretty difficult though in my opinion as I found it difficult to get a good progression and bassline. I was writing up until the very last minute and didn't get the time to look over it at all. I think though, with the listening paper being so good, the exam went really well!Please note: blog posts reflect the opinion of the author and not necessarily the opinion of the Irish Second-Level Students’ Union. Blogs are updated daily by 6.30 pm on scheduled examination dates.Zeminar is an event for Generation Z, particularly those aged between 15 and 19, and their parents, teachers, mentors and coaches. It will take place from 11th - 13th of October 2016. For more information see www.zeminar.ie