An Insight into the Area We Live in

St. Augustine’s N.S. Clontuskert-
First in Ireland BY KEN KELLY
In recent years, St. Augustine’s N.S. in Clontuskert have been
honoured for their achievements in various fields of education and
sporting prowess but now they have been awarded the supreme
accolade of being the Republic’s first in its field of learning.
The school is the first in the Republic of Ireland to be selected as
a Microsoft Showcase School for its excellence in transforming its
learning environment to deliver more personalised education to
students, using mobile and cloud technology to better prepare
students for success as lifelong learners.
St. Augustine’s School, Clontuskert, joins an exclusive community of over
400 premier schools from around the world recognised to celebrate their
truly pioneering efforts and innovation in rethinking teaching, learning
and assessment in order to drive deep 21st century competencies.
Last month, Tom Jackson, Education Business and Program Manager,
Microsoft in Education Ireland visited the school to officially honour
Clontuskert with this award. Guests of honour included Lara Dubbagh
and Gareth Callan of Claregalway College who joined Mrs. Kate Murray,
Principal of Clontuskert, in the ranks of Microsoft Expert Educator Fellows
this year. Tommy Maher of 365 Learning who helped set up Office 365 in
Clontuskert also visited. The guests were treated to a tour of the school
with a celebration in the school hall afterwards.
“Being selected as a Microsoft Showcase School is an amazing honor
and recognition of the passion our teachers, Ms. Scott, Ms. Baynes, Ms.
Egan, Ms. Stokes and Ms. Heinrich have for creating the best learning
environments possible,” said Kate Murray. “We look forward to sharing
our experiences with other schools in our community and the world to
continue finding innovative ways to equip our students with the proper
tools needed for success inside and outside of the classroom.”
In fact, last year the school was one of twelve schools globally chosen
to develop a module on the 21CLD MOOC. (21st Century Learning
Design Massive Open Online Course.). This resource will be available for
teachers across the world to help aid implementation of 21st Century
competencies.
In Clontuskert podcasting, blogging and filmmaking are consistently
used to record lessons, events and evaluate student progress. These have
been actively used in the School Self Evaluation process. The school uses
Office 365 to communicate with other schools and the outside world
in a secure and protected environment; to share ideas and information
and to encourage collaboration between classes and
students. Clontuskert uses robotics and coding as a
tool to enhance curricular engagement and ensure students cultivate
lifelong learning skills. This term there will be a pilot school for MindRising
which will develop understanding of the 1916 Rising through use of
Minecraft. The school’s website has won numerous awards over the years
and the school is constantly engaged in interschool collaborations both
nationally and internationally including a number of Comenius projects
in Europe, and cross curricular collaborations with schools in the USA
and Canada. For more information on the school’s use of ICT, visit http://
clontuskert.scoilnet.ie
As a Showcase School, Clontuskert will work closely with Microsoft to
lead innovation in education and communicate a vision for education
enabled by technology. “Microsoft Showcase Schools are shining
examples of those applying purpose driven innovation in a variety of
ways to build connection, motivate students and to create community
in and out of school, ” said Anthony Salcito, Vice President, Worldwide
Education, Microsoft. “These schools are truly transforming learning and
providing more personalised education to students empowering them
to achieve more.”
Front L to R: Ciara Frehill, Rory Lyons, Ethan Colohan
2nd Row L to R: Gareth Callan Claregalway College, Mariam Melaadi, Rebecca Bleahen, Cormac Frehill, John Madden,
Tom Jackson, Microsoft, Oscar Hayes, Matthew Lyons, Jack Scannell, Amy Colohan, Lara Dubbagh Claregalway College
3rd Row L to R: Sarah Lyons, Ben Bleahen, Ella Scannell, Kara Tevlin, TJ Higgins.
Back L to R: Fr. Michael Finneran, Chair BOM, Jennifer Stokes, Teacher, Kate Murray, Principal.
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