On Friday, 13th May, Trinity College launched their "Trinity Access 21: Year 1" report on the need for Digital Skills in Irish Education at Google's Dublin HQ. A number of teachers were also invited to speak at the launch, including Ms. O'Kelly who was asked to speak about the coding initiatives implemented from 1st Year to TY in Stratford College through the European Computer Driving Licence (ECDL) curriculum. The report was featured on RTE 1 News and Radio reports.
Ms. O'Kelly was invited to speak about the coding initiatives implemented in Stratford's Computer Studies classes through the European Computer Driving Licence (ECDL) ICT and Computing Curriculum at the launch of the Trinity Access 21: Year 1 report on Friday, 13th May in Google's Dublin HQ. The report outlines, among many issues, the importance of teaching teachers digital skills and computational thinking, in order for them to bring these skills into the Irish classroom. On page 9 of the report there is a case study on Stratford's Computer Studies classes.
In addition, Trinity College launched the inaugural "21st Century School of Distinction" Awards Ceremony and Showcase on the same morning. Schools from all over the country entered this competition.
Ms. O'Kelly has just completed the Postgraduate Certificate in 21st Century Teaching and Learning, co-funded by Google and run by Trinity College Dublin. Google invested €1.5 million in this Postgraduate Certificate programme in October 2014.
Media reports:
Experts call for investment in digital skills in schools (RTE News, includes Six One News TV broadcasts)
Digital skills crisis in Irish schools prompts call for urgent reform (Silicon Republic)
Stratford kicked off it's Science Week activities at the whole school assembly on Monday with the first of many daily quizzes! So far 1st years have had a Young Environmentalist Awards Ideas Factory Workshop, TYs had an engineer from SSE Eirtricity explaining how to build off-shore wind turbines and there's more to come for the rest of the week ...
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Well done to the U19 Boys basketball team who reached the semi-finals against Rockbrook on Tuesday 10th November. In a closely fought match, Stratford lost 41-39 - so, so close!
Major congratulations to the U16 Boys basketball team who won 52-36 against Firhouse on Monday 9th November!
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On Monday, 9th November all the 1st Year Computer Studies students gathered in the Computer Lab to take part in the Young Environmentalist Awards kick-off workshop - an Ideas Factory workshop in fact! Sarah from ECO-UNESCO visited the class to explain the steps to enter this competition and to start brainstorming ideas.
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