I thought our RSE programme had kickstarted ahead of schedule on Tuesday morning. "How could we be helpful during Mission Week?" the visiting priest probed my class gently. "By making love to everyone and bringing in the turf for the week" my second class theologian opined earnestly. Show love, Sean, show!
Making love is one thing, but the making of a school ethos is definitely another. How well we know our school - what goes, what doesn't, what we cherish, what we decry, what we aspire to and what we pay lip-service to, but wonder if we'll ever manage. Now four heads and a half day and we can surely put that in written form.
"Our school is an open, inclusive place" - is that more important than "Each child's uniqueness is recognised"? How will we bring the all-important selfesteem into this and how do you spell professional? "Where does self-esteem stop and mutiny start?" one of us wonders aloud. We'll temper it by seeking "a high level of commitment and behaviour" from our pupils.
Now, what do we seek of ourselves? "Mutual respect and affirmation" covers us nicely - that's the consensus.
"Teachers should have a shared vision" leads us into coffee and chat about the kind of visions we'd love to share in our rural ageing premises. A staffroom tops the list easily, a general purpose room and even a bit of new carpeting are openly coveted.
A look at our state-of-the-art computer reminds us of the need to be positive in our ethos - positive interest in our pupils and a positive attitude to effort and initiative. But what about a negative sixth class with the end of primary school in sight and an attitude already incubating? Does all this mean that a good, old-fashioned telling-off is gone the way of the Buntus - no longer to be admitted to?
"Handle conflict calmly and constructively" is produced from one of our "Bibles" which are being shamelessly plagiarised. The constructive part, we all agree, can be loosely interpreted - this we all agree as a few notorious characters spring to mind.
Other lofty ideals such as initiative, goals and values are thrown in to the educational stew we have produced, until the talk eventually drifts back in the direction of the local Mission which has completely engaged the imagination of our pupils.
The principal is valiantly trying to finish our set task, when suddenly she invokes the Lord's name. "We may rev it all up again, girls. Talking of religion, didn't the woman on the RSE in-service day say that we should always start by saying that we are a Catholic school, and work the rest around that? Sure, we did the whole thing in reverse." Is this a case of progressing backwards in education?
