Loreto St Michael’s Navan - ERASMUS+ Programme KA122-SCH
As part of our Teaching and Development Plan 2021-2027, Loreto St Michael's has been fortunate to be able to avail of the ERASMUS+ programme, which enabled our school to engage in international continuous professional development with European partners.
This venture has been our first project with ERASMUS+ and it involved staff mobilities. The objective of the project was to provide opportunities for staff to upskill in the areas of inclusion, ICT & methodologies as well as SET and restorative practice. These key areas compliment our current School Self Evaluation process and indeed our School Improvement Plan.
Over the course of 18 months, 5 staff members travelled to other European destinations to take part in professional development courses linked to the areas mentioned above.
In July 2022 Ms Brady, Ms Tully and Mr Smith travelled to Barcelona and took part in a week long course entitled “Use of ICT in Special Education”. They presented to staff on their experiences and have been able to implement their learning in their work in our SEN Department at school.
In February 2023 Mr O’Toole travelled to Reykjavik to take part in a week long professional development courses entitled “Mindfulness and Meditation: Wellbeing at school and life”. Mr O’Toole found this course to be very beneficial in his role of Guidance Counsellor and member of our Student Support Team, where he can use the knowledge gained in this course to enhance the support offered to all our students and in particular our most vulnerable students.
Similarly in February 2023 Ms Moriarty travelled to Seville to take part in a week long professional development course entitled “The 4Cs: Communication, Collaboration, Creativity and Critical Thinking”. Ms Moriarty implemented the methodologies and ideas from this course into her classroom but also shared and presented to staff members as part of our Teaching & Learning Committee during in house staff training as part of our staff meetings in the latter half of the academic year.
Our school has greatly benefited from being involved with ERASMUS+. It is an excellent scheme to support professional development of our staff members. We are now involved in a second project which will be spearheaded by our recently appointed ERASMUS+ Coordinator Ms Merrick. This project will run from 2023 - 2027 and we envisage this project to include both staff and students from our school and the opportunity to develop partnerships with schools in other European countries to learn about other cultures, mindsets and ways of life.