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Minister McHugh empowers schools to work together to test innovative and creative approaches to teaching for our most educationally disadvantaged learners

The Minister for Education and Skills Joe McHugh T.D. today reaffirmed his commitment to encouraging innovation and excellence in our education system by announcing a third call for inclusion in School Excellence Fund-DEIS which is worth approximately €550,000.

The School Excellence Fund is an initiative in the Programme for Government to encourage and recognize excellence and innovation in our schools. Under the initiative, schools are funded to work together to identify innovative solutions to issues which are context specific in order to establish the most effective means of addressing those issues. Phase 3 of SEF-DEIS will support participating clusters of schools to tackle educational disadvantage and improve learning outcomes for students.

Today’s announcement is another step in delivering on the Action Plan for Education 2019 commitment to advance the progress of learners at risk of educational disadvantage in order to support them to achieve their potential.

Minister McHugh said:

We are committed to using education and training services to help break the cycle of disadvantage. 2019 marks the third year in a row of a major reinvestment in the education sector. We are using that record investment to work towards improving outcomes for young people and students, breaking cycles of disadvantage, supporting teachers and ensuring schools to continually improve.

I am encouraged and inspired by the projects underway in the earlier phases of SEF-DEIS. There are some very novel approaches being taken in some really important areas and it is fantastic to see such creative solutions being applied to these complex problems. I look forward to seeing what we can learn from each and share more broadly across the school sector.

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank all the teachers, school leaders, students, schools and the third-level institutions who came together to work on these really exciting projects. Leadership is the key to making this approach work and we are very lucky in Ireland to have excellent school leaders.

Schools are now encouraged to submit applications for inclusion in the third phase of the SEF-DEIS by 27 September 2019. It is envisaged that 10 clusters comprising approximately 40 schools will be selected to participate in the programme by 01 November 2019. More information, including how to apply can be found here: https://www.education.ie/en/Schools-Colleges/Services/DEIS-Delivering-Equality-of-Opportunity-in-Schools-/school-excellence-fund/school-excellence-fund.html