Children between 0-18 years of age have a legally protected ‘right to play’. By changing the zoning from community/playground to housing - on November 1st, the full council violated the public sector duty and breached children’s right to play, beside Inchicore sports centre. Recently the pitch was locked, and new security company sirens go off warning children to leave the pitch. The council are actively driving people away from using the pitch.

It's important that we can educate our kids in a non religious environment. As well as having a low cost School for those who struggle with paying for uniforms ,book etc.

The traffic issues around our school with HGV usage have been exacerbated by Brexit and now pose life-threatening risks to the children of Kilrane National School everyday and to the residents of the Kilrane area. In summary; Kilrane has been subjected to years of bad planning practices, Brexit has now made these HGV traffic issues around our school far far worse. The safety issues around our national school are now at a life-threatening stage since the implementation of Brexit. And it is our fear that it is only a matter of time before someone is seriously injured at the school. The long-term future of Kilrane and Rosslare Harbour as a livable residential areas is in danger, as well as the future of our very valuable tourist industry which is based around the affected area. We wish for the businesses involved to stay in the Kilrane/Rosslare Harbour area as we have no issue with the businesses involved, just with their current proposed locations. So we call on Wexford County Council to honour their promises to solve our traffic issues and to honour their statutory obligations to the residents, especially our children, and reject the planning permission application for a new haulage depot in Kilrane Business Park. The granting of such would be catastrophic for our children. Our detailed objection letter will be ready shortly and we will make it public. Please sign this petition by the 2nd of November 2022.

Insufficient Childcare in Ireland for babies under 1 year Some mums have to switch to formula feeding after breastfeeding for 6 months as they go back to work Ireland is one of the worst countries in the EU for Maternity Leave entitlements.

We are now entering the 3rd year where the school does not have access to the adjoining Parish hall for PE/Assembly activities including school events and communion/confirmation receptions and graduation celebrations. The Parish Priest closed the hall circa July 2020 citing fire safety issues. Regretfully, the Monsignor and the church’s position is one of non-engagement with the community and public representatives on the matter. The school secured the scouts den on the Corpus Christi church grounds for PE activities. However, this is not suitable spatially for PE delivery for a 450 pupil school. Indeed, much PE activity takes place in the school yard as well as all school assembly activities, weather permitting. Parents were led by the school management to believe that the use of the Scout's Den was an interim measure until access to the Parish Hall resumed while works were in progress.

It's a very dangerous road and pupils are risking every time they need to cross the road going to school or coming back home. Image source: https://tinyurl.com/mrxws8n9

Schools open this week but thousands of students have been left stranded - because the Dept of Education has failed to organise enough buses. Norma Foley is spinning a story that this is a new problem - but we all know that every year there are never enough school bus places for everyone who needs them. Parents are scrambling to find ways to get their children to school on time. Many will be forced to take time off work, pay for taxis, juggle already stressful days. We need to make sure school children can get to school.

Junk food marketing directed at children is rampant in Ireland. It is fuelling the obesity crisis that is causing immeasurable damage to their health. The State’s own research says that 85,000 of this generation of children on the island of Ireland will die prematurely as a result. But the health and wellbeing of every child is threatened by an advertised diet that encourages poor nutrition and is damaging over time. Children as young as eight are already presenting in large numbers with high blood pressure and teenagers with a cardiovascular age of people in their 60s. It’s almost a decade since the State restricted broadcast advertising of junk food because of its detrimental impact on young people’s health. But it has failed abysmally to effectively regulate online junk food marketing that is more personalised, engaging, effective and therefore far more damaging. Multinational brands have achieved a wholly inappropriate proximity to our children, pestering them relentlessly through their smartphones and behind their parents’ backs. It’s not just an online problem. Wherever children are, junk food advertising confronts them: on television, on billboards and buses particularly near schools, in shops and supermarkets, in sportsgrounds, school campuses, cinemas, through sponsorships of children’s events, on the jerseys of their sports heroes and through promotions by music stars. There is no escape. If you agree this is wrong, please sign and share our petition today.

The phrase ‘conversion therapy,’ brings to mind harmful efforts to ‘cure’ gay, trans and other queer people… Now imagine similar coercion and trauma were inflicted on Neurodivergent people - Autistics, People with Down Syndrome, People with Intellectual Disabilities and others… You don’t need to imagine. (1) It’s real, it’s been going on for 60 years, and it is happening right now across Ireland in schools, in adult and child services, and in peoples’ homes. How could this be? Is this legal? Yes, it’s legal… It is the go-to ‘therapy’ for many Neurodivergent people of all ages to make us appear ‘normal,’ taught to psychologists and psychiatrists, social care workers, SNAs, and special ed. teachers. That is why we need your support. Behaviourist conversion methods hide behind a plethora of credible-sounding names - Applied Behavioural Analysis (ABA), Positive Behavioural Support (PBS), Early Intensive Behavioural Intervention (EIBI), Social Skills Training, PECS, ‘behavioural plans,’ and others. They are so ingrained into the practice of Irish professionals that many are oblivious to the harm. It’s just ‘what you do’ for ‘those people.’ We are ‘those people,’ and we’re telling you: this is doing us real lasting harm. Almost half (46%) of those subjected to ABA display PTSD symptoms.(2) This is why our communities oppose all such ‘therapies,’ including the so-called ‘gentle ABA.’ All variants assume we are defective humans who must be shamed and bribed to mimic ‘normal.’ All it really does is teach us to silently suffer the trauma of living a lie. The UN agrees: “Autistic persons are particularly exposed to professional approaches and medical practices which are unacceptable from a human rights point of view. Such practices … violate their basic rights, undermine their dignity, and go against scientific evidence.”(3) Behaviourist conversion methods ignore our human rights. They do us terrible harm. They don’t work. We do not consent. This has to stop. Now. And yet it continues. Ireland is even hosting an international ABA conference in September,(4) possible only because this kind of conversion ‘therapy’ remains legal here. Prioritising a diversity of Neurodivergent voices in the upcoming Autism Innovation Strategy as per UNCRPD(5) may help, but will not secure our safety in law. Therefore, we call on Minister Rabbitte to ensure Neurodivergent citizens are protected from further harm by banning all behavioural interventions in this state. To find out more about behaviourist conversion, the harm it causes, and further steps you can take to help, follow the links below Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100084052330540 Twitter: tbc Follow similar campaigns internationally: [links]: https://twitter.com/A4AOntario/status/1548669666066833408?s=20&t=lDtix0HmixgWn3sY0v72yw https://autcollab.org/aba https://twitter.com/ekverstania/status/1532818556693389312?s=20&t=2xKe2Lr09vMYcBrfw0mHHw https://www.facebook.com/BetterWaysThanABA/ https://www.facebook.com/endseclusion/ #BanABA #SayNoToABA #BetterWaysThanABA #StopTheShock ______________________________________________________ 1. Ole Ivar Løvaas: Originator of ABA & Gay Conversion methods https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2021/03/man-behind-ex-gay-conversion-therapy-started-trying-make-autistic-children-normal/ 2. Kupferstein, H. (2018), "Evidence of increased PTSD symptoms in autistics exposed to applied behavior analysis", Advances in Autism, Vol. 4 No. 1, pp. 19-29. https://doi.org/10.1108/AIA-08-2017-0016 or https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/AIA-08-2017-0016/full/html 3. UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, 2015 Special Report: https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2015/04/discrimination-against-autistic-persons-rule-rather-exception-un-rights 4. Applied Behavioral Analysis International, ABAI Conference 2022: https://www.abainternational.org/events/international/dublin-2022/conference-home.aspx 5. UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities, 2006: https://www.un.org/disabilities/documents/convention/convention_accessible_pdf.pdf

Our mental health is suffering for the lack of public community space. We have lost so much with the closing - Children's Saturday morning story time, The stitch n bitch, Film club, book club. Cathy Suffel the historian in residence talks, the fact that one never knows who is alive or dead because of the lack of community space

For many parents with a fear of gadgets, programming courses are a lifesaver. The child is already addicted to computer games and it's hard to distract them, so let them do something useful, they say. This is the most popular request when starting school. Another popular option: parents understand the prospects of IT-sphere and send their children to learn demanded skills for high-paying professions. Children in general find learning programming from scratch much easier than adults without IT experience. In third place is the desire of children who are interested in IT. Parents support this interest and buy courses. Learning to program is above all a great way to develop logical and analytical thinking. When writing code, the programmer goes to the goal, speaks the same language as the computer and will only be understood if the code is logically constructed. If two lines are mixed up, the program or game will not work. Analytical thinking, planning, and planning come into play. Design thinking works too. The courses are designed with a practical approach in mind, students can practice what they have learned in their projects without using ready-made templates. A clear sequence of actions, decomposition of tasks and tracking their implementation are important for success. If, when creating a game, a child spends all his or her time on elaborating one character, the game will not happen. You will get one character without a game world. Therefore, students develop soft skills and time-management skills at the same time.

We, the undersigned, call on Education Minister Norma Foley to Install solar panels in every school in Ireland to meet climate change targets. Solar energy can deliver many benefits to schools and wider society. Opting for a renewable source of energy can deliver significant savings to schools. [1] Solar energy has the least negative impact on the environment: it does not produce greenhouse gases, noise pollution or waste. [2][3] Installing solar panels in schools would also reduce demand on the national grid, making us less vulnerable to blackouts. [4] Solar energy in schools reduces dependence on fossil fuels, giving certainty as to the availability of electricity for schools. [5] NOTES [1] https://www.energy.gov/energysaver/benefits-residential-solar-electricity [2] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0196890404000160 [3] https://blogthinkbig.com/a-few-of-the-lesser-known-benefits-of-solar-energy [4] https://www.greenmatch.co.uk/blog/2014/09/7-benefits-of-using-solar-energy [5] https://ecoplexenergy.ie/9-advantages-of-solar-energy/