| The keynote speaker at the event is Dr John Novak, Professor of Education and former Chair of the Department of Graduate andUndergraduate Studies in Education at Brock University , St.
Catharines,
Ontario , Canada .
The Southern Education and Library Board (SELB) has witnessed a five-fold increase over three years in the number of pupils needing English language assistance, prompting the Board to join with Integrate Ireland Language and Training (IILT) to hold ‘The Inclusive School’ conference.
Setting the context of the conference, Mary Yarr, SELB Languages Adviser, said 90 pupils had received language support during the 2001-02 academic year.
“In the present school year 442 pupils require language support and the figure is increasing,” said Ms Yarr.
“A considerable number of these are children whose parents have moved here to work. The aim of this conference is to examine the leadership challenges our schools face in this changing social context and we are delighted to collaborate on a cross-border basis.
We are grateful to have secured funding from NcompasS under the Peace & Reconciliation Programme.
“Among the areas we will be looking at are how pupils from non-English speaking backgrounds can be supported in gaining access to mainstream education; how various agencies can work together to help pupils to become fully involved in school life; and how prejudice can be challenged in the school environment.”
Also attending the conference is Dr Barbara Lazenby Simpson, a Research Fellow at the Centre for Language and Communication Studies, Trinity College Dublin and Deputy Director of Integrate Ireland Language and Training (IILT).
“IILT is particularly pleased to be a partner in this conference. Having worked with principals and language support teachers from primary and
post-primary schools throughout the Republic since 2000, we have many successes to report from both the learning and teaching perspectives.
“But there are always more challenges to meet if we wish to achieve best practice in education, and experience of north-south collaboration demonstrates that we have much to contribute and even more to learn from one another. That is the purpose of this conference.”
District figures
Breakdown by districts in SELB area of pupils requiring language support for whom English is not their mother tongue -
Banbridge: 18 (nine languages)
Armagh : 24 (seven languages)
Cookstown: 33 (four languages)
Newry: 54 (13 languages)
Dungannon: 153 (13 languages)
Craigavon: 160 (19 languages)
Total: 442 (30 languages)
Professor John Novak
An active writer and speaker, Dr. Novak has written and edited numerous chapters in academic books and journals, presented papers at educational, philosophical and psychological conferences, and has been invited as Keynote Speaker to educational groups as far north as Kotzebue, Alaska and as far south as Dunedin, New Zealand.His recent books include the Third Edition of Inviting School Success (with William Purkey), Democratic Teacher Education, Advancing Invitational Thinking, the Phi Delta Kappan Invitational Education (with William Purkey) and Inviting Educational Leadership.
IILT
Integrate Ireland Language and Training (IILT) was set up by the Republic’s Department of Education and Science in 1999 under the aegis of the Centre for Language and Communication Studies, Trinity College Dublin. It was originally called the Refugee Language Support Unit.
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