Irish Teacher: Teachers are at breaking point. Why won't the department of education listen?

Some students throw chairs — but the woman with the clipboard, who never visits our school, tells us we’ll 'have a hard case'

In one class, I have five children awaiting an autism diagnosis. They have one SNA.

There is an untold story in education. It’s hidden beneath distraction, beneath Norma Foley claiming she’s on the side of children with additional needs, beneath Josepha Madigan’s effort to blame schools for her department’s failings.

Most schools aren’t as heinous as they’d like us to believe; at primary level, at least, that case is clear. I acknowledge here, as a sort of prologue, that there’s a different story at secondary.