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Educate Together
Educate Together (Irish: Ag Foghlaim Le Chéile) is an educational charity in Ireland which is the patron body to "equality-based, co-educational, child centred, and democratically run" schools. It was founded in 1984 to act as the patron body for the new multidenominational schools that opened after the establishment of the Dalkey School Project. As of 2024, Educate Together is the patron of 96 national schools in Ireland. In 2014 three Educate Together Second Level Schools opened in Dublin 15, Drogheda and Lucan along with the first Educate Together school outside Ireland, in Bristol in the United Kingdom. In joint patronage with Kildare and Wicklow ETB, Educate Together opened another second-level school, Celbridge Community School, in 2015.
Educate Together has its roots in the Dalkey School Project founded in the 1970s. Before multi-denominational education, some of those involved in education in Ireland, such as Áine Hyland, Michael Johnston and Florrie Armstrong, questioned the denominational nature of the system and the need to have students of different faiths in different schools. This group of educationalists and parents established the organisation with the stated aim:
"To develop and support in Ireland the establishment of schools which are multi-denominational (i.e. with equal right of access for the children of Catholic, Protestant and other parents, and with the cultural and social background of each child held in equal respect), co-educational and managed under a system which is predominantly democratic in character, wherever and whenever there is viable local support for such a school".
The organisers of the school met opposition from a conservative Catholic group that circulated a leaflet in the Dalkey area alleging that the new school was "atheistic", "divisive", "hostile to religion" and "a precedent for major trouble in other areas".
As of 2016, the majority of primary schools in Ireland were owned by religious communities (or boards of governors). Of the 3,200 primary schools in Ireland, only 2% are multidenominational.[citation needed]
The Dalkey School Project was founded in 1975. The school opened at the start of the 1978–79 school year in temporary premises with Florrie Armstrong as the school principal.
By 1984 two other multi-denominational schools had been started and Educate Together was established as a co-ordinating umbrella body. The organisation became a company limited by guarantee in 1998, and from the year 2000, all new Educate Together schools operate with the patronage of the national company.[citation needed] Educate Together has charitable status in Ireland.
In 2016, Educate Together was awarded Secularist of the Year by the UK's National Secular Society, for putting "secularist principles into action and [demonstrating] what a 21st century secular education system should look like – children and young people educated together, taught an ethical education curriculum in a school with an inclusive ethos without any imposition of religion".
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Educate Together
Educate Together (Irish: Ag Foghlaim Le Chéile) is an educational charity in Ireland which is the patron body to "equality-based, co-educational, child centred, and democratically run" schools. It was founded in 1984 to act as the patron body for the new multidenominational schools that opened after the establishment of the Dalkey School Project. As of 2024, Educate Together is the patron of 96 national schools in Ireland. In 2014 three Educate Together Second Level Schools opened in Dublin 15, Drogheda and Lucan along with the first Educate Together school outside Ireland, in Bristol in the United Kingdom. In joint patronage with Kildare and Wicklow ETB, Educate Together opened another second-level school, Celbridge Community School, in 2015.
Educate Together has its roots in the Dalkey School Project founded in the 1970s. Before multi-denominational education, some of those involved in education in Ireland, such as Áine Hyland, Michael Johnston and Florrie Armstrong, questioned the denominational nature of the system and the need to have students of different faiths in different schools. This group of educationalists and parents established the organisation with the stated aim:
"To develop and support in Ireland the establishment of schools which are multi-denominational (i.e. with equal right of access for the children of Catholic, Protestant and other parents, and with the cultural and social background of each child held in equal respect), co-educational and managed under a system which is predominantly democratic in character, wherever and whenever there is viable local support for such a school".
The organisers of the school met opposition from a conservative Catholic group that circulated a leaflet in the Dalkey area alleging that the new school was "atheistic", "divisive", "hostile to religion" and "a precedent for major trouble in other areas".
As of 2016, the majority of primary schools in Ireland were owned by religious communities (or boards of governors). Of the 3,200 primary schools in Ireland, only 2% are multidenominational.[citation needed]
The Dalkey School Project was founded in 1975. The school opened at the start of the 1978–79 school year in temporary premises with Florrie Armstrong as the school principal.
By 1984 two other multi-denominational schools had been started and Educate Together was established as a co-ordinating umbrella body. The organisation became a company limited by guarantee in 1998, and from the year 2000, all new Educate Together schools operate with the patronage of the national company.[citation needed] Educate Together has charitable status in Ireland.
In 2016, Educate Together was awarded Secularist of the Year by the UK's National Secular Society, for putting "secularist principles into action and [demonstrating] what a 21st century secular education system should look like – children and young people educated together, taught an ethical education curriculum in a school with an inclusive ethos without any imposition of religion".