My guess: close to 100% of multid respondents will choose multid & 85-90% in denominational schools will choose denominational. As I said the only interesting thing that will come from this survey is slightly more nuanced data and more children left at the back of the class.

Not that this survey makes any real difference, I am guessing that the majority of people overall will choose a denominational setup but the real story will be the figures when we divide them between those in multid schools and those in denominational schools.

Obviously there are far fewer schools without uniform so just taking the results cold, told us very little. Taking them apart, it probably told us something else - people don't like change.

However, when one looked at the results depending on the type of school, it told a different story.

In schools with uniforms - 75% were in favour of uniforms.
In schools without uniforms - 75% were in favour of scrapping them.

A few years ago, I did a poll about uniforms where I received hundreds of responses to the question, should we scrap uniforms? The results were predictable at first glance. The vast majority wanted uniforms kept.

Looking forward to seeing as many people as possible in the audience. It promises to be a really informative but hopefully fun way to spend an hour learning about how Special Education works and the challenges it faces. See you there - 3pm Oct 22nd!
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Debbie is known as The Mild Principal on Instagram and you should definitely give her a follow and see the wonderful work she does.

We're recording this straight after school so please join in when you can. We should be done by 4pm.

riverside.fm/studio/anse...

Debbie O'Neill is someone that I really admire because, not only is she someone that cares deeply about special education, she has been tirelessly campaigning for the last few years to ensure children with additional needs get the support they need.
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10/10 I publish a newsletter every two weeks with lots of news, views and videos on primary education.

If you want to get them straight to your inbox, go to simonmlewis.substack.com/subscribe

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9/10 The stakeholders called for a €75 increase, which they calculated based on the needs of their members, so we're €25 per child away from that, which is significant.

Overall, it's probably better news than we'd expected, but let's not get carried away either.

8/10 It also gives an extra €14 per child to plug other gaps. Cleaning and other ancillary wages look like they'll be covered.

However, we're still a long way from schools being funded adequately. Any parents that think they won't be asked to fundraise will be disappointed.

7/10 All told, the government will hail this as a massive increase in the capitation grant even though, in reality, it isn't.

However, there was worry the lack of cost of living grant disappearing was going to sink quite a number of schools so the new grant absorbs this cost.

6/10 Captiation Grant 2024 = €260 (€224+€36) (6 months) = €26,000
Minimum Wage 2024 = €13.50 = €7,020

Captitation Grant 2025 = €274 = €27,400
Minimum Wage 2025 = €14.15 = €7,358

So, it looks like schools might be covered for cleaners. (Phew)

5/10 Let's take a look at a cleaner's wages if they were on minimum wage in a 200 pupil school working 20 hours per week (I'm being conservative) from January to June, as this was a big worry for principals.

I choose January to June because increase capitation kicks in then.