About SET

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We, at Ballycahill NS, endeavour to provide an inclusive learning environment where all pupils feel welcomed, valued and are engaged in the life of the school. The area of Special Educational Teaching is where we cater those children who may require some extra support. The level and nature of support reflects the specific needs of pupils and the regular monitoring and reviewing of progress informs our decisions when planning to provide support.

As well as catering for children’s specific needs the SET provides support in the areas of early intervention and in the prevention of difficulties in challenging areas of the curriculum. Here, team teaching or small group intervention can be used to give the children in our school the best chance at mastering the skills they need most.shutterstock_116955382

Learn Coding with the Raspberry Pi

In order to cater for the needs of those who show a particular aptitude for, or interest in, maths we have purchased a Raspberry Pi to provide them an opportunity to learn coding in a fun an engaging way.

The Raspberry Pi is a low cost, computer that plugs into a computer monitor or TV, and uses a standard keyboard and mouse. It is a capable little device that enables people of all ages to explore computing, and to learn how to program in languages like Scratch and Python. It’s capable of doing everything you’d expect a desktop computer to do, from browsing the internet and playing high-definition video, to making spreadsheets, word-processing, and playing games.

What’s more, the Raspberry Pi  has the ability to interact with the outside world, and has been used in a wide array of digital maker projects, from music machines and parent detectors to weather stations and tweeting birdhouses with infra-red cameras. We want to see the Raspberry Pi being used by kids in our school to learn to program and understand how computers work.

Children who are interested can put their name on a list to get a loan of the school’s Raspberry Pi with a manual and any other components needed to complete the projects. Should they require help the Special Education Teacher is on hand to assist.

What we’re up to…

Gardening

Usually at this time of year, our gardening group would be busy planning the vegetable plot and getting ready to teach others what they’ve learned in the last couple of years. However, this year we can’t fit the group in the small room for planning so we decided to stay outdoors and see what else we could do until it’s time to plant the veg.

The community biodiversity garden needed a little tending so we decided to help out. When we’ve finished weeding and pruning we might add some new features. We’ve been getting some great ideas from this booklet:

https://laois.ie/wp-content/uploads/Garden-Wildlife-Booklet-WEB-17MB.pdf

Team Teaching

At the minute, we’re focusing on phonics in the middle room; each week we take a sound and study it. We’ve made some Kahoot quizzes to test our knowledge at the end of the week while having a bit of fun. If you want to get some extra practice in and challenge yourselves follow the links below: