One Good Adult
Observations from working with educationally disadvantaged children in Ireland.
In 2005 the Department of Education in Ireland developed a much needed action plan in an effort do right by the hundreds of thousands of children and teenagers across the country that were, beyond their control, experiencing socio-economic life circumstances which meant they were consistently on the back foot of educational development and who would, as a result, be statistically less likely to have a chance at a ‘good’ life beyond the school gates. It was named the DEIS, ‘Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools’, programme. I have worked in a DEIS school setting in Dublin for four years and so I’m relieved to say I can finally write about a topic here in some sort of professional capacity. I’ll be discussing the DEIS programme as a scheme, my experience of working with the scheme and I’ll also be (shallowly) diving into the ‘One Good Adult’ theory.
Why a DEIS school?
Four years ago I was unemployed and despite knowing I’d get a job at some point I was very uncomfortable. It was completely my own fault, by the way. Fellow teachers may understand the self-inflicted stress of having too much fun during a summer abroad to bother looking for a job in the upcoming academic year and ultimately having to take part in the September scramble for employment. I eventually nabbed a subbing gig in a DEIS school in Dublin, where I’ve been ever since. While I was in no position to be fussy I can’t say I stayed in the school because I desperately needed to or because it was easy. For starters, I lived in Kildare (still do) and didn’t drive (still don’t), so it’s not a handy location. It is also, at times, a slightly more difficult teaching role when compared to a non-DEIS one. What I can say though, is that I fell in love with the school, the children and particularly the staff on my very first day. The amount of incredible teachers in that school who genuinely pour their hearts into bettering the lives of children who have not been dealt an easy hand really inspired me. I wanted to be a part of what the school and it’s DEIS programme were aiming to do.
‘Educationally Disadvantaged’ - huh?
Educationally disadvantaged is a term that at first, confused me. It is used to describe individuals who cannot access the benefits of an education system due to their social and economic background. It does not refer to individuals with learning difficulties, although of course, there are students in DEIS schools (and all schools) who are neurodivergent or experiencing various degrees of learning difficulty. The DEIS programme in Irish schools strives to provide these educationally disadvantaged young people with opportunities. That’s the crux of the entire scheme; to offer them a chance, a leg-up and a fraction of fairness that just isn’t coming their way without external and direct support. These boosters of support aim to give young people access to achieving their full potential, something their counterparts in other areas of Ireland are already afforded by virtue of simply being born into different circumstances.
Circumstances by chance
Like oh so many things in life, we cannot control or sway the country, county, town or village we are born into. There are localities in Ireland where there are proven deficits of equal opportunity, financial stability and educational access when compared to, for lack of a more desirable term, ‘better-off’ areas. Many of the children in these localities experience a range of obstacles that are inhibiting their ability to engage with the national education curriculum. To put it plainly, it’s impossible to care about word spelling when home life is difficult, stressful or unpredictable. You cannot focus on a geography lesson if you’re hungry, haven’t slept in a bed or are worried about an adult at home. To more extreme extents, of which I am glad to say I have come across less often than the aforementioned issues (albeit much less than you’d like to), some children in these areas have had parents ripped from them through the loss of their life, incarceration or through being deemed unfit by the state to fulfill their parental roles. Not every single child in the school falls into all these categories but a vast majority of them fall into at least one and, unfortunately, that is all it takes to be disengaged in whatever your teacher is blabbing on about at the top of the classroom.
Before going any further there are some caveats to explain:
Caveat 1
One cannot be too careful when talking about these sensitive topics and so I feel compelled to say that I have met many, many amazing parents who dedicate themselves to the well-being of their children, despite their own unfavourable circumstances. There are so many loved and adored children in my school, with lots of them being treasured and taken care of in a way that encourages their happiness, well-being and education. Not every child in every DEIS school suffers from the socio-economic state of their area.
Caveat 2
I am aware that the issues outlined above can affect anyone, anywhere. Poverty, crime, addiction and mental health struggles know no post-code and there are of course schools in quote on quote ‘good’ areas, where there are children being affected by incredibly difficult home lives. Crucially, we must remember that the localities where schools are given DEIS status are areas where there are higher concentrations of these socio-economic issues. They are hubs of socio-economic strife where young children and teenagers are statistically more vulnerable and at-risk.
Caveat 3
A deeply sad fact to note is that the parents, grandparents and great grandparents of educationally disadvantaged children today, were once these same children too. The historical impact of socio-economic issues runs deep and is highly cyclical in it’s nature. I regularly force myself to recall, in moments of frustration, that a vast majority of people genuinely try their best within the walls they have been placed. When things get particularly difficult, people can grow fatigued from constantly pushing against this massive rock that they are seemingly destined to crumble on. Eventually, at some point or other, it can be easier to just adapt. Condemning people for their shortcomings when the situation they were placed in had limitations which more or less ensured their failure is unhelpful and unfair. Many people just need more help and love and understanding.
So, what exactly are DEIS schools offering?
If you attend a DEIS school in Ireland there are many supports offered. I cannot speak for all DEIS schools as the services provided vary from school to school however, as a child attending the school I work in you can expect access to:
A breakfast club to get a bite to eat before schools starts. This relieves parents/guardians of having to worry about food in the morning. More importantly, it relieves children of having to worry about food in the morning as they may be living with adults who can not see the importance of food before school. It also allows for some parents who are employed to have childcare and to get to work on time.
A variety of healthy snacks throughout the day. We get deliveries of fresh fruit each morning. Orange day is a big favourite. Additionally, each child gets a snack bag with their name on it and snacks inside that their parents/guardians can select for them online. Crackers, oat bars, yoghurts, rice cakes, pancakes etc.
Hot lunches. I believe this is being extended to all schools in Ireland next year. The company which supplies all of our food is Glanmore Foods. They offer a wide range of healthy hot meals. Curries, pizza, cottage pie, gravy dinners, sausages, veggie and vegan options.
Assigned psychologists and external support. DEIS schools work closely with the National Educational Psychological Service (NEPS). Regular meetings take place regarding students who need more individualized support and teachers are offered strategies and action plans. Parents are also linked in here so that there can be a shared school and home approach.
An increased Special Educational Needs (SEN) team. The work of the SEN team in DEIS schools is vital. The team for SEN is allocated more posts than non-DEIS schools so that increased levels of individualized and group support can be given. Literacy and Numeracy are targeted in very planned and precise ways. There is a huge, huge focus on the development of Literacy and Numeracy skills and the plans for the entire school in terms of mathematics and English are reviewed regularly.
A small Tesco shop. There are deliveries each week of a number of shopping bags filled with some food to get families started on a healthy food shop. There are usually onions, fruit, another vegetable and potatoes in the bag. At Christmas time there is an increased food package for families provided by Tesco too.
Home School Liason Officers. These are a team of teachers selected each year to provide connection between school and home life. They offer home visits, parental classes (educational and recreational) and they organise schools events to get a community building. They do incredible work and their support is so, so needed. I think I’d like to do that job one day. Over COVID the work of our HSL Officers was completely next level. They went the extra mile for the families in our school and I would imagine they’ll never know the true effect of what their kindness and diligence gave to struggling families at the time.
School Completion measures. There are massive efforts in place to support children and teenagers in their journey to actually reaching the end of their school programme. Many children leave school before they’ve finished the programme and a huge aim of the DEIS scheme is to get children to the end date so that they can take further steps into education. There is a team of School Completion Officers in my school who select the most at-risk children and support them in attending school and staying as long as they can.
A Nurture Classroom. This is a room in the school dedicated to nurturing the emotional well-being of students. In my school we have one allocated nurture teacher and boy do we need it! It would be great if we had another. The nurture room is a safe place where children can talk about what is going on for them, have some snacks, chill-out and play on their own or in very small and carefully selected groups.
I suppose the main takeaway from the list above is that there are four main areas targeted by the DEIS supports: Educational support, well-being support, home support and school completion support. For fear of this becoming too jargon heavy I’m going to move on. I’m also not confident in my ability to summarise the DEIS scheme in a way that does it justice and wouldn’t send readers into an early grave. The reports, studies and circulars online are excellent. If anyone wanted to take a closer look at finer details eg: funding and reviews of the DEIS programme you can go to:
List of DEIS Schools in Ireland
Addressing Ed. Disadvantage in Ireland
My Experience
To return to my preferred, and definitely more skilled (she’s a thought dumper, not a reporter) pathway of writing, I’d like to discuss my personal experience of working in a DEIS school.
My first year in the school was the best I’ve had in my career. It really defined and cemented my teacher identity. I loved being in the school because I had this innate sense that I was in the right place and doing what I was ‘meant to do’. I loved the children in my class and I was fascinated by the abilities of the teachers around me. It was incredible to be working alongside people with experience in this school setting. I’ve never learned as much about teaching as I did that year. I also learned so much about myself and developed personal skills that help me daily in the classroom and in my personal life. Thanks to the school, I am incredibly patient in ways I never was before, I am much less critical of others (and, by default, myself) and I have a willingness to understand people’s situations that I previously would have judged them for. I also made connections with teachers during this first year who now feel like family members. I’ll be staying with one of those people when I arrive in Sydney later this year so that says it all really. Overall, the year was transformative for me both professionally and personally.
That same first year was also the toughest I’ve had in my career. I think my heart broke once a week in that classroom. My lucky upbringing had me bubble-wrapped and completely unprepared for the sixteen little lives I was to learn about. It was unbelievably difficult to see children coping with hard and in some cases, cruel conditions. I couldn’t believe the unfairness of it all. My privilege had me so bewildered that people could really have such hard lives. I hadn’t got a clue. I found it very tough knowing about the various circumstances some of these children were in.
There was one child in particular I’ll never forget. Let’s call him Ben. Ben was without his father which, heartbreakingly, was a good thing. Ben’s father was, and still is, in prison for serious crimes. Ben’s mother was doing the best she could. The damage Ben’s father had done before he was put behind bars was enough to create a near mini-version of himself. Behaviour towards SNAs, other children in the class and teachers was extremely aggressive and relentlessly intimidating. Everyone in the room was on high alert. You never really knew what was going to kick off, when it was going to kick off and how risky it was going to get. Ben’s triggers were nearly impossible to identify too.
I remember at points of that year being so confused about who I felt most sorry for. Ben’s mother was fatigued beyond belief. Some children in the class, who needed a place that was better than home, deserved more. Ben’s SNA was too often the target of his latest outburst. I felt completely useless and knew I was letting everyone in the situation down due to my lack of experience. As for Ben himself, I just couldn’t wrap my privileged little brain around the fact that life had been so cruel to this child. He was never going to turn out any other way with the presence of such a hideous father in his life. And then I would feel guilty for judging his father - who knows what on earth happened to him? My family and my boyfriend at the time were definitely effected by my mood for a certain amount of time that year. I wasn’t myself and I allowed the work stuff to effect the life stuff.
After working with psychologists, talking to the amazing teachers in the school, seeking the support of online courses and educating myself more on the topic of trauma, we drew up a very specific plan to try with Ben. One, two, skip a few and by the end of the year so much had changed. It still wasn’t an easy situation but it wasn’t bleak. I developed a genuine friendship with Ben. One of our strategies was twenty minutes a day of 1:1 time between he and I in a room where we would sit on the floor and chat and talk and play. He absolutely loved painting. He softened in the presence of a paintbrush and it gave him the chance to actually be a child. After a few weeks of this relationship building time, Ben began to trust me and feel safe. He started to like me therefore was less likely to behave in ways that he would perceive would make me annoyed or upset with him. Things were better for everyone involved.
My apologies for the clunky text in the actual image, there was an identifiable school poster on the wall.
I actually saw Ben about a month ago. He is in ‘big school’ now and I hear good things about him. We gave each other a quick nod and that was that. He’ll never know how much working with him changed who I am as a teacher and a person. I wonder if it’s the same the other way around. I wonder if he still paints.
I could go on and on about my experiences. Working with children in this school is probably the thing in my life at the moment which makes me feel most proud of myself. It’s been a roller coaster that I don’t plan to get off anytime soon. I’ll be teaching in Australia too. If I had to sum it all up I’d say that for me, this job feels important and it gives me very intense job-satisfaction which personally, I need from a career.
One Good Adult
If anyone has made it this far go get yourself a cup of tea, my friend. I love you! I won’t be much longer anyway as the ‘One Good Adult’ theory is easily digested. This is the theory that young people who are struggling in any capacity can be greatly helped by just one good adult. Sometimes all it can take is one person.
For me, it symbolizes the incredible impact that one person can have on many. It doesn’t matter if you are a psychologist, social worker, SNA, teacher or none of the above. It doesn't matter if you have experience with children. It doesn't even matter if you don’t particularly like children.
What matters is that if you offer kindness, a listening ear, a smile or a piece of chocolate to a young person who, without you even knowing, needed your kindness at that precise moment, it can change their perspective and it can change things for them in a way that is bigger than you thought any smile or piece of chocolate could ever be.
Children, more than any of us, just want to be treated nicely. They are incredibly resilient in the face of situations that could crush an adult. Being the one good adult a child comes across in a day can offer them a potentially life-changing moment of relief and hope.
Final words, finally
It goes without saying that the DEIS programme is not without its flaws. More funding is needed and there are non-DEIS schools in Ireland that really should be given DEIS status. There were changes made and funding added to the scheme in 2022 which were helpful but as always, there’s room for improvement.
Outside of the carcass and fine print of the programme itself, the teachers, SNAs, caretakers, cleaners, secretaries and principals operating within the DEIS space are making massive differences, whether they know it or not, to the lives of young people and their families who truly need and deserve it. This can only be a good thing.
Thank you for reading x
Another great article Ellen, you gave me a good insight into Deis Schools.
What a powerful story keep up the good work Ellen.