All minds can thrive at Mother of Fair Love School in Kilkenny

The demand for places at Mother of Fair Love School in Kilkenny City has never been higher and once you discover more about their unique approach to education, it becomes easy to see why.

Despite this, many people remain unaware of the vast array of services and support the school provides to pupils and families across the city, county and diocese.

The school was originally established by Bishop Birch back in 1966 and this is why the birch tree serves as the school’s emblem.

Catering for students (ages 4-18) with mild learning disabilities, Mother of Fair Love aims to develop and deliver a personal education plan for every student.
According to Principal Mary Cody, the students are ‘co-creators in their own learning experience’.

“Some of our students may also have co-occurring needs like they may also have dyslexia, ADHD, ASD and different things like that,” she explained.

“What’s really important for people to know is that we are both a primary and post-primary school, operating both curriculums, and all contained within the one setting.

“How we operate is very different to other schools though in that our junior cycle and senior cycle are assessed via continual assessment, taking away the stress of sitting an exam.

“Also, what’s special about special schools is that we have what I call the hidden curriculum, with a huge focus on independent living skills.

“A major plus for our school is our low student to teacher ratio. That’s a huge benefit to the kids. Here our classes are between six and ten students, and never any more.

“In each class you’re looking at about three adults supporting between six and ten kids as opposed to one teacher trying to support a class of more than 20.”

The Mother of Fair Love is not so much in competition with mainstream schools but is there to provide a unique and tailored education for kids that need that little bit of extra help and attention.

“What sets us apart is that every single student has an Individual Educational Plan (IEP). They also have a personal pupil plan,” she continued.

“It’s really important to say that we’re a partnership with parents and parents as well. So when you sit down to do an IEP with a child, the individual attention that child gets is huge.

“So I might be sitting down with two parents, the teacher, the special needs assistant. And if the child was involved with occupational therapy, physio, a speech and language therapist, psychologist or behaviour therapist — then they may all be at the table as well.

“We’d usually have several meetings where we try to formulate a very specific plan targeted for the specific needs of every student.”

As well as this IEP, a personal pupil plan, as previously mentioned, is also devised.

“This is very much for care needs,” added the principal.

“For example, this would be devised if the child has a medical need or mobility issues or maybe needs behavioural support.

“A special needs assistant will come in and an extensive plan will be drawn up around the care needs of that child.

“Some children may benefit from extra supervision, for example, they may have behavioural needs, or they may need sensory and movement breaks.

“The school has a sensory room, soft play room and quiet room to meet these needs.

“Also, what’s very important to note with the personal pupil plan is that the child themselves is included in all this and can input into the meeting, thus becoming a co-creator in their own learning experience, and this can be empowering.”

A term floating around in the sphere of education in recent years is ‘universal design for learning’, but Mother of Fair Love have been implementing it for decades.

Simply put, it is an educational framework that encourages the flexibility of learning environments so as to accommodate individual learning differences.

For example, lessons are prepared with multiple forms of representation, multiple means of expression and engagement for learners (as opposed to differentiation).

The staff at the Mother of Fair Love School know their students so well, often from when they are only four years of age right up until graduation.

With the small class sizes and the level of individual attention that can be provided to each student, the spirit in the school community is one of family.

Seeing how the students interact with their teachers, and the meaning they derive from meeting every child’s needs, it’s clear that it’s no coincidence that ‘Love’ is in the very title of the school.

Over the last two years, Mother of Fair Love School has undergone rapid expansion on their city centre site to cater for an ever-growing demand for places.

The school will be holding an open day on Tuesday, January 23 between 7pm and 8.30pm for anybody who might be interested.

This includes parents, teachers, professionals, principals and teachers from across the Diocese of Ossory.

Further enquiries can be made by ringing the school on 056-7721352 or by emailing office@motheroffairlove.ie