iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Simon Lewis @simonlewis.ie · 10/01/2026

9/9 Today, the common school year exists without prejudice to religious observance. A Board can still close on January 6th. It just is not automatically a school holiday anymore. That quiet shift tells you a great deal about how power in Irish education really changes.

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Simon Lewis @simonlewis.ie · 10/01/2026

8/9 The Irish Bishops' Conference changed its position. The language softened. Closure was no longer mandatory. It was desirable. The solution was to pass the decision downwards to individual schools. The Church retained a voice, but not a veto.

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Simon Lewis @simonlewis.ie · 10/01/2026

7/9 Perhaps it raises an uncomfortable question about ethos more broadly: if it survives only while it goes unchallenged, how deep does it really run, and what exactly is holding it in place?

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Simon Lewis @simonlewis.ie · 10/01/2026

6/9 What is striking, in hindsight, is what did not happen next. There were no sanctions. No withdrawal of patronage. No public rebukes. Once schools tested the boundary and discovered that nothing followed, the authority itself was exposed.

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Simon Lewis @simonlewis.ie · 10/01/2026

5/9 The real shift came through behaviour. In 2014, the first year Irish primary schools returned on January 6th, a number of schools simply didn't comply with their diocese. Despite instructions to close, some stayed open. There were no public statements. Schools just opened.

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Simon Lewis @simonlewis.ie · 10/01/2026

4/9 The INTO noticed almost immediately that Catholic patrons continued to issue instructions about Holy Days of Obligation that cut across the agreed calendar. Schools were being told to close on certain dates, sometimes at short notice, sometimes inconsistently across dioceses.

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Simon Lewis @simonlewis.ie · 10/01/2026

3/9 The trigger was mundane rather than theological. Around 2004, the Department introduced a common school year to bring predictability to family life. Parents were tired of irregular closures from different schools, often in the same area.

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Simon Lewis @simonlewis.ie · 10/01/2026

2/9 Then, sometime in the mid-2000s, that certainty quietly disappeared. What replaced it was not a dramatic showdown or a headline-grabbing reform, but a circular which caused the slow, administrative unravelling of Church authority over the school calendar.

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Simon Lewis @simonlewis.ie · 10/01/2026

1/9 If you grew up in Ireland, January 6th was untouchable. The Feast of the Epiphany marked the true end of the holidays for Irish primary schools. It was not debated, negotiated, or questioned. Schools were closed because the Catholic Church said they were closed.

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Simon Lewis @simonlewis.ie · 06/01/2026

Did you know until 2014, Irish primary schools never opened before 7th January as the 6th is a Catholic Holy Day of Obligation? The history of how the church ceded control after some schools rebelled is an interesting one.

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Simon Lewis @simonlewis.ie · 06/01/2026

Lots of issues with the article in my view. None of the methodologies are alien in today's classrooms for one

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Simon Lewis @simonlewis.ie · 06/01/2026

Sorry for only replying now. I got logged out of the app and didn't realise until now so missed notifications. It looks like he was flying kites with this

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Simon Lewis @simonlewis.ie · 06/01/2026

I'm so sorry, I missed your reply. I got logged out of the app so missed all my notifications. I think McHugh had good intentions but not sure he reduced the initiatives. I must check!

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Simon Lewis @simonlewis.ie · 05/01/2026

iPads or Chromebooks? I made this interactive quiz to help you decide for your school www.arukas.ie/whichdevice/

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Simon Lewis @simonlewis.ie · 03/01/2026

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 Like/Repost the quote below if you can.

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Simon Lewis @simonlewis.ie · 03/01/2026

3. Primary Education ExplAIned Link: simonmlewis.substack.com

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Simon Lewis @simonlewis.ie · 03/01/2026

Irish Education Podcasts to Listen to in 2026 📌 The Irish education podcasting world really took off in a big way in 2025. Here are 9 podcasts worth adding to your playlists. (10 if you include mine!)

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Simon Lewis @simonlewis.ie · 03/01/2026

Ho hum... I guess we should start the year as normal with the **most** important educational story people seem to be able to think about. Any hopes schools will be treated as anything other than childcare by the media remain the same www.independent.ie/irish-news/...

independent.ie

Flights cancelled at Dublin Airport and school reopenings under threat as Arctic blast to bring snow, ice and lows of -4C

Ireland is set for an Arctic blast as temperatures will sink close to -4C over the weekend – with some northern areas facing snow, ice, freezing fog and h...

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Simon Lewis @simonlewis.ie · 02/01/2026

On the Disappointment of Almost Meeting my Hero and a Story of a Plastic Cup This is a story I wrote in 2022 that has nothing to do with education. I hope you enjoy it. Happy New Year. simonmlewis.substack.com/p/on-the-di...

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Simon Lewis @simonlewis.ie · 01/01/2026

A clip from my annual review of primary education in Ireland. Listen to the full episode here: pod.fo/e/36e0c5

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Simon Lewis @simonlewis.ie · 01/01/2026

To be honest, the whole thing seems way too similar to...

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Simon Lewis @simonlewis.ie · 01/01/2026

The National Convention for Education is going to happen this year thanks to an announcement from Helen McEntee in July, that probably surprised her civil servants. I decided to write a jingle for it.

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Simon Lewis @simonlewis.ie · 01/01/2026

The Department of Education tried a catchy slogan back in July to try and convince people to choose teaching. I covered this in my review of the year. Full episode: pod.fo/e/36e0c5

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Simon Lewis @simonlewis.ie · 14/12/2025

• How much it costs • Simple ways a principal can use it today • Free templates for Irish schools If you are curious about a better way to manage the moving parts of school leadership, you can read it here: www.schoolpolicy.ie/notions

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Simon Lewis @simonlewis.ie · 14/12/2025

Over the last while I have been moving more and more of my principal work into Notion and I have put together Irish primary specific templates so you do not have to start from scratch. In a new post, I cover in plain English: • What Notion is • How to get it

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Simon Lewis @simonlewis.ie · 14/12/2025

Notion will not magically reduce the workload, but it does something important: It puts everything in one calm, organised space that is actually pleasant to use.

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Simon Lewis @simonlewis.ie · 14/12/2025

Absences, subs, ICT disasters, meetings, incidents, circulars, Gaeilgeoir na Seachtaine, your own to do list… most of us are juggling notebooks, Google Docs, spreadsheets, emails and whatever we can remember.

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Simon Lewis @simonlewis.ie · 14/12/2025

School leadership is basically spinning plates while someone keeps handing you more.

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Simon Lewis @simonlewis.ie · 09/12/2025

@NotebookLM has added a new feature called Infographics, which creates really interesting graphs and images based on published sources. I thought I'd try it out with Religious Control of Irish Primary Schools. This is what it got:

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Simon Lewis @simonlewis.ie · 03/12/2025

I made interactive flow charts based on the ones in the Child Protection Procedures. Here's a demo of how they work. They come free with every plan on schoolpolicy.ie www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7Q...

youtube.com

Child Protection Reporting of Concerns Flowchart

I created an interactive version of the flowchart on page 57 of the Child PRotection Guidelines (2025) which you can use to help with reporting.This form is ...

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Simon Lewis @simonlewis.ie · 03/12/2025

10 years ago today, Ireland nearly shifted on school equality. Ten years later, with AI to help dissect the debate, it’s remarkable how much was said… and how little changed. My take on the 2015 Dáil exchange: 🔗 simonmlewis.substack.com/p/ten-years...

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Simon Lewis @simonlewis.ie · 01/12/2025

I was on the radio today speaking about Herzog Park. I'm the second speaker in. www.rte.ie/radio/radio...

rte.ie

Should Herzog park be renamed?

Callers got in touch about if Hezog Park should be renamed

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Simon Lewis @simonlewis.ie · 30/11/2025

8/8 If the Department was genuinely interested in understanding what parents want, they'd have included the full spectrum of responses, including apathy. Instead, they've designed a survey that will tell them what they want to hear, not what's actually true.

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Simon Lewis @simonlewis.ie · 30/11/2025

7/8 This isn't just a technical survey design issue. It's ideological. The Department seems unable to accept that for most families, school ethos is simply not a priority. They'd rather force an opinion than acknowledge indifference.

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Simon Lewis @simonlewis.ie · 30/11/2025

6/8 If someone genuinely doesn't care whether their local school is Catholic, multi-denominational, or anything else, they now have to pick an option that suggests they do care. The results will overstate how much ethos actually matters to people.

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Simon Lewis @simonlewis.ie · 30/11/2025

5/8 By not including "I don't care" as an option, the survey forces people into expressing opinions they don't actually hold. It manufactures engagement where there might be apathy. And that's a problem for the data.

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Simon Lewis @simonlewis.ie · 30/11/2025

4/8 Parents choose schools based on location, reputation, whether their friends' kids go there, the car park situation. The religious ethos is rarely the deciding factor, and for many it's not even a consideration.

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Simon Lewis @simonlewis.ie · 30/11/2025

3/8 We've known for years that most people are not religious. We've known that children are being discriminated against in classes. We've known that opt-out arrangements are inadequate. And yet, nothing has fundamentally changed. Why? Because most people are fine with it.

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