Senator Lynn Ruane came to Citywest ETNS!

Last Monday was a very exciting day in Citywest ETNS, as we welcomed Senator Lynn Ruane to our school. Lynn is a native of Tallaght and a campaigner on issues of justice and equality. She is a member of Seanad Eireann (the Senate) since 2016 and has worked on various laws, legislation and policies during her time there. 

We were delighted that Lynn accepted an invitation to visit our school and to learn a little more about the Educate Together ethos. During her visit, she met with the Student Council and spoke with them about life as a politician. One of the 4 pillars of the Educate Together ethos is that we are a democratic school. The 9 Student Council representatives explained how they were all elected democratically, following an extensive campaign. They also discussed the many election promises which they have followed up on, during their time with the Student Council. Our pupils did us proud, discussing various topics such as voting age, the importance of democracy, education and much more. 

Following the meeting with the Student Council, Lynn was invited to visit Martha's 1st class. Here, they showed her some of their recent work, based on the Ethics and the Environment strand of the Learn Together curriculum. 
They made a short presentation to Lynn, before she shared some of her recent policy work on the environment. 
The next stop was to meet with some of our 5th class pupils, who engaged in an excellent conversation with her - covering topics such as homelessness voting rights, the environment, Brexit and much more. 

Finally, Lynn spent some time meeting with three of the parents who are on the campaign group which is aiming to bring a second-level Educate Together school to the area. You can read a little more about that here or check out their Twitter and Facebook pages.