Richie Walsh on Building Educational Communities through Restorative Practice

Meet Richie Walsh, an inspiring educator whose story underscores the significance of community ethos in educational success.

Richie's career in education showcases a trajectory of leadership and dedication, beginning with early teaching experiences and evolving into a principal role. Richie highlights the importance of community ties and leadership in fostering a thriving educational environment. His narrative also touches on the evolving impact of educational leadership over time.

In this episode, the transformative power of Restorative Practice in schools becomes a focal point. Richie embraces this holistic approach, emphasising relationship-building and emotional intelligence. In discussion with our host, Ultan, he explores how empathy can be cultivated as a skill, enhancing restorative practices in education. His insights into creating a nurturing environment where love and empathy thrive resonate throughout the conversation, demonstrating how these foundational values can transform conflict resolution and foster a supportive atmosphere for educators and students alike.

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Transcript

Speaker 1 0:18

Fáilte stach and welcome to the Teachers Themselves podcast. I'm your host, Alton MacMahona. This podcast is brought to you by Dublin West Education Support Centre. We're located on the grounds of TUD Talla, serving and supporting the school communities of West Dublin and beyond. Welcome to season three of Teachers Themselves. Episodes this season feature some great conversations with the passionate educators who contribute to your lives as educators and school leaders. These are people who have dedicated their careers to improving the educational outcomes of children and to enriching the education system.

Speaker 2 0:53

If you look at where I am now is really, I see a restorative practice. It's not something that you use, it's something you are, it's a mindset, it's a way of being.

Speaker 1 1:03

So you're very welcome to this week's episode of Teachers Themselves. I'm very fortunate to be joined by a colleague over many years, Richie Walsh. Richie was principal in St Mark's Senior National very late.

Speaker 1 1:31

Yeah, 39 and a quarter actually ritchie, you're from cork and I always ask the guests you know, how did your home place form you both as a person and as a teacher, and and you might maybe think about somebody along that path who made you think about getting into teaching or inspired you to get into teaching, or whatever. So tell me a little bit about growing up in Cork, how you ended up then in Dublin.

Speaker 2 1:56

I was born in Cork City, actually in Spinbarr's Hospital, lived then for the first 18 years of my life in a lovely town in North Cork, mitchellstown. Very nice town, lovely people, great community there. For me, I was educated first of all with the presentation nuns for the first five or six years and then we moved over to the Christian Brothers. My experience of school I was thinking about this because you'd asked me to do this podcast my experience of school was very positive. I suppose I had one really bad year, I think, and I was second class. We had a tough teacher, bad experiences, but apart from that, great experiences in primary school. Secondary school loved it.

Speaker 2 2:33

I think my saving grace was I was passionate about sport. I played on all the school teams. That definitely helped the town itself. I suppose back in the 70s and 80s there wasn't a huge amount going on. There was a big creamery there employed five or six thousand people, so it was a busy market town and we had a good social life. It was lovely. I was in the scouts as well. I played a lot of all different sports. I boxed, ran, played football, rugby, didn't play hurling actually, because I suppose our town was more of a gaelic football town. So that was kind of me. I did a bit of music, sang in a choir, I suppose I did everything really.

Speaker 1 3:09

You were really well known for all seasons you did a bit of everything.

Speaker 2 3:12

Did a bit of everything. Yeah, I suppose I'm a bit. Yeah, I like to be busy and I like to be involved, and we had great opportunities. I suppose my mother's attitude always was like if an opportunity presents itself, take it, try it. And I would have had that approach with my own kids as well to have a go at everything is it harder for kids nowadays?

Speaker 1 3:29

because I remember myself and we're not a million miles away from from ages that sports and stuff tended to be seasonal so you could try everything, whereas I see now, when my own kids were growing up, all the different sports they wanted to be very committed and there wasn't as much flexibility to play as many sports and getting involved as many things as you'd like to be involved in. Have we lost a little bit along the way there with that? I'm just thinking.

Speaker 2 3:52

Possibly, in the sense that I'm involved with a GA club here in Dublin, whitehall, cullum Pills, for a good number of years, and there comes a stage at about 15, in particular in Dublin, where you have to make a decision, because I think the soccer matches and the Gaelic matches are on on Sundays and you just a decision has to be made at that stage. At home, when we were growing up in the 70s and early 80s, the matches were your right summer time, club competition were probably May, right through to September, october, and then colleges or secondary school competitions then started in September and went right up to February, march. So yeah, you had plenty of opportunities and you played a bit of soccer. We just started playing soccer at the end of that van when you weren't allowed to play soccer. Having said that, if you were playing competitions say Cornevary or one of those in school, and they found out you were playing indoor soccer or something, they wouldn't be impressed, you know. So there was still a little bit of that divide there.

Speaker 2 4:44

But I loved soccer and I must say that's one thing about the town Great volunteerism in the town, great people and I look back on that and I think I got involved in the local club here because of that, because it was time to give back. When you kind of get into your 40s and you start having your own kids and they're actually joining clubs and things like that, I felt it was time to give back because, I must say, the GA did amazing things for me as a kid. All the local clubs, the boxing club, the running club every one of them great, volunteer people, great stuff.

Speaker 1 5:15

So you left Mitchelstown and you went to. Where did you train Ritchie?

Speaker 2 5:19

I left Mitchelstown in 1978 and I went to Pat's in Greenpond Not Mary in 1978 and I went to Pats in Greenpond not Mary Eyne. No, why you're not going to believe this? I was rejected. I didn't get in the first time well, pats' gain was Mary Eyne's loss.

Speaker 1 5:32

Yeah.

Speaker 2 5:33

I applied for Mary Eyne in 77 and I got the lovely letter. Isola Moraw and I was. I was quite taken aback. So I went back and I did a good leading cert and they didn't give you a breakdown of which or what, but I did get somebody to make contact to find out what. You know what would be the minimum for the next year. So I went back and I repeated my leading cert in the library of the school, attended very few classes and improved my scores.

Speaker 2 5:59

You really wanted to be a teacher, did you? I wanted to be an accountant, believe it or not, initially? Yeah, yeah. So why were be a teacher, is he? I wanted to be an accountant, believe it or not, initially?

Speaker 1 6:06

yeah, yeah and uh. So why? Why are you hell bent on getting into bats then?

Speaker 2 6:09

I kind of changed my mind then along the way because that's the way I did all the all the business, economics, accounting, bo, business organs in school. But yeah, I know, I just I think when I joined the scouts and became a leader and started working with kids and doing all that voluntary kind of work and doing a little bit of coaching, I kind of said, god, this is something here, all right I'm, I was kind of getting a great pleasure. Whereas I did a bit of work in my secondary school in my secondary school years, yeah, with a few accountants. The work was interesting but you know, stock taking and stuff like that, but it was figury and uh, I wasn't getting the buzz back. So when I went to Pat's then, oh, fantastic time, three amazing years, met some great people, still great friends of mine. So yeah, I enjoyed Pat's.

Speaker 1 6:52

And you went into teaching. Then Tell me a little bit about those few years when you were teaching here in Dublin. What stands out for you, as I suppose, the people and the situations that drove you on to be successful in your career.

Speaker 2 7:07

Well, I started teaching in 1981 in St Fiacre's in Beaumont and it was a really dynamic school. The principal there at the time was a guy called Jim Kilty. He was a national coach in athletics, but Jim was a. He was a great guy to give you your head as such and encourage leadership and encourage you know, have a goal. If you make a mistake, don't worry about it. We learn from that and we move on. There was a great staff there.

Speaker 2 7:29

We had six of every streamer senior school, so you worked as a team with the other six people, learned so much from them learned more in three years in Fiepers than I did in the three years in Pats, I would say about teaching and learning. You learned about like we did a lot of collaborative work, so we did a lot of planning. We, you know you were able to go in and talk to other teachers and talk about the way they were doing their lessons and stuff. Like we got it. We got the basics in college, which is all you'd expect, but when you were going out then and you might have had challenges my first class I think we had 38 in the class and that was a challenge and I think we had six of each stream, four streams, 24 mainstream classes, one remedial teacher, as it was known at the time, and there was a lot of challenging kids. There were great kids but they had a lot of difficulties and I suppose at the time we weren't as conscious of additional needs as we would be now. You know I know people might find that hard to believe, but there was great support from the staff and you know we know we just had a. There was a lovely atmosphere and I suppose we were all young and like six staff were coming in each year, so we had a great social life as well. That really made it. I think you looked forward to getting up every morning, going into work, you were meeting your friends, you were working together, you were having a bit of fun together. I really enjoyed that and I was there for 11 years and I loved it. I was looking down or I was thinking.

Speaker 2 8:48

I think when you get to about 10 years in your career, you start looking at it. I think every 10 years I kind of looked at my approach to life and I kind of said you know, maybe I could try something different here, and somebody in the staff actually mentioned at the time was a guy in the school who was in stubbing, I think, and I kind kind of said you look to be an effective teacher. What's going on? That you can't get a job. And at the time this was 92, 93 there were. There were very few jobs. And he said because guys like you don't move on. I said what do you mean? I don't you move on? And I said you said there's principalships, there's a principalship going locally. If you did you see any of those, I said no, I didn't. So that that then kind of stimulated me to think about the local principalships.

Speaker 2 9:25

I saw there was a job going in St Joseph's in Fairview. I didn't know a huge amount about the school. I did know it was CBS schools, that that was the ethos I would. I would have been brought up with at the time. My experience with the Christian Brothers was very positive and I know there are issues definitely, but I was lucky. I suppose I had a very positive experience. So I applied, applied for the job in Joy's. I applied for a number of jobs at the time. It was a teaching principal's job I think there was eight teachers. I didn't think I'd get the job at all, did a lot of preparation, did my reading, did my prep, spoke to a few people, gave it a shot, went and did the interview and got the letter and offered me the job.

Speaker 1 9:59

And you were a teaching principal and you went on to be admin principal for a good spell here in Tallaght in St Mark's.

Speaker 2 10:09

How many years were you in Marks? Were you 23 years as a principal in Marks? Yeah, I joined. I went to Marks in the 7th of September 1997 and I left. My last day was the 4th of December 2020.

Speaker 1 10:17

Wow, yeah, you must have loved it to stay that long.

Speaker 2 10:21

Yeah, I loved it. Yeah, I love, I love the people. The kids in particular. The parents were amazing people. You know, I know we hear the term used all the time salt of the earth, but they were, and there was a great community there. We had a great junior school that fed the senior school and then we worked with the community school as well. So there was a lovely community.

Speaker 1 10:45

And there still a great community there and great staff in all those schools. I really enjoyed it as the principal of the senior national school. You alluded to it there. You were kind of the conduit between the junior school and the post-primary school. Did it put you in a position of great influence really on the kids because you were working with both of those principals and, you know, with both the staffs, I guess, to create what was a great, what still is a great community?

Speaker 2 11:09

I suppose so. I think when I took over in St Mark's, the principal of the junior school retired within a couple of months. You know it was near retirement and a new principal came in.

Speaker 1 11:17

Nothing personal.

Speaker 2 11:18

Richie. No, nothing personal at all, no, no, mrs McGowan, she was an amazing lady. She did amazing work, work in St Mark's, and my predecessor, diarmuid MacMahona Lord to mercy him. He's passed away now but he was an amazing guy. All I did really was pick up the baton from Diarmuid. He had a fantastic school. But when Anne came along, then we kind of worked together and we always kind of said we would work closely and then kind of got a connection with Etna Coyne, the principal of the senior school, the community school. The three of us work closely together.

Speaker 1 11:47

And three. You were great friends at the centre here, in fairness, in Dublin West. I hope, and I know, I suppose that Dublin West helped in some small way Very much so For you to achieve what you wanted to achieve In relation to leadership and that kind of thing. You know you had said earlier you wanted to be an accountant. You went. I said no, just teaching's for me. Did you ever think you'd be an inspector?

Speaker 2 12:05

No, You're off the fence now, richie, what are you reading? No, and you know, I think we're blessed at the moment with our chief inspector, yvonne Keating, because Yvonne was our divisional for a number of years and I learned a huge amount working with her. But no, I kind of felt that's a different role, you know they have their own my role. I like to be able to express my individuality. I believe that the inspector is quite corporate in its own way, whereas I didn't believe that's the way I wanted to be as a principal.

Speaker 2 12:33

You know, you had that freedom to work with your staff and your parents and your kids. Ok, you had a curriculum to deliver, but you get a huge freedom to do a lot of other things. Just going back and you talk about the accountant bit, when you're running a school, you have to see it as there's a business aspect to it as well. You have to balance the books, you have to bring in money the old saying down the country is money makes the mayor go and I understand that our parents were amazing to fundraise with great, amazing resources beyond probably what we we could have had. Just the parents really did a huge amount of work and I'd like to put that on record. We had a parent teacher association and they were amazing, very good very good.

Speaker 1 13:12

One of the reasons you're doing a lot of work with us here in dublin west and elsewhere, I know is you develop an interest in rp restorative practice. Can you tell me a little bit about first off? Can you tell me what it is and tell our listeners what it is and why it piqued your interest enough to develop such an interest in it, and I suppose that you've put such work into it. Can you tell me that please?

Building Relationships Through Restorative Practice

Speaker 2 13:33

Rich? I suppose to answer your question, restorative practices, it's a philosophy, a value-based philosophy, so it's obviously important to be conscious and aware of our values. It's a set of skills, then, and those skills focus on building, maintaining and repairing relationships and managing conflict, when it does occur, in a respectful, inclusive manner, and being conscious that, when you have those healthy relationships, that you have the skill set and you have that connection to resolve any conflicts that do arise. I was introduced to Restorative Practice in 2011 by a guy called John Bolton. He came over from Hull. He was introduced to us by Claire Casey from the Childhood Development Initiative in Tala. Both schools senior and junior school had an in-service day with John.

Speaker 2 14:16

What resonated with us was this is not rocket science. We're doing a lot of this stuff already. Maybe we aren't doing it as explicitly as it's being said. So that was the initial thing. We said this really resonates for us. So we said try and get a bit of training. So, slowly but surely, we did some training. Initially, it was kind of justice-based at the time. The training and the staff kind of felt this doesn't really work for us. But as time evolved, within a year or so, cdi were delivering their own training and it was very much a more holistic approach. It wasn't just justice, it covered all areas social work, justice, teaching, education, etc. So we did some training then and slowly but surely, the next stage came, where there was a possibility of people to be trained as trainers. So I put five of us forward after about two years to become trainers and the idea there was that we would sustain our own school, we would be able to deliver the training ourselves, and I suppose if you look at where I am now is really, I see, a restorative practice.

Speaker 2 15:17

It's not something that you use, it's something you are, it's a mindset, it's a way of being, it is a set of skills, but it's not something you have in the drawer. When conflict arises, you take it out and use it. It's actually the way you think about things. It's your mindset, it's thinking about your connections with people. When I go in now and you said there I do some work at the moment in RP when I go into a school and I'm delivering RP training, be it with CDI, be it with Dublin West, or be it with Dublin West or be it with IJA, first thing I say is folks, this training, first of all, is for you guys. It's for your own personal development. It's to look at how you see the world. It's your interest, or how you look at relationships. It's about looking at your emotional intelligence you know how you perceive and manage and understand your own emotions and the emotions of others, being aware of your triggers.

Speaker 2 16:04

And we talk about language, the language we use. You know what does it say? Up to 7% of our communication is language. You know. The rest of it is. You know body language and voice, but 7% is language. But that's really important. So the words we use.

Speaker 2 16:18

We do a lot of work, then, on the language restorative languages, nonviolent communication developed by Marshall Rosenberg, psychologist, and the nonviolent communications. I like his phrase words can be walls, the words can be windows. Think of two simple phrases why? Why did you do that? Or what happened? What happened, why did you do that? Kind of a bit of a judgment, could even be a bit of a criticism or blame in it. You know when kids do something and you ask them why did you do it, they don't know. Maybe they may not know why you did it, and usually when you ask somebody why did you do it, you know it's body language. We move away from each other. When you say to somebody what happened, you're curious, you're showing a bit of concern, a bit of compassion. I want to know your story. That's what we do in restorative approach. We want to know, we ask what happened and I think I would test if people transformed their lives and just get rid of the use of why and start asking what happened. Be quite transformed? And that's a small little step. So that was really the kind of stuff that resonated for me.

Speaker 2 17:15

So it's focusing on building relationships, fair process, using the skills, and I suppose the four pillars of the restorative approach are high expectations, high support.

Speaker 2 17:28

My mantra in St Mark's was to be the best we could be, but for us to help the children and ourselves to be the best they could be, we had to support each other. So we have to give high expectations and high support. And then we had a set of skills and the skills were again not rocket science, but the skills would be the skill of listening. So when I asked you what happened, I want to know and I'm going to listen to you, I'm not going to have the answer the skill of empathy, the skill of fair process, the skill of problem solving and conflict management. So they are kind of five skills. The other pillar would be a value-based philosophy, based on our values of honesty and trust and inclusiveness and connectedness. And then the final one would be a trauma aware approach. So we're aware we take people where they're at and we work from them there. We're not trying to change people, we work with people very interested there.

Speaker 1 18:13

You said, when you're talking about the skills, you mentioned empathy as a skill. Excuse my ignorance now, the first time I heard it mentioned as a skill, I always had a kind of a trait, and some people are empathetic and some people are not. Can you give me an example of somebody who's who's very empathetic maybe, or how that manifests itself, and somebody who mightn't be? And how do you get to be?

Building Relationships Through Listening and Love

Speaker 2 18:32

more empathetic. I'm not an expert in that area, but I suppose what are we trying to do in empathy really is to try and understand what someone else is experiencing. Now, that may be difficult, so sometimes I would draw that back to have, because I may not understand how somebody else is experiencing life, but by listening to them and asking them what's happening in your life, I am showing that I care and I'm concerned and the other person can feel that they can feel that connection. This is genuine. I'm not just asking the question because I want to get on to the next question. I want to listen to you. I suppose they go hand in hand.

Speaker 2 19:05

Really it's just having an open heart. You know we work with our head, but we really must work with our heart as well To have an open heart when you're dealing with a person, to listen to them, and when we talk about being empathetic, really it's just that connection you want to have with somebody. But you know you're important. Where you're at the moment is important to me and I'm listening to you and I'm here to support you in any way I can. That's that's kind of really how I would sum that up. I don't know, is that answering your question?

Speaker 1 19:33

Yeah, it is. It is, I suppose, if you bring it back to what you said at the start about a values based philosophy. Yeah, and this Richie has come up in chats I've had on this podcast with other guests in that we're very fortunate in Irish schools in that the word love is frequently used in Irish schools and it's, I suppose, if you talk about empathy, it is based in love, love for your fellow human being.

Speaker 1 19:56

Love for the environment, love for what you do, love for your ability to help families and kids. Walk into a school and the word love was on the walls and I remember chatting to teachers and principals and inspectors from other countries and it's not so in other schools. Do you think that that whole value and expressed value about the worth of love and the children come in, the experience that you are loved, allows us a better door into empathy and therefore a better door into effective restorative practice?

Speaker 2 20:28

Yeah, I probably would. Yeah, and I'm reminded here now of Dorothy Van Deering from Memorial University in Canada, and she talks about us being relational human beings. Everybody the people you don't like, we don't like everybody, but everybody is a relational human being. They all want, everybody wants to be related to and to be connected with. So, yeah, I would definitely think. I would question, though, whether it's not in other places.

Speaker 2 20:53

Just going back to the benefits or the supports that Dublin West has given me over the years in our schools, we were blessed to be involved in a couple of Comenius and Erasmus projects, so I would have visited schools in Italy, finland, denmark and Sweden and I would have found there's a connection with teachers. Teachers have that thing. They do love the kids and the majority of teachers love their job, and we kind of create this culture and this environment in our schools. I'm so blessed now I'm going in and out of schools and you can feel it the minute you now I'm going in and out of schools and you can feel it the minute you walk in the door. In the majority of cases In an odd case you might, but in general you feel that atmosphere. It is love and it is care. Like Nell Noddings talks about us being in the caring professions, we care. We just don't care about people like throwing the fiver in the box and walking away. We care for our people. We really do have that connection.

Speaker 1 21:51

The reason I suppose I asked you to come on board here in Northern West with RP was I was lucky enough to visit St Mark's and you were gone at the time. But I was struck by the calm in the school and, like yourself, I've been out of a lot of schools and seen a lot of schools over the years. I was very struck by the calm in the school and I contacted Jaffers and we chatted and restorative practice and all that. So we're delighted to be running courses here in the centre on it. But in what way does restorative practice do you think, allow that calm to exist or enable that calm to exist in a school?

Speaker 2 22:20

Well, I suppose restorative practice is a reflective practice. You know, as William Urie says, like we try and take the balcony view, we step back. So when there's a conflict between three or four children in the yard you don't jump in. You realize those kids are the people that have the solution to the problem here. They're able to resolve them. So we work with those children then. So that helps. What I found is it's definitely reduced my stress. I didn't have to have all the answers. The teachers didn't have all the answers. We had a process by which we were able to work with the children to get a resolution Like it's solution focused. You know we're not going around in circles and getting nowhere. We're going around in circles with a purpose. We have an intention every time. You have that interaction.

Speaker 1 23:07

And did it take long for you? You said that the teachers were a bit reticent at the start and then you developed and it grew and it became very strong. Were the children and the parents reticent at to start, or did they even know what was going on?

Speaker 2 23:19

no, I would say just to correct you that the teachers weren't reticent as such. The teachers were kind of felt god, this is not rocket science, we're doing a lot of this already. So we felt we needed to start doing a bit of training then. Obviously, not everybody like as I go into a school now and I say, like this may resonate for you, it may not. And if it doesn, a huge issue with restorative practice is you need to be comfortable to be in a vulnerable space because you may not have all the answers, or when the parents come in and they want a punitive response, you're going to stand up and say well, actually that's not how we do it in our school. So, slowly but surely, we had to work with the children and kind of they noticed that we were introducing these questions and we were doing a lot of work in circles and the parents.

Speaker 2 24:01

Parents was very simple. Every time I got an opportunity to have a meeting with parents what, no matter what it was and I would have maybe six slides. Three of them would be about restorative practice I met all the parents every single year, one-on-one. They were invited to meet me if they wanted most. 90 percent, 95 percent would have come. But we also had a group meeting about the induction meeting, and I would always talk about restorative practice and how we do things in the school and that we work with the children, and then we did some training with this, with the student council, and we did a lot of work then with parents. We did parents courses as well. So look it's, it's like restorative. There's no such thing as a restorative practice school. It's a community committed to restorative practices. You know, the research shows it takes five years to embed restorative practices. It takes one year to lose it. So you've got to keep working on it all the time.

Speaker 1 24:51

Okay, excellent. I suppose. Like any part of a school culture, it takes a long time to get there effectively. So you're up and down into different schools. You say you're working with AJ, you work with Dublin West, you work with CDI and you're going out of the school. What do you miss most from school, other than your interaction with the kids, obviously? What are the things you miss about school life?

Speaker 2 25:15

I suppose the relationships, the connection with people. I always valued the staff and working with staff and building connection with the staff. So I missed a crack. You know we used to have a great old crack and I miss it when I think about it. But I'm just, I've moved on. I've always had a very simple approach in life. I loved St Piacra's. When I left that I never looked back, same with Joy's and Fairview.

Speaker 2 25:39

And once I left St Mark's the time was right for me to go. You know, I wanted to go on my terms. I was young enough, I was fit enough, thank God, I had my health and I just felt, you know what, now is the time to go and do something else. I went back and studied at the ripe age of my late 50s to do a master's and I did that for myself and that got me back into study and I do a lot of reading, reading, research, do a bit of writing and then do some work with schools. So and I I keep connection with with the teachers. You know I don't go back to the school because I think I've done my bit. Now there's a new principal there, there's a new era and that's their gig. I had my time, but I still keep in touch with the teachers that I used to work with, you know.

Speaker 1 26:24

Another guest I had on described the same thing. You know, as you're saying, they're finding better ways to live a better life. You know, at every stage of your life you're looking for that. So what brings you?

Speaker 2 26:36

joy now, richie. To be honest, richie, it's totally personal. My family, yeah, um, as I said to you earlier, my daughter's getting married next week. That's a big one for us her eldest daughter and just to see my kids growing up and to see them developing as you know, humans beings with you know a great future ahead of them all and they're working hard and they're loving life and that's really the most important thing.

Speaker 2 27:01

And having the time to spend with my wife, paula, and just you know this is another. I know they talk about it, I don't know, they say the third year or whatever. It's another part of my life that I'm enjoying, you know, and I think it's really to have the time. Being a teacher, being a principal, it's a tough job. Being a spring, a school teacher, primary teacher, there's such demands on you and you come home and the world's best will in the world you don't want to bring the job home if you can, which you do, and teachers work really hard and I'm going in other schools at the moment. I'm seeing them. They're tired, they're looking forward to their midterm break and deserve it, and I've done all but I've come out the other end, thank God.

Speaker 1 27:39

And yeah, my family Relatively unscathed.

Speaker 2 27:42

Yeah, yeah, I think so, I think so, yeah.

Speaker 1 27:45

If you had to give one bit of advice to a teacher starting out, now it's a different world. They're coming into the teaching world, the teaching world that you came into. What would your advice to them be?

Speaker 2 27:56

You've got one minute. Well, I'm observing a lot of young teachers and they have a lovely attitude to life. You know, a lot of them are able to do the job and then move on and have their lives and they travel. So I would say, when you're in there, give your all. It's a real privilege I think it's a vocation.

Speaker 2 28:16

I think it's not for everybody. So I would say just enjoy every moment of it. And I would say to headteachers or principals out there and leaders support young teachers. They need to be supported. Principals need support as well. But just support the young teachers. But, as a young teacher, go in and enjoy it. Get involved in every aspect of the school and if you're offered leadership roles, take them. Build up your bank of knowledge and skill set. That's the way it's done excellent.

Speaker 1 28:43

Well, richie on that, those sage words. I thank you sincerely for coming to meet with us today. Virtually it's been an absolute joy talking to you and I wish you the very best next week at the wedding. And keep getting joy out of your family, please, god, for many, many, many years. God bless you, you too, man, god bless you Bye.

Speaker 1 29:15

Tune in next week for another episode of Teachers Themselves. If you're enjoying this season, you can go back and find episodes from season one or two. All well worth a listen. Please don't forget to subscribe, share with colleagues and friends, leave us a review or send us a message. Your feedback informs the show. You can follow us across our social media channels Instagram, twitter, linkedin. Facebook Links are in the show notes. If you have any thoughts on today's episode or suggestions for future topics, you can email Zita here at zrobinson at dwecie. That's zrobinson at dwecie. Oh, and, as always, don't forget to book your CPD at dwcie. Hop online at dwcie to book your CPD. Míle maith agaibh ar íst. Have a great week. Slán tamall. Teachers Themselves is a DWEC original Produced and created by Dublin West Education Centre.