Open Day: Progression Routes, Careers and Guidance, Blended Learning & Study Skills Support
Progression Routes
Click here to view our PLC Progression Routes and please click here for our VTOS Progression Routes
Denise Ward introduces Coláiste Íde's Career Guidance Service
Sindy Fitzpatrick talks about the Study Skills Support given to students
Study Skills Support FAQ
I left school when I was 12, Im not great at reading or writing do you think I will be able to do the course?
We have many students who are early school leavers and they have finished their chosen courses with excellent results. They availed of the supports of the Study Skills and worked on the areas of literacy that they needed help with. We can help in so many ways, Assistive Technology, available free of charge in Office 365 applications, will allow you to use software such as Immersive Text where it can help with spellings and Read Aloud will read any text on the screen aloud.
What if Im Dyslexic, can the teachers help?
Yes most certainly. The teachers can adapt their teaching to include Universal Design, which includes different formats of submission of your assignments. In Study Skills, we would do an assessment plan with you and we would agree on what works best for you. Then we can personalise your Office 365 application to suit you best eg: background, font, size. etc
I'm very nervous as I'm an older student, would you have many of an older age in the college?
Yes, we have a wide range of age groups at the college, this works really well having a mix of experiences in the classes. We find the mature students gain so much from the courses, it's your time to study. Your life experiences will bring so much to your course work.
I can only come to the college from 9am and then have to leave at 3pm as I have kids in primary school. How can I go to the Study Skills for supports?
Don’t worry, you're not alone on that issue. We would look at your timetable and see if we can fit in a time when you have a free class or a long break when we could meet to do supports. We will do our very best to work around your timetable and we also have the option of Zoom supports.
Blended Learning
In Coláiste Íde CFE we are fortunate enough to have a campus which has classrooms, lecture rooms and practical areas big enough, and a timetable creative enough to allow teaching and learning to continue on campus for one third of our students in the morning, one third of our students in the afternoon and one third of our students online allowed for the perfect mix of blended learning. Students are personally connected to the teachers having seen them in person every day. This enables them to have the best possible chance to complete their courses and achieve their full potential.
We feel it is vital to try to maintain as much social contact and face to face interaction with our students while on campus. This has allowed us to keep our school community strong and connected. By achieving this balance, we continue to have very high levels of student engagement and our students have built strong relationships with their expert teachers.
Another unique aspect of our college is that we have a hugely proactive student support service which consists of highly expert Guidance Counsellors and a Study Skills Centre run by expert teachers (see our two videos below) who are always available on campus and online to offer care and support to all our students.
We also understand that there can be challenges with online learning for students and we understand that there is a digital divide that needs to be addressed. To ensure that all our students are facilitated, we offer a Laptop Loan System in the college and to date have issued as many as 140 laptops to students who need them.
