Episode Four: Tracie Tobin “Social experiences of a primary school principal of a DEIS Band 1 infant school in Limerick City over a period of 21 years”

My guest in this episode is Tracie Tobin. Tracie is Principal of St Michael’s Infant School in Limerick City. She graduated from Mary Immaculate College in 1996 with a B.Ed. degree and in 2008 with a Graduate Diploma in Special Educational Needs.She is particularly interested in the Maths Recovery Programme and completed a Master’s in Education on this topic in 2009. Tracie is dedicated to educational disadvantage and has worked in DEIS schools for all of her teaching career. She was elected to the Teaching Council in 2016 where she represents the primary teachers of Munster. She is currently serving her second four-year term. She is a member of the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation’s National Equality Committee where she has represented the teachers of Limerick and Kerry since 2011. Tracie is also chairperson of Bedford Row Family Project which is based in Limerick City. This fosters a strong link between her work in education to the community and outreach programmes offered by the Project to families affected by imprisonment. Tracie is currently the co-lead on the City Connects Implementation Team, a pilot project based in the North East Inner City. In this episode Tracie describes her own educational journey through both primary and post-primary school and how she was inspired to become a teacher, attending Mary Immaculate College as both an undergraduate and a postgraduate student and onto her current position as Principal of St Michael’s Infant School. We discuss the concept of an infant school and infant education and the importance of infant education as one of the most (if not the most) important aspects of a child’s education. Tracie describes how in her view that DEIS (Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools) is one of the main success stories of Irish education. She emphasises how in her school the emphasis on literacy and numeracy through DEIS was not only very beneficial for the pupils but also for staff as they were offered excellent CPD and training opportunities to implement a variety of programmes. Tracie also emphasises the importance of school attendance and how every day in school is important regardless of the class they are in but especially in Junior Infants when the initial formative skills are embedded. Tracie describes the diverse nature of the pupil profile in her school and how an inclusive approach enables all children to participate and engage in school. We discuss how connections are made by the school with parents and grandparents in Tracie’s school and how parents engage in a number of different initiatives in the school. Tracie has herself reached out to various agencies in Limerick to further enable meaningful connections and provide a wraparound service for the children in her school. She describes the Oscailt network in Limerick and how it works across both primary and post-primary schools to ensure that families have a positive and integrated experience of school through the EDNEP project. We talk about many aspects of connections between the Family and the School and how optimising these connections is so beneficial to families and to the pupils in terms of their progression and educational outcomes. Tracie believes that it is her role and the role of educators to empower parents to realise how important they are in the lives of their children. This is an honest, energetic and encouraging listen that demonstrates real Sociology of Education in action in an infant school. Tracie is both dedicated and ambitious for her pupils and their families, this is underpinned by a very compelling social justice approach that is evidenced throughout the episode. For parents, teachers, student-teachers, educators, researchers, policy-makers this is a must-listen episode.