Face To Face - Clare SENCO Forum Primary CoP  

DATE:   Tuesday, 4th March 2025
TIME:    4pm to 6pm
Venue:  Clare Education Centre

The SENCO Forum aims to continue to bring together a network of teachers working in inclusive/special education in Clare Primary schools. The network aims to provide professional learning, support, and networking opportunities for teachers. Margaret Egan, MIC, together with Karen Riordan, will facilitate the Clare network and will support the group’s development over time. If you are a Principal, Special Education Teacher, or SEN Co-Ordinator in a primary school in Clare and would like to find out more about the network, please join us.

Our upcoming SENCO CoP meeting for this academic year will explore the Nurture approach and creative methods for data collection.

Session 1

‘Implementing the Nurture Approach: Principles, Practice, and Impact’

Learner Outcomes:
Overview of the Nurture approach and its six principles
A teacher’s six-year experience adapting Nurture in a DEIS Band 1 school
Successes and challenges along the way
Structure of a typical Nurture session and implementation in classroom/SET settings
Getting started with Nurture
Nurturing Schools Ireland training and contacts
Guest Speakers – Amber Allen and Tricia Ó Cualáin

Session 2

‘Creative approaches to data collection to enhance
teacher planning and interventions’

Learner Outcomes:
Exploring Data Collection and whose voice matters.
Understand the importance of student voice in shaping effective teaching and learning.
Explore creative approaches to capture strengths and priority needs.
Learn practical ways to utilise data to inform target setting



Guest Speaker – Karen Riordan

A little about our speakers...

Amber Allen – Ennis Educate Together NS
Amber has been a primary school teacher in Ennis Educate Together National School for 6 years now.
She has worked there as classroom teacher, SET and nurture teacher. She trained as a Primary school teacher in Scotland in 2008 and has worked in a primary school in West Lothian, an international school in Barcelona then moved to a large primary school in London to become a Senior Leader – where her role was to lead behaviour and pastoral care. This is where she first experienced working with the nurture approach and her passion for nurture began. Amber trained in Nurture Theory and Practice and became the nurture teacher in EETNS and has been involved in the Educate Together Nurture Project. Amber, the pupils, staff and Cherry Blossom Room featured in the project video where it allowed them to showcase the fantastic addition the nurture room has been to their school and how the use of the nurture approach is evident throughout the whole school community. For the past two years Amber has
presented at the Nurturing Schools Ireland conference in Dublin and collaborated with other schools to highlight the huge impact the nurture approach is having across both primary and secondary schools in Ireland.

Tricia Ó Cualáin – Ennis Educate Together NS
Tricia has taught in Ennis Educate Together NS for the last 22 years. She has a special interest in literacy and is passionate about supporting children with social and emotional needs. She has been the SEN Co-Ordinator in Ennis ETNS for the past 5 years. In 2019, Tricia trained in Nurture Theory and Practice, she completed a Postgraduate Diploma in Special Educational Needs in MIC in 2021 and went on to research the impact of the nurture approach in a DEIS Band 1 primary school. Tricia was involved in the Nurturing Schools Whole School Nurture Programme in 2022, and has also trained in Trauma Informed Practice. She has delivered summer courses to teachers around the country for the past six years in the areas of Classroom Management, Supporting Students with Challenging Behaviour, and Play-based Learning, and has recently completed a certificate in Therapeutic Play Skills with the Children’s Therapy Centre.

Karen Riordan – St. Tola’s NS
Karen has been teaching for the last 20 years in a co-educational school and has a special interest in working with children with additional needs. She has a particular passion for differentiated  instruction and completed her thesis on ‘One size doesn’t fit all’ for her M.Ed at Mary Immaculate College. Karen has also designed and published yearly planners specifically for Special Education Teachers and Special Needs Assistants for the past five years. She has delivered many CPD workshops and webinars in the past 15 years on Early Literacy Instruction and Emotional Wellbeing. Karen has recently qualified as a Child and Adolescent
Psychotherapist and Play Therapist and has and has just started her own small private practice ‘Voyage Within Therapy’.

Please register with if interested in attending.

New members welcome!

See you from 3:45 for some tea/coffee, biscuits and a chat!