Trustee Forum with Schools

At their recent Trustee Meeting in June, Trustees invited schools to join them in an open forum around the topics of gender fluidity and consent education. Trustees were interested to learn how schools were addressing these issues, what pastoral care was needed for students experiencing gender transition and how widespread the experience of both girls and boys was when it came to sexual harassment and consent.  Students were also invited to join the conversation and they spoke articulately and with passion about these issues that confront them on a daily basis. There had been much written in the media of late that the Trustees were looking to be better understand the perspectives from the student and gain insight from the schools' perspectives. 

Students provided some very positive feedback about the forum and expressed a desire to continue the conversation with the Trustees and other Kildare Ministries schools.  

Below are a few examples:

Dear Ms Richmond,

Thank you so much for inviting us to be a part of the Kildare Ministries trustee’s conversation via zoom this afternoon. We all found this to be such an incredible and valuable experience and we are more than happy to continue to drive this conversation as leaders within the school. "

"We are so grateful for the endless support that we have received from staff such as yourself, in tackling these contemporary issues that are of high importance to us and our generation. We have many ideas and initiatives, to continue this conversation within the college community, and to incorporate other communities – such as a boy’s school, for example!

We hope that you will further contact us regarding this conversation and any initiatives that we may implement throughout the college, as we are very passionate about the topic at hand and would love to lead this discussion. 

Brigidine College, St Ives (Consent Team)

Hi Ms Buick,

I am doing great! Thank you for letting me contribute! The conversation was very empowering and gave me a sense of hope. I’m glad that we all seem very keen to tackle these issues together. I hope we can work towards improving everyone’s awareness of these issues. 

Thank you again and take care 

Glen :) 

(Killester College)