Hello everyone Where to begin wrapping up this extraordinary year of adventures and memories. June is typically a tiny bit frenzied as we try to squeeze as much juice out of the year as we can, and some bigger projects suddenly find themselves with a deadline. No pressure! We take it all in our stride as always. School Meeting gave final approval to budgets and plans for next year, and the backlog of JC cases was addressed. The final podcast of this school year was recorded (we will take a short break), while drama and musical performances took centre stage with three very ..read more

Hello everyone May has been a month bursting at the seams with exciting adventures. Highlights this month included an all-school Water Fight on The Amazing Sunny Day, Market Day, Music Concerts, not one but two Gaisce Adventure Journeys, a trip to visit Microsoft in Dublin for the Dreamspace coders, Graduate Portfolio reviews, and Parent Chat Night. After many months of script writing, planning and booking spaces and scouting locations, filming has commenced on Umi’s new film. We absolutely can’t wait to see the final cut. Professional dancer Meara Kirwin came in to teach Sean nós an ..read more

Self Directed Life: Episode 4 – Interview with Izzy and Marko – Learning more about our Staff Members Welcome to the fourth episode of Self-directed Life, we hope you’ve been enjoying our episodes so far. On our latest episode, we talk to Marko and Izzy, two staff members at our school who have been here since nearly day one. We discuss their own educational experiences, their roles as facilitators and mentors, how they balance being both staff members and parents and their philosophies on self-directed learning. This chat gave us a great insight into their personal perspectives and what they ..read more

Episode 3 The Majestic Frogs – Developing your Passion, Freedom, and Responsibility On the third episode of our podcast, we speak to one of our school bands, The Majestic Frogs. These guys are twelve years old and under, and many of them didn’t even play an instrument before joining the band. They have been playing our school concerts, writing their own songs and inspiring many others to start their own bands! We discuss what it’s like to follow your passion in school, how others perceive the Sudbury model and what the future looks like for the Majestic Frogs. Keep an eye out for them in Sligo ..read more

  Sligo Sudbury School is seeking one additional staff member for the 2024-25 school year. We are looking for passionate, hard-working individuals who deeply believe in self-directed education for children.  Staffing at Sligo Sudbury School is very different from working in other types of schools. Here, students direct their own learning and participate as equals in all decisions regarding school  governance. Sligo Sudbury students control how and when to pursue their interests, and they determine the extent of staff involvement in their pursuits. Staff members at Sligo Sudbury ..read more

Hello everyone April has been a busy and beautiful month with plenty of sun shine and warm weather to keep our spirits high. The Drama club put on a fantastic performance of Appropriate Audience Behaviour, a play where the performers are the audience. The acting was mesmerising and hilarious and the “actual” audience were blown away by the talent. Many months of crochet work literally came together as students who had been working on individual patchwork squares started to put the gorgeous colourful sections together to create a magnificent blanket. Coding club co ..read more

Hello everyone and Happy Easter! March highlights included the Sligo Engineering Fair held at ATU Campus on Sunday, March 3rd. One of our very creative student engineers was onsite to display and demonstrate his ballista and catapult, which he designed and built at school with the help of staff member Troy. Planning Permission for the development of our school site and buildings has been granted. We celebrated this news with a fundraising launch party at school. The children planted an oak tree at the centre of our school site to mark this new phase. Local community member and Slig ..read more

Education for a changing world.  A complete education can no longer be limited to the accumulation of knowledge and the development of some rudimentary academic skills. Children growing up today will need much more. 21st century students must not only be critical thinkers, self-motivated learners, competent problem-solvers, and life-long learners. They also must have well developed qualities of empathy, respect, cooperation, and collaboration.   Children today need an education system that supports initiative, fosters self-motivation, and provides each individual with freedom to ..read more

Gio What we’ve been doing. Hello everyone and Happy Springtime! The month of February began of course with Imbolc and Brigid’s Day, and the celebration of the arrival of spring. Weaving St. Brigid’s crosses quickly expanded into a number of new shapes as we played with the rushes and devised new patterns. Pancake Day marked another important celebration in Irish culture. While “Carnival” is celebrated in other parts of the world with masks, costumes, and parades, here in Ireland we satisfy ourselves with making a feast out of eggs, flour, sugar and milk (and a wild variety of toppings). We c ..read more

Interview with Kostya – AI and Education ..read more