St. Stephen’s de la Salle, Waterford City, was awarded €5,000 as part of the Féilte Bursary Scheme to collaborate with Portlaw National School, Mount Sion National School, South Eastern Technological University and Waterford Education Support Centre build upon the success of a Universal Design for Learning (UDL) Focused Community of Practice: More than Words, which brought together teachers from three DEIS schools in Co. Waterford supported by SETU and Waterford Education Support Centre. This project aims to deepen and expand on existing professional learning by empowering teachers to become UDL Ambassadors and leaders in their own schools and the wider community.
School’s reflection
Building on the foundations established during the 2024/25 academic year, the Féilte bursary enabled participants to deepen and extend their learning.
In November 2025, with SATLE funding support from South East Technological University (SETU), we hosted a professional learning day for over 90 educators in the SETU Arena. This event provided participating teachers from each school with the opportunity to share their learning and experiences with a wider audience, including their school leadership teams, teaching staff, and SNAs.
The day proved to be an enriching and inspiring experience. It provided an authentic platform for teachers to showcase their learning, engage in professional dialogue, and share what they have learned in a practical and accessible way.
During the second semester, we engaged an external facilitator with extensive expertise in UDL to lead two professional learning days. These sessions moved participants beyond a surface-level understanding of UDL, enabling them to critically examine its principles and reflect its application within their own educational settings. A key outcome of this work was the development of school-based action plans. Each school identified a specific area for future development and used the ”5-5-5-5″ framework to guide their planning, considering actions that could be undertaken in the next five minutes, five weeks, five months and five years. This process generated rich and meaningful professional conversations and helped schools establish clear and achievable goals for ongoing improvement. It was particularly noteworthy that one school has appointed a UDL specific post of responsibility for their school. It has also been particularly encouraging to see several participating teachers pursue further study, including master’s programmes in Education, with many choosing UDL as a focus for their research and professional inquiry.
The sessions also provided an opportunity to plan for the future development of the Community of Practice. Looking ahead, we hope to build on this momentum through the organisation of a large-scale SETU UDL Symposium and by developing teacher exchange opportunities and collaborative visits to educational settings that demonstrate effective inclusive practice. We have also established a smaller working group who have completed an ethics application and hope to conduct research on participating teachers’ experience of participating in Community of Practice for professional learning. It is anticipated that this research will be conducted and published in the next academic year.
