East Cork Community Special School was awarded €2,000 to collaborate with Rochestown Community Special School, Cork to establish a professional learning community. This project aims to establish a culture of conversation and collaboration between the schools, fostering professional learning and peer support among teachers around shared practice, identifying current best practice approaches in the field of special education.
School's reflection
Participating in Comhrá and Coffee was an affirming and energising professional learning experience. This Community of Practice was supported by a light-touch group-coaching approach. It connected eight teachers from two developing special school, East Cork Community Special School and Rochestown Community Special School, to engage in joint problem-solving, share practical ideas, and reflect on classroom practice. The informal atmosphere, supported by coffee and food, helped create a warm and trusting space across three online sessions and one in-person meeting.
Much has been written about how teaching can feel isolating at times. The initiative offered connection, reassurance, and a sense of community (Moynihan and O Donovan, 2022). A strong sense of shared experience and professional alignment emerged. As one participant put it, “I was pleasantly surprised by how similar our classes were in structure and approach”. The sessions created space for honest, supportive discussion, with teachers reflecting on their own practice and drawing inspiration from one another. One teacher highlighted the value of “small, thoughtful changes … that can have a significant impact on professional growth and classroom practice”.
The impact of experiencing coaching extended beyond the sessions. One teacher shared that they had started “asking more pointed and thoughtful questions” when guiding SNAs, encouraging autonomy and solution-focused thinking. Overall, the experience reinforced the power of collaboration and coaching to support growth in the special education context.
Resource
Coran: We applied to the Teaching Council Bursary when I saw it was advertised because I thought it would be a very good opportunity for us to create something different in the school. I would very much encourage teachers, school leaders to apply for the Féilte Bursary next year. The initiative that we’ve created, having received the funding from the Teaching Council, is the very same initiative that we envisioned from day one. The initiative was based on my own personal interest in coaching. The comhrá aspect of it is obviously the Irish word for conversation, and this is all based on conversations.
Joseph: It was all about just getting teachers to work together, about kind of pushing the idea of collaboration. Teaching can be a very lonely profession and Coran and I are going to change that. This is a small step in that direction, and already we’re getting some fantastic kind of vibes from the teachers around their interest in continuing this kind of collaborative practice.
Coran: My belief at the start of this was that teachers have conversations all the time, and this was about making those conversations efficient and productive. Comhrá and Caife has harnessed the potential of the group, and for that reason we’ve always found the solution to our challenges within the group. At each session. It’s broken down into a welcome introduction, a focused conversation, a free conversation, and then a conclusionary part. The funding has enabled us to create spaces for our teachers to work better. It has enabled us to hire a professional coach to work with the group to facilitate these collaborative conversations.
Yvonne: Comhrá and Caife has been an opportunity for some newly developed schools in Cork to come together to receive some coaching and mentoring.
Tina: It just created that safe space. We all learned from each other. We learned what was working in other classes that had children very similar to us, and we really got to know each other and built up that rapport. The conversation was just naturally flowing the whole time.
Aoife: We’ve been very lucky to be involved in it. Sometimes can be a nice validation to say “actually, you’re doing a good job”. Fresh ideas. Nice to be able to get that perspective from from somebody that’s in the exact same boat as you.
Yvonne: In the role that we’re in, maybe not the same as other mainstream schools. Being able to get to know teachers and other staff members who experience the same highs and lows that we do every day makes people feel less isolated.
Amy: It’s nice to have people that we can talk to that are in similar situations that are an email away or a text away. Have someone come in and coach us and help us to work through the different scenarios and stuff and guide us in the correct way has been invaluable.
Coran: Comhrá and Caife really supports the idea that we have the answers as teachers.
Joseph: You actually find the answers yourself just by speaking to somebody else, you know, and somebody else listening and listening carefully to what you have to say.
Coran: What I saw in the room today was teacher sharing ideas. I saw teachers supporting each other. I saw relationships developing and I saw a real sense of community between the two schools.
Amy: The zoom has been very well led by the coach, and then we had breakout rooms and then we were able to talk about issues specific to the junior side or specific to the junior cycle. It’s been invaluable.
Joseph: Because you can only learn. That’s the worst outcome is that you will learn something. So I’d really encourage people to do that. But everything ultimately will make teachers better teachers, and if we can make teachers better teachers, we can have better learning outcomes for the students.
Coran: There’s been a clear transfer from these sessions into classroom practice in schools.
Tina: Go for it because, you know, you never know what it might bring and it’s always good to network, build those bridges, especially if you work in a special school.
Coran: The Teaching Council affirm collaborative or individual professional learning, they affirm informal or formal professional learning. Receiving the Bursary has affirmed this as a good idea. The Teaching Council have been really excellent to work with since we’ve received the bursary. Very supportive. The application process certainly wasn’t prescriptive. I felt it was very open to new, different ideas. So this was a self created initiative and it was just based on coaching and communities of practice. I’d very much encourage anybody to apply for the bursary next year. It’s an extremely easy process and if you have a good idea, you’ll be able to develop it in any way that you want.