Historic first for staff and students of Trim Youthreach

Trim Youthreach has been declared the first Quality Centre of Education in Ireland and only the second in Europe at a ceremony in Trim. The declaration ceremony took place on Friday 5th March in the Castle Arch Hotel, Trim, when a presentation of Youthreach Trim's Declaration scroll was made to both County Meath VEC and the William Glasser Institute of Ireland. In addition, both past and present students spoke of their own unique experiences at the centre and the ceremony concluded with a personalised piece of rap by current student Stephen King. Youthreach Centre of Education in Trim recognised that its students needed a different approach to education if they were to fully engage in learning. They needed an environment where they would be cared for, nurtured, educated, respected, encouraged and, above all, loved. Following rigorous evaluation over the last two years, Trim Youth is now delighted that the centre is now deemed a Quality Centre of Education. The opening address was given by Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey, who paid a special tribute to both the students and staff for such an achievement for Trim and County Meath. Other guests of honour included Peter Kierans, chief executive officer of Meath VEC; Cllr Tommy Grimes, chairperson of Meath VEC; Brian Lennon, director of the WGII national executive; Dr Dermot Stokes, national co-ordinator of Youthreach; Patricia Masterson, chairperson of the WGII, and Christy Duffy, adult education officer of County Meath VEC. To conclude the historical event, a lunch was held in the newly renovated Youthreach centre following the ceremony. Immediately following lunch, both centre co-ordinator Liz Lavery and student Stephen King made the trip to the RTE studios in Dublin for a live interview on RTE's 'The Afternoon Show'. Youthreach Trim has also announced it has recently received a National Award for Services to Children and Young People 2010 for Effective Practice in Education. This was awarded by the Children's Acts Advisory Board and presented by Minister Barry Andrews at a special ceremony which took place in Dublin Castle on Tuesday 9th March. Both co-ordinator Liz Lavery and student Sam Millen presented the Quality School Model to an audience of approximately 150 people. During their presentation, they explained what the Quality School model is and how it operates at Youthreach Trim. A Glasser Quality School/Centre is a learning environment which has adopted an educational philosophy and practice based on Choice Theory. In other words everyone operates under the belief that it is impossible to control another human being and the most important thing is the development of relationships between any two people. In order to influence people, a satisfying relationship with them needs to be created. People grow best in a needs-satisfying environment and this has major implications both for the relationships in a school or centre and for the quality of the work that students engage in and produce. Trim Youthreach opened its centre under the principles of Choice Theory/Reality Therapy/Quality School as created by Dr William Glasser. Under this model, students take a student-driven proactive role in their centre. They study subjects they will enjoy, be part of all aspects of centre life including staff recruitment, have choices on how they wish to live their lives, learn to understand their behaviours and how it affects others. The whole ethos of the centre is based on solid relationships between all people entering the building (staff, students and visitors) alike. There is no code of behaviour or code of discipline and the centre operates with no detentions, suspensions or expulsions. All issues are dealt with though negotiation and equality.