Our Staff
At Raheen Wood School there is an active partnership between teachers, parents and staff. The teachers are professionally and personally qualified to live up to the responsibility of meeting children's developmental and educational needs. The teachers consider themselves part of the learning community whose purpose it is to provide a high quality Steiner-based education for children in East Clare.
Kindergarten teachers work with children from 4 years to 7 years of age and this work is aimed at meeting the specific developmental needs of the child in this first seven years of life.
Class teachers will remain with their classes from Class 1 through to Class 7 when possible. The integrated curriculum and the educational approach is directed towards the developmental needs of the child between seven years and fourteen years of age.
Marguerite
Devane is the school Principal
and has taught in the
Kindergarten (An
Grianán group) since September 2001. She graduated from St.
Patrick's Training College, Dublin with a B. Ed. degree in 1987. In
1986 she took the Kindergarten Training Course at Wynstones
(Gloucestershire, England). She has experience in both National Schools
and Waldorf Schools.
Grace Burton teaches Kindergarten
Renate Adriaanse assists in Kindergarten
Linda Grant assists in Kindergarten
Fionnuala
Bates is taking Senior
Infants and Class One
this year. Since graduating in
2004 with a B.Ed. from Mary Immaculate College, Limerick, Fionnuala has
been teaching
in national schools in Clare, Tipperary, and Limerick city. Originally
from Dublin, she worked as a volunteer for five years in East Africa
before returning to
Ireland in 1981 where she worked as a relationship and fertility
counsellor while raising five children. She lives in Shannon and for
many years has
taken an interest in Waldorf education and the work of Rudolf Steiner.
Alan
Dickey takes
the combined Class 2/3 this year.
A native of County Antrim, Alan has a degree in English and French from
St Andrews University and a Post Graduate Certificate in Education from
Queens University, Belfast. He taught for ten years in English
comprehensive schools, also teaching children with moderate learning
difficulties, before completing the Foundation year in Steiner
education at Raheen Wood, and taking his first class in 1999. That
class having graduated to secondary level in 2005, Alan took a
sabbatical year then came back to teach Class 1 last
year.
Seamus Devane will teach Class 4 this year.
Tatiana
Sibilia is our
Class 6 teacher. After gaining a teaching qualification in Italy,
Tatiana helped to set up an Ecological Education Initiative in a
community set in the remote Italian mountains. After much travelling,
she found herself in West Cork, where she worked in community drama
projects. Developing her story-telling expertise she ran workshops and
worked in National Schools before discovering “The Little
School”, as it was then called. She worked as Class 1/2
Teacher
there before joining Raheen Wood in 2004.
Nell Smyth has degrees from Leeds University and the School of Oriental and African studies, London University, as well as a Postgraduate teaching qualification. Her background includes performing, body and breathwork, writing and teaching. She has taught English, drama and history to adults and adolescents in community colleges, working with both primary years and teenagers in Steiner schools and at ALFA, both in Ireland and America. Nell trained at Emerson College in England and she has been a class teacher for almost twenty years. Nell teaches the humanities to class 7/8, working in partnership with Sile Prendergast.
Sile Prendergast has a degree in Science from University College Galway (N.U.I) and a diploma in Education from Maynooth University (N.U.I). She taught Junior Certificate Science and Leaving Certificate Biology for 14 years in secondary schools in Ireland. She came to Raheen Wood Steiner School in 1995 with her family and her four children attended the school there – her youngest finishing Class 7 in 2007. Seeing the need to continue Waldorf education beyond Class 7, Sile helped to set up the Alfa Project in 2001 and taught Biology, Chemistry and Mathematics there over the years. Sile works in partnership with Nell teaching the Sciences and Mathematics to Class 7/8.
Mairin Kelly Learning Support/Resource teacher.
Dara Cussen Learning Support/Resource teacher.
Mary-Jo
Kennedy
is teaching the older classes Irish and is also a learning
support and a fully qualified Extra Lesson Teacher. She has a degree in
English, Sociology and
Politics from NUI in Galway.
Regine Roskam teaches French.
Gavin
Ferris will be a subject teacher
this year. Gavin returned to
Ireland after completing a degree in
Waldorf Education at the University of Plymouth. Over the past 15 years
Gavin has worked in a number of educational settings catering for the
needs of a variety of differents groups and has worked as an actor,
community artist and drama therapist in both Ireland and the U.K.
Lisa
Bedford is our
handwork teacher.
She studied Textiles at Salisbury
Art College in the UK, and has many years' experience in handwork and
craft work as a parent of four children who have studied (and continue
to!) at Raheen Wood. Lisa spent a year as a full-time assistant to
Monica Hannaford, who recently retired.
Marike Peek teaches handwork.
Susanna Perry also teaches handwork.
Alan Williamson currently teaches woodwork. Alan has been a Steiner Waldorf teacher since 1984 where he was a class teacher in Canterbury Steiner School (UK) for eleven years. In 1994 he began working at Raheen Wood School as a class teacher. He took a combined class through the complete cycle from Class 1 to Class 7. He has been a member of the Council of Management of Cooleenbridge, Ltd. for many years, as well as supporting new teachers as a trainer and mentor. He established Clare English Language School (CELS) in 1995. CELS courses are held in the summer holiday months at RWS. This generates substantial financial support for RWS.
Christian Vigurs also teaches woodwork.
Liam Dowling teaches basketball.
Paul Mahoney teaches P.E.
Tembre De Carteret teaches singing.
Kate Porter-Knutson is the Afternoon Care Leader.
Ellen
Baggs
Ellen studied Fashion and Costume design for 5 years in the UK.
She came to Ireland 6 years ago after working as a freelance costume
designer, wardrobe mistress and manger.
Her background includes working as a College Lecturer at Bournemouth
and
Poole College of Art and Design, a Nursery Nurse at a private nursery
for children from 0 to 5 years and youth work at an Indian Boys Club in
Southampton, England. Ellen works as the Administration Manager.
Jim Benham is our Caretaker and Maintenance Manager.
Bridget Kevill is a member of our Grounds and Maintenance staff
Delma Howitt is our Finance Manager.