Welcome to our first Nova Newsletter!

A big thanks to all nine amazing schools that joined us for the Nova programme this year! Launched in schools in Tallaght, it’s been an absolute joy collaborating with every one of them to bring Nova’s initiatives to life and spread the word about the programme. Let’s give a round of applause to the fantastic nine schools that participated in Nova this year. A special mention goes to Bríd Doran in St. Aidan’s Senior National School, for the idea of a newsletter to wrap up the year we have had!

Here are all of the schools we have worked with so far.

Primary Schools

St. Mark’s Senior National School, Springfield

St. Aidan’s Senior National School, Brookfield

St. Dominic’s National School, Millbrook Lawns

Firhouse Educate Together National School

St. Maelruan’s Senior National School (Scoil Maelruan), Old Bawn

Secondary Schools

St. Mark’s Community School, Springfield

St. Aidan’s Community School, Brookfield

Firhouse Educate Together Secondary School

Old Bawn Community School

The Development of the Nova Logo

During the start of this academic year, our Youth Advisory Group (YAG) from St. Marks CS (thank you, Gerry!) was busy designing the new logo for Nova. We have some future graphic designers on our hands, it would seem! We hope that it is representative of the creative, supportive, and youth-led approach within Nova. The Nova logo is visible on the CDI website and will be on all future resources, publications, and communications for Nova going forward. We hope that this will increase the visibility of Nova as the programme continues to grow.

Our YAG continues to meet every 4-6 weeks and will be busy this quarter. They will be meeting with staff from Google (one of our funders) and working on adapting our toolkit to be youth-friendly.

New Teachers — Get involved

Nova is ready and waiting to welcome new teachers on board! If you’re keen to have more of your staff trained in FRIENDS, now’s the perfect time to express your interest. We’re gearing up for training sessions in May or September, training dates will depend on expressions of interest received.

Alongside FRIENDS training, we’re offering data collection training to all participating schools. It’s all about improving the quality of FRIENDS implementation next year and supporting schools further. The Nova Coordinator will be in touch with dates for this training in early September.

Just fill out our Expression of Interest Form here if you are interested in FRIENDS training. If you have any questions or need more information about FRIENDS training, data collection training, or any other resources, drop a line to m.collins@cdi.ie. We’re here to help!

We understand that running a programme like FRIENDS is a massive undertaking for schools; however, the support and enthusiasm offered by schools have culminated in Nova gaining further momentum this year.

School Avoidance Toolkit

The Nova School Avoidance Toolkit Working Group has been working behind the scenes to adapt and modify existing toolkits for Tallaght this year. We aim to release the digital toolkit in the next academic year, it is currently undergoing proofreading. The toolkit will soon be accessible on the CDI website in an interactive format and officially launched in schools in the next academic year.