Student experiences of an out of school academic enrichment programme for high ability students transitioning from DEIS primary schools to DEIS secondary schools

This study focuses on the creation and the first three cycles of the Lifelong Educational Achievement Partnership (LEAP) programme, designed to address a gap in provision for high ability students attending designated socioeconomically disadvantaged schools in the area surrounding Dublin City University (DCU). This dissertation documents the development of an action research project from the initial reflection on this gap in provision, through the planning of an appropriate intervention to the act of initiating the programme and the observation of its impact on students and on to further reflection, planning, action and observation across three years (July 2016- March 2019). The LEAP programme offered students a sustained commitment through their transition from primary to secondary school. This took the form of four terms of academic enrichment classes on a variety of subjects from journalism to forensic science to mathematics. It also offered a bridge for students to transition into the Centre for Talented Youth, Ireland’s (CTYI) secondary school programme, extending the commitment beyond the programme itself. The research focussed on giving students, as well as their parents and teachers, a chance to articulate their experiences of the LEAP programme through questionnaires and group interviews. Through a constant comparative coding approach, three key themes were identified in these data. The first of these, Impact of Programme, outlined the perceived academic, social and personal benefits students took from the programme. The second, Love of Learning, explored the passion for learning voiced by students throughout their participation on the programme. The final theme, Programme Design, considered key elements of the structure of the programme and how they related to students’ experiences of it. Overall, the research conducted for this study presents a successful intervention for an underserved population, one which offers important new knowledge about providing for this cohort. More importantly, as an action it has successfully effected positive change within participants’ lives

Magnifying inequality? Home learning environments and social reproduction during school closures in Ireland

This research is supported by the Economic and Social Research Institute’s Electronic Communications Programme, jointly funded by the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications and the Commission for Communications Regulation in Ireland.COVID-19 school closures have seen the homeplace become a school-place for students and their families in Ireland. This paper presents research on the resources and supports available for students to engage with learning in their home environments. Evidence from a nationally representative survey comprising one third of second-level school leaders, conducted during the first school closures in 2020, shows that attendance and engagement appears to be influenced by the educational level of parents/guardians. The association between parental education and student engagement was stronger for Junior Certificate students but was not statistically evidenced for Leaving Certificate students. Qualitative evidence sheds further light on inequalities which characterised students’ experiences of online and remote learning. Viewing these developments through a social reproduction framework, this study argues that unequal home learning environments may magnify existing inequalities. To prevent a return to the classroom with more classed outcomes, it is imperative that policy, planning and investment strive to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on educational inequality.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Learning for all? Second-level education in Ireland during COVID-19. ESRI Survey and Statistical Report Series 92 June 2020.

Second-level schools in Ireland faced different challenges when responding to the COVID-19 school closures depending on their locations and socioeconomic environments, according to new ESRI research in partnership with the Department of Communications, Climate Action and the Environment (DCCAE) and the Commission for Communications Regulation (ComReg)

Learning for all? Second-level education in Ireland during Covid-19

Second-level schools in Ireland faced different challenges when responding to the COVID-19 school closures depending on their locations and socioeconomic environments, according to new ESRI research in partnership with the Department of Communications, Climate Action and the Environment (DCCAE) and the Commission for Communications Regulation (ComReg)

Ensuring that COVID-19 research is inclusive: guidance from the NIHR INCLUDE project

Objective: To provide guidance to researchers, funders, regulators and study delivery teams to ensure that research on COVID-19 is inclusive, particularly of groups disproportionately affected by COVID-19 and who may have been historically under-served by research. Summary of key points: Groups who are disproportionately affected by COVID-19 include (but are not limited to) older people, people with multiple long-term conditions, people with disabilities, people from Black, Asian and Ethnic minority groups, people living with obesity, people who are socioeconomically deprived and people living in care homes. All these groups are under-served by clinical research, and there is an urgent need to rectify this if COVID-19 research is to deliver relevant evidence for these groups who are most in need. We provide a framework and checklists for addressing key issues when designing and delivering inclusive COVID-19 research, based on the National Institute for Health Research INnovations in CLinical trial design and delivery for the UnDEr-served project roadmap. Strong community engagement, codevelopment and prioritisation of research questions and interventions are essential. Under-served groups should be represented on funding panels and ethics committees, who should insist on the removal of barriers to participation. Exclusion criteria should be kept to a minimum; intervention delivery and outcome measurement should be simple, flexible and tailored to the needs of different groups, and local advice on the best way to reach and engage with under-served communities should be taken by study delivery teams. Data on characteristics that allow identification of under-served groups must be collected, analyses should include these data to enable subgroup comparisons and results should be shared with under-served groups at an early stage. Conclusion: Inclusive COVID-19 research is a necessity, not a luxury, if research is to benefit all the communities it seeks to serve. It requires close engagement with under-served groups and attention to aspects of study topic, design, delivery, analysis and dissemination across the research life cycle

Cortisol levels and suicidal behavior: a meta-analysis

Suicide is a major cause of death worldwide, responsible for 1.5% of all mortality. The causes of suicidal behavior are not fully understood. Dysregulated hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis activity, as measured by cortisol levels, is one potential risk factor. This meta-analytic review aimed i) to estimate the strength and variability of the association between naturally fluctuating cortisol levels and suicidal behavior and ii) to identify moderators of this relationship. A systematic literature search identified 27 studies (N = 2226; 779 suicide attempters & 1447 non-attempters) that met the study eligibility criteria from a total of 417 unique records initially examined. Estimates of effect sizes (r) obtained from these studies were analysed using Comprehensive Meta-Analysis. In these analyses, we compared participants identified as having a past history of suicide attempt(s) to those with no such history. Study quality, mean age of sample and percentage of male participants were examined as potential moderators. Overall, there was no significant effect of suicide group on cortisol. However, significant associations between cortisol and suicide attempts were observed as a function of age. In studies where the mean age of the sample was below 40 years the association was positive (i.e., higher cortisol was associated with suicide attempts; r = .234, p < .001), and where the mean age was 40 or above the association was negative (i.e., lower cortisol was associated with suicide attempts; r = - .129, p < .001). These findings confirm that HPA axis activity, as indicated by age-dependent variations in cortisol levels, is associated with suicidal behavior. The challenge for theory and clinical practice is to explain the complete reversal of the association with age and to identify its clinical implications

Investigating the role of somatic sequencing platforms for phaeochromocytoma and paraganglioma in a large UK cohort.

Funder: NIHR Cambridge Biomedical Research CentreFunder: Gottfried and Julia Bangerter–Rhyner FoundationFunder: www.amend.org.ukFunder: Barts CharityFunder: Cambridge NIHR BRC Stratified Medicine Core Laboratory NGS HubFunder: Freiwillige Akademische GesellschaftOBJECTIVES: Phaeochromocytomas and paragangliomas (PPGL) are rare neuroendocrine tumours with malignant potential and a hereditary basis in almost 40% of patients. Germline genetic testing has transformed the management of PPGL enabling stratification of surveillance approaches, earlier diagnosis and predictive testing of at-risk family members. Recent studies have identified somatic mutations in a further subset of patients, indicating that molecular drivers at either a germline or tumour level can be identified in up to 80% of PPGL cases. The aim of this study was to investigate the clinical utility of somatic sequencing in a large cohort of patients with PPGL in the United Kingdom. DESIGN AND PATIENTS: Prospectively collected matched germline and tumour samples (development cohort) and retrospectively collected tumour samples (validation cohort) of patients with PPGL were investigated. MEASUREMENTS: Clinical characteristics of patients were assessed and tumour and germline DNA was analysed using a next-generation sequencing strategy. A screen for variants within 'mutation hotspots' in 68 human cancer genes was performed. RESULTS: Of 141 included patients, 45 (32%) had a germline mutation. In 37 (26%) patients one or more driver somatic variants were identified including 26 likely pathogenic or pathogenic variants and 19 variants of uncertain significance. Pathogenic somatic variants, observed in 25 (18%) patients, were most commonly identified in the VHL, NF1, HRAS and RET genes. Pathogenic somatic variants were almost exclusively identified in patients without a germline mutation (all but one), suggesting that somatic sequencing is likely to be most informative for those patients with negative germline genetic test results. CONCLUSIONS: Somatic sequencing may further stratify surveillance approaches for patients without a germline genetic driver and may also inform targeted therapeutic strategies for patients with metastatic disease

Student experiences of an out of school academic enrichment programme for high ability students transitioning from DEIS primary schools to DEIS secondary schools

This study focuses on the creation and the first three cycles of the Lifelong Educational Achievement Partnership (LEAP) programme, designed to address a gap in provision for high ability students attending designated socioeconomically disadvantaged schools in the area surrounding Dublin City University (DCU). This dissertation documents the development of an action research project from the initial reflection on this gap in provision, through the planning of an appropriate intervention to the act of initiating the programme and the observation of its impact on students and on to further reflection, planning, action and observation across three years (July 2016- March 2019). The LEAP programme offered students a sustained commitment through their transition from primary to secondary school. This took the form of four terms of academic enrichment classes on a variety of subjects from journalism to forensic science to mathematics. It also offered a bridge for students to transition into the Centre for Talented Youth, Ireland’s (CTYI) secondary school programme, extending the commitment beyond the programme itself. The research focussed on giving students, as well as their parents and teachers, a chance to articulate their experiences of the LEAP programme through questionnaires and group interviews. Through a constant comparative coding approach, three key themes were identified in these data. The first of these, Impact of Programme, outlined the perceived academic, social and personal benefits students took from the programme. The second, Love of Learning, explored the passion for learning voiced by students throughout their participation on the programme. The final theme, Programme Design, considered key elements of the structure of the programme and how they related to students’ experiences of it. Overall, the research conducted for this study presents a successful intervention for an underserved population, one which offers important new knowledge about providing for this cohort. More importantly, as an action it has successfully effected positive change within participants’ lives

Ableism differs by disability, gender and social context: Evidence from vignette experiments

Existing research on ableism has conceptualised it as a general attitude, rather than one that can manifest differently depending on the nature of the disability, the disabled person’s gender and the social context. Our aim was to investigate variation in attitudes to disability depending on these factors. A nationally representative sample of 2,000 adults read a series of vignettes about issues faced by disabled people, relating to education, employment, de-institutionalisation, relationships and welfare payments. Vignettes varied by presence and type of disability and the protagonist’s gender. Some vignettes asked participants whether it was acceptable to treat a disabled person in a specific way (e.g., not hire them for a job) and others asked whether it was acceptable for a disabled person to act in a certain way (e.g., to engage in a romantic relationship). The study was pre-registered and has open materials, data and analysis code. Judgements about how a disabled person was treated showed clear evidence of ableism towards some disabilities (e.g., autism, mental health issues) but not others (e.g., a spine disorder). Judgements about the actions of a disabled person were more nuanced. A disability-gender intersectionality effect was observed for judgements about romantic relationships, with physically disabled women penalised compared to men but no such difference observed for intellectual disability. No intersectionality or ableism was observed on a vignette about refusing poorly paid work. Having a close relationship with someone who has a disability predicted more positive attitudes across social contexts. We find clear evidence that ableism manifests differently depending on the nature of the individual’s disability, their gender and the social context, questioning the previous conceptualisation of ableism as a general attitude. There is considerable scope for further research investigating the forms ableism can take and the conditions that elicit it

Exploring cumulative disadvantage in early school leaving and planned post‐school pathways among those identified with special educational needs in Irish primary schools

Reflecting the neglect of childhood disability in social stratification research, there is a notable dearth of research on the mechanisms underpinning disability differentials in educational outcomes. Drawing on rich longitudinal data collected at 9, 13 and 17 years as part of Ireland's ‘Growing Up in Ireland’ study, we look at the impact of special educational needs (SEN) identification in primary school on upper secondary outcomes. A bioecological framework and the Process–Person–Context–Time model allow us to understand how interactions with family, teachers, friends and school—as proximal processes—relate to early school leaving and post‐school planned pathways after accounting for personal and context characteristics. Overall, young people identified at age 9 as having SEN are at increased risk of early school leaving and are more likely to plan to attend further education and training, rather than higher education. However, after accounting for proximal processes and personal and context variables, students identified at age 9 as having SEN are no longer distinct in terms of secondary attainment and post‐school planning. Instead, these young people are more likely to experience forms of vulnerability that are important in shaping these outcomes. These key educational outcomes are strongly shaped by family and school‐related factors—both proximal processes and context characteristics—suggesting that efforts to support retention and pathway planning should be underpinned by an ecological understanding of young people's trajectories and the cumulative disadvantages they face