NESTLED in the leafy outskirts of Enniskillen is a pioneering school, unlike any other in the county.
EOTAS (Education Other Than at School) provides a support service for young people for whom mainstream education is no longer successful.
It offers local young people who require some help completing their schooling the chance to do so in a relaxed, non-judgemental and pressure-free environment.
These young people require additional targeted support in completing their education, and EOTAS is there to help them do this.
The school’s vision is to nurture, inspire and empower young people through a pupil-centred culture of inclusion and excellence.
Caoimhe Hegarty, a senior teacher explained the benefits of having a school like EOTAS in the community.
“We have a two-pronged approach for education, it’s heavily therapeutic along with academic, and the foundation of the teaching is nurture,” she said.
“We seek to regulate before we educate the young people and we find that is successful.
“We have many successes, huge successes, where young people all go on to either further education, return to do A Levels, employment or community partnership programmes.”
The school creates a supportive environment for the children so they can feel more relaxed and comfortable as the mainstream school environment doesn’t suit their needs.
“We have an academic programme and we have our therapeutic curriculum where every week we have a new theme, we have interpersonal skills, communication skills, safety and wellbeing in terms of keeping yourself safe in the community, knowing boundaries, how to behave in a relationship, anti-bullying, respect, culture awareness, teamwork, communication skills,” explained Caoimhe.
Edel Dooris, a teacher at the school expressed that when a pupil arrives at the school it is a new start for them in education.
“They come here with a clean slate, this is a new chance for them, there is no judgment and it all depends on them what they want to do, if you want to do certain GCSEs we change their timetable to suit their needs.
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