Joeys Alumni | Joeys Fundraising - Staying Ahead of the Game

14/01/2021 Joeys Alumni

Joeys Fundraising - Staying Ahead of the Game

Joeys Alumni are inviting you to join our fundraising campaign to support your school as it continues to develop into the future. Joeys , with the help of the Alumni, is now at the forefront of education in Ireland with initiatives such as PTECH and is proactively leading the charge to bridge the educational resources gap between state and voluntary DEIS schools in Ireland.

As happens, however, from years primarily focusing on our students education, addressing the challenges of a locally changing demographic and as a result of years of state underfunding, our school finds itself with only the resources, just about, to deal with day to day needs.

There are, therefore, two primary areas where our school needs our help;

Immediate

Our buildings are tired and in need of rejuvenation to facilitate both Joeys growth and to attract new students to our school. Immediate bridging funds of circa €100,000 are required to commence urgent work (which is currently being professionally managed and constructed by past pupils) while we apply for immedialy urgent government capital grants and develop a long term capital development plan with government.

Annual

Our fundraising campaign is focused in continually developing Joeys potential into the future as a school that gives all its students the best tools and opportunities to succeed. Our annual giving programme aims to raise €100,000 per annum to support student scholarships, technology, extra curricular activities, marketing and communication activities.

The ASK

Immediate support - we are reaching out to high net worth past pupils, social enterprises and business partners to contribute generously to this noble initiative.

Annual giving - we are inviting you to invest in creating a lasting legacy by giving annually, within your means, to support Joeys and our students.

GOLD DONORS - Class rooms will be named in their honour.
High Net Worth individuals, Families and Class Years

€5,000 per annum PLUS 40% TAX rebate

BLUE DONORS
Active and Retired Senior Managers

€1,000 annually plus 40% TAX rebate

GREEN DONORS

Everyone else

€250 annually plus 40% TAX rebate

Here is our full presentation to support our ASK.

Now, more than ever, education is an increasingly competitive space. School funding is directly related to the number of students your school attracts. The challenge for Joeys is acute; it is located in a changing demographical area with a high density of competing schools on its door step.

To attract students schools must deliver services, for example, excellent curriculum delivery, generally reflected in results and the numbers going on to third level education and the provision of extra curricular activities that appeals to both parents and students.

For most schools funding comes from two sources, primarily state funding which is then supported by parental contributions that augments curriculum supports and the funding extra curricular activities.

The socioeconomic background of the current student enrollment would not be in a strong a position to contribute to school funding as much as many schools in the North Dublin region. However, they would hope for their sons to progress and achieve in school to a greater level of education/college than had often been attained within the family history.

To support the needs of its students Joeys became a DEIS school (Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools). DEIS is an initiative of the Department of Education and Skills launched in 2005 to address the educational needs of children and young people from disadvantaged communities. It is important to note that the feedback from all students is that they clearly benefit as part of the inclusive educational environment that the DEIS programme provides. It is a credit to the school that its is recognised as an exceptional DEIS school.

Furthermore there is a funding inequality between state-controlled and voluntary schools (such as those like Joeys, under the patronage of ERST) who, on average, receive 30% less funding. (The 30% shortfall is as a result of the Brothers historically providing 30% of the teaching staff.) Consequently, the school has had to rely heavily on the additional teacher funding supports received as a DEIS school. These funds are based on student numbers and as a result Joeys supports more Special Educational Needs (SEN) students then the national average. It is worth noting, however, that all students and parents have expressed a positive impact as a result of having an inclusive mix of students in the school and classrooms.

The current Joeys Alumni committee realised and confronted proactively the predicament the school was facing in 2017. They have developed and supported the school’s teachers and management team in developing Joeys for the future.

Our goal over the coming years is to redress this balance in line with the national average without compromising our expertise in this area.

We will achieve this by providing services that have wider appeal thus expanding our catchment area and broadening our demographic appeal.

To appeal to this audience Joeys has to

1. Deliver an excellent curriculum for students,

2. Update its tired infrastructure,

3. Provide attractive, best in class, extra curricular facilities and opportunities.

Curriculum

A past pupil visionary, Brendan McGrath, had seen an initiative in New York lead by IBM which was ideally suited to our students. Together with the school management team, the Department of Education and Skills and IBM they set up a pilot scheme with two other schools and launched P-TECH in Ireland.

Joeys now leads the way as the first P-TECH school in Europe.

P-TECH has its own curriculum that runs along side the state curriculum. It is designed to provide pupils with the skills for the digital economy in areas such as robotics and programming. The course is linked to blue chip industry partners like IBM and Cisco who provide six year one-on-one mentoring and paid internships to all students.

Along with ongoing work by our fantastic school teaching team constantly improving the delivery of the state curriculum, P-TECH provides Joeys with USP (Unique Selling Point) that sets it aside form the competition.

P-TECH uniquely gives students;

Direct access to world class companies with post secondary graduate opportunities with these companies.
Integration with teams within these companies to understand the process, production and delivery of world class products. Can you imagine having that experience and opportunity in our day?
Hands on experience in robotics and artificial intelligence - plus the opportunity to understand the fundamentals of coding.
1-on-1 mentorship, for the full 6 years, with key personnel within in the partner companies. This mentorship helps to build our students confidence, presentation and networking skills. This mentorship ensures that our students have the life tools at their disposal to compete with children from more privileged backgrounds who are exposed to this culture and mindset at home on a daily basis.
Finding relevant, purposeful internships is difficult for many children, however, internship placements are built into the P-TECH structure. These internships are paid positions giving our students exposure to responsibility and professionalism that is difficult for any student to find in an internship roll.
P-TECH graduates are awarded a National Fetac Qualification - a recognised qualification that will stand to students internationally.

As the first P-TECH school in Europe Joeys has the opportunity to leverage P-TECH's success to attract a broader demographic of student.

However, to succeed in our long-term strategy we are mindful that we must also raise the standard of our offering across the board. This is because P-TECH, currently being piloted in 3 schools and demonstrating its suitability in matching the needs of students, industry and the economy is likely to be rolled out to many other schools in the years to come.

Infrastructure

To bring our school into the 21st century and support the delivery of excellent academic and extra curricular activities, the 1880's building and the primary school need urgent comprehensive refurbishment. To apply for capital funding we must develop of a long term building strategy and architect's report which is currently in hand for submission to the department. These works should then be funded by the state. However, the urgent requirement for some of the facilities, such at the development of the outbuildings has forced us to dig deep and get on with the job immediately.

Work is currently underway, with the support of past pupil Alan Costello to upgrade school outbuildings to facilitate Covid and DEIS compliance.

Extra Curricular Activities

Extra curricular activity options are current being researched and discussed as part of our strategy development process which is actively underway. See below.

For the first time, both schools, primary and post primary, their management teams and Joeys Alumni have come together to develop an integrated medium and long term wholistic strategy.

Upon completion the strategy it will be shared and reviewed by all pillars of the Joeys community, past pupils, teachers, parents and students. Everyone will be part of the rejuvenation of Joeys.

This integrated approach has been motivated by a resurgent, enthusiastic, proactive Joeys Alumni. Last year the Alumni supported the school to the tune of nearly €150,000 which included laptops and charging carts for all our students.

Across our professionally managed digital landscape Joeys Alumni is connected to approximately 5,000 of the Joeys community including past pupils across 7 decades. Our mailing database has 1,700 active past pupil emails with whom we directly communicate via our digital newsletter at least 8 times a year. Our database management system allow us to target our communications to different year or decade groups which keeps our communications interesting and relevant.

With our new website and digital communication activity across all social platforms we are posting daily to over 2,000 connections.

As a result our annual dinner has grown to over 200 attendees

To see our full gallery of photos and reunion group pictures from the night click here and login to see and download them.

and our annual golf event is a highlight in our calendar year.

In 2019 we launched a new initiative our JOEYS CONNECT Business Breakfast which was hosted by past pupil and Executive Head Chef of Fire and Sole restaurants Richie Wilson. The event was a huge success which we look forward to resuming post Covid.

Read our full report with photos here

In order to support the development of the school state funding will need to be augmented. Joeys Alumni has started raising funds from past pupils addressing;

1. The immediate need for funds to bank roll the current infrastructure developments and the engagement of professional services to prepare a capital development plan for the Department of Education and Skills.

2. The ongoing augmented funding to make Joeys an outstanding school for all. Contibutions will support

Scholarships
Sensory Spaces
After School Support
Management and Communication Support
Extra Curricular Activities
Sport - such as Hurling, Football, Basketball and many more

Past pupils who are prominent at various levels in the worlds of business and public service are currently being approached to support the immediate bridging capital for infrastructure development and to also contribute to the Joeys Alumni annual giving initiative. One month into the funding campaign, we can report that contributions are most encouraging - so join with us to make Joeys and its pupils "the best they can be"!

We have segmented annual donations into three categories to suit everyone's circumstances. Each donation has the potential of adding a charitable TAX rebate which adds significantly to the originally donated sum.

Gold Donors will contribute €5,000 annually which, with a TAX rebate, will contribute a total of €7,250 to the Joeys Alumni fund.

Gold and Infrastructure Bridging donors will be awarded the right to name spaces and classrooms in their name. Some families have grouped together to avail of this opportunity and some class years are doing likewise.