TY Update May 2017 | Page 24

SECOND - MAKING Irish Second-level Students Union Honorary President, Jane Hayes Nally, reflects on a year of proactive involvement in pressing issues facing the students of Ireland. Pictured left; Second-level students at the #EducationIs march for publicly-funded education. The Irish Second-Level Students’ Union has had a pretty wild year, culminating in our Annual Assembly recently in the first week of April. While the school year might be coming to a close, our work certainly isn’t, and we’ll be working throughout exam time and the summer holidays to provide services, represent and finally, plan for all of our activities for the coming 2017-18 academic year. ! We met a lot of (second level students) at the TY Expo and Zeminar, and at our Regional Councils throughout the first term of school. Due to recently made changes in our constitution, we’ll be hosting 11 regional councils next year, more than ever before, ensuring we are accessible for all students and can engage with all of our student councils. ! We undertook research projects in our “ISSU’s Tools for Inclusive Schools”, “EMPOWER” – forming a Youth Mental Health Strategy, “I Mo Thuairim” and our ISSU Drug Education Seminar events. We launched the ISSU Students’ Charter for Inclusive Schools with the help of other youth organisations and the Minister of State for Equality, Immigration and Integration David Stanton, whilst reports for our Youth Mental Health Strategy and “I Mo Thuairim” (Education through T Y UPDATE MAY 2017 Irish conference) events are forthcoming. We hosted our Drug Education Seminar in the Mansion House in Dublin and are working alongside politicians and policy makers to ensure an adequate drug education will be provided for students in second-level. ! We worked to represent students during the ongoing teacher strikes, appearing on national newspapers and radio, and speaking on national television. We are watching closely to see how this develops in the coming months – we will not stop to defend the rights of our members. ! The fight for publicly funded