Having spent many years as a primary school teacher, FionaForman is passionate about placing well-being at the heart of school life. For the past few years, promoting this has been her focus- through her books, media contributions, and training sessions. She holds an M. Sc. in Applied Positive Psychology, the science of well-being, from the University of East London.

Her programmes include Weaving Well-Being, a positive mental health programme for primary school children which is now in use in the majority of Irish Primary Schools, and also Wired for Well-Being, her programme for second-level students.

Her Junior programme, Welcome to Well-Being, has beenrecently released in Ireland and abroad.

https://www.instagram.com/

fionaformanwellbeing/

https://fionaformanwellbeing.com/books-and-programs/

[email protected]

Katrina Crilly is Principal & Founder -The Real Me Academy Educating children aged 4–18 to build confidence, emotional resilience & lifelong thinking habits through a digital-first, research-backed platform. She hold a Master’s in Collaborative Leadership and has contributed to severaleducational advisory committees, working closely with the Department of Education and the Education and Training Inspectorate in Northern Ireland. Her passion has always been to look beyond curriculum targets—to see the wholechild. She has developed the first curriculum-integrated subject embedding personal growth as part of what children learn every day in response to what she feels are inadequate wellbeing programmes.

https://therealmeacademy.com/

https://therealmeacademy.com/contact-us/

https://uk.linkedin.com/in/katrina-crilly-34270560

Dr. Clara is a Chartered Psychologist with the Psychology Society of Ireland, (PSI) and the British Psychology Society, (BPS)Dr. Clara has over 25 years of experience of working in disability and special education settings. Past experiences include work in residential settings for adults with IntellectualDisability, Special schools and alternative education provision settings for ‘at risk’ youths. Additionally, Dr. Clara was an NCSE advisor, (Behavior and Well-being) for over 5 years. Her personal experiences navigating her way through neurodivergence, physical disability, chronic illness and additional educational needs, deepened her understanding of how complex and frustrating this new world can seem to parents. Her services include parent support consults, Teen coaching for confidence, anxiety, neurodivergence, Post diagnosis support for Autistic teens and adults, ADHD Parent Coaching, Supporting Neurodiverse families, Promoting Well-being and Mental Fitness and Coaching for Health & Well-being.

Link to the book she has contributed to:

https://www.otb.ie/shop/speech-language-therapists/books-manuals-slt/it-takes-all-kinds-of-minds/

Link to her website:

https://claraobyrne.ie/

Coran Swayne is an administrative Deputy Principal in East Cork Community Special School and a lecturer in Educational Leadership and Coaching in Education at University College Cork. He is currently completing a PhD on coaching cultures in primary schools, exploring how leadership, teachers, and policy shape this work across Ireland, England, and Michigan. His article, “Cultivating Coaching Cultures in Schools: Insights from School Leaders” has been recently published in the International Journal of Mentoring and Coaching in Education (IJMCE)

Link to article: 'Cultivating coaching cultures in schools: insights from school leaders'Coran Swayne and Joseph MoynihanSchool of Education, University College Cork, Cork, Irelandhttps://www.emerald.com/ijmce/article-pdf/doi/10.1108/IJMCE-01-2025-0008/10764836/ijmce-01-2025-0008en.pdf

Link to Summer course Coran offers:

https://summercpd.ie/courses/coaching-conversations/

Joseph A. Moynihan, PhD is currently Director of both the Educational Leadership and the new Coaching in Education Post Graduate programmes, UCC. He is a lecturer in Education in the School of Education at University College Cork, Ireland. He is a lecturer in Initial Teacher Education on the Professional Master of Education (PME) programme and delivers modules on the Masters in Education (M.Ed.) modular programme where he has developed a series of new Educational Leadership modules to meet the significant demand for study in this area at UCC. Joseph supervises research students at Masters and PhD level. He brings us through his own leadership journey and his passion for moving forward is inspirational. Below is a link to his new course of which is is Director.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/joseph-moynihan-phd-77015750/?originalSubdomain=ie

https://www.ucc.ie/en/ace-pdce/

MESO is an AI-powered educational platform currently being developed with Trinity College Dublin and Enterprise Ireland. The mission of its co-founders Chris Byrne and Brighid Hennessy is to transform education by creating tools that empower teachers and educational institutions while maintaining rigorous standards and curriculum alignment. It combines AI with curriculum requirements and planning templates to help teachers plan efficiently both long and short term. It also enables the creation of assessments based on the content you’ve been covering over a period of time.

Website ( platform still under construction)

https://mesolab.ai/

Contact the founders:

Chris Byrne

https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-byrne-7799041a2/?originalSubdomain=ie

[email protected]

Brighid Hennessy

https://www.linkedin.com/in/brigh%C3%ADd-hennessy-124a6728b/

[email protected]

Marie Sheehan has been Deputy Principal of Coláiste an Chroí Naofa, Carraig na bhFear in Cork for 8 years and is currently on career break. She is an accredited coach with the European Mentoring and Coaching Council and is the ownerand founder of Clochán Coaching & Education Consultancy. Marie works with teams and individuals in the area of supporting teachers and school leaders to develop their sense of agency and their capacity to lead well. She talks about her own decision to take a career break, what people need to consider and the value of coaching to provide the tools and space to act with confidence and direction.

http://www.mariesheehan.ie/

@clochan_coaching

Colette Crowley has just attained a principal position for September in Carriganima National School in Cork. She had been a Deputy Principal for four years and loved the school but really had a desire to progress in her career. She talks about her cancer diagnosis in college and her awareness of both grabbing and creating every opportunity that you want as life is short. Her story is inspiring.

Angela Cummins is known to me from her Instagram account SpecialedteacherIreland. She is a special education teacher based in Dublin for over 20 years. She discusses her own challenges in school, how she became the first in her family to go to college once she secured a loan for herself while simultaneously holding down multiple jobs, what getting an adult diagnosis of dyslexia was like and finally, she kindly shares her wisdom around opening an autism class.

https://angelacummins.ie/

https://www.instagram.com/angela_cummins2025?igsh=cmJ5bzhwcGo1eTFl

In this podcast, I compare notes with Emmet Ryan from St. Peter's Community School, Cork about how and why we set up a school podcast in our respective schools. We hope to inspire you to do the same! Below are links to our school website and links to our school podcasts.

Emmet's school podcast:

https://www.stpeters.ie/

https://audio.com/st-peters-english/audio/zoom0016-lr-wedeve-1

Emmet's email for advice:

[email protected]

Ann's school podcast :

https://www.scoilchriostriportlaoise.ie/

https://www.scoilchriostriportlaoise.ie/page/Transition-Year/48489/Index.html

How to set up podcast and sign up to Spotify for podcasters

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlLX2uwojfM