Education

Oberstown is a community with an emphasis on learning for all young people being detained. We have two educational centres on our campus that cater for our young people, each of whom is presented with opportunities to engage in a myriad of learning choices during their placement.

Learning opportunities take three main forms, comprising (a) Structured, such as school, (b) Specialised, such as risk reduction programmes and (c) Informal, such as daily life in the residential unit.

We take a partnership approach to education where our purpose-built school, which is run by the Dublin and Dun Laoghaire Education and Training Board (DDLETB), works in collaboration with our Care community and others outside our Campus.

All young people attend school while they are detained at Oberstown. We regard the provision of education and access to appropriate training programmes as being a core element of each person’s journey through Care and is at the heart of everything we do. During our intake process, we assess each young person in relation to their specific educational requirements and we put an individual plan in place to address those needs. At our purpose-built school, all young people have access to subjects that are part of the national curriculum. All teachers are professional, qualified and experienced and encourage each young person to complete state exams and continue vocational training. We also measure educational outcomes in a number of ways including looking at improvements in literacy and numeracy, to participation in state examinations, again with the ultimate objective of equipping them for their successful return to the community.