2019 was a busy year for all of us – it was a year of full of meetings, planning, learning and meeting new people!
For us, it was our second year running our online CPD summer courses, which we expanded to meet the growing demand. It was, no doubt, a challenging year too – full of ups, downs and what we like to call learning curves!
We would like to re-cap on some of our highlights of 2019 – five and a half to be exact! Enjoy!
We won an ALL-STAR!
At the start of 2019, the All Ireland Business Foundation awarded Rahoo with All-Star accreditation in recognition of the company’s outstanding contribution to the development of standards in teaching.
This was HUGE for us – not only did we get to go on a trip to the big smoke, have a swanky lunch in Croke Park and have photographs taken with Government ministers – but we got the title of All-Star too!
In all seriousness, after our first year in operation, we applied for assessment from the team at the All-Ireland Business Foundation. We had a successful first year and felt we had offered strong support for the teachers who worked with us and we wanted to test this theory. The foundation got in touch with teachers who worked with us and did a few sneaky assessments like secret shopper… and we passed… with flying colours!
Delighted!
We met The Rahoolies!
In January 2019 we put out the call to create Ireland’s next biggest pop band… Only joking… Professional Tutor Team. We were looking for enthusiastic and committed teachers to work with us on our Summer Courses. From having a small team of 3 to expanding to a team of 16, this was no easy feat!
Following the recruitment drive, we whittled it down to the dream team, affectionately known as “The Rahoolies”. A fantastic bunch from all walks of life across the profession with one thing in common – a drive to support and empower teachers!
Learn more about the Rahoolies here.
Rahoo Team Leader won Ireland’s Best Young Entrepreneur Start-Up Award
This was personal!
A bit of context: IBYE is a business pitching competition where you must pitch (Dragon Den’s style) to a team of judges and submit a robust business plan.
Team Leader Ciara won Clare IBYE Best New Idea in 2017 with her vision for Rahoo, which didn’t even exist at that point! Rahoo got started and got a huge boost from winning that first award. The funding made a huge difference for a teacher with zero business experience setting up her own business!
To come back in 2019 and win the next category of the awards at county level was wonderful. The funding allowed Rahoo to further develop it’s offering!
Oh and we got more pictures with Government ministers!
Woohoo!
DES Inspection
Don’t call us crazy… but yes, our DES inspection of our EPV Summer Courses was a highlight for us in 2019.
We believe that it is important to see these challenges as opportunities to learn and improve. That said, when the email came in initially we all had mini-heart attacks! We recovered quickly and got to work on showcasing our work to the inspector and making their job as easy as possible.
The experience was overwhelmingly positive and we received excellent feedback – as well as a few recommendations for tweaks in 2020.
Learn more about Rahoo CPD Summer Courses here.
A bit of a strange one but hey ho…
We would strongly encourage teachers to create professional accounts or use their personal accounts to follow other teachers on Instagram. We have found the experience to be overwhelmingly positive with teachers actively collaborating and supporting each other.
Unfortunately, teachers can often get a bad rep for promoting a moan culture – you won’t find that on Instagram. That’s not to say we don’t have plenty to moan about but the focus on the platform seems to be more constructive and positive than others!
Check out Rahoo’s Instagram page here.
Shh.. Can’t Tell Yet!
Our half from 5 and a half highlights of 2019 is a work in progress. We are embarking on an exciting partnership for a project in 2020 and all will be revealed soon. Watch this space!
