Remedial teachers will gather this Friday in Portlaoise, Co Laois, to learn how to set up their own department in a school. The seminar will look at the policy and practice of developing an effective support structure for learning.

Eugene Toolan, course co-ordinator of the graduate diploma in remedial education at St Angela's College of Education, Sligo, will address the seminar, looking at areas which remedial teachers deal with everyday, such as setting up a remedial department within a school, organising tests, liaising with teachers and parents and using classroom materials. The seminar will be of particular relevance to newly appointed teachers, says David McKeon, chairman of the Irish Learning Support Association (ILSA), which is organising the one-day event. The ILSA has 800 members, most of them remedial teachers at both primary and second level. Venue of the seminar is the Killeshin Hotel, Portlaoise. Registration is at 9.30 a.m. About 150 are expected.