CV

Fionnuala Kilfeather

Current job: CEO National Parents' Council (Primary)

What school did you attend? Pembroke School - otherwise known as Miss Meredith's.

Had you any famous classmates? Macdara Woods, poet, and Brenda Costigan, cookery expert.

Hidden talents at school? Rock and roll.

Best subject? Geography

Worst subject? Latin

Most inspirational teacher and why? Miss Meredith - herself a Cambridge graduate who had converted to Catholicism and who provided, for its time, a liberal education. She was a very forward-looking feminist - although she wouldn't have known the word -with high expectations for her girls.

Did you go to college? If so, where? UCD school of architecture.

What's the best aspect of the Irish education system? The new primary curriculum and the in-service for teachers to help them with it and new styles of teaching.

The worst aspect? Points, points, points and what it does to real learning.

What song most reminds you of your school days? "Lost in wonderous constipation" - My mother heard my class, when we were five years old, singing this hymn with great devotion. (Contemplation was the real word.)