IPPN

Published: 10 January 2024

At the start of the new calendar year, it is timely that all school Boards of Management and School Staff consult on a review or the development of a new Leave Policy in preparation for 2024 applications.

This highly important school policy is governed by the regulations and procedures set out in circular 0054/2019, which covers all types of leave available to teaching staff with approved contracts. Employers - or Boards of Management - are charged with implementing the said regulations and procedures and, along with teachers, must agree to the terms and conditions as stated within the circular.

Many types of leave are covered within the policy, including Sick Leave, Maternity Leave, Adoptive Leave, Paternity Leave, Parental Leave, Carers’ Leave, Career-Break, Job-Sharing and the Temporary Re-Assignment Scheme.

Each Board of Management must develop and maintain a policy on teacher leave. The welfare and education of the pupils must take precedence over all other considerations.

Due regard must be given by the school Board to the capacity of the school to meet its obligations to its pupils. Therefore, it may apply a limit to the number of teaching staff that may avail of leave - career-break and job-sharing in particular - at any one time. This must be considered in the context of the availability of qualified teachers as a teacher supply crisis continues.

Important dates:

1. Applications by Feb 1st
2. Board written decision no later than March 1st
3. Applications can be withdrawn by April 14th.

A Board decision is final. A refusal decision must include grounds for refusal.

Published: 10 January 2024

The value of the staff meeting at the start of each school term cannot be underestimated.

This opportunity to remind all staff of the very important daily practises that keep the school running smoothly and safely is paramount in keeping everybody on track and perhaps can help to avoid having individual conversations of a challenging nature regarding issues around professionalism and possible underperformance. The fact that the staff meeting is minuted is also a clear reminder of what has been discussed, proposed, and agreed.

This termly staff meeting agenda can be structured and divided as follows to deliver specific messages:

• Messages for all staff (teachers, SNAs and Ancillary)
• Messages for some (teachers, SNAs)
• Messages for a few

A guide to the items on the staff meeting agenda at the start of each new term might include Child Protection, Duty of Care, Priorities in relation to the school’s PIEW and Timekeeping & Supervision, to name just a few. Some items that need follow-up or reminding to staff can be put on the agendas for subsequent terms.

“If you talk about it, it’s a dream. If you envision it, it’s possible, but if you schedule it, it’s real.” - Tony Robbins

Published: 13 December 2023

We have held a series of consultation engagements in August, September and early October with Management bodies, staff representation and with Principals and Deputy Principals on the SET model. The purpose of this was to establish the key themes and issues that we need to examine as part of a revised SET model / process.

The key themes that arose from these consultations in relation to the SET Model were as follows:

1. Clarity and Transparency around the model calculations and inputs
2. Frequency of re-profiling
3. New and rapidly growing schools
4. Emerging needs and transitions
5. Education and training on the use of SET
6. Future Inputs – school data, CAT 4, AIM 
7. Self-Declaration
8. Ancillary Processes
   • SENO engagement
   • Appropriate and time bound review Process by NCSE

Following this very welcome and useful input from our education partners we are looking at how best to address the items raised to improve the process for our schools. It will be important that we set out a roadmap of future enhancements and developments to the model to best meet the needs of schools and children. We want to discuss this again with our partners in December or early January when we have a firmer draft process outlined so that we can get the best model possible going forward and we will be in touch shortly with IPPN and others over the coming days.

Published: 29 November 2023

On foot of a NCSE event during the week of 6th November, it was agreed that the partners would receive a briefing on the progress of the pilot. The following is an overview of the information shared at that briefing.

Because of the difficulties with the CAMHS service, the lack of access to mental health services especially for primary school children, the increasing levels of anxiety reported among children and recommendations of JOC, the pilot was approved in two phases. NEPS met with their NI counterparts as well as teams in Dorset and West Sussex where similar pilots are operating.

A good national and regional spread across geographical locations with the longest waiting lists was the determining factor in selecting schools for the pilot. NEPS engaged with the three main accrediting bodies for counselling in Ireland to set up the rolling application process.

Progress on Strand 1 has been slow. However, 32 counsellors have now been cleared and are ready for the panel. 41% of schools have now been allocated blocks of counselling, initially to larger schools, followed by the smaller schools, once more counsellors become available. Large schools got a letter to this effect in the week beginning 6th November, with smaller schools receiving a holding letter. Once the letter is received, NEPS will work with the school to identify needs and pupils following the continuum of support. NEPS will also identify who needs onward referral and/or additional supports.

Schools are asked to identify a link person to be the point of contact with the counsellor (principal or teacher acting on behalf of the principal). The link person will liaise with the counsellor to decide dates, times and arrangements, link with parents and the provide counsellor with school’s CP policy. The child will have access to 6 sessions. An initial and final session will be provided to the parents and school staff.

Guidelines for Schools have been issued during the week beginning 13th November and a dedicated website also went live.

Strand 2 in Cork, Dublin 7/16 and Carlow has 78 schools. Teams will consist of 4 Educational Wellbeing and Mental Health Practioners with 1 NEPS psychologist. The approach will be to set up prevention measures, CBT interventions and psychological education supports for parents and teachers. 5 NEPS psychologists are developing a training programme for the teams and will provide oversight and supervision.

There were 63 applicants for the practioner posts with 16 appointed. These were Educational Psychologists and Social Science Graduates. NEPS hope that this will increase as the pilot develops. There is huge interest in Strand 2. Cork ETB are administering the process, beginning on 27th November, with lead people undergoing training sessions.

The priority was to get Strand 1 up and running. Once more information becomes available and as the pilot develops, NEPS have said that they will provide briefing sessions for the partners. The news that the pilot has been funded for a further year is welcome.

NEPS is in the process also of developing a tender for the evaluation of the project.