IPPN

Maria Doyle

Maria has the distinction of being part of the first group of students who graduated from Mary Immaculate College with a B.Ed Degree - the original guinea pigs! Maria’s teaching career began in the infant room at the Mercy Primary School and in 1995, she became the first lay principal of the Mercy Senior Primary School. 

Our Lady of Mercy School is a Catholic, DEIS 2 School serving an inner city community with diversity of faiths and nationalities, catering for approx. 620 girls. Maria is presently a member of the IPPN Executive and served as a National Committee Rep. for Waterford prior to that.  She currently chairs the local Principal’s Network. 

Maria has presented at Misneach & Forbairt on behalf of IPPN and facilitated training for Boards of Management on behalf of CPSMA. In recent months, Maria has represented IPPN on a focus group with the DES along with education partners from both primary and second level reviewing the Child Protection Guidelines.

Maria loves her job despite the many significant challenges presented on a 24/7 basis. She has never regretted accepting the post in 1995 - when life appeared simpler! She avidly follows Waterford hurling and remains very optimistic that an All Ireland Title will come the way of the DEISE in the near future.

Gretta O'Shea
Gretta is currently seconded to PDST (Professional Development  Service for Teachers) and works with Leadership and Planning and is involved with co-ordinating and delivering both the Misneach Programme for Newly appointed Principals and the Forbairt Programme for Principals and Deputy Principals.  From 2006 Gretta was seconded to LDS (Leadership Development for Schools) as an Assistant National Co-ordinator. She co-ordinated and developed the Tánaiste Programme for Deputy Principals which was the first programme of professional development designed specifically for deputy principals and now runs as a Summer Programme. An evaluation of the Programme formed the basis of her Master’s thesis in 2009 in TCD. She was Deputy Principal in Our Lady of Consolation NS, Donnycarney from 2000 to 2006. She has particular interest in the area of Human relations and emotional intelligence.

Fiona King

Fiona is a resource/learning support teacher in Fahy N.S. Co. Mayo.  She works with the INTO Professional Development Unit as a course designer, tutor and facilitator for summer courses and online courses on special education and on effective teaching for effective learning. 
Fiona has an M.A. in Special Educational Needs and is currently undertaking her doctorate in ‘Developing and Sustaining Teachers Professional Learning: A Case Study of Collaborative Professional Development”.  She is author of the publications: Special Education in Irish Classrooms: A Practical Guide and journal articles: ‘Co-teaching: Why and How?’; ‘Action Research: A tool for educational change and school development’ and co-author of ‘Peer Tutoring: an Inclusive Approach to supporting Reading: Case study in five disadvantaged schools’ all published in ‘Learn’. She has an article recently accepted by the journal ‘Management in Education’ (Sage Publications) titled ‘The Role of Leadership in Developing and Sustaining Teachers’ Learning’ due for publication later this year.   

Karen Belshaw

Karen Belshaw holds an honours degree in Psychology, and a postgraduate certificate of stress management training from the Stress Institute of Ireland. She is a member of the Psychological Society of Ireland (PSI) and the British Psychological Society (BPS) and bound by the code of ethics of PSI. Karen is fully qualified and insured to teach Stress Management Techniques.  Karen is founder and director of Stress Management Ireland, (established 1998) a company which specialises in stress management workshops, corporate and individual, teaching relaxation techniques and cognitive control.

Over the past ten years, Karen has worked with many different organisations in both public and private sector, including VHI Healthcare – VHI Corporate Solutions (nationwide), The Irish Management Institute (IMI), Microsoft and Hewlett Packard.
Visit the website www.stresstraining.ie

Gary Ó Donnchadha
Gary Ó Donnchadha is Deputy Chief Inspector in the Department of Education and Skills. His responsibilities include overseeing the development and implementation of the Inspectorate’s annual inspection programme and supporting the Inspectorate’s advisory and policy work. Gary has been with the Inspectorate since 1998. In recent years he has managed the Inspectorate’s Evaluation Support and Research Unit which has developed revised inspection processes for Whole-School Evaluation (WSE) at both primary and post-primary levels.

A graduate of Mary Immaculate College of Education, his academic record includes two masters degrees in education and a higher diploma in education. In 2005 he graduated with an MBA from UCC. Before joining the Inspectorate Gary taught in Scoil Eoin, Ballincollig, Co. Cork, and worked as an education officer with the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA).