IPPN

Published: 21 March 2011

One wish for New Minister for Education & Skills
We would like to congratulate Mr Ruairí Quinn TD on his appointment as our new Minister for Education and Skills.  Minister Quinn has attended our last three annual Principals’ Conferences and has demonstrated a keen willingness to learn first-hand the important issues and challenges that Principals face.  School leaders have faced many challenges in 2011; if you had one wish for the new minister, what would it be? Please email your one wish to president@ippn.ie.

Television Documentary – How to create the best education system
An independent film production company is looking for two schools to take part in a new television documentary on Irish primary education today.  At the core of the documentary, we want to show teachers and pupils and day-to-day life in an ordinary classroom.  We want to ask those involved in the day-to-day life of education in Ireland to tell us what is needed to create the best possible education for our children. Children who are entering the education system now will be leaving in 2030. The world will be a very different place then. This documentary will involve contributions from parents, teachers, pupils, academics, the Department of Education, and all relevant bodies.  If you are interested in this please send an email expressing an interest to support4@ippn.ie

Evaluation of the Special Education Support Service
The Teacher Education section of the DES has requested us to highlight the importance of a survey being issued to 1000 primary and post-primary schools on the Special Education Support Service (SESS). The survey will be sent to principals for completion and for distribution to three others within the school.
The SESS was established in 2003 in response to the policy of including students with Special Educational Needs (SEN) in an environment which most suits their needs. The aims of the SESS are to:
• Enhance the quality of teaching and learning in relation to the education of students with SEN;
• Design and deliver a range of professional development initiatives and supports for school personnel; and
• Consolidate and co-ordinate existing professional development.
The SESS are one of the few groups to escape serious cuts this year. If you have availed of this service please take the time to complete the survey.

NEWB
The NEWB has been given the task of designing a unified child-centred support service for children and young people with regard to their participation, attendance and retention in education. This new support service will encompass the School Completion Programme (SCP), the Home School Community Liaison scheme (HSCL) and the work of the Education Welfare Officers (EWO). The new unified service will aim to support children and young people, families and schools to achieve the best possible educational outcomes for each child and young person. The idea behind this is laudable, assuming it is not just a cost saving exercise. The central idea is to have ‘One child, One team, One Plan’. We would all agree that, be it the parents or the school, only having to deal with one service rather than a multitude of services would be progress. There will be ongoing consultations, research and pilot projects over the coming year and the new service should be fully functional by 2012.

IPPN would like to congratulate Clare Ryan who from May 1st will head up this proposed new service. Clare has presented at four of our IPPN Conferences and would be well known to many principals from her previous work with LDS.

Beannachtaí na Féile Padraig oraibh go léir is go mba fada buan sibh.

Le gach deá ghuí,

Seán Cottrell & Pat Goff