IPPN

Published: 02 April 2012

IPPN has sought and received clarification from the Teacher Allocation Section of the DES in relation to Principals’ queries about Circular 07/2012.

It has been made absolutely clear that under no circumstances will GAM/EAL hours and Resource Hours, (SENO) be allowed to be combined.

IPPN has been notified by the Teacher Allocation Section that the following reminder will appear today on OLCS:

'Primary schools are reminded of the deadline date of 16th March for clustering GAM hours and also for returning redeployment forms for surplus permanent teachers.  Schools are required to comply with these arrangements without individual notification from the Department. Individual letters will be issued to DEIS Urban schools and the 73 small primary schools losing a classroom post in Sept 2012'.

The following queries have been answered by the DES as follows:

Q 1: Will the Department be writing to my school in relation to its staffing for 2012/13 school year?
Ans: Circular 0007/12 is the Department notification to schools regarding their staffing levels for 2012/13 school year. Schools are required to comply with the arrangements in the Circular without individual notification from the Department. Individual letters will be issued to DEIS Urban schools. Individual letters will also be issued to the 73 small primary schools losing a classroom post in Sept 2012 as a result of the budget measure.

Q 2: What must schools have done by 16 March 2012?
Ans: Schools are required to have the following done by 16th March 2012:

· Clustering of GAM/EAL hours into full-time posts and Department notified accordingly by the base school

· Return a redeployment form to the Department for any surplus permanent teacher in their school

· Notify their relevant panel operator of all of their permanent and fixed-term vacancies

Q 3: A Principal has 20 GAM/EAL hours and has contacted 19 schools over a very wide area to get the 5 hours with a view to establishing a full post with no success. What are her options?
Ans: If a School Principal is unable to get a 5 hour partner school for their 20 hours, then an alternative option to consider is splitting the 20 hours as follows:

• Use 15 hours to try and partner with a neighbouring school that has 10 hours
• Use the balance of 5 hours to try and partner with a neighbouring school that has 20 hours.
• Provided the clustering arrangements are done by 16th March, then the local arrangements outlined in the circular can be operated at a later stage to improve the efficiency of the above cluster arrangements
• If clustering of the GAM hours into a full-time post is not done, then the redeployment panel form must be returned to the Dept before 16 March.

Q 4: IPPN has been contacted by many 4 teacher schools with 20 GAM/EAL hours that cannot find another school to give them the 5 hours they need to form a full post. What are their options?
Ans: Same answer as Query No.3 above

Q 5: My school is mostly an all-girls school but has a small percentage of boys in it. How was the GAM/EAL allocation for my school calculated?
A: Under the original GAM/EAL arrangements at least 30% of the enrolments had to be boys for a school to be regarded as a mixed school.  Under the new arrangements this threshold is reduced to 25% based on the enrolment figures of September 2010. The Department will be keeping the classification of these schools under regular review. It is intended that this will be done on the basis of enrolment trends rather than changes in the mix of enrolments arising in an individual year.

Q 6.  A developing school with 15 hours now will have 4 mainstream class teachers in September next. Will they be allowed to increase their GAM/EAL allocation in September 2012 from 15 to 20 hours?
Ans: On page 7 of the Circular, we state that GAM allocation will be based on the number of classroom posts in the 2012/13 school year for those schools that are approved for 2 or more developing posts.  In all other cases it will be based on the number of classroom posts in the 2011/12 school year.   The school referred to in your query will not therefore have any change made to their GAM allocation for the 2012/13 school year.

Q 7: A school where a part-time teacher has built up a CID for part-time hours is now the base school for a resource post and must make an appointment.  Does the permanent post have to be offered to the teacher with the CID (part-time hours) or should the teacher be appointed from the panel?
Ans: As per the FAQ section of the Circular such queries will be dealt with on a case by case basis and the relevant schools should contact the Department via e-mail for advice.    

**NOTE: Direct queries to the Teacher Allocation Section of the DES should be sent to primaryallocations@education.gov.ie">primaryallocations@education.gov.ie

Thank you for your patience while we sought clarification from the DES. The purpose of this e-scéal is to support you in adapting to the new system as set out by Circular 07/2012. We hope it will help you to bring about the best possible staffing solution for your school in these challenging circumstances.

Is sinne le meas

Pat Goff                       Larry Fleming              Virginia O’Mahony
Past President             PRO                           Assistant Director