IPPN

E-Scéal 96: Advertising Notice Board to Help Form SEN Clusters

Published: 20 June 2005

If you are planning to form an SEN cluster with other schools in order to creating a full time temporary post using General Allocation, Low Incidence or Transitional hours, you may find it useful to place details of your own schools needs on www.educationposts.ie/primary/employer

Many Principals still report difficulty in identifying schools that have part time SEN hours. The SEN Cluster Notice Board, is new facility on www.educationposts.ie offering the opportunity to:

Upload details of your own school's SEN hours as well as
View the SEN hours other schools have on offer.

Hopefully the service will assist with the formation of SEN Clusters.

Is mise le meas,

Seán Cottrell
Director

E-Scéal 95: 10 Self Care Commandments for Principals

Published: 16 June 2005

10 Self-Care Commandments for Principals:

Before the end of term, arrange a meeting with your BoM Chairperson and Deputy Principal to make a collective list of the main outstanding tasks for the months ahead.
Collectively prioritise key tasks and decide which items can wait until September.Just because the school has been given a deadline, plan your response based on what you consider to be a reasonable time frame.
Examine each of the prioritised tasks and decide who should take responsibility for them.
Delegate as much as possible to individual BoM members and the In-School Management team.
Where certain key functions such as recruitment must be scheduled, make a plan for July and August which facilitates the Chairperson, a Deputy Chairperson, Principal and Deputy Principal, to provide cover for each other whilst also being able to plan a family holiday etc.
Arrange that the school secretary handles all mail during the holiday period. If you do not have a school secretary, delegate it as a task to some member of the ISM or BoM.
Organise a telephone answering machine.The voice message should advise parents why the telephone is not answered, where books and uniforms can be purchased, the date of school re-opening, how to apply for late enrolments etc.
Delegate the responsibility to manage keys and alarm codes for summer camps, maintenance work, staff access and other unplanned events, e.g. burglary, vandalism etc.
Take a complete break from school by organising a holiday which physically prevents you from being available
Remember that although you are the principal you are not indispensable. Turn off your mobile phone and take a decent holiday.

Since last September you have given considerable time and energy to the pastoral care of the children and staff in your school. Constantly giving of yourself is a major drain on you personally and your emotional well-being. It is an undeniable fact that in fulfilling a role where one is frequently supporting, caring and 'looking after' others, such a role is unsustainable on a long term basis, if one does not ' look after' oneself. It is probably true to say that you will be of little use to those whom you are leading and caring for, if in the course of your work, you neglect to care for yourself. Regrettably, it is so often true that principals put themselves last in the long line of people's needs.

The end of the school year for most people, involves looking forward to the enjoyment of a summer break. On the other hand, principals juggle with a multiplicity of deadlines and pressure points which one would normally associate with something traumatic like moving house. Why is the end of an academic year so stressful for principals? Is it absolutely essential that most aspects of school business are 'wedged' into a common deadline? Is there any other line of business that would arrange staff recruitment, stocktaking, financial year end, refurbishment, annual maintenance, professional reporting and administrative deadlines, all to happen at more or less the same time - when everyone is on official holidays and communication with key contacts is often impossible? Needless to say, you as principal, cannot walk away from school on June 30th, if you have any intentions of the school being ready to reopen on September 1st.

Factors beyond your control relating to SEN staffing, disadvantage resources, NEWB reporting, Summer Work Scheme, a building programme, and the recruitment of temporary and permanent staff, could easily wipe out any hope of a summer holiday, if one were not careful. Is it your fault that others didn't complete their planning on time? Will the world stop revolving if you don't meet unreasonable deadlines set for the convenience of others? The main risk arises from the frenetic pace of school life in the last fortnight of June. You as Principal are constantly responding to everyone else's needs based on their desire for 'closure' by June 30th. In order to effectively address these needs, you feel forced to give every minute of your time to the ever growing queue of requests, consequently postponing many of your own priorities which inevitably back-up and remain on your list until July 1st. That's when you get the mixed feelings of relief, because the external pressure has been released, followed quickly by the feeling of exasperation in knowing that you have so much to do and you are more or less alone in both knowing what needs doing and getting it done.

Alternatively, you may decide to be proactive and strategically plan the impending workload arising from the management needs of the school. This approach is the only alternative to that workload occupying your time and your mind throughout the summer. In early June, a Kildare based principal faxed the IPPN Support Office with her '10 Self-Care Commandments for Principals'. On reading these, it is likely that you will probably feel - 'I could never do that in this school!' Why not? There is a first time for everything. Unless you can assert your right to distribute leadership and delegate management responsibilities, you are consigned to perpetual martyrdom 365 days a year.
Bíodh samhradh iontach agat.

E-Scéal 94: Standardised Student Transfer Form / End of Year Report Card

Published: 13 June 2005

Every year Principals and teachers of senior classes witness a wide variety of practice in relation to pupils transferring from Primary to Second Level. IPPN & NAPD (Second Level Principals) have developed a standardised student transfer form. This form is being piloted by Primary & Second Level Schools in Counties Kildare, Wicklow, Carlow & Laois.

Meanwhile, in response to numerous requests fro copies of this form we have decided to make it available electronically for any school wishing to use same. The form, while self explanatory, is accompanied by notes detailing the rationale behind different elements of information required. It is important to note that the Student Transfer Form can be used to transfer children from one Primary Level to School to another Primary School as well as transferring to Second Level. This form is also designed to act as an end of year report to parents i.e. there is no duplication of effort and it raises the professional standard of communication and reporting to both parents and other schools. To download the Student Transfer Form, please click on the Student Transfer Form below.

Is mise le meas,

Seán Cottrell
Director

E-Scéal 93: LDS Vacancy Advert

Published: 07 June 2005

Leadership Development for Schools (LDS) is expanding their team to increase services for new and existing Principals. The advertisement containing full details can be found at www.educationposts.ie.

Full LDS Advert

Is mise le meas,

Seán Cottrell
Director

E-Scéal 92: Further Clarifications Relating to Queries on General Allocation Model

Published: 01 June 2005

Many principals are still unclear about the implications of the General Allocation Model for SEN staffing. Below, please find some further points of clarification.

Is sinne le meas,
Virginia O'Mahony, President, Scoil Chaitríona, Renmore, Galway
Pat Goff, SEN Liaison, IPPN Executive - Scoil Mhuire, Coolcotts, Wexford

Schedule C

Schedule C deals with schools due to have their staffing allocations reduced and who have individualized resource allocation in respect of children in the high incidence category. Only about 20% of schools received an allocation under Schedule C. If you did not receive this allocation then you no longer can count high incidence hours in the formation of a new full- time post or for part -time hours. The example given below illustrates the formula used by the DES in calculating Schedule C. School X has been allocated 0.4 of a post under the General Allocation Model, but also have 6 pupils with high incidence special needs allocated individual resource teaching hours.

6 pupils with high incidence special needs @ 2.5 hours = 15 hours
General Allocation of 0.4 = 10 hours
Schedule C (Transitional Hours) = 5 hours (0.2 of a post)

IPPN is seriously concerned that the existing workload of the Learning Support Teacher is not factored into this formula

Redeployment Panels

Principals, particularly in schools that are due to have a Special Needs post suppressed, are working extremely hard to form clusters to protect jobs. The General Allocation clustering arrangements notified to schools has, in many instances, made this job more onerous. These clusters were formed by the inspectorate last year based on different ratios and are almost unworkable in some cases. If you are one of the schools losing a special needs post it is important that you protect the panel rights of the teacher by notifying Primary Payments. Please attend to this immediately even if you are in the process of forming a full time post through clustering of hours. The name of the teacher can be withdrawn from the panel when the post is formed and sanctioned.

Who should go on the Panel?

In normal circumstances it is the most junior teacher in a school that is placed on the panel when a post is being suppressed. However in schools where there is a teacher with restricted recognition, it is this teacher rather than the most junior whose name should be placed on the Special Education Panel.

Please remember that where a permanent job in SEN existed in the school this can be retained as permanent, once you outline to the DES that there is a continuing need. Clustering your general allocation, low incidence hours and your transitional hours allocation as outlined under schedule C, may fill the post. If you are including pupils with low incidence in this cluster it will be necessary to send in their names, class level and hours to the DES, together with a written assurance that the DES will be informed when the child leaves the school. A teacher with restricted recognition can fill this post, if they are already working in your school. If you are creating a new SEN post then you should appoint a fully recognized and probated primary teacher.

Principal as Special Education Needs Teacher

IPPN has raised the issue of principals being allowed to fill the role of Special Education Needs Teacher within a school. This innovation would not in any way diminish the leadership role of the principal in the school. Indeed as many schools now use a SEN model of classroom intervention it would actually enhance the principal's role. Ideally a feature of this concept would be to enable the principal assume the post of part-time SEN teacher with the balance of the hours being used for administration. The official DES position does not permit such a role for Principals. However, at a meeting with DES officials recently, IPPN was advised that it will be given consideration.