IPPN

Published: 04 November 2021

This year’s event will be held next Thursday, 11th November from 9:30am to 3:30pm. For more information and to book your place, click here

Featured Keynote Speaker: Minister for Education, Norma Foley TD
Norma Foley is the Minister for Education. She was appointed to this role in June 2020.
Norma was elected to represent the Kerry constituency in the 2020 general election.
She was previously a member of Kerry County Council for the Tralee area, serving from 1994 until her election to the Dáil in 2020. She also served as a member of Tralee Urban District Council until its abolition in 2014.
You can contact Ms Foley at norma.foley@oireachtas.ie  

Featured Seminar: Proactive Coping and Caring for Yourself in Challenging Times 
The COVID pandemic and its aftermath continue to pose significant challenges for schools and school leaders.
This presentation will outline what is involved in caring for yourself and coping in these difficult times, with particular reference to:

• accurate self-assessment to what you can and cannot do
• facilitating a conflict positive school environment
• preventing destructive conflict
• communicating assertively
• Effective strategies for stress reduction.
  

Presenter:Jacinta M. Kitt, M. St.
Jacinta is a Lecturer/Researcher and an Organisational Advisor. She is a former primary teacher. She lectures part-time in Trinity College on the M.Ed. programme, in Marino Institute of Education on the B.Sc. and B.Ed. programmes and provides guest lectures for other colleges. She also provides professional development training and presentations for schools, colleges and various other public and private organisations. The focus of much of this work is on the characteristics, skills and benefits of creating and maintaining a positive/effective work environment.

Providing strategies for improving how we communicate/ interact with each other in every environment is the theme of much of her work. She regularly works with school leaders on examining the impact of their behaviours, relationships and emotions on school effectiveness. She frequently speaks at conferences and seminars on workplace environment-related topics. During the Covid pandemic she provided Zoom presentations for numerous schools and other organisations on aspects of caring and coping in challenging times.
Her Master’s thesis had workplace bullying in schools as its theme and she is an acknowledged expert on that subject. She provides expert witness reports to tribunals and court cases relating to employment law. Her book entitled Positive Behaviours, Relationships and Emotions…. The Heart of Leadership in a School was published by the NAPD in March 2017.

Q&A Facilitator: Sandra Dempsey
Sandra Dempsey, Deputy Principal of Scoil Bhríde, Clara, Co. Offaly