Policy on Behaviours of Concern or Bespoke Behaviour Plan?
- Published: 19 May 2022
There has been some debate among school leaders, as to whether a BoM should frame and adopt a “Behaviours of Concern” policy, in respect of children whose behaviour is disruptive of teaching and learning in the classroom.
Every school has a Code of Behaviour/Discipline Policy and an Anti-Bullying Policy. These policies apply to every child in the school. Some children, for a variety of reasons, including having additional educational needs, can find it difficult to conform to the normal classroom rules.
Applying the above policies to these children, without reference to their individual needs, could be seen as unfair and likely be challenged as such. Schools are expected to make exhaustive efforts to deal with behaviours of concern. In essence, a school is expected to adjust the learning environment to suit the needs of the child, consider how this is to be done and carefully record all efforts to do so.
Looking at Our Schools states that schools are expected to ‘foster a commitment to inclusion, (and) equality of opportunity … establish an orderly, secure and healthy learning environment... and manage challenging and complex situations in a manner that demonstrates equality, fairness and justice’. To this end, schools must try everything possible to provide a safe and suitable learning environment for children and staff, including having a code of behaviour that takes account of individual needs.
The Department has set out the Continuum of Support framework to assist schools in identifying and responding to students’ needs. This framework recognises that special educational needs occur along a continuum, ranging from mild to severe, transient to long term and students require different levels of support depending on their identified educational needs. Using this framework helps to ensure that interventions are incremental, moving from class-based interventions to more intensive and individualised support and informed by careful monitoring of progress.
An Individual Behaviour Plan for a particular child would outline clearly
- the difficulties the child has in relation to teaching and learning in the school
- the triggers and behaviours of concern the child exhibits in the school environment and clearly states the school’s concerns about each behaviour
- the Behaviour Plan to address the behaviours of concern, specifically
- o Which behaviours are to be addressed and in what order
- o What indicators for success will apply to each behaviour
- a record of the child’s progress, or lack of progress, in relation to the Behaviour Plan
- a record of home / school communication in relation to the Behaviour Plan.
It is of the utmost importance that the child’s parents are fully involved in developing the Individual Behaviour Plan. Where parents refuse to become involved, their invitation and refusal to participate should be recorded. Full and open communication between home and school is the keystone to success. Where parents and school reach the conclusion that the school cannot cater for the needs of a particular child the above records and parental agreement will prove vital in securing a more appropriate placement for the child.
Every child is unique and behaviours of concern exhibited by a particular child are individual to that child. Behaviour policies that include a reference to Individual Behaviour Plans and take account of needs of individual children could help avoid the necessity of developing a separate Policy on Behaviours of Concern. The policy could include templates for developing an Individual Behaviour Plan, and emphasise the vital nature of effective communication with and involvement by parents / guardians.
School leaders who are considering these issues are advised to read IPPN's Resource Bundle on Behaviours of Concern
Appealing SET Allocations
- Published: 19 May 2022
NCSE Circular 01/22 outlines how schools can appeal their SET Allocation. IPPN is aware of the frustration of many school leaders in trying to decide if they should appeal. There are a number of areas to consider – Baseline, Standardised Results, Gender, Social Context and of course Complex Needs. Although schools are aware of the hours attached to each of these areas, there appears to be a lack of communication from the DE on the formulas used to arrive at these numbers. It is difficult to appeal when you are unsure of this basis for the allocations. Some schools received Zero for their complex needs. If the NCSE receive an appeal, they will look at the input of the Disability Network Teams in relation to complex needs and review this. If a school has a query about their complex needs pupils, it is likely the query will be with their disability team. The NCSE will only see if a mistake was made with inputting the complex needs since the last review. This appeal will not necessarily look at the total number of children in a school that may have complex needs. If a school wants to appeal that then they have to look for an exceptional review. There is no timeline to apply for an exceptional review.
Ciall Ceannaithe Online Summer Course
- Published: 19 May 2022
This online course offers convenient and practical professional development focused on the needs of school leaders. The course includes areas such as Sustainable Leadership and Dignity in the Workplace along with updates on Child Protection, Recruitment & Appointments, Wellbeing and Self Care.
New for this year, two Zoom calls will be scheduled during the month of July, so that participants can initiate conversations with course facilitators and each other.
Click here to find out more about the Ciall Ceannaithe Online Course.
Global Citizenship Education (GCE) in Primary Schools
- Published: 12 May 2022
The following questionnaire seeks to collect data on primary school teachers and school leaders' knowledge, competence and confidence in teaching and supporting Global Citizenship Education (GCE) in their classrooms and schools.
This consultation is part of Global Village, a wider programme funded by Irish Aid at the Department of Foreign Affairs. It seeks to ensure that primary school children are supported to be active global citizens committed to building a fairer and more sustainable world. Global Village is managed by four partners, Irish Primary Principals’ Network (IPPN) , Dublin City University (DCU), the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation (INTO) and Trócaire.
The questionnaire is divided into 5 parts and will take between 10 and 15 minutes to complete. Please find the link to the online questionnaire and further information on the study HERE
Sustainable Leadership Project
- Published: 12 May 2022
Member engagement
The focus of the project team over the past few months has been on engagement with members, to get your feedback on the draft Sustainable Leadership report. IPPN sincerely thanks the 350 members who registered for the six focus group discussions, one for each theme explored: Effective leadership and core purpose, Preparation for leadership, Recruitment of leaders, Time and space to lead and Governance. The focus groups were facilitated by almost 40 trained facilitators, each of whom took small groups of 5-10 members. The feedback is provided through the facilitators and this will be a key input to the final report.
Legislation and circulars
The team commissioned a detailed analysis of the legislation and departmental circulars that have a bearing on primary schools over the past ten years or so and the consequent impact on principals’ workload. Further work is being done to map this to LAOS domains and standards so IPPN can gauge the proportion of system change that relates to leading learning (the ‘core purpose’) vs governance and management and other domains. This is a critical piece of work that will provide clear evidence of what principals and IPPN have been saying for many years – that the pace and breadth of change is unsustainable.
Health and wellbeing
640 school leaders completed the Deakin University survey on occupational health and wellbeing commissioned by IPPN and NAPD. The research team is currently analysing the results and it is hoped to have preliminary headline results in the next few weeks. This will be another key input to the report and to future planning of supports, services and advocacy.
Next steps
The team is currently planning the next stage of consultation with external stakeholders. A member consultation survey will be drafted in the coming weeks to be issued to members early in the new school year. The resulting data will help to ensure that IPPN has data to substantiate and possibly, to challenge thinking on a number of aspects of the report for which there is limited data available.
