Sustainable Leadership Project – Member Engagement
- Published: 17 February 2022
The work on the Sustainable Leadership project has been progressing well and is now ready to move to the next phase which involves engagement with membership. This is by far the most important aspect of the project as engagement with you, the wider membership of IPPN, will inform the process of identifying both issues and potential solutions to the sustainability of school leadership.
IPPN aims to secure your direct feedback and opinions by facilitating structured conversations about the different elements of the project. The rich feedback received from that process will inevitably be of great help in challenging and refining the project thinking.
The plan is to hold online meetings for each of the six themes of the project. The dates for those meetings are as follows
Date Theme
- Tuesday 22nd March – Effective Leadership & Core Purpose
- Thursday 24th March – Preparation for Leadership
- Tuesday 29th March – Recruitment (of School Leaders)
- Thursday 31st March – Time & Space to Lead
- Tuesday 5th April – Sharing & Supporting Leadership
- Thursday 7th April – Governance & Boards of Management
Each of the meetings will start at 3.30 pm and involve an overview of the project being presented before facilitated discussion groups are convened. If you have an interest in participating in any of these meetings, you will be able to register from Thursday, 3rd March. You can register for more than one meeting if you have an interest in more than one of the themes. You will receive project materials relating to the theme of the meeting for which you register, in advance of the meeting, to ensure that you have an opportunity to engage with them and there is an informed discussion at the meeting.
You will be provided with details of how to register for the meetings closer to the time and hope that you will avail of this opportunity to feed into this important project for IPPN and school leaders.
Professional Guidance – Processing Leave Applications
- Published: 10 February 2022
The closing date for the submission of applications for Job-share and Career Breaks for teachers is 1 February and in the case of SNAs 1 March. Boards will be meeting shortly to review and make decisions on leave applications submitted by staff for 2022/2023 school year. The deadline for a Board to communicate its decision on leave requests to the teaching staff is 1 March.
It is the remit of the BoM, as the employer, to make decisions on whether to grant such leave for each individual application. In processing leave applications, the Board will consider what is in the best interest of the children, if granting the leave at that time would have a substantial adverse effect on the operation of the school and ultimately refers for guidance to the school’s policy on leave. The importance of having a Leave Policy in place, agreed by all staff and ratified by BOM cannot be overstated. Having such a policy in place helps to ensure equity and fairness, as well as transparency for all concerned. If a school does not have such a policy in place at present, it is advisable to draft one in consultation with all staff for the next school year.
Boards cannot always make decisions with which staff agree. Where feasible, a Board will facilitate a leave application, having regard to the above considerations. However, a Board may decide to reject an application. The decision must come and be seen to come from the Board. It is best practise for the Chairperson to communicate the Board’s decision to the employee. It is important that the Board’s decision is not viewed as a decision of the school leader. A school leader’s relationship with the staff has to be prioritised.
IPPN’s Leadership Support Team is available to provide support if required.
COVID-19: Changes to Special Leave
- Published: 10 February 2022
Last Thursday, the DE issued Information Note 0002/2022 outlining changes to special leave with Pay that came into effect from 7 February onwards for all Teaching and SNA staffs. The Information Note does not operate retrospectively and guidance in DE Circular 42/2021 and Information Note 0001/2022 will continue to apply to teachers and SNA who commenced special leave with pay prior to 7 February.
A revised application form (Appendix A) is required to be completed when a teacher or SNA is applying for special leave with pay from 7 February onwards. A number of scenarios have also been included by the DE in Appendix B of the information note.
IPPN - Short survey re. Teacher Absences & Availability of Subs
- Published: 10 February 2022
IPPN will send members a very quick 2-3 question survey early next week to gauge the current level of teacher absence and the availability (or lack thereof) of substitute teachers. This will help IPPN advocate on behalf of members in relation to the anticipated announcements regarding potential easing of COVID-related restrictions.
You need to opt in to receive texts from IPPN
Please note that text messages can only sent to members who actively opt in to receive them. This is usually done via the membership renewal form. If you haven’t been receiving texts from IPPN and would like to receive them, please email your name, roll number and mobile phone number to info@ippn.ie stating that you wish to receive text messages from IPPN. Confirmation of opt-in is required. Contact details are not sufficient, due to GDPR.
Sincere thanks to the more than 1500 members who responded to the short survey in early January. It was very helpful in IPPN’s engagement with the Department, education stakeholders and the media, in relation to the reopening of schools and the related challenges for school leaders
Irish Principal & Deputy Principal Health & Wellbeing Survey
- Published: 10 February 2022
As referenced in last week’s e-scéal, IPPN has teamed up with the National Association of Principals and Deputy Principals (NAPD) to commission Professor Philip Riley and his research team from Deakin University in Australia, to undertake an Occupational Health, Safety and Wellbeing Study with the principals and deputy principals of primary and post-primary schools in Ireland.
Hopefully, you will have had an opportunity to look at the videos on the website which provide more detail about the research project. You can access them via the following LINK
The survey portal will go live on Monday, 28th February, when you will receive a link by email and SMS (if you have signed up to receive SMS messages) to register for the survey. Registration can be readily completed on a mobile phone, but the research team strongly recommends that you would use a laptop, tablet or PC to undertake the survey, for ease of navigation.
The research team also recommends that the email address you use to register for the survey should be one that you access regularly and to which only you have access, as the report that you will receive after undertaking the survey will be personal to you. Use of generic school addresses such as principal@, office@ or info@, should be avoided.
Further updates and information will be provided closer to the time and it is hoped that you will derive much benefit from engagement with the study.
