Storm Barra - HR & Admin Queries
- Published: 09 December 2021
The Department of Education has confirmed that schools who closed due to Storm Barra red and orange weather alerts will not be required to make up the time lost.
All substitute teachers scheduled to work on Tuesday 7 and Wednesday 8 December will be paid as normal. There is no requirement for schools to record the closures on OLCS. Schools are advised to continue recording the teaching/non-teaching staff absences on the OLCS and input the associated substitution claims.
Supporting Parents to Support their Children’s Mental Health & Wellbeing
- Published: 24 November 2021
National Parents Council Primary in conjunction with St Patrick's Mental Health service, are providing an online training programme for parents to encourage and promote positive mental health and wellbeing in their children. The programme also explores how the building of resilience in children helps them to manage and cope with the day-to-day stresses of life as they occur.
Training Session Dates: Monday, 29 November, Wednesday, 1 November, Thursday, 2 November
Time: 10.00am & 7.30pm
EducationPosts.ie: Change to Advertising Process
- Published: 24 November 2021
On Friday, 26 November all new paid adverts uploaded to EducationPosts.ie from existing accounts will automatically go live on the website after 30 minutes. (Note: based on the requested activation date on the advert). This update will streamline the vacancy advertising process, as restrictions on advert activation outside of office hours will be removed. A school can amend/edit their advert(s) within 30 minutes of submission. After this time, a replacement advert will require an additional EducationPosts.ie credit.
Revised Inspection Arrangements
- Published: 24 November 2021
In the latest Information Note issued by the DE to schools, the inspection programme for schools has been revised for schools from today, Thursday 25 November. Inspection activity will be confined to five main areas:
- Child Protection Inspections
- Inspections of schools located in Special Care Units and Child Detention Centres
- Essential follow-up inspections to monitor the implementation of urgent recommendations arising from previous child protection and other inspections
- Advisory-focussed Sustaining Safe Provision of Schooling (SSPS) visits
- Urgent emergency visits to schools.
Informing School Community of a Covid-19 Case
- Published: 24 November 2021
The issue of whether or not a school leader should inform parents / guardians of a Covid case has generated much anxiety in recent weeks. The central issue for many school leaders, teachers and parents lies in their desire not to identify a child or staff member who has to be absent because of Covid 19. In addition to not wishing to identify a person or family, there are GDPR considerations forbidding the sharing of personal data without consent.
School leaders have come under a lot of pressure from parents, staff and even Boards of Management to release the personal data of individuals to the school community. The templates below are an amalgam of templates submitted by IPPN members which seek to:
- Reassure parents / guardians that the BoM and school leadership is taking all possible precautions to keep children and staff safe
- Inform parents / guardians that a case of Covid has been confirmed within the school
- Ask parents to be vigilant and alert for symptoms of Covid in their children.
IPPN strongly urges school leaders to discuss the contents of these letters with the Chairperson of their BoM before sending them to parents. Best practice would be to have the signatures of both Chairperson and Principal on the letters. Ideally the use of these letters would be discussed and approved by the BoM, where time permits, prior to communicating with parents.
