IPPN

Published: 02 June 2021

Dear Parents

It is important to remember that this special summer time is not intended as curriculum teaching time. Children engage with their teachers in this regard. This summer is an important opportunity to promote the concept of lifelong learning in children, provide opportunities for language development and communication, through engaging with parents in day-to-day activities and build memories of the learning situations surrounding us in the home, natural world, cultural venues, as well as in the areas of music and art.

For primary school children, learning outcomes and experiences are integrated across a wide range of activities often involving play, experimentation, collaboration and co-operation with others in their class. Where possible parents should seek to ensure that children simply enjoy the summer, play and have fun. Their physical and mental wellbeing is every bit as important, if not more important than academic results.

Play is how children grow, learn and discover. After a tough year, play will be how children reconnect with their family, friends and their communities and recover from the impact of the pandemic. We need to ensure that children get outside, play and have fun.

The summer should provide children, parents and families with an opportunity to rest, recuperate and recharge after a gruelling year.

There are limitless possibilities for parents and pupils to engage in Fun Activities that are intrinsically educational. These are just some suggestions:

SESE (Social, Environmental and Scientific Education – this includes History, Geography and Science)

• Visiting Heritage sites: Admission Charges to all fee-paying open OPW heritage sites are being waived until the end of the year. Many such heritage sites also have free admission – find out what’s in your area for day trips
•  Interact with nature, explore your local area, ‘walks’ and ‘play in the park’
•  Bird song apps, to identify birds singing, are available for smart phones – feeding, observing, recording and sketching birds visiting the garden and in the locality
• In Ireland we are fortunate in that many of our National museums have free entry. Collins Barracks, the National Museum and the Natural History Museum in Dublin are all free
• Towns and villages across the country often have local historical societies and folk-lore related to local landmarks – simple searches on google can throw up a treasure trove of information

Language & Literacy:

• Listen to your child. Encourage them to tell, describe, explain
• Encourage reading – read to young children, audio books, visiting the library, access the mobile library
• Audio books can be downloaded from your local library by using: https://www.librariesireland.ie/elibrary/eaudiobooks
• Young children love to write and draw - access to pens, markers, paper and crayons
• For very young children – working with playdough helps develop the muscles necessary for fine motor development, as does threading, using pegs, chunky crayons etc
• Keeping a diary or journaling might be of interest. Writing cards to family or friends

Numeracy:

• We live in a mathematical world -  money, counting, numbers, shape and space are all important mathematical concepts and we are surrounded by opportunities to explore them
• For younger children simply counting, sorting, playing shop, pricing, going to the shop can all develop key mathematical skills. Finding and talking about shapes. 2 D (Rectangles, Squares, Circles) 3-D (cubes, cylinders, spheres) etc

Physical Education:

• Running, cycling, swimming, dancing - games of all sorts
• Balance, throwing, catching
• Access local clubs – Cúl Camps, summer camps, sports clubs
• Walking – hills / mountains / parks and lakes

Drama, Art and Music:

• Energy goes where attention flows - encourage, listen, watch and comment
•  Access to paint, pencils, crayons & paper
• Play dates – make believe
• Hugh Lane and National Art Gallery in Dublin have free admission. Galleries, exhibitions or street art in towns and villages
• Take time to stop, look and listen – street performers, buskers, street artists
•  What is happening in your local area?

The Let’s Play Ireland website on gov.ie has been updated and is packed with new resources for children and families to enjoy. https://www.gov.ie/en/campaigns/lets-play-ireland/

The Board of Management and school staff of (insert name of school), thank you for your support, commitment and dedication over what has been an extremely difficult period in all our lives. This could well be a summer of opportunity for learning in ways that we may never have previously considered. Most of all, may it be a summer of fun for you and your children.

As a school community we will continue to work together for the best possible outcomes for our children. We look forward to welcoming you once again for the coming school year.

Beatha is sláinte chugaibh,

Published: 27 May 2021

To: All Principals,

As you may be aware, the HSE ICT systems have been disabled as a precaution in response to the cyber-attack last Friday. This has had significant consequences for the HSE, including for Departments of Public Health. We have been in contact with you on this, and are now providing a further update.

More normal processes have now been put in place, and for a case of Covid-19 who was infectious within your facilities, the usual excel sheets are being sent on to you for completion of the close contacts. Close contacts will be given appointments to attend for testing, in the usual way, and are no longer being asked to attend the walk-in testing centres without an appointment. This is very important from a Public Health perspective, so all the results are linked to your facility and we can identify early and manage outbreaks as appropriate. We would appreciate you re-affirmation of this to families so we can best and most optimally manage incidents within your facilities.
Given that Departments of Public Health are currently working very hard, and under very difficult circumstances we ask for your consideration when contacting us. Many answers to common queries can be found in the FAQ document for Principals. The Department of Education is also available to assist with many queries on covid19_alert@education.gov.ie or phone (057) 932 4461.

If you are aware of a case of Covid-19 within your facility, but have not yet heard from Public Health please contact the HSE Principals line on 01 240 8785 and they will give you the current functioning number for the relevant Public Health Department:

We are still frequently seeing cases who attended facilities symptomatic, sometimes for several days, and we ask that anyone with symptoms which could be consistent with Covid-19 are managed as per Department guidance, excluded from school and recommended to discuss their symptoms with their GP.

Best wishes,

Dr Abigail Collins, Consultant in Public Health Medicine,
Dr Kevin Kelleher, Assistant National Director, Public health and Child Health

Published: 27 May 2021

Given the small cohort involved in the pilot project, the potential benefits, issues and challenges arising from the ERTAL model that will become evident when it is fully rolled out, may not be reflected in submissions received. A further review may be warranted to ensure that the model is fit for purpose across all school contexts.

Significantly, there was considerable positivity in the feedback in relation to what worked well, including:

• The experience was generally considered to be positive, cordial, courteous and thorough by the relevant inspectors. This was very much appreciated by schools
• Sufficient notice was provided to the school in most cases
• Both mainstream and special education settings were observed, including both live and pre-recorded lessons
• The post evaluation meetings were affirmative and recommendations were generally sensible and fair
• One school commented that their experience of Remote Teaching and Learning has ‘reinforced their Vision, Values and Aims’. Another stated that it had ‘enabled us to build on our strong partnership approaches which has improved outcomes for learners'
• Several schools mentioned that the process helped them to affirm that the activities they engaged in during school closure, were appropriate to the inspectorate's evaluation standards. Other schools said that it had provided positive feedback and useful tips and strategies for enhancing their practice
• The process itself was not considered overly intrusive in most cases, in terms of time or additional demands on the principal or the staff
• A few schools commented that they were glad they had participated and felt they had contributed to the process.

There were a number of additional points raised by individual schools. Overall, the engagement with schools from the inspection teams was considered to be very positive.

What schools found challenging included:

• organising teachers to facilitate other classes when they were engaging in online meetings with the inspectors
• observing on-line live lessons has the added concerns that the technology will work etc. over and above the usual stresses of any inspection process
• a number of schools found it challenging to explain to the inspectors remotely how their learning platform operated
• a few schools were approached the week before the inspection or had the visit confirmed the week of the visit
• several commented that the technology the Inspectorate used – Webex - was challenging and suggested that their own systems be used instead. In some cases, a workaround was agreed, which worked a lot better
• online lesson observations - for some of the teachers, this could have been more interactive with the inspectors engaging with the pupils.

Again, individual schools raised a few additional concerns and challenges.

IPPN Recommendations
IPPN has stated that a shift from ‘inspection’ to ‘co-professional evaluation‘, is vital to respect both the professional leadership and engagement of schools and the expertise the inspectors bring to schools. From the feedback received from the seven schools involved in the ERTAL pilot process, it would seem that this co-professional approach was very much in evidence, particularly with the inspectors’ comments that they themselves learned a lot from the process. This is very heartening and the Inspectorate is commended on its positive engagement with schools, as well as the affirmation of schools’ efforts during the pandemic.

One school made an interesting suggestion. Five of the six areas of evaluation had a direct focus on learning. One had the focus on feedback between home and school. The school suggested a seventh area - on the effectiveness of whole-school initiatives to support distant learning. There was a significant amount of work involved in putting together the infrastructure to facilitate distant learning and this was not reflected in the evaluation in a structured way. The inclusion of this seventh area of evaluation would highlight for other school initiatives what may be required to promote pupil engagement in distant learning in some circumstances.

While the inspectorate team verbally acknowledged and positively commented on such initiatives in the feedback to the school leadership representatives, the six evaluation areas included in the pilot were limited in their ability to report on them.

Other recommendations:

• Regarding any requirement for further school closures, school leaders and teachers need simplicity and clarity from education system leaders and their colleagues in health
• If the Department wants to assess 'distance teaching and learning' in the future, it is critically important to review and fully resource the Digital Strategy, to pair expectations with support to ensure all staff have access to high quality digital devices, adequate broadband, appropriate software, as well as IT support to trouble-shoot technical issues
• It would be beneficial for the Department to provide training for inspectors in the use of the most commonly-used systems, so as to avoid technical issues during inspections.
• Definitive guidance for remote teaching and learning is required for schools to ensure clarity and equity across schools in the event of further mandated closures. A consistent set of guidelines backed up by a structured CPD plan for all teachers will be essential.
• Clarity is needed around what is expected of parents and what to do when they don't engage
• A number of the schools commented that the technical infrastructure in the school is so poor, especially relating to broadband, that the schools progressed more with digital learning when everyone was at home
• Flexibility around what is expected of teachers during periods of remote learning would be appreciated
• It would be beneficial to more clearly outline a pragmatic approach to the evaluation of students' learning during periods of remote learning, as well as after the return to school buildings, given all of the constraints outlined.

Published: 27 May 2021

The Department announced a package of supports to allow schools provide summer programmes for children with complex special educational needs and those at greatest risk of educational disadvantage. Further clarification has been issued by the Department based on queries raised in relation to staffing allocations.

Updates re Summer Programmes

Special Class & Special School Programme – Staffing allocations (teachers & SNAs) remains unchanged to those in place for the 2020/2021 school year

New Summer Programme for mainstream students with complex needs and those at risk of educational disadvantage:

• Groups of ‘up to’ 12 students can be supported by 1 teacher and 1 SNA
• Where there are 6 children with complex special educational needs within the group of 12 pupils, an application for additional teaching and SNA support can be submitted