Communication Between Home and School
- Published: 30 April 2020
Right now, no principal has a blueprint for leading learning in a “virtual school”. However, as school leader, you do know your school community, pupils, parents and staff. Every school is unique in its own way. When schools closed on 12th March, teachers assigned work and books were distributed in an effort to support learning at home. Previous to this, we could tell how things were going in our schools by visiting classrooms and the many conversations before, during and after school each day. The closure of school buildings has removed this vital communication, which is core to our work as principals. Therefore, we have had to rethink our approach to connecting with our school communities.
Text, email and Zoom meetings have been very important in linking with staff members. Platforms such as Aladdin Connect and Seesaw have enabled us to assign and receive pupil learning tasks. But, how do we find out how things are going at home? How do we review our initial approach to distance learning, and more importantly, how do we plan for the future that we know little about?
Seeking feedback from parents using a survey is an approach that can be both efficient and effective. A high response rate can provide a more comprehensive picture, rather than emails from a small number of parents or hearsay. The following are three key points to consider when using a survey as part of your communication with parents:
Focus on what you need to know now. Use scaling (1-10) to ask parents how helpful the school’s overall approach to distance learning has been to date. Include a comment box to allow for further information to be provided. You may want to find out more about a curricular area that is presenting as a challenge to support learning at home. You may wish to get a sense of how many devices are in the home and the reliability of broadband connection.
Use an efficient user-friendly tool. Create a digital survey using your school’s existing platform (Aladdin, Google Forms, etc.) or a product that most are familiar with e.g. SurveyMonkey.com. If possible, send via TextaParent.ie, and provide a specific time-frame for response e.g. one week.
Keep it short! Many parents are juggling working from or away from home with supporting their child’s (and other siblings’) learning. They will not have time to complete a lengthy survey. Ask 4 or 5 specific questions and include a comment box. Depending on the size of your school, it will take time to go through all of the responses.
Parents will appreciate that your school has sought feedback to inform planning for the future. However, your school’s plan for distance learning will also be guided by the professional judgement and experience of teachers. This is, and should be, unique to your school community. If using a survey to parents for feedback, remember to KISS (Keep It Short and Simple)!
Further Supports for Schools
- Published: 03 April 2020
CSL and IPPN will work together over the next two weeks to bring together all of the resources, available to assist schools in continuing the teaching and learning for pupils. This resource will be made available on the IPPN website at the end of the Easter holiday period.
Webinar on Admissions Policy
There have been many queries in relation to the Admissions Policy. Many are in the drafting stage at the moment and policies are being placed on the school’s website for consultation. David Ruddy and his colleagues in Mason Hayes & Curran will hold a webinar. It was hoped to have the webinar this week but unfortunately Covid-19 and a sad personal circumstance for a team member put paid to that. A decision was taken not to run it during the Easter holidays, as we hope that everyone will take a break. This will provide a good opportunity to road test your draft policy, especially if you have outstanding questions. The link for signing up to the webinar will be communicated to you at the end of the Easter holidays. Below is the email from David Ruddy.
“The Easter holidays are almost upon schools and the deadline for submitting draft admissions policies to your patron body is fast approaching (April 30th). We are delighted to invite you to join our webinar discussing the draft Admission Policy, with our Education Team, from 11.00am - 11.45am on Wednesday, 22nd April 2020.
During this webinar, our team will focus on what is permissible and what is not under the Admissions Act. We will also help you navigate through the Department of Education & Skills templates. I will forward the link to register as soon as I receive it.
Kind regards,
David Ruddy”
Schools Meal Programme Update
- Published: 03 April 2020
A request has come in from An Post that, where possible, and to guarantee the best and most efficient service in local areas, schools arranging delivery of food through An Post under the School Meals scheme would agree locally to arrange delivery on separate days with their food suppliers. If everyone in a postal area is seeking delivery on a Monday for example, it will prove very difficult, if not impossible to complete.
Please also note, as notified in last week’s e-scéal, each county now has in place a ‘Community Champion’, a coordinator working with all agencies such as sports clubs, local development groups and voluntary bodies to support local efforts, such as the School Meals Programme. Some of the local development groups, for example, have vans and drivers ready to take on such deliveries when asked. The same applies with the GAA’s games development staff who have vans normally used for carrying coaching equipment around to schools and clubs.
Please contact your local county champion if you have any concerns around food delivery.
In this time of crisis, it is incumbent on us all to work together to provide the best possible supports for families.
A sincere ‘thank you’ to all who are supporting the School Meals Programme in any way. You are making a great and positive contribution to people’s welfare at a time of great difficulty for everyone.
Maynooth University Research –Practice in Primary Schools during COVID-19 Closures
- Published: 03 April 2020
Over 2,800 primary school leaders responded to the survey issued last week by the primary education stakeholders – IPPN, INTO, PDST and the management bodies. This is a huge response and we sincerely thank everyone who participated. The richness of the resulting data, which has been analysed by Dr Jolanta Burke and Dr Majella Dempsey of Maynooth University (MU), will provide a lot of important learning for IPPN, and the other stakeholders as we refine our supports to schools in the coming days and weeks.
IPPN’s primary focus is on the additional supports school leaders have told us in the survey that you need. We have already begun work in response to the research findings and will share information about this with you through E-scéal, ippn.ie and the networking mailing list.
As stated in the Executive Summary of the MU report, which will be made available on ippn.ie as soon as it is published, ‘The most heartening finding from this extensive survey is the amount that has been achieved to date on adapting to this new reality. […] We are being forced to think in different ways, to solve problems together, to collaborate and to communicate in different ways, to educate and be educated in a different way. […] it is obvious there is a role that schools play that any amount of technology cannot replace, this is the social aspect of schooling, the relational aspect of learning of feedback and of being part of a community.’
It is very evident that the principal focus of school leaders is on the children - on supporting them, connecting with them in whatever way we can during this challenging time, and yes, on helping them to continue to learn.
Schools will have introduced additional measures to support children, parents and teachers since the survey was conducted. It was necessarily done quickly to provide key information to the stakeholders and it is understood that it is a snapshot of what schools put in place up to 26th March. Nonetheless, it has produced a wealth of qualitative and quantitative data to help drive a coordinated response from everyone involved in supporting schools at this very difficult time. Thank you.
