Deputy Principals’ Conference 2019 – Materials and Videos now available!
- Published: 14 November 2019
This year’s event took place on 7 & 8 November in Citywest and was attended by over 300 deputy principals from around the country. The evaluation feedback was exceptionally positive, as was the reaction to the announcement that the 2020 event will be held in the Lyrath Estate in Kilkenny! Make a note in your diaries, the event will take place on 12 & 13 November 2020.
IPPN understands and appreciates the heavy workload school leaders manage in their schools and would appreciate that deputy principals be afforded the same opportunity to partake in professional development as is given to 1,200 principals by Boards of Management each year. We would very much like to see the number of DPs climb much closer to 1000 or even 1200 in the coming years. As well as continuing to press the DES to provide at least one leadership and management day per week for teaching principals, we will also be asking for substitute cover to be provided for DPs to attend their annual CPD event, as they have no allocated time for leadership and management at present.
The following presentations and recordings are now available on ippn.ie under CPD & Events/Deputy Principals’ Conference 2019:
- Minister for Education & Skills, Joe McHugh TD
- Adam Harris, CEO of AsIAm
- Bernard McHale, PDST – Curriculum Leadership
- Karen Belshaw - Managing stress and building resilience - looking after your wellbeing
- Dr Joan Kiely, Marino Institute of Education - Parental involvement, engagement and partnership in their children's learning during the primary school years: a focus on homework
- Finbarr Hurley and Maria Tully - PIEW Model
- Dr Déirdre Kirwan – Intercultural Inclusion
- Angela Lynch (IPPN), Anne Tansey (NEPS), Áine Fitzpatrick (IPPN) – Wellbeing
- Dr Eemer Eivers - ICT in Primary Schools
E-sceal 572 - Subscribing to Networking@
- Published: 07 November 2019
The deadline for membership renewal has now passed. IPPN’s key membership supports and services are now being updated to reflect membership for the 2019/2020 school year. Membership forms returned without the ‘Opt in’ field being ticked for the mailing lists will be removed from networking@ippn.ie today, Thursday 7 November.
In the event that your email address is removed, you will need to re-subscribe to networking@ippn.ie by completing the following steps:
- Log in to your www.ippn.ie member account
- Go to ‘Supports, Mailing Lists, Manage My Mailing Lists’ on the menu tool bar
- The email address is listed in the ‘Email Address’ field
Additionally, please select the following link to view an online tutorial of how to subscribe to the mailing lists - https://www.ippn.ie/index.php/supports/mailing-lists/how-to-guide
E-sceal 570 - Changes to Parental Leave Entitlements
- Published: 16 October 2019
With effect from 1 November, all new parents will be eligible to avail of an additional two weeks leave during their babies first year as part of the parental leave scheme. It will develop incrementally over the next three years, with both parents being able to benefit from seven weeks leave under the scheme, which will be paid at the same rate as maternity and paternity benefit.
A circular has yet to be issued by the DES regarding its operation at primary level. As soon as it is issued, a synopsis of the circular will be provided in your weekly E-scéal.
Click here for more information regarding existing parental leave arrangements for school employees
E-sceal 570 - Professional Guidance – Managing Expectations 3
- Published: 16 October 2019
In the third part of our professional guidance on managing expectations, the focus is on managing the expectations of others. In order to do this, it is essential to make clear what you expect of another person, but even more important is what they can expect of you. They can expect that you will do everything you can to support them in dealing with the issue or situation. However, it does not mean that it becomes your problem to solve. Communication of this message is essential to ensure that each becomes aware of their responsibilities as well as their rights. Be absolutely clear about what action each will take to make progress. Be mindful of the language used – “We are in this together”. “How can we support each other?” “Have we done everything we possibly can do?” “Is there anything else we can do or need to do?” Keep talking. Keep evaluating. We will make mistakes, but we will learn from them and move on.
Budget 2020 – IPPN’s View
- Published: 10 October 2019
There is no clearer way to say it, Budget 2020 has failed our teaching principals. The cost of the demands made by IPPN to make the teaching principal’s role more sustainable is miniscule - less than €8m, a paltry sum representing 0.073% of an €11bn education budget. We are bitterly disappointed that the Ministers for Education and Rural & Community Development could not back up their verbal support for the leaders of small schools, by providing one leadership and management day per week for teaching principals to alleviate their workload.
Minister McHugh’s expressed aim to ‘find every possible way of helping those schools to move from surviving to thriving’ now sounds very hollow. The Department’s progressive circulars on leadership and management simply cannot be fulfilled without adequate time and capacity to lead and manage our schools.
