Managing Your Workload
- Published: 10 November 2017
Circular 0063/2017 lifts the moratorium on the filling of some management posts in schools. However, the vast majority of schools will see no immediate improvement. The demands on school leaders continues to increase and at times proves overwhelming. It is critically important that school leaders focus on leading and managing the quality of learning in their school. However, an overloaded principal runs the risk of losing that focus. The challenge is how to prioritise those important activities that make schools so busy.
If a principal is to really lead learning in their school and if they are to prevent personal burn-out, it is clear that there is a need to re-focus on priorities, either by means of delegation or by de-prioritisation. The IPPN publication, ‘Priorities for Principal Teachers – In Clear Focus’ examines how best to address the issue of work overload. It encourages us to consider which activities are not fully in line with the school plan and which could, for a time at least, be pushed down the priority list or removed from it altogether. The document aims to provide support to the very many principals who are struggling to manage their workload and are unsure what aspects of the role they can and should delegate or deprioritise. Principals will learn from this document that it is possible to say ‘no’ sometimes or postpone less urgent issues.
We will provide some practical tips, over the next few weeks, outlining how this publication may help you to manage your workload.
Principalmeet 2018
- Published: 27 October 2017
It could be a programme, tool or website that has proved useful, a way of doing things that saves time or energy, an approach or methodology that improves teaching and learning in the school, a new way of running staff meetings, or research you have done on an aspect of leadership or management that others may be interested in. As long as it is relevant to school leadership, it will be considered! Principalmeet 2018 will take place at the IPPN principals’ conference on 25th and 26th January in Citywest. If you are planning to attend the conference, and would like to give a short, informal presentation at the event, we’d love to hear from you! If you have any queries, please email the facilitator Kathleen Byrne, principal of St Patrick’s NS, Glencullen, to teachmeetireland@gmail.com
Substitute Teacher Shortage
- Published: 27 October 2017
IPPN has recently held a series of meetings with the Education Partners – including the DES, INTO and Teaching Council. The situation is more complex given that the demographics for primary schools suggest that pupil numbers will peak over the next two years. IPPN has put forward the following solutions:
- Increasing the days that teachers on career breaks/retirees can substitute for
- Permitting some categories of job sharers to work extra days.
IPPN recognises that this is a critical issue for school leaders and will continue to highlight it at all relevant meetings.
Do you have a need for a substitute teacher in your school?
If yes, you can avail of the following services:
For short term substitute vacancies (within the next 7 days) you can advertise through our TextaSub Service
For planned absences of 24 weeks or less, you can advertise for a substitute teacher or SNA on EducationPosts.ie with a minimum requirement of just 5 days advertising. You can advertise a primary level vacancy on EducationPosts.ie by clicking here
Networking E-sceal
- Published: 06 October 2017
We would suggest that if you have been affected by this issue that you contact eir directly or alternatively provide another email address to IPPN for the receipt of networking@ippn.ie emails.
To update the mailing list with your new email address, log in to www.ippn.ie. Go to ‘Supports’ on the menu tool bar. Select ‘Manage My Mailing Lists’ from the drop down menu. On this page input your new email address in the field provided and select the mailing lists to which you want to be subscribed to. To complete the process, click the ‘Submit Changes’ button at the bottom of the page.
Research Study on the Educational Needs of Children Experiencing Homelessness in Dublin
- Published: 03 October 2017
A questionnaire has been developed to capture the experiences of educational professionals working with children who are homeless and living in emergency accommodation in Dublin. Your views as a school principal are very important and the researchers would be most grateful if you would support this work by considering completing the survey
Click here to complete the survey link
The survey will remain open until October 13th
To find out more, contact the lead researcher, Dr Geraldine Scanlon, Assistant Professor at the School of Human Development, Institute of Education, Dublin City University, Drumcondra, Dublin 9 by email to geraldine.scanlon@dcu.ie or by phone to (01) 884 2036.
