Primary school representative bodies raise concerns regarding support allocations for children with additional needs
Primary school management bodies Educate Together, An Foras Pátrúnachta, National Association of Boards of Management in Special Education (NABMSE) and the Muslim Primary Education Board, supported by the Irish Primary Principals’ Network (IPPN) are today issuing a joint statement regarding teaching supports for children with additional needs in Irish schools.
The representative bodies note the publication last week of the Department of Education's staffing schedule for primary schools for the 2021/22 school year and information provided to schools regarding their Special Education Teacher (SET) allocation. In particular, they note that the Department intends to maintain the existing Special Education Teacher allocations for all schools for the 2021/22 school year and will not now conduct a re-profiling exercise in 2021 as was originally planned.
Budget 2021 – IPPN calls for urgent clarification
IPPN welcomes the reduction in the pupil:teacher ratio to 25:1 announced in Budget 2021 yesterday. We acknowledge the positive impact this will have in all schools and also welcome the additional funding to support pupils with special educational needs, both in terms of additional teacher and SNA posts and the additional therapists and psychologists, which are all badly needed in our schools.
IPPN President Damian White statement: School leaders need support from inspectors, not more checklists
Wednesday 16th September 2020
It is not unreasonable for there to be checks to ensure that schools are operating in accordance with public health guidelines to protect all members of the school community. As employers, the Board has a duty of care to its employees and its pupils to provide a safe environment in which to work and learn. However, the move to have the primary inspectorate organise inspections of schools on behalf of the HSA is ill-judged and poorly timed, not to mention an insult to school leaders, teachers and Boards of Management. It utterly compromises the advisory and support role the inspectorate claimed to embrace before this was ever experienced by a school.
Since March 12th, when schools were forced to close their doors and school leaders had to lead learning using new and innovative ways of supporting their pupils through various online platforms, school leaders have not had a break. Before Covid-19, the burgeoning workload of principals meant that they were lucky if they managed any sort of break in the middle of the summer holidays. This summer, the vast majority of principals had no break at all, with many working 50/60-hour weeks, or more, to make sure their schools were ready to resume, with all measures in place to ensure the safety of all children and staff.
IPPN welcomes plans for the full reopening of schools and seeks further clarity on a number of key issues
Tuesday 28th July 2020
IPPN welcomes the announcement by Minister for Education, Norma Foley TD, of plans for a full reopening of school buildings for the 2020/21 school year. It is the sincere wish of all school principals and deputy principals to see all pupils and staff back engaged with face-to-face teaching and learning in safe and stimulating classrooms.
The announcement of this package with less than five weeks to go to the new term means there is a huge amount of work to be done to have all the necessary provisions in place and adjustments made to have schools ready for reopening. IPPN has worked tirelessly along with other education partners to ensure all issues essential to the safe reopening of school buildings and grounds are identified and addressed. We are pleased to say that many issues have been addressed in Minister Foley’s announcement, while answers will continue to be sought on any remaining issues.
IPPN welcomes the announcement of one leadership and management day per week for teaching principals, which has for many years been IPPN’s key priority. Teaching principals need this time on a permanent basis, but we very much welcome the additional leadership time for the coming school year as they deal with COVID-19 risk management on top of an extremely challenging workload. We also welcome the announcement of ‘release’ days for deputy principals in schools where there is an administrative principal, as an acknowledgment of shared leadership and management in our schools, particularly in this time of unprecedented challenge.
