IPPN

Principals' leadership is key to achieving quality learning in our schools'

Minister for Education and Science, Mary Hanafin, T.D., today addressed the Annual Conference of the Irish Primary Principals Network (IPPN) in City West, Dublin.

Addressing over 700 Principals Minister Hanafin acknowledged that the demands placed on school principals and deputy principals had increased greatly in recent years. Minister Hanafin acknowledged the need for the Department of Education and Science to support principals to carry out their demanding roles saying "strong leadership training is vital in any management job. One of the most important developments in recent years has been the establishment and expansion of the Leadership Development for Schools Initiative (LDS). In partnership with the IPPN, it has helped to fill the gap in terms of quality training and networking opportunities for principals, providing training for nearly 700 Principals to date."

Announcing increased funding for LDS, Minister Hanafin said "I am strongly committed to strengthening the LDS. This year €1million will be spent on LDS to ensure that more training places are available for experienced principals and deputies and to increase the level of online training available for you. This is a four fold increase in funding for training since the programme was introduced in 2002."

Outlining progress made in prioritising provision for children with special needs and those from disadvantaged areas, Minister Hanafin said "with more than 600 extra resource teachers, the introduction of the general allocation scheme and the establishment of the National Council for Special Education, children with special needs are getting more support than ever before. Along with these additional resources, it is important to acknowledge the considerable efforts that primary principals have put into ensuring that children with special needs are welcomed into mainstream schools. I know this has required significant flexibility and cooperation on your part."

Explaining how the strategy for tackling disadvantage, Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools (DEIS) will be implemented Minister Hanafin said "the programme will mean better identification of levels of disadvantage in our schools and a single integrated programme of supports for schools with concentrated levels of disadvantage. The process of identifying the most disadvantaged schools is just complete and I will shortly notify those primary schools qualifying for extra supports under the DEIS Programme."

Minister Hanafin emphasised that the Department would continue to make efforts to ensure that it did not create unnecessary pressures on school principals. Outlining steps taken Minister Hanafin said "staffing schedules will issue within the next month so that redeployment and recruitment can take place as soon as possible. I also wanted to ensure that schools qualifying under the Summer Works Scheme were announced as early as possible in the year so that tenders could be sought and arrangements made to ensure that works will be completed over the summer".

To ease the load on teaching principals who find it difficult to find a suitable person to teach their class on release days Minister Hanafin said the Department of Education and Science is establishing a pilot scheme for providing substitute cover for teaching principals which will benefit more than 150 teaching principals.

Highlighting the critical role of parents in their children's education and in the school community, Minister Hanafin said "parents have both a right and a responsibility to be involved in their children's education. This is a two-way process and schools are entitled to expect the support of parents. We need to do all we can to make parents real and valued partners in their children's education. I know that the IPPN has been innovative in coming up with ways to help principals to communicate with parents, through initiatives such as the text-a-parent service."

Minister Hanafin acknowledged the "extremely powerful effect that principals as school leaders have in the learning environment in schools" and assured the principals of her commitment and that of her Department to "do all that we can to support you in your leadership role."

Ends

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Reports of school inspections from 6 February will be published

Minister Hanafin signs regulations for publication of School Inspection Reports

The Minister for Education and Science, Mary Hanafin, T.D. has signed the regulations to allow for the publication of reports arising from inspections of schools and centres of education. These regulations will be laid before the Houses of the Oireachtas today as required under the Education Act. The Minister also published Guidelines on the Publication of School Inspection Reports. The Guidelines describe how the Inspectorate of the Department will publish the reports arising from the inspection of schools and centres for education.

The reports from inspections carried out after 6th February 2006, will be made available to the public generally.

The Minister said that the Guidelines had been produced following an extensive consultation process with representatives of teacher unions, school management, trustees, parents and students. She was pleased that the necessary guidelines and regulations were now in place to enable publication of reports to take place.

Minister Hanafin said "last summer I announced that I intended to publish inspection reports on schools and I invited all the education partners to engage with the Inspectorate in a consultation process on how best to achieve this. These guidelines have emerged from this consultation process and I am delighted now to have signed the regulations to allow the publication to proceed."

The Minister believes that school inspection reports will help to provide accurate and balanced information on schools to parents, students, schools and the wider public.

"By making these reports available, I am providing more information about schools. Crude league tables, based solely on examination results, are damaging and misleading whereas these reports will provide accurate and balanced information on the work of schools," said Minister Hanafin.

The Minister noted that the inspection process provided a comprehensive evaluation of the work of schools or sections within schools. "During Whole School Evaluations, for example," she said, "inspectors meet with the school's board of management, the teaching staff and the representatives of the parents' council. In post-primary schools, they meet the students' council. They collect information from school documentation and teachers' planning. They observe lessons, they interact with students and they examine students' work. Their reports provide judgements on the quality of school management and school planning. They assess the quality of learning and teaching in the school, and the quality of supports for students, including those with special educational needs. All of these judgements take into account the context in which the school is working."

Minister Hanafin thanked the education partners for the way that they had participated in the consultation process. "Many valuable suggestions were received," she said, "and these have been carefully considered in the refinement of the final procedures."

ENDS

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