IPPN

Dr. Pasi Sahlaberg is Director General of CIMO (in the Ministry of Education and Culture) in Helsinki, Finland.  He is also an educator, researcher and school improvement activist.  He has experience in educational reforms, training teachers and leaders, coaching schools to change and advising education policy-makers around the world.  Pasi has worked in schools, universities, state-level administration (Ministry of Education in Finland) and international development organisations (World Bank, OECD, European Union).  His main areas of interest are educational change, school improvement, cooperative learning, and global education policies.  He delivers several international keynote presentations each year and has published over 100 articles, chapters and books, among them "Educational change in Finland" (2010), “Rethinking accountability in a knowledge society” (2010), “Creativity and innovation through lifelong learning” (2009), "Should 'failing' students repeat the grade?" (2008); "The role of international organisations in fighting corruption in education" (2008), "Education Policies for raising student learning: The Finnish approach" (2007), "Education reform for raising economic competitiveness" (2006).  His forthcoming book is titled "Finnish lessons: What can the world learn from educational change in Finland?” Pasi earned PhD from the University of Jyväskylä (Finland) in 1996 and he is Assistant Editor of Journal of Educational Change and Adjunct Professor at the Universities of Helsinki and Oulu.

Dr. Martin Gleeson is a teacher educator in Mary Immaculate College, Limerick where he specialises in Literacy Education. He accumulated a broad range of experience as both class and learning support teacher in diverse educational settings during his twenty three years in the primary school system.
        In 2004 he was awarded a Ph.D by the University of Limerick for his thesis entitled “A Longitudinal Study on the Impact of Integrated Early Literacy Instruction on the Reading Development of Children in an Irish Primary School.”  This study, drawing on international best practice, promotes the importance of reading high quality children’s literature, developing effective home-school reading partnerships, phonemic awareness training, emergent writing, systematic phonics instruction and daily meaningful reading experience to support children’s early literacy development.
      Martin has presented at a range of national and international conferences including,   I.L.S.A., R.A.I. European Reading Conferences and International Reading Association Annual Conferences. He has provided Continued Professional Development for teachers on a diverse range of literacy related topics, including, CAPER (Children and Parents Enjoying Reading), The Development of Children’s Phonological Awareness Skills, Emergent Writing, Developing Response to Fiction, Supporting the Older Inexperienced Reader and Assessment of Children’s Reading Development.
For the past two years Martin has collaborated with Dr. Anne Courtney of the University of Hartford, Connecticut and nine schools in the Munster area in the development of a strategic approach to comprehension instruction resulting in the publication of a teacher’s manual entitled “Building Bridges of Understanding: A Whole School Approach to Children’s Comprehension Development”. This approach has been adopted by many schools throughout the country and was presented at the I.R.A. Annual Convention in Chicago in April 2010.
Martin was President of the RAI in 2009-10 and is a current executive committee member.

Gene Mehigan is Principal Lecturer at Coláiste Mhuire, Marino Institute of Education, with leadership responsibilities for Literacy and Continuing Professional Development. As Head of the English Department his lecturing responsibilities include the teaching of English methods to undergraduate and post graduate students. His research interests are in the teaching of reading, education provision in disadvantaged settings and in teacher education. Much of his early research into the teaching of reading was carried out while teaching in Darndale Junior School. More recently his research has focused on the impact of the English Language curriculum on teaching reading in the early years in primary school. Prior to joining the staff at Marino he worked as coordinator of the Common In-service Remedial Course in Church of Ireland College Rathmines and with the Primary Curriculum Support Programme. Currently a member of the national executive of the Reading Association of Ireland he is also a past president of the Association of Remedial Teachers of Ireland (ARTI). In recent years he has worked with the World Bank as a consultant on the development of a sector wide approach for the reform of literacy education in The Gambia, closer to home has served as a member of the Project Team on Child Literacy and Social Inclusion for the National Economic and Social Forum.

Seán Delaney is interim registrar at the Marino Institute of Education in Dublin, where he has been a mathematics educator since 1999. Before that he spent 11 years teaching in Dublin and Kilkenny, including time as Principal. He is on the Board of Studies of Project Maths and has studied mathematics education in the United States where he received a PhD in 2008. His report on a study of Irish teachers’ mathematical knowledge, Knowing What Counts, was co-published by the Department of Education and Science and by the Marino Institute of Education in February 2010.

Online workshop registration will be available in May 2011.

Child Protection - Doing what's right for the child – Maria Doyle

As educators we are acutely aware of the fact that we are responsible for the learning, safety and well being of the pupils in our schools. School personnel hold a position of trust and both pupils and school personnel must work together to provide a secure and happy environment for all. 

Ensuring that appropriate structures and procedures are in place to maintain this environment is paramount and knowing what to do in the event of a child protection concern being highlighted in your school is essential. 

This workshop aims to bring participants through strategies to ensure that the whole school community is aware of school policy on child protection and the agreed procedures that are in place to manage concerns that may arise.

Developing your role as Deputy Principal - Gretta O'Shea
The workshop will focus on three elements of the role of the deputy principal that is to

• Develop yourself personally in terms of your own knowledge and skills
• Develop your role in the school to be as effective as possible
• Develop and expand your voice at a national level

The workshop will 

• Provide an opportunity for deputies to deepen their understanding of the role as a
  school leader and the management of expectations in the role. 
• Examine their leadership role in developing quality teaching and learning and nurturing positive relationships with pupils, teachers and parents.
• Reflect on the role of the DP in different school contexts and responsibilities involved.
• Explore strategies for working more effectively with Principal and staff.
• Share ideas in developing a voice for deputies nationally.

Exploring Approaches to In-class Support - Fiona King

This seminar will address the issues surrounding in-class support including its advantages and challenges. It will also look at where to start when embarking on in-class support and it will provide practical examples of models of good practice in this area.

Manage your Stress - Improve your Performance – Karen Belshaw

Manage Your Stress and Improve Your Performance workshop will be delivered by Karen Belshaw from Stress Management Ireland.  This exciting presentation is interactive, entertaining and enlightening.  The aim of the workshop is to teach practical Coping Skills to deal with everyday stress and stressors.  This is achieved by first understanding what happens in our brain and body when the stress response is triggered.  After a brief explanation of the fight or flight response in action, Karen uses simple techniques to demonstrate levels of awareness, perception, personality types which promote stress related responses in many individuals.  Karen will teach popular coping skills such as deep abdominal breathing, visualisations, controlling self talk, and progressive muscular relaxation. You will leave this workshop relaxed, confident and energised.

Typical content includes:

• Getting The Balance Right
• Getting The Best Out Of Yourself
• Perception & Awareness
• How To Recognise Symptoms & Sources of Stress
• Personality Types
• Simple Coping Skills
• Wellness Programmes
• Top Tips

School Evaluation - Gary Ó Donnchadha & Yvonne Keating
This session will explore recent developments in whole-school evaluation (WSE) and incidental inspection at primary level and will facilitate discussion of school improvement issues. It will provide information in relation to:

• recent changes in the WSE model at primary level
• the Inspectorate’s analysis of the outcomes of incidental inspections in primary schools

It will also facilitate discussion on supporting improvement in teaching and learning in schools and the leadership role of the principal in school improvement.

Maria Doyle

Maria has the distinction of being part of the first group of students who graduated from Mary Immaculate College with a B.Ed Degree - the original guinea pigs! Maria’s teaching career began in the infant room at the Mercy Primary School and in 1995, she became the first lay principal of the Mercy Senior Primary School. 

Our Lady of Mercy School is a Catholic, DEIS 2 School serving an inner city community with diversity of faiths and nationalities, catering for approx. 620 girls. Maria is presently a member of the IPPN Executive and served as a National Committee Rep. for Waterford prior to that.  She currently chairs the local Principal’s Network. 

Maria has presented at Misneach & Forbairt on behalf of IPPN and facilitated training for Boards of Management on behalf of CPSMA. In recent months, Maria has represented IPPN on a focus group with the DES along with education partners from both primary and second level reviewing the Child Protection Guidelines.

Maria loves her job despite the many significant challenges presented on a 24/7 basis. She has never regretted accepting the post in 1995 - when life appeared simpler! She avidly follows Waterford hurling and remains very optimistic that an All Ireland Title will come the way of the DEISE in the near future.

Gretta O'Shea
Gretta is currently seconded to PDST (Professional Development  Service for Teachers) and works with Leadership and Planning and is involved with co-ordinating and delivering both the Misneach Programme for Newly appointed Principals and the Forbairt Programme for Principals and Deputy Principals.  From 2006 Gretta was seconded to LDS (Leadership Development for Schools) as an Assistant National Co-ordinator. She co-ordinated and developed the Tánaiste Programme for Deputy Principals which was the first programme of professional development designed specifically for deputy principals and now runs as a Summer Programme. An evaluation of the Programme formed the basis of her Master’s thesis in 2009 in TCD. She was Deputy Principal in Our Lady of Consolation NS, Donnycarney from 2000 to 2006. She has particular interest in the area of Human relations and emotional intelligence.

Fiona King

Fiona is a resource/learning support teacher in Fahy N.S. Co. Mayo.  She works with the INTO Professional Development Unit as a course designer, tutor and facilitator for summer courses and online courses on special education and on effective teaching for effective learning. 
Fiona has an M.A. in Special Educational Needs and is currently undertaking her doctorate in ‘Developing and Sustaining Teachers Professional Learning: A Case Study of Collaborative Professional Development”.  She is author of the publications: Special Education in Irish Classrooms: A Practical Guide and journal articles: ‘Co-teaching: Why and How?’; ‘Action Research: A tool for educational change and school development’ and co-author of ‘Peer Tutoring: an Inclusive Approach to supporting Reading: Case study in five disadvantaged schools’ all published in ‘Learn’. She has an article recently accepted by the journal ‘Management in Education’ (Sage Publications) titled ‘The Role of Leadership in Developing and Sustaining Teachers’ Learning’ due for publication later this year.   

Karen Belshaw

Karen Belshaw holds an honours degree in Psychology, and a postgraduate certificate of stress management training from the Stress Institute of Ireland. She is a member of the Psychological Society of Ireland (PSI) and the British Psychological Society (BPS) and bound by the code of ethics of PSI. Karen is fully qualified and insured to teach Stress Management Techniques.  Karen is founder and director of Stress Management Ireland, (established 1998) a company which specialises in stress management workshops, corporate and individual, teaching relaxation techniques and cognitive control.

Over the past ten years, Karen has worked with many different organisations in both public and private sector, including VHI Healthcare – VHI Corporate Solutions (nationwide), The Irish Management Institute (IMI), Microsoft and Hewlett Packard.
Visit the website www.stresstraining.ie

Gary Ó Donnchadha
Gary Ó Donnchadha is Deputy Chief Inspector in the Department of Education and Skills. His responsibilities include overseeing the development and implementation of the Inspectorate’s annual inspection programme and supporting the Inspectorate’s advisory and policy work. Gary has been with the Inspectorate since 1998. In recent years he has managed the Inspectorate’s Evaluation Support and Research Unit which has developed revised inspection processes for Whole-School Evaluation (WSE) at both primary and post-primary levels.

A graduate of Mary Immaculate College of Education, his academic record includes two masters degrees in education and a higher diploma in education. In 2005 he graduated with an MBA from UCC. Before joining the Inspectorate Gary taught in Scoil Eoin, Ballincollig, Co. Cork, and worked as an education officer with the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA).