One of my pet hates is when the government decide to have a consultation in educational matters. Inevitably, two things can happen in these. Firstly, the consultation can go out to everyone in Ireland. Secondly, the consultation can happen without input from teachers. In both circumstances, opinion tends to be watered down by vested interests. … Read more
Think back to your own primary school experience and ask yourself: do you ever remember your teacher being hit by a pupil? The likely answer is that it absolutely never happened. Now ask yourself if one of your colleagues was struck by a child in the last few years. Violence (physical and verbal) towards adults … Read more
Becoming a principal can turn out to be a decision one might regret, as nothing can really prepare you for it. The idealist in you believes the advertisement that you will be a leader of learner, and in some ways, that’s sometimes true. However, the vast majority of the time, you end up filling in … Read more
It’s very likely that this post will be liked by most principals and hated by teachers on temporary contracts and nobody else in the middle will care too much. The Supplementary Panel is a good idea in theory. If you work enough time in a school (or schools) whether that’s subbing or temporary positions, you … Read more
Have you ever wondered what happens when the Department of Education has a meeting with all education partners? I always did and wondered what it would look like. When I was invited to represent a body regarding a new Department of Education initiative, I could see exactly why the education system is so messy. I … Read more
How anyone can now do the job of a Teaching Principal, given the changes in the job over the last decade, is beyond me. The job has changed beyond recognition. Not only does a Teaching Principal have to do a full time teaching job, they also have to take on the relentless extra work of … Read more
Given that the Internet has been around for over 20 years, it is surprising how little it is used by organisations like the INTO to elicit the feelings of their members. It is deeply unlikely that there are any members of the INTO without access to the Internet and it is the perfect tool to … Read more
The Teaching Council is made up of several union representatives, which make decisions on teaching conditions. The union therefore becomes both the decision maker and gatekeeper of the Teaching Council, which makes little sense. The union needs to take on the role of a strong gatekeeper from the Teaching Council. Droichead was an example of … Read more
When all the madness of the recession was on, it seems in order to try and satiate the howls of the public about how few hours the public sector worked, an hour a week was added to our schedules. These are known as Croke Park Hours. These hours are tokenistic at best. They do not … Read more
Getting paid as a teacher is a fairly complicated affair. There are up to 27 points on the pay scale and you start off on a different point of the payscale depending on different factors. To complicate things further, if you qualified after 2011, you are on a different payscale which is less than the … Read more