052. Have specialised qualifications for Infant teachers
Sometimes it’s good to change a long held tradition. Anyone working in infant classes will see that their job is completely different to that of someone in another class. The way the curriculum is going, with Aistear encompassing much of what infant teachers do these days, is it time to simply use infants as a […]
051. Cluster OTs and SLTs to Schools
Special Educational Needs in Irish schools are a total disaster so this idea isn’t going to fix it. However, it might be a decent step in the right direction. When a child requires OT or SLT support, they join a very long waiting list and when they get an appointment, it’s generally during school, and […]
048. Abolish the Supplementary Panel
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 […]
047. Have properly resourced sub panels
Irish schools do not have established substitute panels. I’m not sure how common this is, but it would make a lot of sense of they were to be established. Since the online claims system (OLCS) has been set up, there must be a huge amount of data to establish how many absences per day are […]
043. Scrap Section 29s
Section 29s bring out the fear in principals. If you aren’t in the know, a Section 29 case can be brought against a school when they refuse to enrol a child into their school and it is appealed by a parent. It can also be used when a child is being expelled. I’ll deal with […]
041. Rule: Add an Initiative, Remove an Initiative
How many times have I heard someone on the radio say, “they should really be teaching this in schools,” when referring to their own pet project, whether that’s cooking, meditation, tackling obesity, knitting, or whatever? The trouble is since the “new” curriculum was published in 1999, lots of different initiatives and schemes have sneaked into […]
038. Reduce the number of stakeholders in primary education
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 […]
036. Replace Boards of Managements
For those of you unfamiliar with primary schools, you might be surprised to know that the Department of Education is not responsible for what happens in any of their schools. You may be further surprised to note that patron bodies also have no responsibility either. Every single primary school in the country is its own […]
037. Bus Escorts to be employed by Bus Eireann
Even though Bus Eireann run the school bus service, and employ their drivers, decide on routes, make their policies, and pretty much do everything else, fit done reason, schools have to employ and manage bus escorts. Nobody gets paid to fulfil this role and it seems to be a waste of time and resources when […]
034. Change Infants structure
Junior Infant classes can be a bit of a mix with children ranging from very young 4 year olds to very old 5 year olds and the difference between them is easy to spot, in general. There’s also a very odd leap between pre-school and primary school in loads of ways – never mind the […]