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 […]
Droichead: The People have Spoken
Yesterday, the INTO revealed the results of the ballot regarding non-cooperation with the Droichead scheme. Despite all the obstacles put in the way from the CEC of the INTO and all the propaganda from the Teaching Council, 91% of INTO members have voted in favour of the ballot, which means that Droichead cannot happen in […]
Droichead: The Film Script
The story of Droichead has been worthy of a film. It’s got a cast of characters, a big problem to be resolved, some bad guys, good guys and everything in between. If Droichead was to become a film, here’s my attempt at a script. Some meeting room somewhere. Inspectors: We don’t want to probate newly […]
#GE16 and Primary Education: Class Size
I won’t be voting for a party based on promises of reducing class sizes but it seems to be the thing that politicians believe is the number one issue in education. Ultimately, once one hits around 18 pupils, anything above that has little impact, i.e. the difference between 30 and 25 is negligible. Anyway, despite […]
IPPN 2016: Principals Meet Politicians
This year’s IPPN annual conference was more than a little bit political with no less than seven politicians taking to the stage over the two days. Every year I give a summary of what I got up to. I try to spend a good bit of time in the Expo and miss out on some […]
IPPN Expo Preview
The IPPN conference is coming next week. The conference has seen a change in that the minister for education is going to be at the official opening of the conference rather than the morning after, which seems to be aimed at launching the various political parties’ education election manifestos. We’re also going to have to put […]
Teachmeet on Tour
After the great success of PrincipalMeet at the IPPN conference, Teachmeet Ireland have been invited to host CESI’s annual Friday night pre-conference Teachmeet. This is the first year that the Teachmeet has been outsourced and, given the success of Kathleen Byrne and Ciara Brennan’s Teachmeets around the country, it looks like participants are going to be in […]
IPPN 2015 Review
The annual IPPN conference, the largest educational conference in Ireland, where over 1,200 principals gathered for two days of inspiring talks and networking, was another success. This was my 7th conference and it is a must for any principal. Every year, I review my two days in Citywest, and make comments on my experiences. The theme […]
IPPN Expo Preview
Every year, we preview the Irish Primary Principals’ Network (IPPN) conference and its Teacher Expo. This year, it is open to teachers on Thursday evening if their school has a delegate at the conference. As well as this, the IPPN have embraced Twitter fully and there is a hashtag #IPPN15 that can be followed. There are over […]
Guest Post: Not Every Cloud…
This guest post has been written by Simon Sharkey from the company Bryan S. Ryan, a specialist in print and business technology. The company recently exhibited at the IPPN conference and spoke with us about cloud technology. This is their take on cloud computing from a business perspective. It certainly makes interesting reading and is […]