Sustainable Leadership Project

Small schools clustering action research project 2022-2024 was approved and funded. Continued resourcing of schools to manage Covid risk – PPE and cleaning requisites. DE Principals’ helpline to support schools with outbreaks l ‘CLASS’ hours for SEN pupils whose learning was disrupted due to a lack of substitute teachers. l Removal of some restrictions regarding substitute teachers to increase capacity, and student teachers in years 3 and 4 allowed to provide substitute cover where a qualified teacher is not available. l EducationPosts.ie noticeboards and new features to facilitate sourcing of substitute teachers.

It is broadly accepted, both nationally and internationally, that effective school leadership is second only to effective classroom teaching as an influence on pupil learning. From the system’s perspective, it makes sense that having the most effective people in school leadership roles, and enabling them to maintain their focus on their core purpose of leading teaching and learning, will have a consequential positive impact on the effectiveness of those schools.

IPPN’s Sustainable Leadership project has sought to explore the sustainability of school leadership roles identify the issues that are undermining that sustainability and propose solutions or recommendations that will contribute to the greater sustainability of those roles. As part of the project, we have identified six areas of focus that are inextricably linked with, and have the potential to be impactful on the sustainability of school leadership. They are a shared understanding of what constitutes leadership effectiveness and core purpose the need for a systematic process of preparation for leadership the challenge of recruiting school leaders the vexed issue of having the time and space to lead the sharing and supporting of leadership, with a particular focus on co-leadership and middle leadership and

Boards of Management and their capacity to discharge their governance role and responsibilities.

Accordingly, we have completed briefings about the project at all county

AGMs collated member feedback from all counties re. factors that sustain and factors that undermine school leadership refined the narrative around each of the themes of the project progressed the research project on school leaders’ health & wellbeing with NAPD and Deakin

University (the data from the first year of the research will be available in August) reviewed relevant academic literature and practitioner research (both Irish and international) relating to each of the themes undertaken our own research and analysis of policy documents, guidelines, legislation and circulars and how they relate to the domains of the quality framework for leadership and management in LAOS, as well as their impact on workload

‘...having the most effective people in school leadership roles, and enabling them to maintain their focus on their core purpose of leading teaching and learning, will have a consequential positive impact on the effectiveness of those schools.’

drafted each of the eight chapters exploring the key themes of l context l current reality l effective leadership and core purpose l preparation for leadership l recruitment l time and space to lead l sharing and supporting leadership l governance convened online fora with members on each of the project themes with group discussions of the draft materials hosted by trained facilitators refined each of the draft chapters to take into account this member feedback engaged with independent consultants on elements of the report to glean external perspectives relating to HR, recruitment, governance, etc. provided regular briefings on the progress of the project to the IPPN Board of Directors and National Council consulted with the IPPN coordinators for the Small Schools Clustering Project to identify synergies between the projects and how learning can be captured and shared drafted a member survey to address data gaps in areas that are relevant to the report. We are entering the final phase of this part of the project. Our Board members are currently reviewing the latest draft of the report, which will then be further refined on the basis of their feedback. The member survey referred to above will issue in the second week of September. The data gleaned from that survey will then be analysed and included in a penultimate draft, which will subsequently be shared with some “critical friends”. We are asking those critical friends to review the report to ensure that our analysis is considered, balanced and objective. We are inviting them to challenge our thinking and to interrogate both our consideration of the key issues and the recommendations we have made. Ultimately, this will lead to a final draft of the report being completed before its publication in November.

The early data emerging from the Deakin research is sobering and highlights the need for urgent action. At the very least, we have a responsibility to ensure that existing and future school leaders are afforded the opportunity to be as effective as they can be in their roles, as we know the consequential impact of that on school effectiveness and outcomes for children.

When finalised, the Sustainable Leadership report, and the recommendations for each of the six themes, will inform future budget submissions for 2024, 2025 and beyond.

‘we have a responsibility to ensure that existing and future school leaders are afforded the opportunity to be as effective as they can be in their roles, as we know the consequential impact of that on school effectiveness and outcomes for children.’