Are you planning to retire in 2023?

If you have made the decision to retire or step back from leadership in 2023, we wish you every happiness and fulfilment in the future. We would like to give every principal who has retired or planning to retire an opportunity to provide feedback on their decision to move on from their leadership role, via an online survey.

The survey asks about your decision to retire, and your experience as a school leader. It should take no more than 8 minutes to complete. This is our first year surveying members who are retiring and your feedback would be much appreciated. Please email jackie.oreilly@ippn.ie for a link to the survey.

In order to provide professional support to the new principal on their appointment, we would appreciate if you would please ask the incoming principal to contact IPPN Support Office. This will ensure that they can avail of the various supports and services from IPPN from the very start of their time as a school leader.

Addressing Violence and Behaviours of Concern in Irish Schools

- Gerard O’Dea, Managing Director at Dynamis

The Irish Times recently reported that more than 500 special-needs assistants (SNAs) and teachers took leave due to physical assaults in schools in the last six years. Union representatives believe that incidents are getting more serious and more frequent.

Examples include an SNA who had part of her ear bitten off by a child, and an older worker who suffered a life-changing shoulder injury.

In our experience working with schools all over Ireland in recent years, these stories are not uncommon across the sector, particularly when we talk with staff who work directly with children who have additional needs.

Schools need an approach that is specific to their challenges, is flexible enough to be appropriate for younger children as well as adultsized young people. The approach needs to be safe for the staff to use in tense, uncertain and rapidly-unfolding situations.

Irish schools are benefitting from the lessonslearned and long-term development of guidance in the UK. Specific legislation was enacted there to give schools the legal powers needed to maintain safety. Detailed guidance is available for school leaders and classroom staff, giving teams reassurance that they are managing behaviours of concern and emergency incidents appropriately.

Our role has been to distill the key lessons and approaches which are working well for our clients, and to pass them on to Irish schools from Cork to Donegal.

Classroom teachers and SNAs use our approach, which offers the team ways to recognise behaviour and useful legal principles for making good decisions. A system of verbal and physical interventions which keeps everyone safe at school will uphold both the rights of the children and the rights of staff to stay safe.

There is no published guidance for Irish schools in how the Department wants to address the risks posed by children who express themselves through physically harmful behaviour.

Our initial advice to Irish school principals and their teams is to strengthen their approach to such challenges by starting with the ‘basics’ of Health and Safety management as it applies to violence in the workplace.

Under the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005 in Ireland, duties are placed with employers to provide a safe workplace for all those who may be effected by the work undertaken there.

Principals would be well-advised to consider Section 8 and Section 19 of the Act, which outline a duty to protect staff and children and also the means to do so, using a Risk Assessment approach.

“Hazards may be categorized as…human-factor hazards, e.g. stress, bullying, violence.”

— Guidelines on Managing Safety, Health and Welfare in Primary Schools, HSA.ie

As soon as violence has become a forseeable risk at your school, it is your duty to carry out a risk assessment, and it is often very helpful.

Along with the foundation of the Risk Assessment, the school should also consider what training might be required, to what level, and what content would be appropriate for them.

Our approach is to work with school leaders to carry out a Training Needs Analysis at no cost, so that any training provided directly addresses the challenges the staff are facing and makes a difference immediately.

Often, with the enhanced teamwork, better decision-making and coordination that comes after appropriate training, school leaders see increased confidence in their staff and a reduction in the risks posed by behaviours of concern, giving them the breathing space to plan for better outcomes overall.

Help is available!

An accredited provider of prevention and management of workplace violence training, specialising in helping Schools.

Scan the QR code for more information, or visit: www.positivehandling.co.uk/irish-schools/ E-mail: info@dynamis.training