8.3 Supports to promote leadership and management

8.3 Supports to promote leadership and management of early learning and care settings and schools

It is the ambition of all education systems to ensure that optimal leadership practices are developed and fostered in their schools. In that regard, the importance of collaboration between all of the stakeholders in developing and sustaining highly-effective leadership practices in schools is critically important. As the leadership of schools can be both challenging and complex, a comprehensive suite of supports for school leaders is available from the Department and its agencies. The Centre for School Leadership’s (CSL) supports range from a pre-appointment professional postgraduate diploma in school leadership to coaching and mentoring supports for school leaders. The suite of supports also includes Misneach138 and Forbairt139, leadership training programmes provided by the Professional Development Service for Teachers (PDST). Additional leadership positions in schools in the form of Deputy Principal, Assistant Principal I (AP I) and Assistant Principal II (AP II) have also helped in this regard.

The development of quality frameworks supports a shared understanding of leadership and management standards

During the period to which this report refers, quality frameworks were developed to support leadership and management structures in schools. The Looking at Our School 2016 (LAOS) quality frameworks for primary and post-primary schools outline clear, definable standards for the dimension of leadership and management. The standards provide a common language and understanding with respect to leadership and management for education partners. The use of these standards enables schools to identify and work towards highly effective practice in the critical functions of leadership and management.

The establishment of the Centre for School Leadership represents a unique opportunity to develop and support school leadership

The Centre for School Leadership (CSL) is a partnership between the Department, the Irish Primary Principals’ Network (IPPN), and the National Association of Principals and Deputy Principals (NAPD). The CSL is funded by the Teacher Education Section (TES) of the Department. It was established in September 2015 to lead, support, enhance and advise on high-quality programmes to develop and support school leadership, particularly principals, across primary, special and post-primary schools. As well as providing leadership training, the CSL advises the Department on policy in the area of school leadership.

Between January 2017 and December 2020, 944 principals availed of one-to-one coaching and a further 198 school leadership teams availed of team coaching. The coaching service is provided by executive coaches and funded by the Department. Experienced school principals, who have engaged in training in mentoring skills with CSL, also offer one-to-one mentoring to newly-appointed principals during the new principal’s first year in the role. Between September 2016 and December 2020 a total of 1,275 new principals availed of this support. Both the coaching and the mentoring focused on developing the skill sets required to meet the standards of LAOS. By the end of December 2020, a total of 1,065 teachers had participated in the Postgraduate Diploma in School Leadership, an 18-month blended-learning programme, which is awarded jointly by the University of Limerick (UL), the National University of Ireland Galway (NUIG), and University College Dublin (UCD). This level nine postgraduate diploma aims to develop leadership skills amongst aspiring school leaders. At the time of writing, the Department is working with the CSL to ensure greater coherence in how newly-appointed school leaders are supported.

138 Information on the PDST Misneach Programme is available at: https://pdst.ie/primary/leadership/misneach (Primary) and https://www.pdst.ie/Misneach/Postprimary (Post-primary) 139 Information on the PDST Forbairt Programme is available at: https://pdst.ie/primary/leadership/forbairt (Primary) and https://www.pdst.ie/Forbairt/Postprimary (Post-primary)

The restoration of posts of responsibility has strengthened structures for delegation, and also for distributed and shared leadership

The Action Plan for Education 2016-2019 included a specific action to change the leadership and middle management structures, and the functions carried out in schools by the holders of posts of responsibility. The restoration of middle-management posts of responsibility in schools was commenced in 2018. Circular 0070/2018 (primary) and Circular 0003/2018 (post-primary) introduced a number of measures which were intended to strengthen leadership and management structures. These included the setting out of a leadership and management framework for posts of responsibility.

The implementation of the leadership and management circular strengthened structures for the delegation of roles and responsibilities to meet the evolving needs and priorities of schools. Together with the Looking at Our School 2016 framework and the SSE process, it empowered school leaders to examine and review current practice, take collective/shared responsibility, focus on teaching and learning, set improvement targets and implement and monitor actions for improvement. Taken together, these reforms provided an opportunity to shape leadership in new ways that best reflected good practice and addressed the needs of schools.

The School Leadership Working Group is working to ensure that optimal leadership practices are developed and fostered in schools

Since 2014, the Department has been focusing in an in-depth way on the issue of governance, leadership and management arrangements in schools. It has established a School Leadership Working Group (SLWG), comprising principal officers from a range of sections within the Department, which meets school leadership organisations and school management bodies regularly. The focus of the SLWG is on working to ensure optimal leadership practices are developed and fostered in our schools, and preparing proposals relating to school leadership for consideration by the Department’s Management Board.

Much of the focus of the engagement between school leadership organisations and the SLWG has been on the extent of the burden of the principal’s role, despite the investment in restoring middle leadership posts and the increased powers to delegate roles and responsibilities across middle leaders. In that regard, it is incumbent on the system as a whole to ensure that what has been provided to date is working effectively. This is particularly so, given the Department’s considerable investment in supporting school leadership.

Figure from page 233