QUARTERLY “Give Covid the Boot!” – Colourful Counterblast to Coronavirus Calamity! Winter 2020 A Publication of the National Association of Principals & Deputy Principals ژ-O¾ژ¾-G ژOVNCFS ژ¥¥ژ¾w-¨¥ °Ok°ژ¨F %U¨-kwژUwژ wkäژ¨F Ƈ UwF¨u¾Uwژ-¨uژ¨F ǠƩǹƌȽȽƩȂȽِƩȏȂۮǠȄǑȏ בבזז׏חהژ׎׏ Leader Quarterly – Winter 2020 FROM THE EDITOR FROM THE EDITOR LeaderQuarterly EDITOR: This month, we belatedly celebrate Derek West the life and work of Sir Ken Email: [email protected] Robinson, who died last August. Mobile: 087 289 1443 Photography by: From its inception, NAPD was Charlie McManus, Derek West. deeply concerned with vision and values – they were at the ARTICLE SUBMISSIONS philosophical heart of the How to contact Leader organisation, in its mission to lead You can send your comments, replies, letters to the editor etc. meaningful and radical change to E: [email protected] our education. DISCLAIMER arret FitzGerald was a keynote speaker at our conference in 2006, where he Articles produced in this publication spoke about ‘civic republicanism’ and where the Association launched its solely represent the opinions of the Gthree-year strategic plan to articulate its values clearly, and to focus on the authors and do not necessarily reflect quality of educational leadership, with particular emphasis on the role, responsibilities those of NAPD. Every effort has been and workload of Principals and Deputies. made to fulfil requirements with regard to reproducing copyright material. NAPD Already the arts-in-education were seen as an integral part of that vision. When she will be glad to rectify any omissions at was President, in 2000-01, Mary Hanley had formed An Fo-Choiste Ealáine agus the earliest opportunity. Cultúrtha, and one of its first actions was to produce a policy report, The Arts in our Schools. Although he is not named in the document, Ken Robinson inspired the thinking PUBLISHING INFORMATION that underlay the principles it expounded there. Brendan Flynn provided the local Published by NAPD inspiration for the work and he pushed for every member of the committee to have a Layout: copy of All Our Futures, 1999, (sub headed Creativity, Culture and Education), a report Mark Daniel, CRM Design & Print, commissioned by the UK Government under Tony Blair and written by Robinson. Unit 6, Bridgecourt Office Park, Dublin 12. While the NAPD Report envisioned “an education system where all students have access to and participation in the arts”. Robinson went further, in that he saw creativity CONTACT INFORMATION and imagination as critical forces in the learning process and he was determined to move the emphasis to the learner and the needs of the individual child in the learning 11 Wentworth, Eblana Villas, Grand Canal Street Lower, process. Dublin 2 As Dermot Carney points out in his biographical note, the full potential of All Our Futures Tel: (01) 662 7025 was never realised, as it did not have the full support of successive UK governments, Fax: (01) 662 7058 but. its influence pervades the developments in our education system – the Arts-in- www.napd.ie Email: [email protected] Education Charter, Creative Ireland and Creative Schools, the work of the Arts Council and – in NAPD – the continuing work of the Committee and particularly Creative Engagement. Visit the monthly Leader Bulletin So, proudly we devote some of our pages to an appreciation of Ken Robinson’s legacy. online at www.napd.ie We hear from Patricia McDonagh, the President in 2007, who brought Robinson’s TED talk to our Conference, from Lorraine Comer, then in the Arts Council, who gave huge inspiration and support to the Arts & Culture Committee, and from Máire O’Higgins who translated her belief in the arts into classroom practice. As an extension of all that, we show the arts in action in a selection of paintings and poems created by students and teachers in some of our schools, defying the ravages of Covid (Give Covid the Boot!) Find NAPD On-Line With these positive assertions, and more bangs than whimpers, Leader Quarterly bows [www.napd.ie], out of the annus horribilis that was 2020. on Derek West, December 2020 Facebook, Twitter and Vimeo. 3 Leader Quarterly – Winter 2020 Front Cover QUARTERLY Photograph: Jessica Gallagher, St. Colomba’s CS, Glenties Design by “Give Covid the Boot!” – Contents Colourful Counterblast to Coronavirus Calamity! Derek West, Mark Daniel Winter 2020 A Publication of the National Association of Principals & Deputy Principals 20 23 46 53 61 65 Jacinta Kitt Ken RobinsonAlicia O’Sullivan John Horgan John Hammond Jean Ward 6 NAPD NATIONAL EXECUTIVE 2020-21 44 THE STUDENT VOICE ISSU GOES TO THE OIREACHTAS 8 MICHAEL CREGAN’S LEADER Q COLUMN Reuban Murray and Alicia O’Sullivan Michael Cregan, NAPD President 48 LEGAL DIARY 10 FROM THE DIRECTOR’S DESK David Ruddy Clive Byrne 50 HOW DO YOU TACKLE UNDERPERFORMANCE OF THE DEPUTY DIRECTOR REPORTS 11 SECONDARY SCHOOL STAFF? Paul Byrne MASON, HAYES AND CURRAN WEBINAR THE CARNEY ANGLE David Ruddy, Paul Rochford, Ian O’Herlihy, 13 Catherine Kelly and Paul Byrne Dermot Carney THE LEADER READER 14 ANALYSING EDUCATION: 53 REFORM OF THE SENIOR CYCLE John Horgan, Clive Byrne, Alicia O’Sullivan, Reuban Murray and Máire O’Higgins Seán McDonagh 60 A NEW PARADIGM FOR EDUCATION 20 PROACTIVELY CARING FOR YOURSELF IN THE WORLD IN A CHALLENGING TIME Kieran Golden, John Hammond, John Medlycott, Jacinta Kitt Jean Ward, Derek West 23 CELEBRATING KEN ROBINSON 68 Rainbow at Kilshanny Dermot Carney, Patricia McDonagh, Charlie McManus Brendan Flynn, Derek West, Máire O’Higgins and Lorraine Comer 30 GIVE COVID THE BOOT! See Covid-19 through the eyes of student and teacher artists Back Cover Rainbow at Jigsaw Kilshanny Tessellation at Larkin CC Photo by Rainbow at Kilshanny [Photograph by Charlie McManus] Charlie McManus 4 1PNKPG.GCTPKPI )5WKVG 1HƂHƂEG +PVGITCVKQP CPF UQ OWEJ OQTG ! 5C[JGNNQ VQ C UCHG # $ " EQPVCEVHTGGEQOOWPKV[ $GPGƂVHTQO GZEGRVKQPCN 2CRGTNGUUCPF GHƂEKGPV UGCONGUUN[OKITCVG HTQO ! [QWTRTGXKQWU /+5 VQ VQ[QWT TGSWKTGOGPVU D[ " ! $QQM|KP C FGOQ HQT [QWT UEJQQN NAPD EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE 2020-2021 Rachel O’Connor Michael Cregan Alan Mongey Anton O’Mahony Vice-President President Past-President Treasurer/C & C Sector Rory O’Sullivan Clive Byrne Paul Byrne Tim Geraghty FET Director Deputy Director Deputy Director Anne Gorby Daniel Hyland Shane Foley Monica White Region 1 Region 2 Region 3 Region 4 6 NAPD EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE 2020-2021 Siobhán Landers Gerard O’Sullivan Regina Butler Judi O’Boyle Region 5 Region 6 Region 7 Region 8 Deirdre Hickey Kevin Langton Norma O’Brien John O’Donovan Region 9 Co-opted ETB Sector Vol. Sec. Sector Deirdre Hanamy John McGuinness James Collins Eukaria O’Grady NAPD-R C & C Sector ETB Sector Vol. Sec. Sector 7 Leader Quarterly – Winter 2020 Never been a year like it! MICHAEL CREGAN’S Leader Q COLUMN the company of their classmates, which – whether we like it or not – is probably the prime purpose of schools for the vast majority of students. They want to ‘hang out’ with their friends, they want to be part of the team, be it hockey or hurling, SEVERE CHALLENGE camogie or running; they want the Debs and the graduation evening; they want to be together. All that suddenly stopped. There’s never been a year like it – not in my time anyway – They were now required to learn online, at home alone, to and never such a severe challenge to our education system. have the self-discipline to sit at the kitchen table or at a desk Schools were thrust into the front line of the Coronavirus in the bedroom for hours and hours every day. The temptation pandemic and, if you ask me, the leaders, the teachers, the to switch off, or skive off, was great. The isolation and the support staff and the students have acquitted themselves loneliness were terrible. magnificently. The school leaders, the teachers, the They want to ‘hang out’ with their support staff and the students have friends, they want to be part of the acquitted themselves magnificently team, be it hockey or hurling, camogie or running; they want the Debs and the graduation evening; they want to be together Of course we have to acknowledge that the real ‘front line’ has been in the hospitals and the care homes, and where would we be without the dedication and self-sacrifice of our nurses and doctors? We owe them an incalculable debt of gratitude For many of our teachers – especially the computer-savvy and admiration. younger ones – communicating through a screen was familiar and relatively easy. But for others, trained up for, and But, abruptly last March, our schools and colleges were faced accustomed to, the cut and thrust and interaction of the live with their greatest challenge in living history. They were classroom, this was a whole new ball game. A lesson is not a ordered to shut down at once but, at the same time, were lecture; learning is what the students do and the teacher expected to keep the teaching and the learning and the needs to know what is happening. Most people – students crucial preparation for state exams functioning, at a remote and teachers – longed to return to school. Yet the majority of distance. our teachers rose to this challenge and ‘kept the show on the road’, from March until June. The students had to adapt to this unprecedented situation, both socially and technically. They were suddenly deprived of 8 SEPTEMBER It is common knowledge in our own ranks that there were The re-opening in September presented a new hurdle. The virtually no holidays for principals this last summer; what is not physical surroundings were transformed with yellow notices, appreciated is the weight of expectations on school leaders, one-way systems and rigid layouts; movement was restricted the unceasing requirement for them to respond to and regulated in classrooms and corridors; facemasks were instructions, documents [and revised documents] – often at mandatory.