April Blog - Máire Ní Bhróithe
I return to this blog after a little break. We have been very busy over the past two months, organising training programmes for our mentors, working collaboratively with PDST to review the Misneach programme, meeting some of our future mentees, planning a special one day event for our mentors, finalising tenders for the coaching service (commencing next September) and for the aspiring leaders programme which will begin in 2017 and at the same time we are completing our assignments for our coaching diploma!
As always we have attended some interesting events over the past two months .In March we attended the launch of The LGBTI Ireland report about the lives of LGBTI persons living in this country. Last summer we celebrated the result of the marriage referendum and we are proud of that resounding yes vote. However, the report states that levels of severe stress, anxiety and depression are 4 times higher among 14-18 year old LGBTI teens in comparison to a similar age group in the national youth mental health study. There has been an improvement since 2009 in LGBTI students’ school experiences but 50 % of these students still say they have personally experienced anti-LGBTI bullying. In CSL we hope to provide professional learning sessions to our mentors so that they can help future principals take the lead and support and protect these young people.
In April we met with the new second level principals who were appointed on February 1st and whose task it is to open Greenfield site schools next September. Some work out of home, others out of borrowed offices in another school and others out of business premises in their local communities. All nine principals will open in temporary accommodation and have a myriad of different tasks to cover such as choosing between devices and books , one hour classes or 40 minute classes , types of desks and chairs they need, uniforms or no uniforms , the design of their curriculum and most importantly what subjects to advertise. While doing these tasks they will also be dreaming about the type of schools they wish to create and what structures they need to put in place now to assist them realise those dreams . CSL wishes the very best to these schools in Wicklow, Cavan, Cork and Dublin and will provide mentors for the principals to help them on their exciting and challenging journey.
Our second training sessions for mentors were held in March and April and we are delighted that we now have 200 established principals trained as mentors. This has given our small team a real sense of achievement. However our work is only beginning!
We now need to match our mentors with the new principals who will be appointed from next September. Advertisements are appearing in the papers almost daily looking for new principals to take on the challenging task of managing a school. Over the next few months there will be over 250 new appointments. CSL will provide a mentor for all new post primary principals in Ireland and all new primary principals in Leinster. IPPN will continue to provide a mentoring service for all primary principals outside Leinster in 2016-2017. The process of matching mentors with their mentees has already begun.
We are also preparing for a full day gathering of all 200 mentors in Athlone in mid-June. This will be a day of celebration and we will officially launch our mentoring programme. If all goes to plan, we hope to launch our newly designed website also! We are making plans for autumn 2016 already to commence mentor training in Ulster, Leinster and Connaught for primary principals. We will be looking for lots of new mentors and hope that our primary colleagues will assist us. We hope to train another small cohort of post primary mentors also. Keep an eye on our website for details about this.
This month I read an interesting book on leadership entitled “Leadership and Self-deception” (The Arbinger Institute). It is a simple book with a powerful message for all leaders whether they be in the business, education or the political world. It is written in the form of a story and this makes it an easy read. Some organisations face difficulties because their leaders are according to the authors, “in the box”. They simply do not realise that they have a problem and keep resisting the possibility that it is they who have a problem. This leads to disharmony in the organisation. As I read it and reflect back on my own days as a school principal, I can clearly remember the times when I was in that “box” and the implications that might have had for those around me. This book, published in 2000, can be used to assist with applicant screening and recruitment, leadership and team building, conflict resolution and personal growth and development. It is well worth reading!
The month ahead promises to be an exciting one for us. We hope to spend a day with our colleagues in the Scottish College of Educational Leadership at their inaugural conference on teacher leadership. I will certainly write about it next month. We are also really looking forward to completing our coaching diploma. We are all advocates of coaching now and firmly believe that the CSL coaching programme for principals which will be introduced next September, will be of enormous benefit to school leaders as they face the challenges of principalship.
We wish our fellow school leaders a positive and productive final term. Keep in touch with each other. Keep networking and keep collaborating! Ar scáth a chéile a mhaireann na daoine.
