Finding Time For Whole School Development

One question that generated a great deal of 
interest and creativity during a recent series 
of cluster meetings with secondary principals
was: 

When are we expected to carry out 
Whole School development?' 

The following were a number of solutions
that were shared.

Staff meetings were scheduled on a monthly basis. 
These normally lasted two hours. The first hour was
dedicated to regular school business, the second 
was given over to the school plan i.e. for the steering 
group to report to the staff as a whole or for the task
groups to meet and work on their specific briefs 
(or vice versa).

Another school closed at 12.15 on Wednesdays
(normal closing time was 1.1 5) for six alternate
 weeks. The staff worked for one hour over this 
period and devised policy-cum-action statements
on six areas of school need. 'Little and often' was
the motto.

On a particular day each month every class was
shortened by 5 - IO minutes so that the students 
have the same number of classes but a shorter day.
The 'saved' time was set aside for school planning,
 department meetings, programme meetings 
(LCA/TYO/ LCVP etc ), middle management 
meetings, pastoral area etc on a planned basis. 
The school rotated this planning day over the year
so that the same day ( and classes ) were not hit.
The 'saved' time was sometimes used in the morning
before school started and when teachers were 
freshest. The students came to school one/two 
hours later. Or the time was used when the students
 - had gone home.

Beginning of the school year was used to full 
advantage. The growing practice is for students
to be brought in on a staggered basis, the I st. 
years on one day, the Transition years on another,
etc.. The afternoons of these school days might
 be dedicated to various planning / faculty / 
programme meetings .

End of term meetings. The last days of a school 
term are sometimes a wind-down or 'valley-time' 
which staff might be happier to devote to -school
planning (as against 'babysitting'). Students
experience it very positively and it is a general 
morale booster.

One year group was brought in to sit exams
as staff work on school plan.

In order to maximise on the 'days' for school 
planning some schools devoted the morning
to a staff planning session and the afternoon
to a parent teacher meeting. In this way the 
staff were freshest in the morning, a p/t 
meeting was taken care of and disruptive
travelling arrangements for the students were
minimised.

Steering Group - these are given minimum 
contact hours to allow them time to work on
the school plan. They are time-tabled to meet
at least once a week to give updates and to 
devise strategies and arrangements for the 
term/year.

The Steering Group were exempted from the
supervision of the end of term house 
examinations so that they could meet/write
up reports/visit other schools.

The planning day(s) allowed by the DES were
cashed-in in terms of one period per week over
the year. This was not a popular choice as most
principals felt the need to bring staff together
for longer periods of time. People need to warm
to the process and creativity flows after staff 
have been together for some hours.

Brian Flannery

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