Ms Eileen O'Rourke:

I agree with several of the points made so far concerning equality of access and opportunity. We feel that must be a central tenet of all aspects of what we do in schools. I echo a point made earlier about the length of the enrolment process for students with additional and special needs. Currently, the cut-off date has been moved forward for the application for extra resources for these children. It has been moved to February, which is unworkable. We have had a great deal of communication from NABMSE members recently regarding this difficulty. It is an onerous task to pull together the necessary meetings, documentation and perhaps the reassessments of the children applying.

It is quite an onerous task to pull together the meetings, documentation, perhaps the reassessments of children who are applying. We also have to fit into our schedule many out-of-school visits and opportunities to photograph key people, meet people repeatedly, come to school at busier times, quieter times and so on. It is quite a complex process because we are enrolling children with extra needs. We would really support looking at the length of the enrolment process. Currently with the cut-off dates in place one year is not enough for our members.