Mr. P?iric Clerkin:

Absolutely, but it is a significant issue. As a result of that, I can point to international research telling us that the health of school leaders is being affected because of that. We are finding it harder and will find it harder into the future, to recruit and retain school leaders. They need more support from the system to ensure they can deliver what we ask of them. While schools of course should do everything in their power to support their students and families, they need to be given adequate support to fulfil that. More is needed from the system to support the schools in order that they can do that successfully. I do not believe for one minute that any school does not want to provide this provision but in putting it in place, schools have found it difficult to staff it.

From a leadership point of view, we take our responsibility in this regard seriously and that is why, on our own bat as an organisation, we have put structures in place to support schools and families who want to access these services during the summer. The last thing I want to see is people using social media to do so. That is why we use our platform through EducationPosts to support families to access supports during the summer.