Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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132. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if she has adopted a strategy for improving leadership and performance evaluation in schools. [49766/22]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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Circular 0003/2018 “Leadership and Management in Post Primary Schools” and Circular 0063/2017 “Leadership and Management in Primary Schools” paved the way for the further development of a distributed leadership model and the restoration of 2,600 posts of responsibility in the 2017/2018 school year.

The Department has committed to annually revising the allocation of Posts of Responsibility to take into account retirements during the school year which has ensured that the current level of Posts of Responsibility (POR’s) are maintained in the school system. New POR threshold tables are produced each year to distribute these PORs equitably across all school. Currently one in three teachers hold a promotional post within our schools. The Sectoral Bargaining process under Building Momentum for the primary sector has been used to further increase posts of responsibility (POR) in primary and special schools by an additional 1,450 posts in the 2022/23 school year.

Circular 0044/2019 “Recruitment/Promotion and Leadership for Registered Teachers in Recognised Primary Schools” issued in August 2019. This circular replaced circulars 0063/2017, 0070/2018 and Appendix D and E of the School Governance Manual for Primary Schools 2015-2019.

Distributive leadership incorporates a flexible structure in schools and allows for effective delegation of leadership roles across senior and middle leaders. Leadership is thus distributed throughout the school as a key support for student learning.

The circulars allow for greater flexibility in the assignment and re-assignment of roles and responsibilities to Assistant Principals. This will afford school management greater flexibility to respond to the individual needs and priorities of their school.

In line with the principles of distributed leadership, Assistant Principals will work in teams in collaboration with the Principal and/or Deputy Principal and have shared responsibility, commensurate with the level of the post (i.e. Assistant Principal (AP) I or II), for areas such as - learning and teaching, leading school development (including curriculum development), pupil support including wellbeing, leadership/management and development of individuals and staff teams.

In accordance with the circulars all post holders are accountable to the Board of Management/ ETB for the fulfilment of their roles and responsibilities. This is provided for in the “Report and Review” section of the circulars which are in 12. of Circular 0003/2018, section 11. of Chapter 2 of Circular 0044/2019 and section 14. of Chapter 4 of Circular 0044/2019. An annual review is carried out each year in post primary and at regular intervals, but at a minimum of every two years in primary.

Consultations are currently underway with the Educations Partners in relation to a revised circular to update the post primary Circular 0003/2018.