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Point1.
Rural Access Gap - provide fibre broadband now for schools, not just rural as I am aware many more urban or larger schools also have similar issues.

To have, in this day and age, any school with only 0.1MBps speed BB (…if you even get a Speedtest done due to poor connectivity / bandwidth) really hampers schools to fully engage with Literacy / Numeracy / Digital Strategy

Contacting our elected TDs and politicians to make representations on our behalf only deviates  our focus away from the opportunities the lay before us as regards training, evaluating and upskilling school staff with every Action Plan / Strategy / Initiative. Innovation and engagement requires energy and time - so much waste in schools in technical / infrastructure and troubleshooting.

Almost all communications / surveys / instructional CPD videos related the Literacy / Numeracy and Digital Strategy are online.

As the saying goes…
“Just because you have been given a cactus does not mean you have to sit on it”
However as a school leader it is one cactus too far trying to bring staff along and be enthusiastic and open to embracing the changes that will come about as part of the Literacy, Numeracy and Digital Strategy.

IPPN echoes what I discussed during the Zoom Consultation last week in stating;
“In order to ensure school leadership of the highest quality in our schools, and a leadership role that is sustainable and less likely to have a negative impact on the health and wellbeing of school leaders, consideration needs to be given to the following:
…
• the extent to which school leaders are deflected from their core purpose by having to
take on responsibilities and tasks not related to that purpose and how that impacts on
the sustainability of their roles”

Equally the important factor of time to sit down together as a staff alongside other schools - as happened in the 1999 curriculum and allow for planning days in schools to siphon the content into their particular school environment and context is critical. These days served as a catalyst in adoption of the “New Curriculum” in real terms on the ground. I was an NQT during this time of training, before the acronym NQT had been even adopted!
The need for all staff to sit and discuss, to plan, research, implement, experiment, reflect and repeat this cycle is required.
True engagement and adoption will not happen by ticking boxes, delivering training online or in circulars or strategy statements.
If it did not work for our students during school closures we would be foolish to not apply the same standard for our teachers / SNAs / Early Years Practitioners and indeed our School Leaders.

Point 2:
My second point does relate to the first point - school leaders spending too much time on paperwork relating to obtaining adequate resources for SEN. Huge changes are happening in our schools as regards inclusion. The necessary supports required by schools in SET / SNA allocation - require substantial paperwork and time. These applications take months to proceed and several months to obtain an outcome.
IPPN and NPF have both highlighted these points and yet the issues remain.
In supporting learners to achieve their potential

This point was noted in the IPPN Submission to the Department of Education
Literacy, Numeracy and Digital Literacy Strategy, February 2023

“Pillar 5 of the 2011-2020 National Strategy, ‘Helping students with additional needs to achieve their potential’ is another area that has not been achieved. The ongoing under-resourcing of NCSE and staffing issues in the role of SENO across the country, along with increased bureaucracy required of schools, has led to inadequate supports and very slow response to requests for exceptional reviews. SEN allocations, resourcing and appeals is the single biggest issue for schools…”

Having been through four SNA exceptional reviews in past three years and one SET exceptional review (ongoing). I feel school leaders are being pulled in every direction. Reductions in supports and/ increase in SEN enrollments including refugees due to the threat of war and persecution result in less early intervention and in class supports, resulting in a ‘loaves and fishes’ style provision in our schools. (NPF, 2021)
It is not just the children are hindered in achieving their full potential, educators are held back in achieving their full potential as professionals.

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Companies are hiring based on the ability to learn new skills not necessarily based on current skill set of individuals due to tech developments. So these skills are key to all learners

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We are really only starting our digital learning strategy formally in the school. As an accident of covid I think that teachers’ skills in the use of IT have developed substantially. However in terms of children’s use of digital resources, I would like to see included how the use of IT can consolidate children’s targeted learning. I want to avoid a situation in school which sees an over reliance on digital means to teach. Instead its use to consolidate learning and develop skills will be of utmost importance. A school based training scheme will be hugely important for this so that all teachers get the relevant training and support needed.

As part of the strategy for literacy and numeracy it is imperative that the schools are resourced adequately for the resources required for individualised learning, whether they be graded readers, numicon, increased training in reading recovery/maths recover over all schools- not just deis schools. We are a non deis school but have numerous children coming from disadvantaged backgrounds. All schools should have a chance to upskill in these evidence based programmes. Also, it is important to teach children adequately, the appropriate amount of personnel are on site to help with this. Eg a school can invest hugely in graded readers but unless the children are given a chance to read out loud, change their books regularly and be heard reading on a regular basis, the reading will not develop. A class teacher in a typically sized class does not have the time to do this every day. Therefore we need to be looking at the pupil teacher ratio/ or the allocation of increased SET teachers to allow for this. Otherwise the literacy/numeracy/ digital strategy will fail.

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An award scheme, like the former National  Digital Schools of Distinction, DSoD programme run through Dublin West Education Center that recognises the evolving and ever changing journey of schools especially in Digital Literacy as it incorporates the technical, informational, communication, collaboration, creativity, critical thinking, and problem solving aspects and competences of 21 Century Multi-literacies. 

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An award scheme, like the former National  Digital Schools of Distinction, DSoD programme run through Dublin West Education Center that recognises the evolving and ever changing journey of schools especially in Digital Literacy as it incorporates the technical, informational, communication, collaboration, creativity, critical thinking, and problem solving aspects and competences of 21 Century Multi-literacies. 

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Joined Thinking and continuity around Early Start..Pre-school..Primary..2nd level in all areas of Literacy with focused funding 'creative' literacies initiatives to address the three areas of discussion. Literacy. Numeracy. Digital Literacy. Available to ALL schools.

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Joined Thinking and continuity around Early Start..Pre-school..Primary..2nd level in all areas of Literacy with focused funding 'creative' literacies initiatives to address the three areas of discussion. Literacy. Numeracy. Digital Literacy. Available to ALL schools.

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1.The continued reduction in class size is vital, as is an increase in support teachers provided.

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1.The continued reduction in class size is vital, as is an increase in support teachers provided.

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2. Increase school based inservice to develop the teaching of maths.

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More literacy training around specific supports such as Reading Recovery and Literacy Lift Off.

Maths Recovery extended to include all schools.

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And

Guidance on best practice to link tech for homework and home school links