School Development Planning CD - another waste of money!
I have written about School Development Planning Support (Primary) previously.
In their wisdom S.D.P.S. have decided to put a copy of their website on CD …. issue a copy of the CD to all the Primary School teachers in the country and to provide each member of the Board of Management with their own copies as well.
What an utter waste of money!
Fix our school broadband …. we’ll be able to access it online.
They wasted their time sending copies for the Board of Management …. they don’t read the printed material I give them …. what hope is there that they’ll browse a CD?
Those CD’s were promptly binned … they’d laugh me out of it if I gave them a CD each.
I’d prefer the SDP advisors actually knew how to advise … spend the money there …. train them properly …
Maybe then we’d start getting places!
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I hope they are not like the CD/DVD that I was given last night, it was blank!
Paddy,
I’m not sure if I would be impressed by getting a CD of stuff that was already online, especially when teaching posts are being frozen.
I don’t understand why your BoM doesn’t read material. If I was chair I would ask them why they had not read it.
Did you see today’s I Times? Dublin City Council want to impose a local tax on schools. John Gormley is apparently favourably disposed towards their plans
Hello Ian,
I present the material …. I send out the agenda etc. with the required week’s notice …. ample time to peruse/read/digest material.
It’s very obvious at the meeting that people haven’t read the documents when they’re being discussed.
I presented a revised ‘Safety, Health & Welfare at Work Statement/Policy at our last meeting. It took a lot of work but it was plainly obvious that most hadn’t read it.
I’m happy that I did my work … that’s all I can vouch for.
In our school it’s difficult to get people to sit on the board …. we have two mothers on our board …. we failed to elect a father to the board.
I am 100% of the opinion that BOMs in their current makeup are a waste of time.
I spoon feed them the material …. it still doesn’t work.
very frustrating for you Paddy. I don’t quite understand, is the School Board like our Parent/Teacher committees? Are you in a religious/private school? Public schools don’t generally have a school board over here. Jut a P & T committee that’s largely involved in fundraising etc. for extra equipment and facilities.
Re. the tax story … I haven’t heard anything about it …. still …. it wouldn’t surprise me.
What the government giveth in one hand they taketh away as quickly in the other …. it’s just that the provision of resources in the classroom suffer first when money is tight.
Hi Baino
We’re under the DES … but have a Catholic ethos.
Our Board has 8 members total:
Chairman - Catholic priest
Principal - moi
1 other teacher representative
2 parents reps - 1 female, 1 male
2 from the wider community - 1 nominated by patron (local bishop) and other nominated by the other 7 members of the board.
The new boards were formed last November and exist for a 4 year period. We very nearly failed to make a full board.
With legal responsibility increasing for boards etc. having a group of inexperienced and sometimes uninterested people running schools is crazy.
Why does it continue? Church holding on to power, also suits the DES ….. any other system would cost a fortune to implement.
DES pay wages of teachers but BOM are held legally responsible for them or anything that happens within the school. Go figure that out!
Case not too long ago was taken by a woman who was sexually abused by a school principal. She sued the DES. The DES wasn’t held liable even though it paid the principal his wages. BOM was the responsible party.
hi Paddy
Blair said “Education! Education! Education!” which translated means…Initiative to the Nth power ….. or everyone’s an expert on education. They’ve all had some.
Rural schools in any system get the rough end of the stick it seems.
since I retired I have been workig with various schools in our (Urban) borough and there are two main types of problem school: Those who are causes for concern educationally…usually in the underpriviledged areas of the borough and those whoich are faith schools…there are parish conflicts that come into school governance and people lose sight of the needs of the children. Mind you over here the government have lost sight of the needs of children in education…perhaps our society has too, for that matter.
Still like your Graveyard Project. And getting the children to use “The Web” too, I can’t help technically I’m afraid.
All the best
I have a few more ‘nice’ things up my sleeve to do with the pupils before the summer holidays.
Of course it means a lot more work for me …. why can’t I learn to not weigh myself down with school work?