National Principals' Forum

Politician(s) lobbied: Hildegarde Naughton (Minister of State), Department of Education; Simon Harris (Tánaiste and Minister), Department of Foreign Affairs; Ryan O'Meara (TD), Dáil Éireann, the Oireachtas

Intent: We intended to secure a face to face meeting with Minister Hildegarde Naughton to communicate to her the serious issues being faced by schools and school leaders in relation to sustainable leadership, lack of supports for children with additional needs and inadequate school funding.

Methods: EmailMeetingInformal communication

Politician(s) lobbied: Simon Harris (Tánaiste and Minister), Department of Foreign Affairs; Hildegarde Naughton (Minister), Department of Education

Intent: Engagement with the Minister to outline how improvements on the ground can be achieved.

Methods: Email

Politician(s) lobbied: Helen McEntee (Minister), Department of Education; Paschal Donohoe (Minister), Department of Finance

Intent: We continue to highlight issues maligning our primary education system and seeking to work collaboratively with government towards timely, practical and positive change. We would like to secure a meeting with our Minister for Education or the Joint Oireachtas Committee to discuss these issues further. We welcome any engagement or support from Oireachtas Members.

Methods: Unknown

Politician(s) lobbied: Helen McEntee (Minister), Department of Education; Simon Harris (Tánaiste and Minister), Department of Defence; Darren O'Rourke (TD), Dáil Éireann, the Oireachtas

Intent: To secure a meeting with Minister Helen McEntee if possible to discuss these issues with a view to working towards positive collaborative change.

Methods: MeetingLetter

Politician(s) lobbied: Norma Foley (Minister), Department of Education; Hildegarde Naughton (Minister of State), Department of Education; Roderic O'Gorman (Minister), Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth; Anne Rabbitte (Minister of State), Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth

Intent: We intended to give politicians the information they needed to be more congisant of the specific issues maligning Primary Education, so that these would feature on political Budget Manifestos and thus ensure a positive outcome and badly needed increase in allocation of funding for Primary Education.

Methods: Unknown

Politician(s) lobbied: Norma Foley (Minister), Department of Education; Hildegarde Naughton (Minister of State), Department of Education; Roderic O'Gorman (Minister), Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth; Anne Rabbitte (Minister of State), Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth; Jackie Cahill (TD), Dáil Éireann, the Oireachtas

Intent: To raise awareness, to prioritise these educational issues in the upcoming budget/ future general elections. Government Expenditure on Education per student is equivalent to 13% of per capita GDP, which is below the OECD average of 27% -Ireland ranks last out of 36 countries for investment in Education as a measure of our GDP, according to the latest OECD data. This needs to improve in order to provide the funding needed to run our schools & pay the staff paid directly by the Board of Management::We asked that the Department of Education faciliate school principals to upload our SEN (Special Education Needs) data to the existing POD (Pupil Online Database) annually so that our EXACT SEN needs school profiles are known by the Dept and NCSE and therefore accurate SET (Special Education Teaching) and SNA (Special Needs Assistant) allocations can be granted to schools annually. Without this data, the system will continue to fall short, placing huge pressure on all concerned, ::Greater supp

Methods: Email

Politician(s) lobbied: Norma Foley (Minister), Department of Education; Anne Rabbitte (Minister of State), Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth; Josepha Madigan (Minister of State), Department of Education; Roderic O'Gorman (Minister), Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth

Intent: We communicated how schools have been inaccurately profiled in terms of SEN (special Education Needs) for many years & asked for a mechanism by which schools can communicate their SEN data to the Dept/ NCSE be created so that this ever devolving issue can be addressed meaningfully & realistically. We suggested that the existing POD(Pupil Online Database) is ideal for this purpose, & will solve the Dept's problem of not having accurate/current Data from the HSE, which they admit wasn't consistent

Methods: Email

Politician(s) lobbied: Norma Foley (Minister), Department of Education; Josepha Madigan (Minister of State), Department of Education

Intent: To achieve some of the improvements needed in education, as outlined in the Lobby Campaign. To have our concerns once again highlighted and documented.

Methods: Social Media

Politician(s) lobbied: Unknown

Intent: Unknown

Methods: Unknown

Politician(s) lobbied: Unknown

Intent: Unknown

Methods: Unknown