The re-establishment of panels of primary teachers paid to be on standby to cover absences should go ahead to help alleviate a teacher supply crisis, Education Minister Joe McHugh has said.

Primary school principals who also have to teach need one day per week to be freed up for mounting administrative duties, Education Minister Richard Bruton has been warned.

The recruitment of teachers to cover substitution needs is expensive and ineffective, Richard Bruton says.

More than one third of primary schools have been unable to hire a substitute teacher at least 10 times since September, a survey has found.

A new film could inspire parents to truly celebrate difference and so head off bullying, writes Helen O’Callaghan

Difficulties getting teachers to apply for principal jobs may be eased by a new course destined to prepare them for the challenges.

Education Minister Jan O’Sullivan says her department will continually review policy on keeping data on primary pupils, which it intends to hold until they reach the age of 30.

Children will be asked for their views on school atmosphere and their teachers as part of a suggested process to help support pupils’ mental health.

The behaviour of teachers, parents, and students towards principals makes them three times more likely than other adults to be bullied and twice as likely to suffer violence or threats, a major survey has found.

Schools that lose special needs teachers under a new allocation system must have any cuts phased in, a principals’ leader warned.

A fund of €3m is to be made available by the Department of Education to expand supports for principals and teachers aspiring to the role.

Schools will continue to turn to parents for financial support as another 1% cut to day-to-day funding goes ahead — despite an economic upturn that was not expected when it was flagged three years ago.

Close to half of all primary school principals could leave the job in the short or medium term, a survey has found.

Exhausted principals are being prevented from stepping back from school leadership because they risk having to move schools as a result, TDs and senators have been told.

Technology should open up the world to curious young minds — but crawling broadband speeds mean a Waterford primary class can not make best use of their fancy gadgets.

Kids are building their technology skills as schools sign up in their hundreds to a digital teaching programme.

Primary schools are being overloaded with changes to curricular emphasis without proper guidance, training or other supports from the Department of Education, the head of their principals’ body claimed.

MARITAL separation and divorce are among the most potentially stressful experiences that adults can endure.

Simplifications to school rolls and registers are just steps in the right direction towards keeping all pupil records online instead of on paper, principals said.

Education Minister Ruairi Quinn has been forced into a second embarrassing U-turn and reversed a 10% cut in resource teaching hours to schoolchildren with special needs.

The Department of Education took more than a year to properly follow up concerns about some children with Down’s syndrome being excluded from guaranteed resource teaching hours.

Professional bodies representing principals and deputy principals are to consider alternative representation because they do not believe their trade unions did enough to protect their members’ interests in the Croke Park II discussions.

A few times a week and at the end of every month, primary school deputy principal Paul Harrington complies with education law by writing pupil attendance figures from his computer into a book like those used by his 19th century predecessors.

President Michael D Higgins has joined primary school principals in calls to reduce the red tape that holds them back from teaching the arts.

A growing number of children in most primary schools are showing the effects of family trauma and emotional disturbance, their principals have said.

Food poverty is hindering some primary-school pupils’ ability to learn basic literacy and numeracy, according to the Irish Primary Principals’ Network (IPPN).

Irish 10-year-olds are above average at maths, reading, and science but their scores fall short of the top-performing children in the world.

Lugging stuffed schoolbags is uncomfortable and could even damage your child. Deirdre Reynolds gets some practical advice on lessening that load.

Only a quarter of parents with dependent children would opt to send them to a Church-run primary school, a poll has found.

Only a quarter of parents with children would opt to send them to a Church-run primary school.

The director of the Irish Primary Principals’ Network (IPPN) has told Education Minister Ruairi Quinn it would be fairer to spread education cuts across all schools instead of targeting those in disadvantaged and rural areas.

Primary pupils may have less access to new learning materials as dwindling funds are being used to pay rising bills.

Three-fifths of schools are financially worse off now than they were when the recession began, according to a survey by the Irish Primary Principals’ Network (IPPN).

HE WAS racing down a corridor as per usual when he noticed that his left heel was clipping the ground. Intermittently.

FAIR treatment by schools of all children, regardless of their beliefs, is more important to parents than who is patron, a forum on pluralism in education will hear this morning.

GARDAÍ have arrested a man as part of nationwide operation after nearly 120 primary school principals complained they hadn’t received history-learning aids for which they had paid.

GREATER investment in education here should be matched with more autonomy for schools and less focus on reading and maths, an expert who helped turn Finland’s education system into one of the world’s best has suggested.

PRINCIPALS should get more time to plan how schools teach reading and maths as a result of the Croke Park agreement, primary schools heads hope.

I READ recently that the failure rate for Project Maths students had halved.

HOMEWORK plays an important role in children’s education and provides a link with parents, say primary teachers.

Cork: Some 23 primary schools have readvertised vacant principal posts due to a lack of applications, says the Irish Primary Principals’ Network (IPPN).

SCHOOLS are being forced to advertise for a new principal up to four times because of the dearth of interest in the job among teachers.