Cork gaelscoil needed 'significant improvement' in leadership and management, Dept said

Leadership and management of a northside Gaelscoil required “significant improvement”, a new report published by the Department of Education has said.

Gaelscoil Pheig Sayers on Redemption Road, a co-educational primary school in the northside of Cork city, made headlines in April when parents briefly removed around 100 students – almost a third of all students – due to ‘health and safety’ concerns.

Principal Adrian Breathnach made a statement at the time, saying that allegations that he was under the influence of alcohol at school earlier that week were “completely untrue and unfounded”.

Mr Breathnach said he had forgotten to bring his vertigo medication to school, leaving him disoriented. He has been out on stress leave since.

The government has now published an evaluation of the school, which is under the patronage of the Catholic Bishop of Cork and Ross, based on an inspection in February, which found that improvement could be made in all five areas assessed.

Overall, there was “scope for improvement” in the standard of learning, with the report saying that pupils needed to be challenged on a more consistent basis.

While examples of good practice were observed in the quality of teaching, some lessons were not appropriately prepared in advance meaning “pupils were not being systematically taught the language required to engage with lesson content”.

The quality of support for pupils’ well-being also required improvement, it said. 

A “significant minority” of pupils said that they did not like coming to school, and almost half of these said they would not be comfortable talking to an adult at school if they had a concern.

Leadership and management

However, the main issues were identified under the leadership and management section. The report said: “There was significant improvement required for leadership and management of the school to be of a good standard.” 

There was evidence that the board of management had not held the required number of meetings in the past year, which had “contributed to deficiencies” in areas like oversight of child protection procedures and reporting to the school community.

Though noting the board worked with the evaluation process and spoke positively about their commitment to the school, the report recommended structures be put in place so that management is more “transparent, consistent and effective”.

While the principal engaged positively with the evaluation process, his “overall leadership of teaching, learning and daily management practices required significant improvement to reach a good standard”, the report said.

The report also notes: “There was evidence of disharmony within the school community that has impacted negatively on the effective operation of the school.

“there was also a need to develop more effective communication structures with the wider whole-school community.” 

It comes as several parents emailed the board and the department saying that their children were “confused and distressed” when their peers were removed from the school, and criticising the board for what they claim was a lack of communication.

The report found that the school met the requirements in relation to six of eight child protection checks. 

The report said that the school didn't meet the requirements under two child protection headings. One was under the requirement for "school planning documentation which indicates that the school is making full provision for the relevant aspects of the curriculum (SPHE, Stay Safe, RSE).'

The second requirement which the school did not meet was that 'child protection records are maintained in a secure location".

By the time of the report’s publication, the school had furnished evidence of compliance with all requirements.

The board of management said that it notes the findings and recommendations of the report “and undertakes to work with all stakeholders to endeavour to implement these throughout the school”, adding that it has already engaged with internal school management and staff to commence implementation.