Mol an Óige
Collaborative Action Planning
-a guide to transforming schools and training workshops into
centres of learning for all
1
Mol an Óige is a YOUTHSTART funded project based in County Tipperary, developing and
testing innovative approaches to the issues relating to educational disadvantage. The project
is promoted by a consortium of the following agencies:
North Tipperary VEC (lead partner)
Mid Western Health Board
Irish Business and Employers Conference
FÁS
Tipperary Rural and Business Development Institute
Irish Congress of Trades Unions
South Tipperary VEC
Mary Immaculate College
Published by:
Mol an Óige
Teach an Léinn
Kenyon St
Nenagh
Co. Tipperary
© 2000
No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form without acknowledging the authors
and the Mol an Óige project.
Authors: Dan Condren, Rose Tully, Mary Slattery, Philip Mudge, Norberta O Gorman
ISBN: 1-903445-00-0
Mol an Óige welcomes comments and enquiries about this document and other aspects of its
work. These should be addressed to:
Dan Condren, Mol an Óige, Teach an Léinn, Kenyon St, Nenagh, Co. Tipperary
This publication is supported by the YOUTHSTART strand of the EU Human Resources
Initiative EMPLOYMENT.
The Department of Enterprise and Employment has overall responsibility for administration of
EMPLOYMENT
Printed by Liger Print, Nenagh, Co. Tipperary.
2
Contents
Structure of this Report ..................................................................................................................................... 5
FOREWORD ................................................................................................................................. 6
Mol an Óige, the project ...................................................................................................... 6
The Origins of Mol an Óige ............................................................................................................................... 6
Values underpinning the project ........................................................................................................................ 7
COLLABORATIVE ACTION PLANNING............................................................................................. 8
1.
2.
3.
Introduction .................................................................................................................. 8
1.1.
What is Collaborative Action Planning? ................................................................................................... 8
1.2.
Action Research ...................................................................................................................................... 9
The Development of Collaborative Action Planning .............................................. 10
2.1.
Rationale ............................................................................................................................................... 10
2.2.
The Emergence of Collaborative Action Planning in the First Round Project, Jan 96 – Dec 97 .............. 11
2.3.
The Development of Collaborative Action Planning During the Second Round Project - Our Learning .. 12
2.4.
How Collaborative Action Planning Operated ........................................................................................ 13
2.5.
Collaborative Action Planning in Primary Schools .................................................................................. 14
2.6.
Collaborative Action Planning in Post-Primary Schools.......................................................................... 15
2.7.
Collaborative Action Planning in Training Workshops ............................................................................ 15
2.8.
The Mol an Óige Project as a Learning Partnership ............................................................................... 16
Outcomes of the process ......................................................................................... 16
3.1.
The Value of the Collaborative Action Planning Process........................................................................ 16
3.2.
Learning Support ................................................................................................................................... 17
3.3.
Teacher Professional Development ....................................................................................................... 17
3.4.
New Teaching Methodologies................................................................................................................ 18
3.5.
Parents as Partners in Their Own Child’s Education .............................................................................. 19
3.6.
Maximising Resources .......................................................................................................................... 20
3.7.
Framework for Care............................................................................................................................... 20
3.8.
Networking ............................................................................................................................................ 20
3.9.
Collaborative Action Planning as a Strategy for Real Change ................................................................ 21
4.
Resource Requirements for Collaborative Action Planning ................................. 22
5.
Findings from the external evaluation of the process ........................................... 23
CASE STUDY A: “A MATTER OF CHANGING PRIORITIES” ............................................................ 24
How one primary school used Collaborative Action Planning to develop individual education plans as a means
of delivering learning support .......................................................................................................................... 24
CASE STUDY B: “THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS” ....................................................................... 30
Using Collaborative Action Planning to overcome the effects of isolation for teachers and students in small
primary schools ............................................................................................................................................... 30
CASE STUDY C: “CHANGING MINDSETS” ................................................................................... 35
3
How a post-primary school used Collaborative Action Planning to design and implement its own models of
interventions to meet the needs of students at risk. ......................................................................................... 35
CASE STUDY D: “TEAM TEACHING AND LEARNING FROM EACH OTHER” .................................... 41
How working collaboratively enabled teachers in a post-primary school to focus on students as individuals and
to build on their strengths ................................................................................................................................ 41
CASE STUDY E: “MEANING AND PURPOSE ARE KEY ELEMENTS IN SUCCESSFUL LEARNING” ....... 47
How a Youthreach centre used Collaborative Action Planning to support literacy interventions in the centre .. 47
CASE STUDY F: “YOU FEEL SPECIAL WHEN SOMEONE COMES TO MEET YOU” .......................... 53
How working collaboratively raised the self-esteem of students and tutors ...................................................... 53
A GUIDE TO INTRODUCING COLLABORATIVE ACTION PLANNING IN SCHOOLS AND TRAINING
WORKSHOPS ............................................................................................................................. 57
The Motive ...................................................................................................................................................... 57
Role of the Principal / Centre Manager............................................................................................................ 57
The Co-ordinator ............................................................................................................................................. 58
The Team ....................................................................................................................................................... 58
What the team will do ...................................................................................................................................... 58
The Action Plan .............................................................................................................................................. 58
Start small ....................................................................................................................................................... 59
Beginning the process..................................................................................................................................... 59
Effective meetings........................................................................................................................................... 59
How to get through an agenda ........................................................................................................................ 60
How to evaluate .............................................................................................................................................. 60
What to do if things are not working out .......................................................................................................... 61
Feedback between the team and the principal and staff .................................................................................. 61
Aspects of support by Mol an Óige which may not be available to schools beginning
the process ......................................................................................................................... 62
Planning Time ................................................................................................................................................. 62
Consultancy .................................................................................................................................................... 62
Networking with other schools and agencies ................................................................................................... 62
6.
Collaborative Action Planning and School Development Planning ..................... 63
7.
Bibliography ............................................................................................................... 69
4
Is this school/ training workshop a learning institution? Who is learning in here?
Are students learning? Are all students learning? Who do they learn from? How does the
way we do things help them to learn? Is their experience here going to be helpful to them
now and in later life?
Are staff members learning? What are they learning? Who are they learning from? Does the
institution recognise and value their learning? How does it encourage and support their
learning?
Are parents, families, community and school management learning? What are they learning?
How does the school/training workshop support and encourage this learning?
In short, is this school/workshop a real learning community, a centre of learning for all?
From Mol an Óige presentation to schools and workshops
Who is learning in this school?
Is the school organised for teaching or learning?
Structure of this Report
Section 1
This section of the report deals with the development of Collaborative Action
Planning as a model for intervention in schools and details the lessons learned in the
process. It describes how the process worked in schools and summarises the main
outcomes from the process
Section 2
This comprises of six case studies of Collaborative Action Planning, two each from
primary and post-primary schools and training workshops.
Section 3
This section provides guidelines to schools or training workshops interested in
implementing Collaborative Action Planning.
Section 4
This section analyses Collaborative Action Planning in the context of School
Development Planning as promoted by the Department of Education and Science.
5
FOREWORD
MOL AN ÓIGE, THE PROJECT
Mol an Óige was a four year project, (January 1996 –March 2000), supported by the
Youthstart strand of the EU Human Resources Initiative EMPLOYMENT. It is promoted by
North Tipperary VEC in partnership with the Mid-Western Health Board, FAS, IBEC, ICTU,
Mary Immaculate College, TRBDI, and South Tipperary VEC.
The target group for the project were 10-19 year-olds at risk of failing in school for whatever
reason, or who had left school early. As it is a systems development project, however, we did
not work directly with the target group, but with the providers.
The project aimed to develop and test a model of targeted interventions to empower providers
(educational and other) to respond more flexibly and adequately to the needs of young people
in the target group, and to ensure that these young people benefit to the maximum from the
services provided.
The objectives of the project included:
 To establish the causes and nature of early school leaving
 To promote language, literacy, numeracy and general learning interventions for the
target group
 To promote the inclusion of parents as partners in their children’s education
 To develop a model for inter-agency co-operation
 To ensure that transitions within and between education, training and employment are
negotiated successfully by the target group
 To develop models of community support for the target group
Thus, the project sought to develop a collaborative, holistic approach on the part of education
providers in order that services provided might be more responsive to the needs of young
people in the target group. This paper describes the development and testing of a strategy for
achieving such an approach. This strategy is called Collaborative Action Planning.
As part of our own practice of ongoing review and improvement, the team conducted regular
interviews and meetings with teachers, held seminars, received regular written evaluation
reports from schools, attended team and co-ordinators’ meetings and conducted a
comprehensive structured interview in each school at the end of the year. Teachers’
comments arising out of these provide the evidence base for this report.
The Origins of Mol an Óige
North Tipperary VEC had long been involved in innovative projects aimed at improving the
educational experience of all students, including those at risk of failure in the system. The
availability of EU funding in 1995 was seen as an opportunity to further develop their
ambitions in this regard. Consequently, a team of senior teachers and principals was
assembled to devise a project which would address in a systemic way the causes of failure in
the education system. Mol an Óige was the result.
It was initially planned as a two year project, 1996 and 1997. The particular question which
animated the project was: ‘Since failure in school and early school leaving are predictable in
many instances from an early age, why are they not preventable?’. Criteria for selection of
Youthstart projects were that they must be bottom-up, they must be innovative and they must
create a multiplier effect, i.e., their effect must extend beyond the project itself. For these
reasons, it was decided that teachers participating in the process must have ownership of what
6
they were attempting (it must be their project, not ours) and that it must equip them with new
skills and understandings that would continue to influence their practice after the project
ended. We adopted the motto that ‘it is not what we do, but what we leave behind that will
determine the success of the project’. In fact, the project received funding for two more
years, 1998 and 1999, for what is referred to in this report as the second round project.
Values underpinning the project
The values underpinning the project included the following:
 A recognition of the ability of all children and young people to learn
 The right of all children and young people to receive an education appropriate to their
needs, abilities, aptitudes and learning styles
 The right of all to experience respect from agencies and professionals
 The responsibility of organisations collectively, and of individual practitioners, to develop
their practice in order to respond to the needs of all their clients
 A belief that the provision of organisational and institutional frameworks which are
empowering for both professionals and clients will result in a better quality experience
for both
 A belief that young people and their parents should be central in decision-making
processes relating to their education and welfare.
7
COLLABORATIVE ACTION PLANNING
1. INTRODUCTION
Many factors converge within a school or training workshop to influence the learning for
individual students in the institution – who learns, how they learn, what they learn, from
whom etc. The single most important factor, however, is the atmosphere within the
classroom, and the relationships fostered by that atmosphere – between teacher and class,
between teacher and individual students and between the students themselves. Many outside
influences bear on the nature of these relationships. These include examination pressures,
whole school ethos, teachers’ personal and professional circumstances, students’ personal
circumstances, parental pressures etc. All of these interfere with essential learning
relationships and are potential sources of stress for teacher and individual student alike.
Collaborative Action Planning is a strategy developed and tested during the course of the Mol
an Óige project, designed to enable schools to respond in a flexible way to meeting the needs
of all students, in particular those whose needs are not currently being catered for in the
education system. In particular, it seeks to impact positively on the learning relationships
within the classroom as well as on whole-school practice. This is something that many school
management strategies which have been developed in a business environment and applied to
school life fail to do. As one principal put it: ‘I could change everything except what
happened in the classroom’. Collaborative Action Planning, in contrast, is a strategy devised
and tested by teachers and school managements, and shown to have an impact on learning for
teachers and student within the classroom.
Collaborative Action Planning seeks to impact positively on the learning
relationships within the classroom as well as on whole school practice
Hargreaves (1994) refers to the ‘persistent failure (of schools) to engage the emotions and
motivations of many of their students and considerable numbers of their staff’. Collaborative
Action Planning addressed this by seeking to transform the school into a centre which
promotes the learning of all. As well as being educational in intent, it is based on the
principles of action research which is a ‘study of changing a situation from the inside’,
(Winter, 1995), and is thus educational in process also. It is designed to be flexible,
permitting schools to adapt it to address their own situations.
Since Collaborative Action Planning is a developmental process, this chapter describes it in
the context of its evolution, illustrating how it led to, and in turn responded to, new learning.
1.1.
What is Collaborative Action Planning?
Collaborative Action Planning is a process that allows a team teachers, in the context of the
mission of the school, to:



identify the needs of the school and the specific needs of the students in their care
plan, implement and document a course of action to meet these needs
evaluate and adapt their practice in the light of their experience
It is a strategy which seeks simultaneously to:



meet the needs of students
meet the needs of teachers
influence whole school practice in relation to the target group
8
Collaborative Action Planning is not a solution to immediate problems. Rather, it is a process
which offers schools an opportunity and time to address these problems in new ways.
Collaborative Action Planning draws heavily from the principles of action research.
1.2.
Action Research
Action research has become recognised as a powerful tool for personal and professional
development based on critical reflection of one’s own practice. It offers a proven, rigorous
and fundamentally educational methodology for developing one’s professional theories and
practice
Elliott (1989) defines action research as ‘the study of a social situation with a view to
improving the quality of action within it’. He added that ‘total process – review, diagnosis,
planning, implementation, monitoring effects – provides the necessary link between selfevaluation and professional development’.
Action research seeks to encourage professionals to develop the theory of their own
professional practice as well as the practice itself (e.g., McNiff, 1993; Lomax, 1996). This is
important because
“the separation of one from the other stultifies both: theory separated from practice slips into
abstract speculation and the ramifications of jargon; practice separated from theory slips into
self-justificatory reaction or self-perpetuating routine” (Winter, 1989).
The Collaborative Action Planning model has been strongly influenced by the ideas of
McNiff and Whitehead. They suggest that real educational reform begins with a sense of
dissatisfaction with present practice. In particular, it is prompted ‘when (one’s) values are
being denied in (one’s) practice’ (Whitehead, 1989). The following series of questions and
steps (adapted from McNiff, 1995) represents an action research approach to developing one’s
personal professional practice, and forms the basis of the Collaborative Action Planning
process developed by Mol an Óige and participating schools/training workshops.
 What is our concern?
 Why is it a concern? (Which of our educational values is being denied in my practice)
 What could we do about it? (What are possible solutions? – choose one)
 How would we know if we were succeeding in improving matters? (What would be
the evidence? – criteria for success?)
 We implement the solution
 We evaluate its effectiveness
 We modify our ideas and practice in the light of the evaluation
 What have we learned in relation to our own professional practice from the process?
 Has the process suggested any new avenues for exploration? (Do we wish to pursue
them? – if so, a new action/reflection cycle begins)
McNiff refers to the above as a ‘generative action reflection cycle’ – generative in that it not
only produces learning, but also suggests new avenues for further learning. The cycle may
look simply like common sense. It is the rigour with which it is applied that transforms it into
a learning process. The Collaborative Action Planning process provides a framework which
facilitates such rigour within the school/workshop setting.
9
2. THE DEVELOPMENT OF COLLABORATIVE ACTION PLANNING
2.1.
Rationale
There is ample evidence that outside interventions and provision of additional resources alone
do not necessarily produce real change, but become ‘add-ons’ to current practice. This is
often because interventions designed to change practice within schools do not engage with the
every-day realities as experienced by those who will be expected to implement them, i.e.,
management, teachers, parents and students. Hence, in developing a model of Collaborative
Action Planning, it was necessary to articulate and constantly review the assumptions about
schools upon which it is based. Among the assumptions about the causes of failure in the
educational system which underpinned the Mol an Óige project were the following:
 Failure in the educational system does not occur suddenly, but is predictable from an
early age.
 Teachers recognise that some students in their classroom are failing but often feel
powerless to prevent it happening. This sense of powerlessness and failure in relation
to some students, is a significant source of stress for many teachers.
 There is a low level of co-operation between schools and the other agencies charged
with the welfare of the target group. This leaves teachers very isolated when dealing
with difficulties with which they are faced and with which they feel ill equipped to
cope. A greater level of co-operation could result in a more co-ordinated provision of
care for the target group as well as increasing the capacity of each agency to cope.
 Even within schools, teaching can be a very isolated profession – the culture in many
schools is such that teachers do not learn professionally from each other. Teachers
often lack adequate professional peer support.
 The concept of ‘professional care’ is one that is not well understood in schools. One
consequence of this is that failure to meet all the needs of a student can be seen as a
personal failure on the part of teachers. It also results in blurred criteria for judging
success by teachers, and results in a notion that ‘good teachers do not have failures’.
 School principals, for a variety of reasons, experience difficulty in offering the
leadership needed to change the culture within their schools.
 Schools and teachers have not, in general, been successful in including parents,
particularly those of the target group, as partners in their own child’s education
 Additional resources are often seen as an opportunity to compensate for inadequacies
in current practices, rather than as an opportunity to improve these practices. In this
sense, they become ‘add-ons’ to current provision, rather than being integrated into
that provision.
 Teachers’ professionalism is often overlooked. They are rarely asked what issues they
regard as a priority for the students in their care, or how they would propose to address
these, yet they are constantly expected to implement new programmes, into which they
have no input, to address all kinds of educational and social issues.
Our education system is inhumanly indifferent to the damage it does to some
teachers and in turn to their pupils
In summary, Collaborative Action Planning was informed by thinking such as Swan (1991):.
It sought, then, to address the needs of students and of teachers simultaneously. It was
intended to be a learning experience for participating teachers and schools as well as for Mol
an Óige. In short, it sought to make school a learning institution for all.
10
2.2.
The Emergence of Collaborative Action Planning in the First Round
Project, Jan 96 – Dec 97
Mol an Óige began in January 1996. At the outset, we developed separate strategies for each
of the objectives. For the central objective of addressing the literacy and numeracy needs of
the target group, we sought to encourage teachers to use an action research methodology.
This involved identifying some needs of the target group/individual student which they
wished to address, deciding what actions they might try, drawing up a written action plan,
monitoring and evaluating progress and learning from the process. During the first round of
the project, teachers in about thirty primary schools developed action plans, and some very
interesting ideas emerged and were tested (Mol an Óige, 1997). A number of significant
findings, however, made us review our ideas and practice. Among these were:
 all participating schools were small (mostly four teachers or fewer), and no postprimary school developed an action plan
 only one teacher took part in most schools, and the process did not spread out to
influence the general practice in schools
Reflecting on our experience during the first round project, a number of learning points
emerged which we needed to address during the second round of the project. Among these
were the following:
 What we were offering was not what schools wanted – in most cases they felt that all
they required was additional resources and personnel. In addition, what we were
asking was seen as an additional burden in an already heavy workload. We felt that if
we could offer a small amount by way of planning time, teachers would respond
wholeheartedly.
 We came to realise that what we were attempting was nothing less than a change of
culture within the school, and schools did not know how to go about it. In many cases,
they saw change as an event rather than a process. Thus, we needed to develop a
model that schools could use to begin a process of change. We would not see the
process completed, but we could show them a way forward and help them get started.
 We had focused on developing action plans to meet the needs of the target group; we
had not stated explicitly that what we were trying to do was also designed to meet the
needs of teachers, and we felt that the project was not as educational for them as we
had hoped. We needed to be explicit about our intentions, and we needed to build in
procedures to enable teachers to focus on their own learning.
 We found that even where individual teachers were developing action plans, they
found it difficult to interest their colleagues in joining in the process. We concluded
that we needed to build teamwork into the process.
 We were encouraging a bottom up approach to school development. We realised that
management needed to be involved in order to produce significant whole-school
development. We also realised that individual teachers attempting to change their
practice could end up even more frustrated in an unresponsive school structure. We
needed to devise a process that would have the active support of the principal, but be
not necessarily be led by him/her – it needed to be both bottom up and top down.
 Many schools saw our project as threatening, and as a reflection of some inadequacy
on their part. They frequently asked questions such as ‘What are we not doing that
you think we should be doing’. We needed to find some way in which we could
become involved in a learning relationship with schools, and we needed to say clearly
to them that both they and we were learning from the relationship.
11
In short, we needed to devise a single strategy which would incorporate all the objectives of
the project. Such a strategy must have a simultaneous focus on three of the key elements
crucial to enabling schools to respond to the needs of the target group:
 meeting the specific learning needs of individual students
 ongoing teacher professional development
 continuous school improvement.
We needed a single strategy which would simultaneously focus on:
- meeting students individual learning needs
- meet professional development needs of teachers
- promote whole school development
We called the strategy Collaborative Action Planning, and it formed the basis for the second
round project. It draws heavily on principles of research-based professionalism, and is
educational both in its intent and in its methodology. The development of the model was also
fine-tuned by researching the introduction of the process in six schools.
2.3.
The Development of Collaborative Action Planning During the Second
Round Project - Our Learning
The second round project began in January 1998. All schools and Youthreach/training
workshops in North Tipperary, and in Clonmel and Tipperary Town in South Tipperary were
invited to participate in developing and testing the Collaborative Action Planning process
during the 1998/9 school year. Out of a total of 118 schools and workshops, 35 primary
schools (38%), 13 post-primary schools (56%) and 4 training workshops (66%) took part.
We worked with them in a learning partnership in which they were learning from their
experience and we were developing the model of Collaborative Action Planning and our own
support role in the process.
The following is a summary of some of the main learning to emerge in the development of
Collaborative Action Planning during the second-round project, and of our responses:
 The nature of Irish schools is such that teachers have not had experience of
collaborative planning. Thus, in devising interventions, it cannot be assumed that the
provision of planning time will result in its being well used. There is clear evidence,
for example, that where planning time is made available to schools, as in the Leaving
Certificate Applied or Junior Certificate Schools Programmes, it is often not used
effectively. Section 3 of this guide, offering clear guidelines for implementing
Collaborative Action Planning, is a response to this learning
 In the early networking meetings we found that teachers focused on the learning for
the students from the process. We needed to constantly prompt them to reflect on their
own learning also so that there would be lasting benefit from the project. We needed
to focus on schools as learning institutions. An important question is ‘who is learning
in this institution?’
 Significant realities in the everyday life of teachers in many schools are a sense of
isolation, and an absence of structures for collaboration within schools or networking
with neighbouring schools or other professionals. These realities limit the range of
professional dialogue that takes place in many staff-rooms, make it difficult for
professional peer support to develop, and have serious implications for the emergence
of leadership among staffs. There is a need for a new definition of teacher
professionalism.
The confusion of ‘professionalism’ with ‘expertise’ and of
‘professional care’ with ‘personal care’ results in isolation and stress for teachers,
and militates against professional collaboration either with colleagues or with
12
professionals from other agencies. We propose a ‘reflective practitioner’ model of
teacher professionalism.
We need a new definition of what it is to be a professional as a teacher. The
confusion of ‘professionalism’ with ‘expertise’ and of ‘professional care’ with
‘personal care’ results in isolation and stress for teachers, and militates
against professional collaboration either with colleagues or with professionals
from other agencies
 Identifying how to avail of the support of parents, statutory and voluntary agencies,
and the community in general in meeting the needs of the target group proved difficult
and challenging to most schools. Collaborative Action Planning must be rigorous if it
is to be successful in dealing with challenging issues.
 In some larger schools the team of teachers involved in Collaborative Action Planning
found themselves isolated. They found that there was not a structure for
communication with the rest of the staff and management. They found that other
teachers could undo the approaches they were developing. Sometimes, other teachers
not involved in the process felt excluded. We modified the model so that for the
coming year, teams should establish clear mechanisms for ongoing mutual feedback
with school management and staff.
 We believed that decision-making authority should be devolved to institutions and,
within institutions, to teachers/tutors. We believed that decision-making and
leadership functions can be developed more effectively through teamwork, and that
teamwork offers the peer support to question existing provision, to try new ideas and
to effect a change of culture in the school/workshop. We believed that this would be
empowering for staff and management. Our experience indicates that while this can
be the case, it requires substantial technical support. Without that, it will not be an
empowering experience.
2.4.
How Collaborative Action Planning Operated
A team of teachers, with a co-ordinator, managed the Collaborative Action Planning process
in each school. The team typically consisted of about five volunteers (fewer in smaller
primary schools). This team, in consultation with the principal/manager and with the rest of
the staff, was responsible for identifying the needs that they wished to address and drawing up
an action plan to respond to these needs. They also, at the outset, established formal
procedures for ongoing communication and feedback between the Action Planning team,
management, and the whole staff.
The team met weekly (or fortnightly in some primary schools) to plan actions and monitor
and evaluate progress. The action plan itself developed during the process, refining aims and
proposed actions in the light of the lessons learned. The Collaborative Action Planning
process also developed such skills as structuring meetings to be productive, developing
collaborative approaches to responding to the needs of the target group, and ensuring that the
process is a learning one for participating teachers and for the whole staff as well as for
students in the target group. These skills enhance the capacity of the institution to respond
more flexibly to meet the needs of the target group.
The Mol an Óige project provided clear guidelines for drawing up action plans. The plan
identified the target group, the needs to be addressed and the actions proposed in response. It
also detailed the process - times for planning meetings, roles of different participants etc. The
project also encouraged schools and workshops as a matter of importance to identify how the
support of parents, statutory and voluntary agencies, and the community in general could be
availed of in meeting the needs of the target group.
13
Mol an Óige provided planning time to schools to enable the planning meetings to take place.
In addition, monthly meetings of the co-ordinators from different schools were held and
proved to be an important developmental aspect of the whole process. Mol an Óige also
played a consultancy role with schools in developing the process and in meeting the
professional development needs of staff arising from involvement in the process.
Regular (preferably weekly) effective meetings are central to the process. These enable a
team to work through a plan, to evaluate its success, to modify it in the light of experience
and to learn from the process. This is in contrast to ordinary staff meetings which have a
wider remit, are more infrequent, and do not generally afford an opportunity for critical
reflection.
Collaborative Action Planning is rigorous – regular, structured meetings; constant evaluation;
a commitment to openness, collaboration and continuous improvement; the written action
plan; ongoing feedback to and from the principal and the rest of the staff; and the focus on
teachers’ own learning are all essential elements. It is this rigour which makes the process
inherently educational, and which distinguishes it from simple ‘common sense’.
The process developed in different ways in different schools and workshops. Some generic
differences were apparent between the approaches in primary and post-primary schools and
workshops. But even within these sectors, different institutions developed the process in very
different ways.
2.5. Collaborative Action Planning in Primary Schools
Collaborative Action Planning was much slower to take root in primary schools. Some
schools were very tentative in their initial commitment, and a few were late participating.
Throughout the project, 35 schools participated, some in a more structured way than others.
Of these, 25 were involved for the full duration of the project.
Formal staff meetings and formal planning have not traditionally been a feature of many
primary schools. In particular in smaller schools, teachers constantly discussed school issues
over morning break and lunch, and did not see the need for formal meetings. Consequently,
many were initially slow to avail of formal planning time and needed encouragement from
Mol an Óige to do so. Gradually, they used a variety of strategies, the most common being to
employ a specialist teacher such as a music or drama teacher to take, for example, four classes
each week for half an hour. This freed the class teachers for half an hour each to do other
work or to plan with the learning support teacher, and the planning meeting then took place
weekly (or fortnightly) after school. Other strategies for finding planning time included
administrative principals or infant teachers making time available to staff, or time made
available by grouping classes together for appropriate activities or assemblies and freeing up
teachers for planning meetings. By the end of the project, 75% of schools were using
planning time, and all found it useful. Larger schools designated some time weekly for the
co-ordinator to carry out the tasks of the role.
As the majority of primary schools were small the team often (but not necessarily) consisted
of the full staff. The principal was a member of the team in all but three schools and in two of
these s/he attended meetings fairly frequently. The principal was often the co-ordinator, but
in a number of schools another teacher took on this role in the second year of the project. In
almost every school the learning support teacher was a member of the team.
Individual education plans are now a feature in many participating primary
schools
In the initial stages, teachers did not know how or even what they should plan about in
relation to students. We found that developing individual education plans for specific
children provided, for many, a beginning point for the process. Individual education plans are
now a feature in many participating schools, and have led to other developments in support of
14
learning, such as shared reading programmes, cross-age tutoring, self-esteem building
programmes and homework support. In most schools using individual education plans,
teachers are sharing the tasks involved in implementing the plan (see case study A).
While most participating primary schools continue to use withdrawal, individually or in small
groups, as the main form of learning support, 38% now have scheduled meetings between the
learning support and class teachers to link the work done in withdrawal to the class
programme. Another modification of the withdrawal process has involved withdrawing
brighter and weaker students together which allowed learning support to be delivered in a
more inclusive way. One teacher commented that brighter students sometimes have needs in
the area of social and communication skills which can be met by working in small mixed
ability groups. One teacher commented that this overcame the problem of her being seen as
the ‘slow teacher’. In four of the participating schools the class teacher supported the
students who were experiencing difficulties while the learning support teacher worked with
the rest of the class.
2.6.
Collaborative Action Planning in Post-Primary Schools
Post-primary schools found it easier, initially, than primary schools to use planning time.
When the timetable for the year was being drawn up, teachers in the Action Planning team
were each timetabled for one period per week fewer than normal, and this time was used for
the planning period. The co-ordinator was timetabled for a number of additional free periods
to perform the duties of the role. This time was given, instead, to a part-time teacher for the
year, and the cost of this was recouped from Mol an Óige.
There was also a greater awareness in post-primary schools of the need to collaborate and
plan, and there were more things to plan about. This was mainly because teachers share
students in post-primary schools. However, the skills of making planning effective and
learning from the process had to be developed in most schools. It was only when teachers
focused on their own learning that real change took place.
It was when teachers focused on their own learning that real change took place
In all schools which had the services of a learning support teacher, s/he was a member of the
team. The principal was a member in only three schools. The choice of co-ordinator and the
role of the principal were very important to the success of the process. In general, it was
preferable that the learning support teacher not be the co-ordinator. This was found to
increase the isolation of the role, whereas being a team member helped reduce the isolation.
In the case of the principal, while his/her active support was essential, it was deemed
generally preferable s/he not be a member of the team, but attend meetings frequently. Many
proposals developed by the Action Planning team involved significant change in school
policy or practice. For example, developments in discipline or whole-school literacy policy
have timetabling and management implications. Some degree of involvement by the principal
in the development of such proposals was desirable; in some cases where this was not the
case and the proposal was rejected, it led to frustration on the part of the team.
2.7.
Collaborative Action Planning in Training Workshops
Four training workshops participated in Collaborative Action Planning – two Youthreach, one
combined community training and Travellers workshop, and one Youthreach progression
centre. The process in workshops began much later than in the schools – in most cases it only
began during 1999/2000. This was partly because Mol an Óige staff prioritised schools and
partly because the model had been developed for the school situation and had to be modified
for training workshops. In the workshops, the target groups consisted of all students. The
Action Planning team usually consisted of most members of staff. Arranging planning
meetings proved difficult in some centres where most of the staff were part-time. Centres
15
received 5-6 hours per week for planning time from Mol an Óige, and in some cases this was
used to pay for attendance at meetings.
In general, centre staff were more open to change and innovation than schools. This reflected
their size, the young people with whom they worked, their greater flexibility in terms of
curriculum etc. and the isolation which many centre staff experience. All centres participated
in a wide range of inservice activities. In many cases, all centre staff including the manager
participated.
The high proportion of Travellers in some of the workshops meant that specific issues relating
to them as a group were high on the agenda, e.g., inclusion, obtaining work placements.
2.8.
The Mol an Óige Project as a Learning Partnership
The range of supports offered by Mol an Óige was very important in the development of the
process. The single most crucial element of that support was in establishing a learning
partnership with schools/workshops. The fact that Mol an Óige was learning from their
experience was very empowering for schools, encouraging them to be innovative and to focus
on their own learning, and removing the fear of failure. It also meant that they were very
willing to provide us with information about their learning as they knew we needed their help
to develop our model, not to check up on them. This in turn enabled us to understand better
what was happening at school level, to learn from it, and to respond more appropriately.
Focusing on the learning rather than on obtaining additional resources which would
compensate for inadequacies in current practice was very important in another way also. It
ensured that the project fundamentally influenced institutional understandings and practice
and did not become simply an ‘add-on’ to current practice. The focus in Collaborative Action
Planning was not on doing a lot of new things, but in doing things more effectively.
3. OUTCOMES OF THE PROCESS
3.1.
The Value of the Collaborative Action Planning Process
Teachers have discovered the need and the benefits of collaborative working and have found
the process liberating. At a meeting of post-primary principals at the end of the 1998/9 school
year, their request to Mol an Óige was to continue to support the planning process – this was
far more important to them than material resources. For 1999/2000, they committed
themselves to matching the planning time provided by Mol an Óige with an equal amount
from their own resources. A number of primary schools have approached their Boards of
Management about supporting planning. Two have drawn up proposals for resources from
their trustees and two others have obtained funding from their local ADM projects to continue
to develop their actions. The following are some comments by participants in the process:
“Collaborative Action Planning helped us crystallise in our own heads what we wanted to do,
what was practical to do. We learned the value of team effort” – teacher
“Children are benefiting from more informed practice and organisation” – learning support
teacher
“Action Planning kick-started a lot of things. It shook up teachers, made us look into ourselves
and our own talents” – primary school principal
“Collaborative Action Planning was helpful in introducing the whole concept of school planning”
– principal
“Collaborative Action Planning (was) an exercise in whole school planning. We feel that the
work might have been achieved, but it would have been done in a haphazard way without the
guidance from Mol an Óige” – principal
“Action Planning has given the team a good professional structure and guidelines. We now need
to integrate the learning throughout the whole school. I believe it will mushroom in our school”
– post-primary school team member
16
“We had to go through the process many times to grasp it. Outside help and guidance were very
necessary and helpful” – principal in small primary school
“The meetings were not so easy at first … our expectations became more realistic as time
progressed” – primary school team member
3.2.
Learning Support
Many schools and workshops have moved from withdrawal to more inclusive
models of learning support.
Many schools working with Mol an Óige developed new procedures for the delivery of
learning support, moving from a predominantly ‘withdrawal’ model to more inclusive models
where the learning needs of all students are met within the class. Many schools, both primary
and post-primary, also developed more collaborative models where the learning support
teacher was a resource to other teachers and, increasingly, to parents. These new models have
led to initiatives such as team teaching, individual education plans, cross-curricular
approaches to literacy, active learning methodologies, peer/cross age tutoring and more
differentiated teaching methodologies.
“I have more involvement with classes and teachers rather than withdrawal of individuals or
groups. There is more sharing of ideas and a shared common purpose” – learning support
teacher
“Team teaching is more productive and we found it easier to motivate students” – teacher
“The Collaborative Action Planning process enabled us to develop individual action plans.
Progress, or lack of progress, was more clearly defined and our awareness of the needs of
students was highlighted and our plans became more focused” – primary school co-ordinator
“One child who was always late now comes in on time because of being with a peer-reading
tutor” – primary school principal
“More learning is taking place in the classroom – fewer discipline problems and the moral
support of having another teacher in the classroom …” - post-primary learning support teacher
referring to the benefits of team teaching
“During the Collaborative Action Planning process, we gradually moved away from the
withdrawal model which was predominant heretofore. So far this change in emphasis is working
well and is likely to continue in the future” – primary school learning support teacher
3.3.
Teacher Professional Development
In a very real sense, Collaborative Action Planning can be viewed as a new model of in-career
professional renewal and development for teachers/tutors.
The process itself was
developmental, and enabled teachers to share their skills and learning. In focusing on
meeting the needs of the target group, it enabled them to identify aspects of their practice
where they needed new professional skills and understandings. It also provided the peer
support necessary to question existing practice, to try out new ideas and to learn from the
process. Hence, the process itself was developmental professionally for teachers, and it has
also proven to be an effective catalyst for teachers engaging in further in-service activities.
All participating post-primary schools and workshops and over 60% of primary schools
engaged in inservice activities related to their action plans.
A very important aspect of teacher professional development was the formal sharing of the
experiences that occurred during the project. Apart from regular presentations to staff
meetings and networking meetings, participating schools made formal presentations of their
own learning at seminars, inservice courses and conferences organised by Mol an Óige. For
example, four ‘Collaborative Action Planning Seminars’ were held during the two years, each
attended by over fifty teachers from participating schools, at which representatives from four
or five schools on each occasion described their own work and learning. These were really
remarkable occasions, described by one long-serving school principal as ‘revolutionary’.
They greatly encouraged innovation and empowered teachers to try new ideas, recognising
17
that failure is just part of a learning process. In all, over thirty schools and workshops made
public presentations of their work and learning at such occasions.
Another aspect of the project which had profound influence on encouraging development
were transnational visits to partners in Pontypridd College and Birmingham. These visits
forced participants to examine not only their current practice, but also the explanations for
that practice, and so gave a great impetus to the search for new approaches. Among the
developments influenced significantly by transnational experience were individual education
plans, new concepts of learning support, co-operative discipline, and mentoring.
The range of inservice activities undertaken included

Evening courses

Staff days

Short workshops with a small group of interested teachers within a school, or jointly
to small groups from different schools, arranged in relation to teachers needs
emerging from the action plans

Team meetings, co-ordinators meetings, Collaborative Action Planning seminars etc
were important inservice activities

Inter-agency training

Transnational visits
The In-Career Development Unit of the Department of Education and Science were very
supportive of developments in these areas.
This high level of involvement by participating institutions in professional development,
arising out of Collaborative Action Planning has facilitated changes in awareness, attitudes
and practice towards the students in the target group.
It provided the opportunity to learn from each other
“Collaborative Action Planning put the problems of early school leaving and the vulnerability of
the target group on the agenda” - principal
“Now I know that it is more important that the child learns strategies for learning rather than
content” – primary school principal
“It provided the opportunity to learn from each other” – from summary by Action Planning team
“Collaborative Action Planning has encouraged more openness among the planning team.
People are more inclined to offer and ask for help” – primary school co-ordinator
In a very real sense, Collaborative Action Planning can be regarded as a new model of teacher
in-career professional development.
3.4.
New Teaching Methodologies
Involvement in Collaborative Action Planning has encouraged teachers to explore
participative, young person-centred practices. The following table outlines the range of
innovation in schools arising out of the process:
Activity
Number of
participating
schools/workshops
Number of
teachers/tutors
involved
Team teaching
10
56
Co-operative discipline
23
130
Esteem building programmes
17
82
18
Individual Education Plans
12
41
Literacy programmes
22
38
New teaching methodologies (in
addition to above)
11
152
Mentoring
6
24 (students)
Cross age / peer tutoring
7
92 (students)
Home-school reading initiatives
13
22
Collaborative approaches to learning
support
25
126
7
21
Initiatives in using ICTs in learning
support
28
73
Transnational visits
34
79
Homework support
In many cases, the introduction of new methodologies has been supported by school based inservice activity.
“We discovered that we had shortcomings in our own skills” – school Action Planning team
“There was something positive and tangible happening in class – a particular sound, a buzz that
is very different from indiscipline. It is the noise of active work” – teacher after incorporating
active learning methodologies into her teaching
“Inservice arising out of Collaborative Action Planning is more relevant and this makes it more
effective” – teacher.
3.5.
Parents as Partners in Their Own Child’s Education
Many schools had no culture in of including the parents of the target group as partners in their
own child’s education, did not initially see this as a priority area for action, were unsure how
to begin a process of parental inclusion or were nervous about formalising such a process.
One trenchant view expressed was that:
“if parents are the root of the problem, they cannot be the solution”
However, through Collaborative Action Planning, most schools made various efforts to work
more closely with parents. Among the strategies used were shared reading programmes; prereading and pre-writing programmes; involving parents in drawing up and implementing
individual action plans; helping parents to help their children with, e.g., phonics, spellings,
tables; ensuring that home-school contacts were not always problem oriented; and seeking the
advice and support of parents in understanding and devising appropriate responses to
students’ needs. The result is that in many cases, schools and teachers have developed
contexts in which parents and teachers can work together and where both can feel
comfortable. Results have been very positive.
Many schools and teachers developed contexts in which parents and teachers
can work in partnership and where both feel comfortable.
“We are breaking new ground working with parents in this way” – primary school principal on
shared reading
“We have begun to realise that parents are an untapped source of help … their lack of confidence
may be misconstrued (by teachers) as indifference … we saw that in cases where support was not
forthcoming it was more difficult for the students needs to be met” – primary school teacher
19
“I enjoy working at home with my child … it is time consuming but worthwhile – it has given me
more patience and understanding … he is more confident about his attempts at writing and his
reading has improved immensely” – parent involved in pre-reading/writing programme
3.6.
Maximising Resources
Participation in Collaborative Action Planning has enabled schools to maximise the benefits
for the target group from current resources. This is particularly evident in the learning
support area where students received support from more people, and in more integrated ways.
The emergence of leadership and assertiveness among staff on behalf of the target group is
also significant in this regard.
“Staff are now badgering me to introduce the JCSP and the LCA next year” – principal
3.7.
Framework for Care
Students do not always perceive teachers as caring professionals.
Collaborative Action Planning provided a framework in which the care of
teachers could be experienced by students
. The Collaborative Action Planning process provided a framework that enabled the care of
teachers to be experienced by students in the target group. A greater number of teachers
became involved in supporting students, helping the target group to experience a greater sense
of belonging within the school. The process also enabled teachers to be more caring of each
other in their professional activities.
“Teachers had more awareness of the needs of students … more tolerance about rigid application
of school rules” - teacher
“I am more aware now of the child’s overall needs and will ask ‘are you enjoying school better’”
– teaching principal
“We now actively encourage students to help one another through seating plans, peer tutoring,
Gaisce schemes etc” - principal
The team offered camaraderie and support which I appreciated very much, being a new member
of staff” – teacher
3.8.
Networking
Mol an Óige encouraged networking in many different forms, and this proved a very
important stimulus and support to the Collaborative Action Planning process in schools and
workshops. Networking took place at many different levels:

between teachers/tutors within the school/workshop

between schools/workshops

between schools/workshops and other agencies and community
Networking took several forms. The monthly meetings between co-ordinators from different
schools/workshops were very important in sharing ideas, developing the role of co-ordinator
and stimulating new thinking and action. Various inservice activities organised jointly in
response to needs arising from the Collaborative Action Planning process were also very
important. Perhaps the most important and innovative networking activity took place in the
Collaborative Action Planning seminars described above (section 3.3).
“Teachers in small schools especially feel isolation, frustration and lack of confidence. … We
have learned a lot from each other and are sharing a lot more … we have built up trust and
confidentiality (sic) … everybody shared concerns and suggestions. It was great to meet teachers
from other schools and have a chance to learn from their ideas” – principal of small primary
school
20
The Collaborative Action Planning process enabled groups of small primary schools to work
together in three very different initiatives to provide a wider range of experiences for their
students. These examples of small schools collaborating with each other have important
ramifications for the viability of the small school in rural Ireland. In one such initiative, four
one and two teacher schools co-operated to provide a range of social experiences for their
students that would not have been possible in the individual schools. Shared activities
included joint school tour, concert, quizzes, games coaching and sports day (see case study
B). A second group of six small schools worked together in a Schools Integrated Project
(SIP) to develop the use of ICTs as a motivating tool in teaching and as a learning medium in
particular for students who may not succeed with traditional methods. Teachers held regular
action planning meetings to develop and share classroom management techniques maximising
the benefits of the ICTs and to avail of shared training. For students, the project provided
experiences of sharing and collaborating with classes in other schools which proved exciting
and motivational. Three participating Gaelscoileanna collaborated to review software
available in Irish and to explore the possibilities for networking that e-mail offers to students
in Gaelscoileanna.
3.9.
Collaborative Action Planning as a Strategy for Real Change
Collaborative Action Planning is for teachers/tutors who wish to develop their
own professional practice collaboratively with their colleagues as a means of
meeting the needs of their students.
Collaborative Action Planning is for teachers/tutors who wish to develop their own
professional practice collaboratively with their colleagues as a means of meeting the needs of
their students. It is a useful management strategy for principals and managers who believe
that empowering staff is necessary to bring about real improvement in the school experiences
of young people whose needs are not currently being met. It does not require the full staff to
participate, but it is important that all staff are kept informed and that the learning is shared by
all. In this sense, Collaborative Action Planning offers a process by which the enthusiasm
and creativity of a group of teachers can lead to significant change without the risk of them
being frustrated by their peers.
“We were all working hard and doing good things, but all in our own classes. We were not
sharing ideas” – primary school principal commenting on practice prior to Collaborative Action
Planning.
“Planning is becoming part of teaching. The learning support teacher and class teachers need to
meet. Teachers can’t plan separately for children” – primary principal
There is significant evidence of real benefits resulting for students from Collaborative Action
Planning. For example, 12 out of 13 post-primary schools indicate improved attendance and
significantly improved retention rates among the target group. One principal commented that
they ‘sometimes even smile at me when I meet them in the corridor’ because they are no
longer in her office so regularly. A number of schools noted that the target group were no
longer the focus of complaints at staff meetings – ‘they weren’t even mentioned’ – and many
schools noted better academic achievement, increased participation in class, more positive
attitudes, and increased self-esteem. The following are some comments from students:
“Teachers are kinder to me and I’m getting on better in school” – student
“It’s easier doing it yourself than a teacher showing you” – comment by student on new, active
learning approaches adopted by her teacher
“When you do projects on the computer it’s a lot more fun and easier than writing on paper. It is
fun even though you are learning!” – student
21
4. RESOURCE REQUIREMENTS FOR COLLABORATIVE ACTION PLANNING
Important supports for Collaborative Action Planning provided by Mol an Óige included:

Planning time: for primary schools this was usually 1-2 hours per week, and 6
hours at post-primary level (of which 50% came from their own resources in the
second year of the project). Training workshops received an average of six hours
per week.

Inservice provision: A range of in-service information, contacts and support
activities were sourced, and substitution for participants was provided

Acting as a resource team that teachers/tutors could call on for professional support

Encouraging rigour – written action plans, effective meetings, regular reporting etc
– and providing written guidelines

Initiating a range of activity in support of innovation on behalf of the target group,
e.g., mentoring, inter-agency training and support, inservice activities, school
attendance initiative etc. which schools/workshops could draw on

Supporting schools and training workshops to look outward as part of their action
plans to enlist the support of parents, other agencies and the community

Providing material resources to facilitate action plans. This was quite small –
usually not exceeding £500 per school
In addition Mol an Óige established links with the Mid-Western Health Board, An Garda
Síochána, and the In-Career Development Unit of the Department of Education and Science
to provide appropriate professional development activities.
Resources provided by Mol an Óige were designed to enhance the capacity of
teachers and school to respond to the needs of the students in their care, not
just to ‘buy in’ expertise.
The level of resources provided by Mol an Óige was quite small, and it should be possible for
schools and workshops to provide them from their own resources. For example, post-primary
schools participating in the Leaving Certificate Applied, Transition Year or Junior Certificate
Schools Programmes receive about five and a half-hours co-ordination time per class per
week. A number of schools indicated that the Collaborative Action Planning process showed
them how to use this time effectively.
The fact that schools and training workshops received very little in terms of resources was, in
fact, one of the strengths of the project. It meant that they could not look to ‘buy in’ expertise
to address the problems which they identified, but would have to develop their own resources
to do so. This, in turn, meant that the actions undertaken influenced current practice in the
school or workshop, and did not simply become an ‘add-on’. As one school principal
commented:
“You have got us thinking of ways to solve problems ourselves without always thinking that we
need to go elsewhere. This morning, for example, three junior students with problems in maths
came to my attention, so I arranged for three good fifth years to help them at lunch time”
This small allocation of financial resources was also a necessary approach in a time-limited
project as it meant that there was a much greater likelihood of the actions being continued
after the lifetime of the project. A very important finding of the external evaluation was that
80% of participants were of the view that actions begun as a result of their school’s
participation in Mol an Óige would continue in its absence.
The one important element that schools/workshops have said they will miss is the support,
animation and co-ordination provided by the Mol an Óige team.
22
5. FINDINGS FROM THE EXTERNAL EVALUATION OF THE PROCESS
An external evaluator, John Canavan, Department of Political Science and Sociology, NUI
Galway evaluated the project. The particular focus of the evaluation was the Collaborative
Action Planning process in schools, and was based on the results from a survey of
participating schools. 74 teachers from 19 primary schools and 104 teachers from 9 postprimary schools responded in complete confidence to the survey. The following are some of
the findings:
Of those involved in the project (i.e., principals, co-ordinators and team members):

80% said that the actions begun in their schools can continue after the lifetime of the
project

86% said that the ideas from Collaborative Action Planning influenced school
practice

81% said that the process had made an impact on their own practice
Of principals questioned:

96% said that the Mol an Óige project was money well spent
Over 80% said that Collaborative Action Planning improved their own practice
96%of participating principals said the project was money well spent
In general, the findings of the evaluation are very positive. However, three areas of weakness
emerged in the evaluator’s report. These were:

the limited extent to which the project influenced wider school life, particularly in
post-primary schools

lack of time and timetabling difficulties

a concern about what will happen when the support of Mol an Óige is withdrawn
Impact of Collaborative Action Planning
The following is one of the conclusion of the evaluation:
“The actions of the Mol an Óige project and the Action Planning teams would have little meaning
if they did not have any impact. It is clearly the case that in relation to the participating schools,
teachers and pupils, the vast majority of those participating in the project believe that such
impacts have taken place. They believe that school practice has changed in their schools, that
their own practice has been positively affected and that the children who have been targeted in
the various school level Action Planning projects have benefited from them. What is most notable
in the analysis of Mol an Óige impact is the diversity of ways in which it is played out. This
diversity is explainable by the generic and highly flexible nature of the model.”
The evaluator’s report, ‘The Mol an Óige Project – the View from the Schools: an evaluation of the
project’ (Mol an Óige, 2000) is available on request.
23
CASE STUDY A: “A MATTER OF CHANGING PRIORITIES”
How one primary school used Collaborative Action Planning to develop
individual education plans as a means of delivering learning support
School: Presentation Primary School, Clonmel
Principal: Ann Doyle
Action Planning Team 98/99: Mairead Conway (co-ordinator), Ann Doyle (principal),
Noelle Lambert, Sr Pius Canavan, Patricia Sweeney, Noreen O Regan, Kathleen O
Donoghue.
Action Planning Team 99/00: Kathleen O Donoghue (co-ordinator), Ann Doyle (principal),
Mairead Conway, Noelle Lambert, Sr Pius Canavan, Patricia Sweeney, Noreen O Regan,
Joan Taylor, Phil Burke.
INTRODUCTION
The Presentation Primary School, Clonmel has 305 students and sixteen teachers. The school
had a full time learning support post for many years and since May 1999 has a full-time
resource teacher. The students come from very mixed social backgrounds. The school has a
particular commitment to supporting students who are experiencing disadvantage. Through
the Collaborative Action Planning process teachers in the school have developed a team
approach to devising and implementing individual education plans for students who are
experiencing difficulty in their learning.
BEFORE COLLABORATIVE ACTION PLANNING
Before Collaborative Action Planning, withdrawal was the main approach used
for remedial tuition
Before the school started Collaborative Action Planning, withdrawal was the main approach
used for remedial tuition. Each term the learning support teacher drew up a programme of
work for students who were identified as needing extra help in literacy or numeracy. This
programme was drawn up in consultation with the class teacher, but the main focus was the
work done in small groups with the learning support teacher. The learning support teacher
commented that they frequently found that there was discontinuity between work done in
withdrawal and that done in class.
In an effort to bridge this gap, the learning support teacher and some class teachers had tried
out different teaching arrangements and, over time, the role of the learning support teacher
had been changing. The teachers sometimes had exchanged roles and the class teacher had
taken responsibility for working with the weaker group. At other times teachers had tried
team teaching, with the learning support teacher and class teacher working together in the
classroom. The learning support teacher had started to do personal/social development with
small groups of students who were identified as particularly needing this support.
Building positive self-esteem and developing personal/social skills were recognised as
important aspects of learning support. As the consultative/co-ordination aspect of the role
had begun to develop, an increasing amount of the learning support teacher’s time was being
used for meeting and consulting with students, their parents/carers and colleagues.
The school reports that Collaborative Action Planning provided a significant impetus to
developing these ideas ‘in a more structured and formal way’. The school worked with Mol
an Óige over two school years 1998/99 and 1999/2000.
24
SELECTING THE TARGET GROUP
In September 1998 the full staff surveyed the needs of all classes in the school. They then
agreed that priority for 1998-1999 would be given to sixteen 6th class students as there was
only one year left in which to work with them. Rather than distributing the sixteen students
between the two 6th class teachers, the decision was made to place all sixteen students in one
class and to support them within a mixed ability group of 32 students. Grouping students in
this way was not usual school practice but the decision was taken in order to concentrate
efforts and resources in providing an intensive programme for this group in their final year in
the school.
In the group, thirteen students were experiencing difficulty in literacy and numeracy, lacked
motivation or were not achieving their potential academically. Five were presenting with
serious aggressive/ confrontational behaviours that were interfering with their own learning
and the learning of the others in the class. There were concerns about one student’s poor
school attendance and personal hygiene problems. The school had requested a psychiatric
report for another student. Several students were very quiet in class, had low self-esteem,
poor social skills, were reluctant to connect within the school and were not developing talents
or interests in out-of-school activities.
In the second year, fourteen students in the mixed ability 4th class were targeted and a second
teacher opted to become involved. Six of this group presented with academic needs and the
teacher believed that five others, while doing reasonably well, were not achieving their full
potential.
Several in the target group presented as being immature, and needed
encouragement to become more independent, to take on responsibility and generally become
more self-confident. Teachers were concerned about the behaviour of four students, who
were either initiating or getting involved in negative behaviours in the playground.
HOW COLLABORATIVE ACTION PLANNING WORKED
The Action Planning Team
The school had a two-strand structure for planning.
a) The class teacher and learning support teacher met for a planning meeting for two hours
each week. In the early stages, they met with individual students and their parent/carers
to draw up individual education plans (suggested headings for individual educational
plans are included in Appendix A). Subsequent planning meetings focused on monitoring
progress and making changes to the plan or the organisation of the class, in addition to
follow-through sessions with individual students and/or parents/carers. In preparation for
team teaching, the teachers worked together to draw up the English and maths
programmes for the full class.
b) The class teacher and learning support teacher were then supported by colleagues at a
monthly meeting of the full Action Planning team. There were 7 teachers on the Action
Planning team in the first year, 9 in the second, and they met for an hour after school. At
these meetings the team discussed how they could offer practical support, they reflected
on the learning for themselves as teachers arising from the process, and they discussed
issues of practice and policy as they emerged. Regular reports were made at staff
meetings to keep the remainder of staff informed and colleagues who were not on the
Action Planning team were invited to support some of the actions.
Planning Time
It was critical to the project that planning time was timetabled formally during
school hours for the class teachers and the learning support teacher.
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It was critical to the project that planning time was timetabled formally during school hours
for the class teachers and the learning support teacher. An action plan was submitted to Mol
an Óige and on the basis of the actions proposed, Mol an Óige provided the school with five
hours planning time weekly, and this planning time budget was used to employ substitute
teachers to release the class teachers to plan. The substitute teachers covered subjects such as
drama, music art/crafts, enterprise and PE. The school also employed a counsellor to
facilitate personal/social development groups. Finding quality substitution was always a
challenge. Local teachers interested in teaching a series of one-hour lessons were identified,
including a number of post-primary teachers who were interested in doing some sessions in
their specialist subject areas with a younger age group.
The Role of the Action Planning Co-ordinator
The project involved a wide range of activities and a considerable amount of time and energy
needed to be put into co-ordination, including the setting up meetings, linking with teachers,
linking with parents, and with a variety of statutory and community agencies. The learning
support teacher took on the role of co-ordinator in the first year. A recommendation she made
at the end of the year was that, because learning support teachers already have a linking role
in relation to learning support, it might encourage wider involvement and more sharing of
tasks if another member of the team took on the co-ordination of team matters. In the second
year, the role of the Action Planning team co-ordinator was recognised as a long-term priority
within the school and became a B post of responsibility. As such it was then open to any
interested member of staff to apply for the post. (The learning support teacher already held a
post of responsibility. A different member of staff was appointed to the post.)
A COLLABORATIVE MODEL OF LEARNING SUPPORT
In September of each school year, the class teacher and learning support teacher began the
process of drawing up individual education plans for each student in the target group. This
required close co-operation between the teachers and the weekly planning meetings were
crucial. Instead of withdrawing students, the teachers shared responsibility for English and
maths by team teaching. In general they found that mixed ability groups worked best for
some oral and creative aspects of English, while groups based on ability were effective for
other aspects of English and for maths. The class teacher valued having the support of
another teacher in the room and the arrangement did mean having to have a tighter structure
around keeping to the timetable.
The practice of team teaching was extended more generally during the second year of
Collaborative Action Planning and five teachers in the school were involved in different
variations of collaborative teaching. ‘Staff members who were open to new ideas have seen
the benefits of working as a team…teachers are now more willing to offer and seek
assistance’.
teachers are now more willing to offer and seek assistance from each other
All the members of the Action Planning team took a particular interest in the target group and
became involved to different degrees. They made a special effort to be friendly and to find
opportunities to affirm the students as opportunities arose in the normal school routine. Some
team members exchanged classes on occasions with the teacher of the target group in order to
give the students a wider range of experiences. To encourage those students who had many
difficulties in their own learning to feel more capable and valued, teachers involved the target
group in their own classes doing a variety of activities including cross-age tutoring for
reading and for developing computer skills, and storytelling to small groups. The team coordinator in the second year arranged to change supervision duty from the junior to the senior
playground in order to have the opportunity to chat with the target group. ‘Now I see a lot
more of the target group children … their overall response is much more pleasant and cooperative than it used to be’.
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INVOLVING PARENTS/CARERS
Having the clear framework provided by the individual education plans meant that teachers
were more confident about consulting and involving parents. They had regular contact with
all but one of the parents/carers of the target groups, and the students benefited from having
more consistency between home and school. The effort to involve student Z’s social worker
when no parent support was forthcoming was not effective, perhaps because it was not
sufficiently well planned. Instead this student had regular student-teacher meetings to support
her. In the case of another very quiet and withdrawn student, discussions with her parent to
encourage her to become involved in extra-curricular activities were not successful because of
a lack of follow-through on the arrangements. The teachers found that individual education
plans were more successful when parents were actively involved in the process. ‘Parents
gave valuable support … we saw, in cases where support was not forthcoming, that it was
more difficult for the student’s needs to be met’.
Parents were given very concrete ways of helping their child at home. Many parents did a
training programme for shared reading. One parent trained to do a phonics programme with
the learning support teacher with her child present, and followed this up by doing drills at
home with her child. Agreements about homework were made with two other parents to be
clear when they should and should not become involved in homework.
Three-way meetings involving students, parents/carers and teachers for goal
setting were a central part of the individual education plan process.
Three-way meetings involving students, parents/carers and teachers for goal setting were a
central part of the individual education plan process. These goals could relate to personal/
social, academic or behavioural needs, e.g. doing homework, behaviour over lunchtime,
committing to become involved in extra-curricular activities. Some parents found the
approach used in school very helpful and several adopted the same approach when dealing
with home issues.
The frequency of meetings with parents/carers depended on the progress being made, and the
amount of time that the teachers could manage. Teachers noted that time constraints were
always an issue. In the case of student Y who was in residential care, meetings with her
carers took place on a weekly or fortnightly basis at the beginning of the year to support the
individual education plan. Her carers found this process very effective, commenting: ‘it
makes us aware of what is going on for the child … her work … interactions with her peers’.
Later in the year, meetings were needed less frequently and interim discussions on the phone
worked well.
The learning support teacher found that it was useful for all when teachers, parents and
students clarified their roles, particularly in relation to homework. ‘Involving students with
parents discourages parents from taking responsibility for things which are students’ business
and encourages students to take responsibility’
OUTCOMES FOR STUDENTS
The individual needs of the students in the target group were addressed more effectively by
using individual education plans. The teachers involved reported that Collaborative Action
Planning allowed them to ‘look more specifically at individual needs, and recognise and
follow-up on needs that were not so evident previously.’ As a result of the collaborative
teaching approaches used, there was more consistency across the curriculum for students.
Teachers believe that this consistency in the learning programme and shared goal setting
contributed to students being better motivated and more willing to engage in their work.
Students commented ‘we did a lot more interesting things’, ‘it was different from other
years’. They also benefited from having more teachers involved: ‘we had smaller groups and
27
different teachers which will be a help for next year’ (6th class student referring to postprimary).
Teacher observation and testing has shown a general improvements in literacy skills in both
years. The Micra T stens of the target group in 4th class have risen by one or two points in
many cases within six months. While a number of the 6th class group made obvious
improvement in standardised results, overall improvement in literacy was not as obvious.
The students commented particularly on enjoying and benefiting from the personal and social
development programme. ‘It was something new and interesting … we learned and
experienced new and different things’. Another said: ‘at first I was very shy and drama made
me loosen up and also I got to mix with other people I don’t usually mix with’. One teacher
noted that ‘some children appear to be more confident and willing to participate. One child
who rarely spoke in class was able to stand up and make a presentation to the class’.
Students have developed the skills needed for effective meetings including listening and
negotiating by being involved in Circle Time (Mosely, 1996) and class meetings (Dinkmeyer
et al., 1980) which all contributed to having a positive and encouraging classroom
atmosphere.
95% of students in both target groups became involved in a wide range of extra-curricular
activities, including sports, art and music, either in the school or in the wider community.
Supporting students to get involved in out-of-school activities took a great deal of time and
energy. For the vast majority of students, teachers believe it contributed to a more positive
sense of self and generally influenced greater motivation even within school.
The teachers reported more co-operation generally in their classes, one noting that gradually
there were fewer instances of aggressiveness, while a second teacher saw ‘a marked
improvement in the behaviour of the class which has been commented on by quite a number
of staff’. All the teachers involved said that there was more openness in student/teacher
relationships. While the aggressive and confrontational behaviours of student Z, referred to
earlier in the context of having no parent support, continued at intervals, they were generally
less severe and less frequent. She became an enthusiastic and consistent member of the
school basketball team, took up draughts and participated in the Community Games, and
proved herself to be very motivated and successful in the enterprise group. Her school
attendance improved from 68% in the previous year to 87%.
LEARNING FOR TEACHERS
The sharing of ideas helped teachers to feel more supported and less isolated
Teachers report that Collaborative Action Planning gave them an effective process and an
effective team structure that will be applied in the future to other aspects of school planning.
The teachers learned the value of teamwork, finding ‘the sharing of ideas helped [them] to
feel more supported and less isolated’. The class teachers of the target groups found the
practical peer support and encouragement of the team very important. One made the
comment ‘I was able to learn from their experiences and it was great to know that they were
willing to involve themselves with the target group’. At the monthly meeting the team
brainstormed ideas and evaluated how the lessons learned could transfer to other groups in the
school. Several of the ideas discussed were applied by other team members within their own
classes during the project.
The teachers report that they had a greater understanding of ‘the importance of allowing
children to work at their own pace, no matter what the issue – academic social or
behavioural’. The process also confirmed for them that building positive self-esteem and
developing personal and social skills are fundamental aspects of an effective learning
programme.
Students were working at their own rate all day, not just at ‘remedial’ time
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The learning support teacher felt that working collaboratively can be a more effective use of
her time and that team teaching can be a more productive way to deliver learning support.
‘Students were working at their own rate all day, not just at ‘remedial’ time. It was not as
obvious that students needed ‘remedial’ help. I found it easier to motivate children’. But it
did take time to get the balance within the learning support timetable between student contact
and advisory/consultancy time. ‘It was a matter of changing priorities’.
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CASE STUDY B: “THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS”
Using Collaborative Action Planning to overcome the effects of isolation for
teachers and students in small primary schools
Co-ordinators 98/99: Olwen Roe (principal), St Mary’s NS, Templemore; Martin Meade
(principal), Knock NS, Roscrea; Noreen Dwan, Castleiney NS, Templemore; Mary Fogarty
(principal) Shanakill NS, Templemore.
Co-ordinators 99/00: Olwen Roe (principal), St Mary’s NS, Templemore; Martin Meade,
(principal), Knock NS, Roscrea; Noreen Dwan, Castleiney NS, Templemore; Bríd Coffey,
Killea NS, Templemore.
Principals who supported the process:
Shanakill NS, Eileen Curtin, Killea NS.
John Treacy, Castleiney NS, Mary Fogarty,
INTRODUCTION
Over the two school years 1998/99 and 1999/2000, a group of one and two teacher schools in
North Tipperary used the Collaborative Action Planning process to work together to jointly
draw up a programme of inter-school activities. There were four schools involved each year
and there were a variety of reasons why they undertook this shared venture. They wanted to:

increase the range of social opportunities for their students

broaden the curriculum being offered in their schools by undertaking activities that
were often not practicable for small schools individually but were more manageable
on a shared basis

develop professional peer support locally for the teachers and help to reduce the
professional isolation often experienced within smaller schools
The benefits of small schools linking with one another to discuss their shared concerns was
first proposed by the Mol an Óige Project Development Officer because schools, particularly
small schools, had frequently identified that they felt isolated in their work situation. The
outcome of their first meeting was that the four schools decided to become involved together
in an Collaborative Action Planning process to provide a wider range of learning and social
opportunities for their students and to develop professional support for teachers.
The schools aimed to provide a wider range of learning and social opportunities
for their students and to develop professional support for teachers
When the project started in Sept 1998, Castleiney, Knock and Shanakill National Schools
were two-teacher rural schools with 23, 26 and 10 students respectively. St. Mary’s NS, was
a one-teacher with 14 pupils in the town of Templemore.
The second year of Collaborative Action Planning brought some changes to the group. A
second teacher was appointed to St. Mary’s, Templemore. The school in Shanakill closed and
another local school, Killea NS which had 36 pupils, joined the cluster. The principal in
Killea was keen to join the cluster because she had got very positive reports from the other
schools involved.
THE EXPERIENCE OF ISOLATION IN SMALL SCHOOLS
Before becoming involved in this project, the teachers say they were working very much on
their own. Several teachers reported that they had ‘no contact with similar schools in the
locality’ during their careers teaching in small schools. One teacher summarised what was
30
most important about what she had gained from involvement with the cluster: ‘what I wanted
was more contact with other teachers’.
Teachers were concerned too about the isolation experienced by students. While they valued
all the advantages of the family atmosphere of small schools, they also believed that there
were limitations and disadvantages in their situations. They felt their students needed to
socialise with larger numbers of children to ‘get used to being in crowds especially informally
and at break time’. The teachers saw this as being extremely important for supporting their
students to make the transition from primary to post-primary and believed that this type of
experience would ‘boost their confidence and make the move less daunting’.
The teachers believed too that larger schools frequently have better facilities, including
assembly areas, PE and library facilities. They believed that in small schools the
opportunities for team sports are often more limited and the children have less experience of
playing in a trained team, and had less experience of competitive sports. One teacher
commented on the importance of offering a broad curriculum so that all students have every
opportunity to develop their individual skills and talents. ‘Many children who might not be
academically gifted…often come into their own on the sports field … even organising the
school sports day is more restrictive in a small school’ in so far as it is not ideal to have only
a small group of children of mixed ages for such events.
even organising the school sports day is more restrictive in a small school
The schools involved also identified difficulties organising field trips and school tours. The
cost of transport is often prohibitive for a small school, making such events very costly for
pupils if schools book transport individually.
PLANNING TIME
Planning meetings took place during school hours in the one-teacher school. The group
decided that they would meet to plan for an hour once a month. Each school applied to Mol
an Óige for one hour of planning time and employed a substitute to free up teachers to meet.
Substitute teachers were employed to teach particular subjects like arts/crafts or music during
this hour. Obviously the principal, as the only teacher in the one-teacher school, attended the
meeting. In the two-teacher schools, whichever member of staff was the Action Planning coordinator represented the school. In two cases this was the school principal, in the other it
was the assistant teacher. Even in a two-teacher school having a co-ordinator for a particular
project offered the teachers a useful structure for sharing responsibilities within their school.
Mol an Óige also made £500 available to each school to develop the actions of the plan. This
money covered some of the costs of transport to/from events, hire of facilities for joint events
and the fee for a musical director who was employed by the cluster.
NEW PROFESSIONAL RELATIONSHIPS AND DIALOGUE
The group had an agreement that all schools in the cluster did not have to commit to
becoming involved in every activity. Building new relationships and working co-operatively
was a gradual process within the cluster of schools. One teacher admitted that it was very
hard to adjust to making compromises after having worked in isolation for so long. The
schools acknowledged that there was some wariness in the group, as they had not the
experience of this type of professional exchange prior to this initiative. Another teacher
commented:
“We were all used to doing things in our own way, in our own time … [we] had to find common
ground, a way of working together and come to trust one another. We started slowly and
cautiously. This was a real learning experience for the teachers who were getting used to
compromising, listening to the others’ points of view and getting ideas from other schools”.
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Even travelling between schools for meetings appeared very time-consuming for a group who
previously had rarely had reason to be out of their own schools during school hours.
The project did not happen without occasional difficulties. The group needed to have
decisions recorded when, at a later time, members differed in recalling arrangements. ‘Time
and familiarity eased the situation’. The group agreed to take turns to chair the meetings,
draw up the agenda and record the minutes. Agreeing on what activities to undertake and
timetabling these activities involved much discussion and compromise. Phone contact was
required throughout. The group dealt with this by starting with smaller events. ‘We started
on less complicated ventures … each activity laid the foundation for another venture’. One
participant said that the documentation required by Mol an Óige, which included a section on
allocating tasks, helped focus the group.
ACTIVITIES PLANNED
In the first year the group decided that their priority was to organise activities so that the
students could have the opportunity to be with other children to socialise in a large groups.
The first event that the schools undertook together was to travel to a play in another North
Tipperary town. One of the teachers said ‘it took unbelievable organisation’ to manage the
logistics, especially to make sure that ‘no school would have to spend half the day on the bus’.
Being on the bus was in itself an educational experience. ‘The children mixed and chatted on
the bus and the outing was a great success. Some of the children were subsequently able to email their new friends’. The cluster group also arranged that the County Arts Officer would
come to one of their meetings to discuss services such as drama and storytelling that were
available in the county for schools.
The cluster became more ambitious and a wide range of activities were planned and
subsequently evaluated at their monthly meetings. They organised a joint concert and
employed a musical director. At this stage the schools wanted some younger students to
enjoy the social benefits of these new opportunities, and both a junior and a senior choir were
set up. Children from each school were involved in both choirs and the teachers report that
the children loved it. They had the chance to visit different schools for rehearsals over the ten
weeks of preparation. The children were working in groups that were four times as large as
they were used to, and other activities like computer work, games and quizzes were tied in
with the rehearsals to encourage further social and learning opportunities. The children got to
know one another and got to work with the teachers from the other schools. The choirs
performed then to a large audience that included not just their families and friends but others
who were total strangers.
As working relationships developed, the four schools also agreed to go on their school tour
together. The schools also came together in a local GAA field for a shared Sports Day that
first year. It had the great advantage that all the children got the chance to compete with
others of their own size, on equal terms.
The schools organised a joint school tour, sports day, table quizzes, and
basketball coaching
The Action Planning team continued to meet, and joint activities continued through the
second year of the project. Table quizzes were organised, mixing the students on each team
so that the children were getting to know one another and the schools were co-operating
rather than competing. They decided to take on a basketball coaching programme together.
This was a new sport for all and it was chosen because teachers believed that this sport would
encourage lots of participation while requiring a minimum of equipment. The schools jointly
hired a local hall, employed an experienced basketball coach and organised that the children
train together. They planned inter-school friendly matches ‘to keep the children focussed, fit
and bring them gently into the competitive side of team sports’.
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Parents were kept informed about the different activities over the period of the project. At a
school meeting, one parent told how pleased she was that her daughter, who is the only child
in her class group in her school, has developed friendships with students of the same age
groups in the other schools. Some parents had been worried initially about the time
commitment involved in the activities of the cluster. When the project was underway, there
was a strong change of attitude from these parents and when they saw the outcomes for the
children, they were very supportive and appreciative.
BENEFITS FOR STUDENTS
The teachers believe that the children have gained a great deal from the experience. They
benefited from being exposed to a wider curriculum and a wider range of activities. Speaking
of the theatre visit, one 12 year old said ‘it was my first time to see live actors and it was very
enjoyable’. Students in general got used to working and playing in larger groups. ‘There is a
big leap from kicking a football around with a few children of assorted ages and skills to
playing in a trained team, with team positions and tactics, against another team of your
peers’. They made friends and their social skills and self-confidence have increased. One
student ‘finally found her talents highlighted on stage’ while another had ‘the experience of
not always being the best at all academic tasks’. One student heard an orchestra live for the
first time ever while another learned that there were others weaker at games than she was.
Becoming involved in sports was very important for one particular student who was not very
good at academic work. This student excelled in basketball. His teacher noticed a
considerable change in his self-esteem and commented ‘I noticed a general improvement in
his overall integration with the other children in the school’.
BENEFITS FOR TEACHERS
Collaborative Action Planning was the most refreshing activity I have been
involved in since I began teaching fourteen years ago
The teachers in the cluster group say that there was huge benefit for them professionally in
interacting and working with colleagues in their own locality. One of the teachers said
‘Collaborative Action Planning was the most refreshing activity I have been involved in since
I began teaching fourteen years ago’. The participating teachers shared ideas and exchanged
professional views. One teacher described it as having ‘broadened horizons’ and found that
contact with other teachers ‘acted as a pressure valve’ which was very important in the
isolation of the small school setting. Teachers commented too on learning useful lessons on
how to organise effective meetings, how to listen to others and how to document the process.
‘We were all enjoying the chance to meet and could have spent the time talking shop without
ever getting down to the main task were it not for the guidelines provided by Mol an Óige’.
Working in this collaborative way also allowed the teachers to share their particular
professional strengths. This sharing and observing the work of the specialist teachers who
were ‘bought in’ also helped to enhance the school programme especially when perhaps the
teachers in a small school were not particularly skilled in an area of the curriculum. While all
the participating teachers wanted the extra activities for their students, it was sometimes
difficult in their multi-class situation to find time to fit in everything. Teachers noted that
their time management skills improved with the project.
SUSTAINING THE LINKS INTO THE FUTURE
In evaluations the teachers report that they believe that the project has been very successful.
This group of schools believe that they have ‘the best of both worlds … the family atmosphere
of the small schools and the sociability and extra opportunity of the larger group’. The
schools all say that they plan to continue the links made and continue to support one another
professionally. They intend to set up a web site for the cluster, and the joint sports day,
33
sporting links, drama and shared school tour were seen as particularly practical ventures for
doing together in the future. All the schools hoped that their linking would continue and they
have already started to make links with other agencies that are in a position to give support to
their project.
Members of all four boards of management took part in a meeting at which a number of
schools, including the cluster group, outlined what they had done through Collaborative
Action Planning. One outcome of the meeting was that the schools in the cluster have
established a new link with Tipperary Rural and Business Development Institute (TRBDI) in
relation to IT training for staff.
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CASE STUDY C: “CHANGING MINDSETS”
How a post-primary school used Collaborative Action Planning to design and
implement its own models of interventions to meet the needs of students at
risk.
School: St. Anne’s Secondary School, Tipperary Town
Principal: Donie O Byrne
Action Planning Team 98/99: P.J. Ryan (co-ordinator), Mairead Hayes, Willie O Brien,
Dora O Mahoney, Sandra Rossiter, Niamh Ryan, Mary Fahy, Nancy Leahy.
Action Planning Team 99/00: P.J. Ryan (co-ordinator), Marie Walsh, Mairead Hayes, Anne
Ryan, Mairead Stapleton, Mairead Bradshaw, Mary Murphy, Kathleen Ryan.
BACKGROUND
St. Anne’s is an all girls secondary school with approximately 340 students. In recent years
the school feels that a growing number of students have enrolled in the school with learning
difficulties, low self-esteem, poor social skills and inadequate home support. Prior to
Collaborative Action Planning individual teachers sought to support students as best they
could within the confines of teaching their subject but without any formal structure to meet
the needs of students experiencing difficulties.
The school has a part-time learning support teacher who is timetabled for eleven hours
support per week. Students are withdrawn in consultation with the subject teacher, usually
from maths and English, as it is felt that these are the areas where they were experiencing
most difficulty. However due to the fact that she worked more or less in isolation from other
staff it was not possible to work with all students in need of support. After junior cycle the
support was discontinued. In a number of cases it emerged that some students had received
remedial support in primary school but this was discontinued in sixth class. As a result when
the student came into post-primary, it was possible for a couple of months to elapse before the
school became aware of a student’s difficulties.
COLLABORATIVE ACTION PLANNING
The team met for thirty-five minutes weekly at lunchtime and had their
teaching time reduced by on class period per week to accommodate this.
The school began Collaborative Action Planning in September 1998. The principal issued an
open invitation to staff to participate. Seven teachers, reflecting a variety of different subject
and interest areas, formed an Action Planning team. On submission of their action plan to
Mol an Óige the school was allocated six hours planning time per week. The team met for
thirty-five minutes weekly at lunchtime and had their teaching hours reduced by one class
period to accommodate this. The co-ordinator was allocated one and three quarter hours per
week to oversee the development of the process in the school, liase with Mol an Óige and
attend co-ordinators’ networking meetings. At the end of the first year of Collaborative
Action Planning the team felt it was very important to involve as many staff members as
possible, including those in specialist areas. They also felt that Collaborative Action Planning
was a very effective framework for developing the potential of the Year Head structure. As a
result a second Action Planning team was set up in the school and a further seven teachers
became involved in the process. This was the only school that formed a second Action
Planning team. It included the year heads responsible for the targeted students, the learning
support teacher and a retired staff member who was working on a voluntary basis as a Home
School Community Liaison co-ordinator. The Action Planning co-ordinator from the original
35
team worked between both teams to ensure continuity. For the 1999/2000 school year, the
school received three and three quarter hours planning time per week from Mol an Óige and
matched the remainder of the time needed from their own resources.
Target group
In the first year of Collaborative Action Planning the team identified thirteen students across
three class groups in Second Year with literacy and numeracy difficulties, low self-esteem,
lack of motivation and poor home support. In the second year of the process support
continued to be given to this group and was extended to include a further eleven students with
similar difficulties also belonging to this year group. Two of the students were from the
Travelling community and in addition to needs in common with others, their isolation and
exclusion were also an issue.
Initiating Change
The school began the process of change by inviting Mol an Óige to give an input on
Collaborative Action Planning to all staff as the team felt that it was necessary for everyone to
be aware of its presence in the school and how it worked. Two teachers also travelled to
Pontypridd College in Wales, and developments in areas such as IT and team teaching were
influenced by their visit.
INTEGRATION V INCLUSION
One of the guiding principles for the team at the beginning of the process was to develop
strategies that would be inclusive of and beneficial to all students. This was necessary
because of the fact that those targeted for support were not an entire class group but a number
of students from different classes in Second Year. The team also wished to provide support in
a very sensitive and discreet manner, mindful of the low self-esteem of some students. They
realised that this required a willingness on their part and on that of the school to restructure
the school’s delivery of its service in response to the diversity of students’ needs. They found
this very difficult and the first months of Collaborative Action Planning ‘were very
challenging’.
The first months of Collaborative Action Planning were very challenging
As is the case with many schools there was little communication on a professional level with
neighbouring schools and the team felt that the co-ordinators’ networking meetings were very
helpful and enlightening. In particular a Collaborative Action Planning seminar facilitated by
Mol an Óige held at the end of the first term in the first year of the project introduced them to
new ideas and methodologies. At the seminar, teachers from six schools described how
Collaborative Action Planning was working in their school and presented their professional
learning from the process. For the majority of teachers it was their first time to do this. The
team came away from the seminar with greater clarity and focus as to how they could develop
an inclusive approach. At the second such seminar the co-ordinator presented the process as
it had developed in the school.
The team indicated that the approach, which they had developed in the first year of the
project, made it easier for them to provide support in an inclusive way to two students from
the Travelling community. Traditionally the support offered to Traveller students was
withdrawal, which increased their isolation from other students. As a result of Collaborative
Action Planning withdrawal has been significantly reduced and replaced with inclusive
strategies such as mentoring and peer tutoring. Responding to their experience these students
said that ‘they would prefer to be in class with other students’. In addition the team felt that
their approach benefited students in general in terms of understanding another culture.
36
Students did not like withdrawal. They would ‘prefer to be in class with other
students’
PARENTAL INCLUSION
From the very beginning of the process the team felt it was important to explain to parents
what they hoped to do and why, and to get their consent and that of their child to participate
in the process. Their initial contact was through letter and phone calls to which few of the
parents responded. Involving the parents of the target group proved more difficult than
anticipated. It became clear to the team at an early stage that many of the parents had at this
point seven or eight years of negative experience in relation to their child’s education. Some
of them had bad memories of their own time in school and, in a very small number of cases,
had literacy difficulties themselves.
There was very significant learning for the team in relation to parents.
There was very significant learning for the team in relation to parents. Teachers came to
realise that although they cared deeply about their students, this was not necessarily the
message that the parents received, as contact with them was mainly through the formal
structure of the parent/teacher meeting or through contact with home when there was a
problem. The team sought to develop opportunities to encourage positive communication
between home and school.
Mid-Term Reports
An early response from the team was the sending home of mid-term reports focusing on
strengths and achievements. The team in consultation with the year heads designed a monthly
report that highlighted areas where they were experiencing success. They also worked on the
language used in these reports, as traditionally comments made by some teachers ‘can be
critical and off the cuff’. Parents always received these reports prior to parent/teacher
meetings and there was warm encouragement from the teachers to attend the meetings. The
parents’ response to the reports was very positive. They said that they were more informed
about their child’s school life and if an issue arose it could be dealt with before it became a
huge problem. The team also saw it as a way of encouraging parents to identify their
children’s needs and to work together to solve them.
Developing the Role of the Home School Community Co-ordinator
The Home School Community co-ordinator visits the homes of three to four students with
attendance difficulties on a regular basis. The Home School Community co-ordinator is on
both Action Planning teams as it was felt that to develop effective links with parents, the coordinator and teachers must complement and support each other’s work. The team is also
now very much aware of the need to involve parents in their child’s learning if support is to
be really effective, and in the future would like to work with and train parents around specific
areas where they can help their child.
Although developing positive links between the school and home has been difficult and very
time consuming the team feels it has been worth it. There is a very definite improvement in
the attendance of the parents of the targeted students at parent/teacher meetings and the team
has said that ‘the parents are getting more confident in their contact with the school and less
fearful when the school approaches them’.
37
DEVELOPING LITERACY AND NUMERACY SKILLS
Team Teaching
One of the strongest and clearest points that came across in the team’s
communication with parents was their sensitivity to anything that would label
their children in a negative way. They were happy for them to receive the
extra support but did not want them to be singled out in any obvious manner.
One of the strongest and clearest points that came across in the team’s communication with
parents was their sensitivity to anything that would label their children in a negative way.
They were happy for them to receive the extra support but did not want them to be singled out
in any obvious manner. In fact two of the students originally targeted refused to become
involved for fear of this. For this reason the team decided to experiment with team teaching
to address literacy and numeracy difficulties. A maths and science teacher planned together
on a weekly basis to team-teach in maths for one class period in the week. The team said that
the increased contact with students increased their awareness of students’ needs and in some
cases ‘they were surprised at the level of difficulties some students were experiencing’. The
students enjoyed working together and teachers noticed that the students were ‘livelier in
class and participated more’. They felt that students did not feel embarrassed or singled out
when they needed support. In terms of their learning from this experience the team felt that
for the teachers involved it is very important to develop a partnership approach based on
mutual respect and trust and that the role of each teacher be clearly defined. They also
emphasised the importance of identifying the kind of areas that are best suited to this
approach and to plan around them. Overall they felt that the benefits of team teaching far
outweighed the preparation time involved and plan to develop this approach in other subject
areas.
Mentoring / Peer Tutoring
Close contact with the individual students raised awareness of their difficulties within and
without school, including their low self-esteem, their attitude to school and teachers, and their
belief that the school body did not care about them. To begin to address these feelings the
team discussed a number of possibilities including mentoring. A number of teachers attended
an inservice on mentoring facilitated by Mol an Óige. They decided to develop this area but,
aware of the importance of appropriate training, confidentiality and monitoring, it was
decided to begin the process within the school with each team member acting as mentor to
two students in the target group. Again parents and students were consulted as to how they
felt about it and, again, both sides were very concerned about labelling.
At the initial stage of its development the mentors met the students on a daily basis in an
informal way and chatted to them about school life and areas they enjoyed or where they were
experiencing difficulties. The students responded positively to teachers’ interest in them.
One student said ‘I found my teacher mentor very helpful and a good idea. She showed great
interest in me and encouraged me to do my best.’
Peer Tutoring
The team felt that mentoring was reasonably successful but looked at ways of developing it
further. During the project they decided to link it with peer tutoring using students from
transition year and fifth year. Through this dual process they hoped to build on their
improved self-confidence and develop their literacy and numeracy skills. The support was
broadened to include five more students including the two students from the Travelling
community.
There was a lot of discussion as to how peer tutoring would work. The team devoted a
number of meetings to the selection of tutors and guidelines for working with the target
38
group, drawing up a structured time frame for meeting the students and deciding on the areas
where the support was needed. It was also important to be aware of personality differences
and the ability of the tutor to understand and be sympathetic to the student's needs. The tutor
met with one student for one class period on a weekly basis concentrating on areas of
difficulty in English, Irish and maths. The mentor continued to meet with the student on a
daily basis, formally or informally, as the need required. The mentor also met on a weekly
basis with the tutor and the student together to discuss progress. The tutors and the students
enjoyed working together. One of the target students said that ‘I find tutoring helpful
especially in maths. Some things I find difficult she helps me with them’. The tutor said, ‘I
find tutoring very useful as I must be clear myself what I am teaching. It would be very
helpful for anyone who wants to become a teacher. It is very good to help me understand how
to work with and respect a student for what she is’. In all, fourteen students were involved in
tutoring.
Students’ sensitivity and fear of being different surprised the team, as it was
something they had not thought too much about. They were now much more
conscious of what they said and how they said it
While this worked very well, again the students were very concerned that the support being
offered would not label them negatively. The team said that the students’ sensitivity and fear
of being different surprised them, as it was something they had not thought too much about.
They were now much more conscious of what they said and how they said it. They were also
more concerned about withdrawal from class for support and its potentially negative effect on
students.
Homework Support
In light of the difficulties students were having with learning the team reviewed the schools
approach to homework. They found that some students were spending several hours at night
trying to do homework that was beyond their capability as in many cases they had not
understood the classroom work on which it was based. Students also found the amount of
homework daunting and on many occasions left it undone. This in turn created more
difficulties for them when they returned to school next day and the team felt that their fear of
getting into trouble or ‘looking stupid’ in front of their classmates probably led to students
staying away from school. The situation certainly affected the teacher/student relationship
and their self-esteem. The team discussed their learning with the teachers of the target group
in relation to making homework more relevant and achievable. They agreed to look at this
and also to work with the team to provide homework support after school in the evening.
Parents and students were again consulted and ten students availed of the support. For future
development in this area the team feels that the students and the parents should sign a contract
committing themselves to the process.
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITIES ARISING OUT OF COLLABORATIVE ACTION
PLANNING
As the Collaborative Action Planning process developed the team became aware that to
successfully implement their strategies they needed some inservice support. The school
participated in the following activities facilitated by Mol an Óige:

Mentoring

Multiple Intelligences

Co-operative Discipline

Presentation of their learning at an Action Research Seminar

Two teachers from the school visited Pontypridd College
39
BENEFITS/OUTCOMES FOR STUDENTS
The team is very positive about the benefits of Collaborative Action Planning for their
students. They feel that there has been ‘significant change’ in the confidence and self-esteem
of the students. This is reflected in their attitude to school and teachers and their increased
participation in class. In the case of the small number of students who were poor attenders,
this has improved considerably due to the strategies put in place by the team and the constant
follow up, monitoring and encouragement they received to attend school.
LEARNING FOR TEACHERS
When the school began Collaborative Action Planning they found the process both
challenging and frustrating. Identifying the needs of students who were failing and
developing appropriate strategies to meet those needs led to a questioning of long held beliefs
and traditional teaching methodologies. It also led to reflection on the pupil/teacher
relationship and its importance to a child’s self-esteem for learning, and an acknowledgement
of the central role of parents in their child’s school life. Confronted with all of this the team
found it difficult to know where and how to begin their process of change. However they
found that the weekly planning meetings and the rigour of the Collaborative Action Planning
process, together with contact with other schools through the co-ordinators networking
meetings and seminars where schools presented their learning to each other, helped them to
focus and find direction.
Confronted with all of this the team found it difficult to know where and how
to begin their process of change. However they found that the rigour of the
Collaborative Action Planning process helped them to focus and find direction.
All teachers on the Action Planning team say that ‘mindsets have changed’ and there is a
more tolerant and caring attitude towards students, with a greater openness to exploring
alternative approaches to addressing their difficulties.
The teachers are very positive about the teamwork and professional peer support generated by
the process. Due to the nature of school structures there was little culture of this and they feel
that Collaborative Action Planning provided the opportunity to share ideas and to learn from
each other. It also motivated them to try out new approaches.
In light of their greater understanding of students’ needs the team feels that the school plan
should clearly identify areas of need and show what support the school will provide to address
those areas.
The principal said that ‘the school always promoted learning in a caring environment. As
part of the Mol an Óige project the school has been given the framework to design and
implement its own modes of intervention to help students to achieve their full potential’
40
CASE STUDY D: “TEAM TEACHING AND LEARNING FROM EACH OTHER”
How working collaboratively enabled teachers in a post-primary school to
focus on students as individuals and to build on their strengths
School: St. Ailbe's School, Tipperary Town
Principal: Pat Moroney
Action Planning Team 98/99: Maura Quinlan (co-ordinator), Bridget McCormack, Simon
Carroll, Patricia Ryan, Deirdre Clifford
Action Planning Team 99/00: Maura Quinlan (co-ordinator), Bridget McCormack, Patricia
Ryan, Deirdre Clifford, John Lonergan, Kay Clancy, Dan Byrne, Gerry Coleman
BACKGROUND
St Ailbe's is a vocational school with approximately 680 students, boys and girls. The school
attracts students with a wide range of abilities and from varying social backgrounds. The
very able students are well catered for and their examination results reflect this. However, a
number of students have learning difficulties. Some of these have a higher than average level
of absenteeism and a few drop out prior to the Junior Certificate examination. The school has
a learning support teacher and prior to Collaborative Action Planning she worked mainly in
isolation from other teachers and withdrew students who needed extra support. There was not
adequate time to work with those with serious needs or to make interventions at senior cycle.
The school does not yet have the services of a Home School Community Liaison coordinator.
The school is very committed to the needs of all its students and has put a number of
initiatives in place including the Leaving Certificate Applied and Junior Certificate Schools
Programmes.
COLLABORATIVE ACTION PLANNING
In its desire to further support students experiencing difficulties the school became involved
in the Collaborative Action Planning process in 1998. Six teachers including the learning
support teacher volunteered to form an Action Planning team. On submission of their action
plan the school was allocated six hours planning time by Mol an Óige. The team met for half
an hour on a weekly basis at lunchtime and had their teaching hours reduced by one class
period in the week to compensate for this. The co-ordinator had an additional one and a
quarter hours for the overall organisation and development of the process in the school,
feeding back the lessons to Mol an Óige and attending co-ordinators networking meetings. A
difficulty in the first year arose from the fact that not all team members taught the target
group. For the second year of Collaborative Action Planning a number of other teachers
expressed an interest in becoming involved in the process and the core Action Planning team
expanded to eight. The school was allocated three and a half hours planning time from Mol
an Óige for the school year 1999/2000, and the school matched this from its own resources.
Target Group
The team identified a Second Year Special Needs group of fourteen boys and two girls. They
choose this group as they saw them as most at risk of dropping out of school because of their
behaviour and their high level of absenteeism. They also had difficulties with literacy and
numeracy, had low self-esteem, a very short attention span and in general ‘were bored with
school’.
We began to focus on the causes rather than the symptoms of the problems
41
Initially the team focused on the behaviour and absenteeism of the students. But as the
Collaborative Action Planning process developed, their understanding of students’ needs
changed and they felt that the students’ lack of motivation, low self-esteem and difficulties
with literacy and numeracy were major contributing factors to their disruptive behaviour and
poor attendance. ‘We began to focus on the causes rather than the symptoms of the
problems’. In the second year of the process they continued to work with the same target
group.
Initiating Change
The team began the process of change by inviting Mol an Óige to make a presentation to all
staff so that those not directly involved would understand the process and would support the
team in the strategies they developed.
DEVELOPING LITERACY AND NUMERACY SKILLS
The Junior Certificate School Programme
The school is involved with the Junior Certificate Schools Programme and the team felt that
the structure and methodology of this programme was very appropriate in addressing the
students needs, particularly in the area of literacy and numeracy development. However they
did not have a structured framework to ensure its effective implementation. They felt that to
maximise the value of the programme they needed a more co-ordinated approach. Although
the programme encouraged a team approach and the development of cross-curricular learning,
the team had only been meeting a few times per year. The team used the Collaborative
Action Planning framework to further explore and develop its potential and effective
implementation.
Team Teaching
The presence of the learning support teacher on the Action Planning team reduced the
isolation of her job and increased the awareness of teachers of the number of students
experiencing difficulties and the extent of those difficulties. This gave rise to discussion as to
the effectiveness of withdrawal, the negative implications of it for students’ self-esteem and
the exploration of alternative methodologies to support students with learning difficulties. In
addition to this, class sizes in the school are generally quite large with an average of 26
students in each one. The broad range of abilities in classes, even in a streamed situation,
meant that on average four or five students needed extra support and it was often difficult to
get around to them individually. Discipline was also an issue and the team felt that the fact
that students’ needs were not being met contributed to discipline problems.
At this stage a number of schools participating in the project were exploring the possibilities
of team teaching, as they felt that this was a very positive form of learning support. In March
1999, Mol an Óige facilitated an afternoon input on team teaching for five such schools. Five
teachers from the school, including some from outside of the Action Planning team attended,
and three of them began team teaching with the target class. The introduction of team
teaching also fitted very well with the methodology of the Junior Schools Certificate
Programme and its commitment to the development of a whole-school literacy policy. At a
later stage in the year the Junior Certificate Schools Programme support team gave a full staff
inservice on team teaching.
The introduction of team teaching also fitted very well with the methodology
of the Junior Schools Certificate Programme and its commitment to the
development of a whole-school literacy policy.
Sixteen teachers are presently involved in team teaching. Irish, English and maths teachers
go into the home economics class, the home economics teacher into an English class, the
42
science teacher into metalwork, and science teachers and Irish teachers work together. In
most cases, the team teaching occurs once or twice per week. It has been implemented on a
totally voluntary basis for First, Second and Third year classes. The school has used a
number of different approaches. In some cases a group within the class is targeted and one
teacher works with them. In other situations both teachers work together helping individual
students as they need it. The team has said that this approach has also encouraged teachers in
different subject areas to work together to see how they can link their respective subjects to
make learning more relevant for students. A maths teacher who goes into the Home
Economics class realised that she could link the teaching of weights, measure and volume to
this area in their cookery lessons. The learning support teacher said that this approach has
made teachers very aware of students’ learning difficulties and the need for all teachers to
support literacy development, and that they have become more involved in supporting this
development.
Students have adapted well to team teaching and can see the benefits of it for themselves.
The following are among some of the comments they made: ‘can get more work done’, ‘not
as embarrassed to ask questions’, ‘when you need extra help it’s very good’, and ‘you don’t
get away with as much’.
The staff response is also positive. Those involved feel that discipline has improved, the
atmosphere in the classroom is more relaxed and ‘there is less pressure all round’. It also
means that there are ‘two available to tackle a problem if one occurs’. Those involved
stressed the importance of class preparation because sometimes the teacher coming in can be
‘at a loose end’, especially if it’s not one’s own subject area.
Those involved stressed the importance of class preparation because
sometimes the teacher coming in can be ‘at a loose end’, especially if it’s not
one’s own subject area.
MOTIVATING STUDENTS AND RAISING SELF-ESTEEM
Use of ICT
While the team felt that they had to begin with strategies to address learning and behavioural
difficulties, they also felt that they had to focus simultaneously on the students’ lack of
motivation and low self-esteem. These were underlying causes of many of the students’
difficulties and needed to be addressed if other issues were to be resolved. They brainstormed
a number of ideas and also invited students to make suggestions as to how they liked to learn.
Their immediate response was computers and the principal timetabled two classes on a
weekly basis for ICT. The students ‘loved it and were very motivated’. A surprise to the
team was how good their keyboard skills were. This led to further links with other subject
areas such as Civics Social and Political Education, which required them to write reports on
their action projects. They now typed these and felt a greater sense of pride in their work,
particularly as such reports were being assessed as part of the examination process. At the
end of the year they received certificates showing the level of competency they had attained.
The team felt that the skills displayed by the target group and the effect on their self-esteem
raised awareness among teachers of the usefulness of IT as a teaching and learning
methodology for the target group. It was the team’s experience that ‘it does not matter how
weak they are, given the right medium they can all learn’.
It does not matter how weak they are, given the right medium they can all
learn
43
Active Learning
The team looked at the core subject areas of Irish, English and maths and explored
approaches that would motivate and encourage students to participate in their own learning.
Once a week the group had an Irish culture module which looked at culture not just in terms
of language but as part of their broader experience which included music, song, dance and
stories. To encourage active, self-directed learning the students were encouraged to research
topics of their choice. As a result, ‘participation and motivation were the winners here. They
loved this class and, for a change, were positive about Irish’.
Fourteen teachers attended inservice training facilitated by Mol an Óige on active learning
methodologies in English and maths.
The team also wished to develop the idea of ‘learning taking place outside of the classroom
environment’ and brought the group to an outdoor pursuits centre. Prior to the trip the
students had a number of tasks to carry out including booking the centre, costing it and
arranging transport. The focus on the day was on basic map skills and canoeing and also on
encouraging students to take responsibility and to work as a team. They had to adapt to new
surroundings and situations away from the safety of the school. ‘It was daunting even for the
tough guys’. As a follow up to the day they had to write a report which was incorporated into
their English class as part of the ongoing development of cross-curricular learning.
Their CSPE project is also in active learning mode – gardening. They have put up hanging
baskets and tidied up a small green area in the school, which has developed a sense of school
pride in them.
The use of student profiling has been introduced and has enabled teachers and the students
themselves to recognise and build on their own strengths.
Positive Approaches to Discipline
The team felt that the Collaborative Action Planning process significantly changed their
thinking on a number of issues. One of the most important of these was the new insights they
gained into students’ behaviour and the causes of it. They felt that much of the inappropriate
behaviour was linked to other issues in their lives, both within and without the school, and
they were concerned that punitive approaches to discipline, along with a number of other
factors, may have contributed to their poor attendance and in some cases caused students to
drop out. They wished to develop a process that would encourage and support students to
take responsibility for their own behaviour and designed a bonus points system with the motto
that ‘if students are sanctioned for inappropriate behaviour, they should also be rewarded for
appropriate behaviour’. The team targeted areas such as homework, uniform, punctuality,
absenteeism and respect for others. The system worked by awarding students a maximum of
ten points in each area on a weekly basis. The points were theirs to keep or to give away.
When they turned up in school late or without homework etc. two points were deducted.
There was a reward negotiated in advance for students who did not fall below a certain
number of points within a given time-frame. As the team developed and refined the system
they found that the shorter the time-frame, the more chance students had of success. This led
to a greater desire on their part to repeat the process.
If students are sanctioned for inappropriate behaviour, they should also be
rewarded for appropriate behaviour
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITIES ARISING OUT OF COLLABORATIVE ACTION
PLANNING
It was the view of the team that they needed to develop new skills for some of the initiatives
they wished to develop. As a result they and several other members of staff participated in a
number of inservice activities facilitated by Mol an Óige. In some cases these were school
44
based, on other occasions a group of schools came together to receive training in an area of
common interest. The team felt that the participation of other staff members helped to break
the isolation they sometimes felt and also meant that their learning in relation to the needs of
the target group was taken on board by a greater number of teachers, which in turn benefited
the targeted students.
The following were among the inservice activities arising out of Collaborative Action
Planning:

Active learning methodologies in English and Maths

Team teaching

Mentoring

Developing individual education plans

Co-operative Discipline

Literacy Across the Curriculum

Two teachers visited Pontypridd College and the principal visited Birmingham
BENEFITS FOR STUDENTS
Staff report that the attendance of students in the target group has improved. They are not in
trouble as often – ‘they are not angels but they are more aware of their behaviour, of what is
appropriate and what’s not’. They appear much more confident and with better self-esteem.
In many cases, they are much more willing to participate in school events.
LEARNING FOR TEACHERS
The team felt that they had gained a greater awareness and a deeper understanding of
students’ needs and the factors that affect their learning. These included lack of family
support, the need to highlight strengths as well as needs, the importance of getting to know
the students as people, ‘not merely as 2B’ and ‘the damage to students when they are
constantly pigeon-holed’.
The attitudes of a greater number of teachers towards students experiencing difficulties have
changed considerably. There is also the awareness that the school has to respond to the needs
of those students using a consistent, whole-school approach.
The co-ordinator commented that:
“Understanding how awful they feel because of the experience of constant failure was very
enlightening for the team. We now had a ‘cause’ and a ‘reason’ for poor behaviour and poor
attendance, and could approach these problems in a new way. We hope that if we can deal with
the cause, it will improve behaviour and attendance.”
Understanding how awful they feel because of the experience of constant
failure was very enlightening. We now had a ‘cause’ and a ‘reason’ for poor
behaviour and poor attendance, and could approach these problems in a new
way
The team did a lot of work on the self-esteem of students as they feel that this is central to
their learning. They also felt that developing new skills and teaching methodologies was an
essential part of this process.
Through the Collaborative Action Planning process ‘we learned to work as a team – this was
all new to us’. Working as a team enabled teachers to concentrate on students as individuals,
to continuously review the support they were offering, to ‘learn from each other’ and to
support each other professionally.
45
INCLUSION OF PARENTS
The parents of the target group tend not visit the school. When they do it is usually because
they have been sent for in relation to their child’s behaviour and the experience is therefore
negative and confrontational. A number of reasons prevent parents from coming to the school
and one of them is their own literacy levels which makes them feel inadequate.
Teachers found the area of parental involvement difficult to develop.
Teachers found the area of parental involvement difficult to develop. However, there is a
greater awareness of the need for such involvement, and this will be a focus for future action.
Homework journals have been introduced as a means of keeping in contact with parents.
These are signed every night.
RESPONSE OF THE PRINCIPAL
Speaking at a conference, the principal said:
“The impact of this project on teachers has been lively debate on the issue of educational
disadvantage at staff meetings, with a greater willingness among staff to give their time and
energy to collaborative planning and review meetings. Teachers are also more aware of the
benefits of listening to students’ opinions, needs and aspirations and of the need to set mutually
agreed, realistic goals in respect of learning, discipline and attendance”.
46
CASE STUDY E: “MEANING AND PURPOSE ARE KEY ELEMENTS IN SUCCESSFUL
LEARNING”
How a Youthreach centre used Collaborative Action Planning to support
literacy interventions in the centre
Centre: Tipperary Youthreach
Manager: Brendan Ryan
Action Planning Team: Joanne Barry (co-ordinator), Brendan Ryan, Anne Bourke, Ailbe
Coleman, Mary Fitzpatrick, Michael Connolly, Barbara Wheeler Connolly, John Neville.
BACKGROUND TO THE CENTRE.
Youthreach Tipperary opened in 1992. It provides vocational training and education for
young early school leavers between the ages of 15 and 18. The programme seeks to promote
a sense of self worth and identity as well as pride in ability and work. It is a learner centred
environment with an emphasis on work experience and ‘hands on’ practical activity. At the
moment 35 students attend the centre. 24 of these are female and 11 are male. 12 are from
the travelling community.
The centre promotes three core educational dimensions:

Personal and social development

Vocational skills

Communication skills
These are an integral part of all programme content.
The programme in Youthreach is offered in two phases, foundation and progression.
Foundation level is delivered through the N.C.V.A. Foundation Level Certificate.
Progression pathways that students may chose from include Leaving Certificate Applied and
Linked Work Experience. Central to all areas is the personal and social development of the
young person.
MAIN ISSUES FOR THE CENTRE
Literacy
54% of the cohort were not functionally literate and 25% had severe
difficulties. Prior to Collaborative Action Planning their literacy needs were
the exclusive responsibility of the learning support teacher.
A survey conducted across CDVEC Youthreach centres found that in excess of 60% of
participants were not functionally literate and that 20% had severe literacy difficulties.
Diagnostic testing in Tipperary Youthreach closely mirrored these results with 54% of the
cohort not functionally literate and 25% with severe difficulties. Prior to Collaborative
Action Planning the literacy needs of the students were the exclusive responsibility of the
learning support teacher. In terms of time, just under three hours per week were allocated to
her. Approximately half of this was used for group class time and the remainder for the
withdrawal of individual students experiencing serious difficulties. Given the level of need of
so many students it was felt that the current provision of learning support was inadequate.
47
Retention
It is the centre’s experience that retention of students who have already opted out of education
is always challenging. For those with severe literacy problems it was becoming increasingly
problematic as they found it extremely difficult to engage in class based activity of any sort
and therefore became frustrated. In addition to this a number of other social and
psychological factors such as poor home support and low self-esteem further endorsed their
sense of failure.
Addressing the problem of literacy development and other issues affecting the ability of
students to remain in the centre and access qualifications became the main focus of
Collaborative Action Planning.
COLLABORATIVE ACTION PLANNING
Mol an Óige allocated the centre three hours planning time per week. Forty
minutes of this was devoted to team planning and the remainder was used by
the co-ordinator for the overall development of the process.
Youthreach Tipperary wished to develop a whole centre approach to a number of areas as
they felt that this was the most effective way to meet students’ needs. They saw
Collaborative Action Planning as providing that framework within which to do this and in
February 1999 they became involved in the process. All staff members wished to be involved
and on submission of an action plan Mol an Óige allocated the centre three hours planning
time per week. Forty minutes of this was devoted to team planning and the remainder was
used by the co-ordinator for the overall development of the process, discussion and planning
of strategies with individual teachers and attendance at co-ordinators’ networking meetings
facilitated by Mol an Óige. As the centre already had a structure in place for weekly staff
meetings it was decided to hold Action Planning meetings immediately afterwards. This had
the benefit of ensuring that the day to day issues of the centre were dealt with separately and
Action Planning time could focus on specific areas of concern to staff and the development of
appropriate responses to them. It also meant that the entire staff was fully informed and
involved in all initiatives. The staff felt that this was important if significant change was to
take place.
Target Group
A foundation group of eight students were initially identified. All had literacy difficulties
ranging from moderate to severe and a number of them had serious behavioural problems.
The group expanded in September 1999 to include five new students in the centre, also with
serious literacy difficulties.
INTERVENTIONS
The team felt that by developing a whole centre approach to literacy they could go some way
towards addressing one of the most fundamental needs of the students. This in turn would
allow them to access qualifications. They developed a number of strategies in response to
this.
Cross Curricular Learning
As a starting point the team felt that they needed to address the lack of engagement of the
students and their sense of frustration and failure. The team initiated a cross-curricular
approach to N.C.V.A. Foundation Level. At this level students take eight modules with
Maths and Communications as core subjects. The team worked to explore and develop links
between all the modules in order to deliver them as a continuum rather than each module in
isolation. One such initiative became known as the ‘garden shed’ project. It involved the
48
teachers from woodwork, metalwork, maths, graphics, communications and ICT working
together to link their respective subject areas to design and build a garden shed.
Collaborative Action Planning framework gave tutors the structure to develop a
team approach. Students became very aware of the teamwork of the tutors
and adopted a team approach themselves.
Both staff and students responded very positively to the initiative. The teachers have said that
the Collaborative Action Planning framework gave them the structure to develop a team
approach. Students became very aware of the teamwork of the tutors and adopted a team
approach themselves. In addition students began to relate subject areas to each other and to
understand the inter-relationship between disparate subjects such as woodwork and reading.
Another development to this cross-curricular approach to learning was the exploration and
development of students’ interests, such as fishing and wildlife, to achieve educational
outcomes. Using students’ interests as the starting point for literacy and numeracy generated
enthusiasm, which led to increased participation on their part. It was the learning for the team
that ‘meaning and purpose are key elements in successful learning’.
Raising self-esteem
The team was constantly aware of the low self-esteem of students and sought to integrate
esteem building in the development of their various initiatives. It was decided to introduce a
folder which students brought with them from class to class so that work could be added to it
or an aspect of it could be reinforced. Thus work in woodwork classes could be used during
literacy sessions or as part of the students’ ICT classes. The folder became a source of pride
for students as it began to fill with work. This added to their sense of achievement and had a
very positive effect on their self-esteem. The team was always conscious of the need to
nurture the self-esteem of their students but felt that the experience of this process highlighted
the very clear connection between self-esteem and the student’s capacity to learn.
Collaborative Action Planning highlighted the very clear connection between
self-esteem and the student’s capacity to learn.
All Teachers as Literacy Teachers
At the beginning of Collaborative Action Planning the team had set out to develop a more
effective approach to address their students’ literacy difficulties. They felt that the process
enabled them to work as a team and to experiment with different approaches. It also helped
them to develop their literacy policy in a step by step manner so that when the co-ordinator,
who is also the learning support teacher introduced the idea of all teachers as literacy teachers
there was general consensus that ‘literacy is everybody’s responsibility’’. All members of
staff became involved in the development of literacy skills. Each tutor drew up and taught a
list of key words in their respective subject areas. Word banks were built and later on
frameworks to develop writing skills were introduced. The work in each subject was reenforced and further developed in the literacy classes. While initially there was some concern
that incorporating the development of students’ literacy skills into the various subject areas
would be very time consuming, it soon became apparent that this was not the case and the
benefits to students were felt to far outweigh the time involved.
Literacy is everybody’s responsibility
Code of Behaviour
As the challenging behaviour of a number of students was an ongoing issue the team saw
Collaborative Action Planning as a means of reflecting on, not only the behaviour exhibited,
but also the underlying causes of it. The current structure emerged from discussion and
49
negotiation between staff and students and covers a range of issues including bullying, respect
for staff and other students and abusive language. Since its inception it has been further
refined by the reflective process of Collaborative Action Planning and consultation with the
students. While a series of sanctions for misbehaviour were mutually agreed there is also a
merit system which endorses positive achievements such as effort in class, progress in a
particular area, improved attitude or behaviour. The system is also linked to attendance, as
this is one of the key issues that the team set out to address. Students who do not have a full
attendance record for the week cannot be considered for an award. When the student
accumulates a specific number of merits they receive a prize. The staff feels that this
approach to discipline and managing behaviour gives students ownership of their actions and
the consequences of them. It also recognises the achievements of weaker students because of
its individual approach.
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT NEEDS OF STAFF
The professional developments needs of the team emerged on two levels. On the one hand
the team feels that the planning process deepened their understanding of students needs and
also provided them with a framework to experiment with new approaches and to learn from
them as part of the process of developing strategies to meet students’ needs. They also feel
that weekly planning and ongoing reflection and evaluation enabled them to develop and
adapt a plan that in other circumstances could have become a fixed entity. On another level
the team’s exploration of a variety of teaching methodologies gave rise to a desire for new
skills and training to effectively implement new approaches. An important factor here was
that in most cases the manager and the entire staff of the centre participated in inservice
training as it was felt that, in order to initiate fundamental change, as many staff members as
possible should attend. Such areas included:
Weekly planning and ongoing reflection and evaluation enabled the team to
develop and adapt a plan that in other circumstances could have become a fixed
entity.
Teaching Literacy
The learning support teacher is also the co-ordinator of the Action Planning team and used
some planning meetings to give initial training to staff on the integration of literacy teaching
into all subject areas. One of the important outcomes of this was that one of the centre’s own
staff members delivered the training to her colleagues and as she is the learning support
teacher it also had the added benefit of changing the perception of her job and including more
staff in learning support. This was not something that had previously happened. The team
feels that because it arose out of a collaboratively planned action it was relevant and desired
by staff and not something that was imposed in isolation.
Multiple Intelligences
Five staff members including the manager of the centre attended three full days inservice over
a three-month period on the exploration of Gardner’s (1983) approach to teaching and
learning. The staff felt that this would further enhance the development of the centre’s crosscurricular approach to learning and increase ‘understanding of the many ways people learn’.
During the three-month period all staff developed a number of lessons using the multiple
intelligences approach and presented their learning and the work of their students to staff
from other centres participating in the inservice. They felt that this approach enabled them to
embed their learning in everyday practice.
50
Individual Education Plans
Four members of staff visited Pontypridd College in Wales and were particularly influenced
by the use of individual education plans (Appendix A) to support students with serious
difficulties. As Collaborative Action Planning developed they used the framework of the
process to design and implement such plans for some of students from the target group.
BENEFITS TO STUDENTS
The sense of achievement and self-esteem of students has increased. Because of the crosscurricular approach, work completed in one subject is now linked to the content in another
e.g. roofing in Metalwork/Building Construction became a topic to write about in English.
This helped students to recognise the value of their work.
The ability to read and write became less of a hot issue
The ability to read and write became ‘less of a hot issue’. Prior to Collaborative Action
Planning, literacy classes were not popular with this group. The fact that literacy was now
being addressed in all classes removed the ‘dread’ element.
LEARNING FOR STAFF
The staff feels that Collaborative Action Planning helped them to prioritise and focus in a
structured way on the needs of their students and to plan for them as individuals. It also
highlighted the importance of reviewing and evaluating planned actions so that they continue
to be effective. Collaborative Action Planning also provided a framework for a team
approach to problem solving that the centre feels is working for them and one of the outcomes
has been its value as ‘a team building exercise’ and ‘the development of a strong sense of staff
cohesion’.
The staff feels that it has enabled them to develop a firmer literacy policy and to plan a crosscurricular approach to N.C.V.A. It has focussed attention on the many needs of the students
and reduced frustration and anxiety levels
By channelling students’ interests the staff discovered some surprising results. A classfishing trip saw a leader emerging from the ranks that was previously difficult to motivate.
Another valuable lesson learned as a result of this trip was that of peer learning. Experienced
fishermen in the group undertook to teach the other members about fishing. Organisational
skills also emerged.
The manager of the centre said that the process ‘has improved communication with the
students and enabled the staff to look at and respond to their individual needs’. He also felt
that it has provided them with a strategy to plan at an early stage for students when they arrive
in the centre and to design individual education plans to meet their needs.
DIFFICULTIES
The time-scale of the cross-curricular approach to N.C.V.A. was initially set as a 3-month
target. However it soon became apparent that this was not a realistic target and that the
development of such a process needs six months to a year.
Students experienced over-emphasis on literacy at the beginning; having finished one literacy
class they seemed to have deal with more of the same in the next class. Discussion with the
group around the importance of literacy to each subject was not particularly effective.
The importance of literacy won through each time
Some members of staff were concerned that dealing with literacy became very time
consuming to the detriment of work in their own areas. However the importance of literacy
won through each time.
51
52
CASE STUDY F: “YOU FEEL SPECIAL WHEN SOMEONE COMES TO MEET YOU”
How working collaboratively raised the self-esteem of students and tutors
Centre: Youthreach, Roscrea
Manager: Geraldine O Brien
Action Planning Team: Geraldine Egan and Edwina Knight (co-ordinators), Geraldine O
Brien (centre manager), Thelma Carroll, Margaret Hennessy, Mary Haugh, Donal Coonan,
Bridie Malone, Therese Mulcahy
BACKGROUND TO YOUTHREACH, ROSCREA, CO TIPPERARY.
The Youthreach Programme was set up in 1989 by the Department of Education and Science
and the Department of Enterprise and Employment to provide two years integrated education,
training and work experience for early school leavers in the 15-18 years age group.
The Youthreach training centre in Roscrea opened ten years ago and can accommodate up to
35 students. At the moment it caters for 12 boys and 20 girls. 15 students are from the
Travelling community. The centre has a full-time co-ordinator and 8 tutors, all of whom are a
part-time. Vocational education training is provided in a number of areas including literacy
and numeracy, catering, horticulture, hairdressing and woodwork. There is a big emphasis on
social and personal education.
There is a big emphasis on social and personal education.
Prior to its involvement with the Mol an Óige project the centre had identified a number of
issues that it felt it needed to address. These included discipline and literacy development as
well as training and support for tutors. The staff also wished to develop a number of extracurricular areas as part of the social and personal education programme and to develop closer
links with the community.
Needs of the students
The centre feels that in recent years, students are presenting with a wider range of needs than
in the past. This is particularly true in relation to literacy and numeracy skills. For example,
55% of students have a reading age of 9, 25% a reading age of 8, and 9% a reading age under
7. In addition to this (and because of it) many have low self-esteem and serious behavioural
problems. Many of them have little home support – four are living outside the family home.
Almost all come from backgrounds of high unemployment.
Travellers
As the number of Travellers in the centre has grown in recent years, the centre has had to
address the issues of acceptance and inclusion – both within the centre and in the community
in general. This is particularly evident when the students are looking for work experience. In
addition to this some of the students find conflict between their new-found identity in the
centre and the culture of their community. Their concern with this and other issues can cause
tension and conflict with staff and other students.
BEGINNING COLLABORATIVE ACTION PLANNING
Youthreach Roscrea had been working with the Mol an Óige project since 1996. Seven tutors
had visited Pontypridd College in Wales and, as a result, the centre had been exploring new
ideas in learning support and in the use of ICTs as a learning medium. Collaborative Action
Planning began in the centre in February 1999. All staff were invited to participate and in the
initial stages all, including the manager, were involved. On submission of their action plan to
53
Mol an Óige they were allocated three hours planning time per week. The team met for forty
minutes on a weekly basis and two staff members were appointed to co-ordinate the process
and to liase with Mol an Óige and other participating centres. In the second year of
Collaborative Action Planning the team was reduced to six due to the fact that all staff are
part-time and it was difficult to arrange a suitable time for them to meet. The manager of the
centre now attended on a monthly basis as she wished to empower staff and give them
freedom to develop initiatives. As the process developed procedures were put in place to
ensure that teachers not directly involved were aware of the work of the Action Planning
team. This included circulating minutes, inviting feedback on proposed initiatives and giving
a brief report at monthly staff meetings.
ACTIONS TO RAISE SELF-ESTEEM
Drama
Although the students had serious difficulties with literacy and numeracy the team felt that if
learning was to take place they had to address the issues of the students’ lack of motivation
and low self-esteem. During their planning meetings they explored a number of possibilities
and decided to consult with students to establish areas of interest. A large number of them
were very interested in drama and music and expressed an interest in putting on a show. The
team consulted other staff members and the result was a production of Grease. All students
were involved and willingly gave up lunch and spare time to rehearse. They ‘loved it’. The
tutors felt that despite the hard work it was very successful as the students felt very positive
about the experience.
Mentoring
Mentoring is still at a developmental stage and needs a lot of co-ordination,
which is very time consuming.
As many of the students have very poor home support and have very few opportunities to
experience success in their lives the team felt that the support of an adult friend would be of
benefit to them. It would also be a means of developing links with the community as at times
the centre feels quite isolated. Some members of the team became involved in a mentoring
training programme facilitated by Mol an Óige. The staff invited a number of members of the
community to act as mentors and at present four people are supporting four students. They
meet every second week for about an hour. It is still at a developmental stage and needs a lot
of co-ordination, which is very time consuming. An ongoing problem is the attendance of
students and their failure to keep appointments. Rescheduling is often difficult as the mentors
have a number of other commitments. However, for those who have committed themselves
the response is very positive and students are ‘delighted with their new friends’. ‘You feel
special when someone comes to meet you’. ‘It takes time to get used to the person but it’s
good.’ The staff is also happy to have outside influences.
Foróige Involvement
Again to encourage students to develop interests and to take responsibility contact was made
with Foróige who set up a committee of students to start a tuck shop. Students sold shares to
staff to fund the venture. Staff in general had a large input and when they withdrew
supervision students lost interest. When the team reflected on the failure of this initiative they
felt that perhaps they had disempowered the students as too much direction came from staff.
The team indicated that this was an important learning point for them in relation to motivating
students.
54
LITERACY INTERVENTIONS
Developing a whole centre approach to Literacy
Staff are now developing appropriate materials and worksheets in consultation
with the learning support teacher to make literacy relevant to their subject
areas.
The team identified poor literacy skills as one of the reasons for students dropping out of, not
only school, but the centre as well. It also had consequences for their self-esteem. The focus
on individual students’ needs through Collaborative Action Planning increased the team’s
awareness of the need for an integrated approach to the teaching of literacy. They discussed
this with all staff and as a result all tutors attended night classes organised by the Adult
Literacy Organisation to develop their skills. Staff are now developing relevant materials and
worksheets in consultation with the learning support teacher to build on the training they
received. While it is an extra workload on all tutors the team has said that it has raised
awareness of the need to address literacy problems and overall this whole centre approach to
literacy development is working well.
Individual Education Plans
Team members who visited Pontypridd College in Wales saw how individual education plans
were used as part of the learning support structure. They now felt that they could use the
Collaborative Action Planning framework to build on current learning and further the
development of a holistic approach to addressing students’ needs. The individual education
plans are developed in co-operation with the students thereby encouraging them to take
responsibility for their learning. Each tutor is responsible for four students and time is
allocated for staff/student meetings and preparation of individual education plans. The team
feels that the plans should make assessment of students’ progress more effective. They also
feel the mentoring programme would fit very well with this structure enhancing the support
for the individual student
Multiple Intelligences
Because self-esteem and motivation as well as learning difficulties were issues that needed to
be addressed, the staff wished to look at other approaches to teaching and learning. Together
with four other training centres the manager and all staff members attended a three-day
inservice over a period of three months on multiple intelligences. The idea behind the
timeframe was to give staff an opportunity to discuss what they had experienced and to work
together to plan and develop a multiple intelligence approach to their respective areas. Staff
from the centres shared their learning with each other. The staff felt that it led to ‘better
teamwork among staff and students’ and ‘more learning is taking place’. Tutors are also
spending more time on preparation and this is resulting in ‘easier’ classes for staff. ‘Classes
were more relaxed once they were planned’. Students felt that classes ‘went faster’ and were
‘more enjoyable’.
POSITIVE DISCIPLINE
The regular meetings and the reflective process of Collaborative Action
Planning gave rise to a greater understanding of the needs of students and the
causes of their behaviour.
The team felt that the regular meetings and the reflective process of Collaborative Action
Planning gave rise to a greater understanding of the needs of students and the causes of their
behaviour. The centre had identified the challenging behaviour of students and the conflict
that this caused as one of the central issues it wished to address through Collaborative Action
55
Planning. Two members of staff attended a six-week course on positive approaches to
discipline to reduce conflict, raise self-esteem and encourage students to take responsibility
for their behaviour. Arising out of this a team member did a one-day training course on
facilitating this approach with all staff in the centre to enable a more positive policy on
discipline and behaviour management to develop
OUTCOMES FOR THE CENTRE
The team felt that it enabled staff to focus more clearly on the needs of the students and to
explore a variety of approaches in addressing them. It also helped them to address their own
needs particularly in the area of training and new teaching methodologies. The structured
planning meetings have led to a better communication structure and less isolation, particularly
among part-time staff. There is now more team spirit among staff and more inclusion. Time
for evaluation and planning is now being acknowledged as a necessity.
Time for evaluation and planning is now being acknowledged as a necessity.
The team felt that although many of the interventions are in the early stages the self-esteem of
both students and tutors has improved considerably.
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A GUIDE TO INTRODUCING COLLABORATIVE ACTION PLANNING IN SCHOOLS AND
TRAINING WORKSHOPS
Collaborative Action Planning is not for everybody – certainly not in the initial stages. It is
only for principals and managements who wish to empower and encourage leadership among
their staff, who believe that collaboration and peer support are essential for real change, who
believe that the school should be a learning institution for all, and who are prepared to commit
resources to this end. It is only for staff members who wish to work with colleagues to seek
new ways of meeting their students’ needs and their own, who recognise that there are often
no easy answers and that finding new, better approaches involves trial and error, and critical
reflection, both personally and collaboratively. It is for schools/workshops who believe that
the way to respond to students needs is not just to add on new initiatives, but also to use
existing resources and skills in new and more effective ways. Above all, it is for people who
wish to develop their professional practice in line with their professional values.
The Motive
Collaborative Action Planning is designed to promote a collaborative learning and working
environment within the school/workshop. Such an environment will provide a safe place for
teachers/tutors to:

identify the individual needs of all the students in their care and explore
methodologies for responding to these needs

evaluate current practice, individual and collective, against their own professional
values

develop professional peer collaboration which makes it safe for teachers/tutors to
discuss and reflect on their own practice, to try out new ideas and to develop their
own professional understandings and practice in the process.
Role of the Principal / Centre Manager
In order to initiate and support a Collaborative Action Planning process in the school, the
principal/manager must:

facilitate a team of volunteers to begin the process, and give the co-ordinator the
support and recognition necessary to lead the process

timetable weekly/fortnightly meetings and support professional development
activities arising from the process

provide support for the team to try new practices, recognising that all efforts will not
be successful and that failures are a necessary part of learning in teaching as
elsewhere

be prepared to encourage leadership to emerge from among the team

recognise that the process may highlight issues in relation to whole school policy and
practice which will require responses by management and the whole staff, and be
committed to provide appropriate responses

establish mechanisms for ongoing communication and feedback between team,
management and staff

recognise that collaboration with parents, professional agencies and communities are
necessary to meet the needs of some students.
The principal need not be a member of the team, but should attend some of the meetings.
57
The Co-ordinator
The role of the co-ordinator is crucial to the success of the Collaborative Action Planning
process. Ideally, the co-ordinator should be a person who:

has the skills to facilitate the team process

has the respect of staff

is open to change

will liaise with the principal, management and staff

will organise professional development activities relating to issues arising from the
process

will be open to working with parents, professional agencies and communities to meet
the needs of individual students.
The Team
The team should consist of teachers/tutors who:

seek to co-operatively address the needs of their students

understand and are committed to teamwork and to sharing ideas and skills

identify new roles and share responsibilities

are open to developing their understanding, attitudes and professional skills

recognise that failure as well as success is a necessary part of learning

are willing to critically reflect on, and evaluate, their own practice, and to listen to the
experiences of colleagues, students and others
What the team will do

draw up a list of needs of students in the school.

prioritise from this list the issues they will address in the action plan.

draw up an action plan to address these issues.

meet weekly/fortnightly to monitor and evaluate progress, propose new courses of
action etc.

record decisions, ideas and lessons

ensure feedback to and from the principal/manager and all staff members
The Action Plan
Typical headings for an action plan include:
a) Name of co-ordinator and Action Planning team members
b) Names of students targeted in the plan
c) Needs of students to be addressed in action plan ( individual / group needs)
d) Actions planned to address needs (these may include individual education plans)
e) Hoped for outcomes for:
 students
 teachers
58
 school
f) Procedures for implementation of action plan:
 timetable for planning
 different roles/responsibilities of members of the Action Planning team
g) Structures for:
 communication/feedback from staff and principal/manager
 involvement of parents
 collaboration with other agencies/services
 involvement of community individuals/organisations
h) Procedures for evaluation
i)
Resources (professional development, materials and time) needed to implement the
action plan
See Appendix B for suggested template for action plan.
Start small
Begin with a small number of students. Choose actions which are possible to implement.
Recognise that as the process proceeds new ideas for action will emerge. Also realise that
during the year the plan will evolve and may develop in new directions.
Beginning the process
At the beginning of the Collaborative Action Planning process, it is important to clarify the
roles of all participants, what each can contribute and the lines of communication between
team, management and the rest of the staff. Issues such as the following need to be decided:

Who will draw up the agenda and how will all team members have an opportunity to
contribute to it?

Who will chair meetings? – will the chair rotate?

Is it the role of the co-ordinator to take and write up minutes?

Will each team member be assigned a specific role?

What are the issues that need clarification in relation to working as a team?
Effective meetings
Regular (weekly or fortnightly) meetings of the team are essential. Meetings must be clearly
focused and well structured. The following are some suggestions to make meetings effective:

Have a set time for weekly (or fortnightly) meetings

Start and finish meetings on time

Develop an atmosphere of trust among the team so that difficult issues can be
discussed critically in a professional but not in a personal sense

Always have an agenda. Make sure that the agenda is related to the action plan in
order to avoid the risk of being drawn off track by responding to the latest emergency
in the wider school.

Ensure that each member of the Action Planning team has the opportunity to
contribute items to the agenda. A typical agenda will include:
59







Minutes
Matters arising
Review of progress since last meeting
Priorities for this meeting
Decisions taken / Actions arising
AOB
Keep minutes of each meeting (see Appendix C for suggested template). Minutes
should not record who said what, but should include the following:
 Decisions taken: - who will implement them? how? when? hoped for outcomes –
how will we know if they are successful?
 Main points to emerge from discussion
How to get through an agenda
 Each team member should be encouraged to contribute to discussion at the meetings.
Once a decision is reached and recorded, the chairperson should move the discussion
forward to the next item on the agenda. It may be necessary to prioritise the agenda, and
items not reached in a meeting may need to be put on the agenda for the next meeting.
Sometimes items need preparatory work done before being discussed at a meeting. In
other cases, it may be possible for a few teachers to deal with an item outside the meeting,
and report back to the next meeting.
 It should be recognised that meetings have different functions, and so meetings should
have different aims. Some meetings will be given over to planning a specific action, some
should focus on reviewing and planning specific aspects of the action plan, e.g., inclusion
of parents, and some should focus on evaluation of the process to date.
 A general outline at the beginning of the year indicating when different types of meetings
will be held would be very helpful, e.g. specific evaluation meetings will be held in, say,
November, February and May.
How to evaluate
Ongoing evaluation is an integral part of the process. It is done by critically reflecting on the
outcomes for students, the learning for teachers and the implications for whole-school policy
and practice. Evaluation should be based on evidence. Evidence should be sought in such
areas as developments in students’ work, attendance, behaviour, participation in class,
attitudes, and relationships with peers and teachers. Such evidence can be collected by, for
example:

assessment of students’ personal, social and/or academic progress

student profiles, portfolios/samples of work

teacher observation notes of participation in class, behaviour, attitudes, relationship
with peers and other teachers

student self-evaluation

notes from parent/teacher/student meetings
Comments from colleagues, management and parents on the outcomes of the process should
also be sought as evidence.
It is important to evaluate the process as well as the outcomes. This can be done also by
eliciting the views of team members on how the process has impacted on their work with
students, with colleagues, with parents etc, both individually and collectively, and on what
they have learned from it
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The action research guidelines, Section 1.2, (p. 9), are helpful for evaluation.
What to do if things are not working out
Collaborative Action Planning is a developmental process. This means that not everything
will work out as planned, and that some things will need to be looked at a second time or
approached from a different angle. It is vital that something not working is not equated with
failure. Rather, it is a challenge which provides an opportunity for learning for the team
members.
In order to deal with problems as they arise, the team should have open relationships with
each other. The following checklist might be helpful in looking at such issues:


Devote a meeting to examine the issue. In particular, examine:
 was the problem identified correctly? (what is the problem and, especially, why is
it a problem?)
 was the proposed course of action appropriate?
Look at the issue from the student’s point of view – why did it not work from that
perspective?

Look at the issue from the parent’s point of view – why did it not work from that
perspective?

Exactly what other information, understanding, or skills are needed to deal with the
issue? Would an inservice activity provide what is needed?

Seek advice and support, for example from:
 Principal/centre manager, deputy, class/subject teacher, learning support teacher,
year head, class tutor, guidance counsellor, school chaplain, etc
 Other agencies (Health Board, social services, youth services, School Attendance
Officer, psychological services, Department of Education and Science, local
community etc.)
 Include other students in the action
 Brainstorm other possible approaches
Feedback between the team and the principal and staff
Feedback in both direction between the team on the one hand and the principal and staff is
vital. The following are suggestions from the experience of Mol an Óige to facilitate such
feedback

Consult with all staff members in drawing up action plan

Circulate action plan to all staff members and invite comments and suggestions from
them.

Report from team to principal/manager, staff and Board of Management on a regular
basis

Principal to attend Action Planning meetings monthly

Send minutes of meetings reports, etc. to principal/manager, staff, Board of
Management

Input from team at staff meetings

Set up meetings with class teachers, year heads, learning support teacher, resource
teacher, visiting teacher service, staff representatives on Board of Management etc

Invite other staff members to attend meetings and participate in actions
61

Newsletter per term

Questionnaire that will elicit the views and suggestions of all staff
ASPECTS
OF SUPPORT BY MOL AN
SCHOOLS BEGINNING THE PROCESS
ÓIGE
WHICH MAY NOT BE AVAILABLE TO
Planning Time
The amount of planning time provided by Mol an Óige was so small that it could be provided
by schools if it were seen as a priority (see section 4, page 22).
Consultancy
Mol an Óige staff played an important role in identifying contacts, facilitators for inservice
activities, resource materials etc. Current professional networks of teachers, principals,
Department of Education and Science support units and education centres would need to be
used for this purpose.
Networking with other schools and agencies
An aspect of Collaborative Action Planning, as developed by Mol an Óige, that was very
important to its success was networking. Networking between schools took place at monthly
inter-schools co-ordinators’ meetings, action planning seminars and conferences, jointly
arranged inservice activities, joint action plans, transnational activities, visits between schools
etc. Networking between schools and other agencies was also very important. Among the
benefits of networking were reduced isolation of teachers, cross-fertilisation of ideas, courage
to be open and try new practices, providing triggers for new ideas and actions, and promoting
new forms of professional dialogue.
It is very strongly recommended that schools becoming involved in Collaborative Action
Planning seek to network and collaborate with other participating schools.
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6. COLLABORATIVE ACTION PLANNING
PLANNING
AND
SCHOOL DEVELOPMENT
Collaborative Action Planning is not the same thing as School Development Planning nor is it
a substitute for it, but the processes can be complementary. School Development Planning is
a large-scale exercise ‘undertaken by the school community’ and involves all aspects of
school policy and practice. Collaborative Action Planning, on the other hand, is more
narrowly focused in scale and scope, involving a team of volunteer teachers supported by the
principal, and focusing on an aspect of school practice where the team feels there is need for
an improvement.
School Development Planning hopes to improve the educational experience of students
beginning with an overall review of the current situation, establishing an overall vision and
plotting a way forward. A potential difficulty with this approach is the scale of the
undertaking which may make the ongoing process (after the plan is written) too burdensome
to respond to the specific needs of individual students. Collaborative Action Planning is an
experimental and innovative process which seeks to improve the school experience for
individual students through enabling teachers to develop their professional practice to reflect
their educational values and those of the school. It seeks to provide an innovative centre
within the school which will test and develop new approaches to meeting the needs of
individual students, and to feed the learning from the process into whole-school policy and
practice. A potential difficulty in this model is ensuring that the learning from the team feeds
into and influences practice in the whole school community. Both the School Development
Planning and Collaborative Action Planning models have built in procedures for addressing
these potential weaknesses.
However, it seems clear that the school plan could provide a framework within which the
lessons from a Collaborative Action Planning process would influence school policy and
practice. It also seems clear that Collaborative Action Planning could provide a strategy,
within School Development Planning, to ensure that the planning process is developmental –
for students, teachers and school. This links also with the idea of the ‘development section’ of
the school plan as outlined in the White Paper (Department of Education, 1995:158).
The following table outlines some of the key elements of Collaborative Action Planning and
School Development Planning:
Collaborative Action Planning
School Development Planning
Undertaken by a team of volunteer teachers
Undertaken by the whole school community
Begins with aspects of individual students’ Addresses all issues relating to school life
experience which the team wishes to address
Issues chosen by whole school community
Issues chosen by team
School plan is a product (though not the only
Team meets weekly/fortnightly, team outcome)
meetings focus on learning from action plan
Aims to influence practice of individuals by
(learning for student, teacher and institution)
providing common vision, aims for
Hopes to develop learning for a team of organisation
teachers and to feed back the learning into the
Based on management principles
whole school policy and practice
Based on action research – educational in
methodology as well as intent
63
7. POSSIBLE FURTHER DEVELOPMENT
PLANNING
OF
COLLABORATIVE ACTION
The following analysis of the needs of the target group is contained in a proposal for further
developing the work of the Mol an Óige project submitted to the Department of Education
and Science in January 2000. It is based on the learning of the project, and the recognition by
the NCCA Junior Certificate Review Progress Report (Department of Education and Science,
1999) that
“for a student whose strengths lie outside the academic, there is little alternative to
‘underachievement’ and failure”
7.1.
Analysis of the target group
Tony McGuire, speaking at a conference on mentoring organised by Mol an Óige stated that
from his experience working with schools in Birmingham,

60% benefit from the system

40% have needs unmet by their school experience. Of these:

25% are the disappointed

10% are the disaffected

5% are the disappeared
Our experience is that similar categories of students whose needs are not being met can be
recognised in the Irish education system, and that the percentages would be broadly similar.
These categories can be recognised as follows:

Category 1: Some of these students are among the 17% who currently do not complete
the senior cycle. Others are among those who go through the system and complete the
Leaving Certificate, but whose imaginations and intellects are not fully engaged by the
system. Their strengths and efforts are often unrecognised by the system. This results in
underachievement, boredom and lack of fulfilment for the student.

Category 2: These are the students whose learning styles and strengths are often
untapped, and for whom failure is a common experience in the system. The type of
learning support provided often fails to meet the needs of these students, and many
develop negative attitudes to school. These students often find it difficult to cope with
school, and schools often find it difficult to respond to their individual needs.

Category 3: These are the students who find it very difficult to cope with school, perhaps
because of difficult family or social conditions, and who need additional support within
and without the school. Schools also find it difficult to cope with them and, in many
instances, have neither the skills nor the resources to do so. Many in this group exhibit
behavioural difficulties, poor attendance, serious academic underachievement and social
disaffection. They are highly likely to drop out of school early.
For all of these students, the range of criteria for success used by schools is too narrow to
recognise or validate their worth, efforts and achievements. They all experience, in varying
degrees, a lack of relevance in what they are asked to do, and frustration at the lack of
appreciation of themselves and of their efforts within the education system.
While recognising the dangers inherent in attempting to categorise students too rigid,
identifying these categories within the target group will be helpful to schools in their
responsibility to “promote and foster an environment that encourages children to attend
school and to participate fully in the life of the school” (Education Welfare Bill, 1999:
section 10)
64
7.2.
Responses
The proposal by Mol an Óige suggests a range of responses targeted to students in each of
these categories. Collaborative Action Planning is seen as a providing the framework for the
development of each of these responses.
Category 1 students: For many students in this category, a more responsive delivery of the
curriculum, use of a wider range of teaching methodologies and co-operative approaches to
discipline would prove very beneficial. (The introduction of the Leaving Certificate Applied
and Junior Certificate Schools Programmes have shown this). The Action Planning process
has shown that it can enable schools to develop such responses.
Category 2 students: In addition to the more responsive approaches outlined above, these
students require that existing learning supports and other specialist teaching resources be
delivered in a more holistic manner, and are not used to compensate for an overall experience
of school which is harsh or unrewarding. Individual education plans and new approaches to
learning support will, typically, play a significant role in addressing the needs of these
students.
Action Planning has shown that it can enable teachers to develop responses such as these.
However, in some cases adequate intervention will require the provision of some additional
learning support resources to schools.
Category 3 students: For many of these students, the discontinuity between their experiences
of school and of life outside is so great that a purely school-based response will not enable
them to relate with the values and ambitions of the education system or to experience
fulfilment there. To meet their needs, the school must participate in collaborative, multiagency approaches with parents/guardians, peer groups and other statutory and community
organisations to provide an integrated framework within which the young person can develop
understandings and connections between the experiences of school and life outside. Such
collaborative approaches will seek to develop an integrated multi-agency care plan for the
young person. The innovative and essential element in this proposal is in involving the
school centrally in such a care plan.
The integrated care plan will be drawn up by a collaborative process involving all agencies
with responsibility for children most seriously at risk. The inclusion of the young person and
his/her parents/guardians in drawing up, implementing and reviewing the plans will be central
to the process. It will involve a commitment of personnel and resources from all agencies,
and will detail the responsibilities of each agency including specific targets and time frames.
Procedures for ongoing monitoring, review and consultation will be established.
The individual education plan will form a core component of the integrated care plan.
There are other young people under the school leaving age who have already dropped out of
the system. Separate responses to address their needs form part of the Mol an Óige proposal.
65
APPENDIX A: INDIVIDUAL EDUCATION PLANS
The class teacher/tutor, parent, student or learning support teacher can initiate individual
education plans. All of these, and possibly others, will be involved in drawing up and
implementing the plan. In all cases, the inclusion of parents/guardians and the student are
central to the process.
The strengths and interests of the student provide the starting point for the plan. The needs of
the child – personal/social, behavioural and academic are identified. Specific, realistic and
time-limited targets are set and the frequency of review meetings is agreed. Actions for
addressing the needs are drawn up, along with clear roles and responsibilities for the student,
parent, various members of the school/workshop staff and others. The resources and supports
needed to implement the process are included and addressed in the plan. These may be
material resources, personnel or training for any of the parties involved. Among the issues
addressed in implementing the plans were self-esteem building, new teaching methodologies
responding to the individual learning style of the student, appropriate forms of learning
support, empowering parents to support their child’s learning, etc. Depending on the needs
identified, other local agencies, statutory or voluntary, may have a contribution to make and
may be invited to become involved at different stages of the plan. Local community interests
in the arts, sports etc. can have an important a role in helping the young person to become
involved in community life.
The Individual Education Plan is reviewed and developed through the Action Planning
process by revising the plan in the light of the lessons learned by all involved.
Typical headings for an Individual Education Plan:
Name of student
Strengths/interests
Needs to be addressed – personal/social, behavioural, academic
How parents will be involved
Short-term goals/targets
Expected long-term outcomes
Actions
Resources needed – personnel, training needs, materials
Involvement of other staff members
Involvement of other agencies – Health Board, Gardaí, community/voluntary groups
Procedures/arrangements for monitoring and evaluation of plan
66
APPENDIX B: SUGGESTED TEMPLATE FOR AN ACTION PLAN
NEEDS
STRENGTHS/INTERESTS:
INVOLVEMENT OF
PARENTS
MONITORING/
TARGETS/GOALS:
EVALUATION
(Short Term)
NAME:______________________________
EXPECTED OUTCOMES:
(Long Term)
RESOURCES
ACTIONS:
WIDER COMMUNITY
OTHER
AGENCIES/SERVICES
INVOLVEMENT OF
OTHER STAFF
67
APPENDIX C: SUGGESTED TEMPLATE FOR MINUTES OF ACTION PLANNING
MEETINGS
The following headings were used as a template for keeping records of Collaborative Action
Planning in many primary schools.
RECORD OF ACTION PLANNING MEETINGS
School:
Date:
Time:
Attendees:
Matters arising from Minutes read:
Review of progress since last meeting:
Priorities for this meeting:
Decisions Taken/Actions Arising:
Allocation of Tasks:
A.O.B.
Date of Next Meeting:
68
8. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Buckley, H. (2000): Working Together, Training Together, Nenagh: Mid-Western Health Board.
Department of Education and Science (1997) “Education (No. 2) Bill”, Dublin: Government
Publications
Department of Education and Science, (1999a), NCCA Junior Certificate Review Progress
Report, Dublin: Government Publications
Department of Education and Science, (1999b), The New Deal: A plan for Educational
Opportunity, Dublin: Government Publications
Dinkmeyer, D., McKay, G. and Dinkmeyer, D (Jr.). (1980): “Systematic Training for Effective
Teaching”, (STET), Circle Pines, Mn: American Guidance Service
Elliott, J. (1989) “Educational Theory and the Professional Learning of Teachers: an overview”
in Cambridge Journal of Education”, 19 (1) 81-101
Government of Ireland (1995) Charting our Education Future: White Paper on Education,
Dublin: Stationary Office
Government of Ireland (1999) Education (Welfare) Bill, Dublin: Stationary Office
Hargreaves, A. (1994) Changing Teachers, Changing Times: teachers work and culture in the
post-modern age, London: Cassell
Holland, M., (1999), An Investigation Of The School Experiences Of Young People In North
Tipperary Who Left School Early, And Of The Factors Which Led To Their Leaving Nenagh: Mol
an Óige
Joint Committee on Education and Science, (1999), Report of The joint Committee on Education
and Science on Early School Leaving, Dublin: The Stationary Office.
McGuire T. Presentation on Mentoring Delivered at Templemore Arms Hotel Co. Tipperary
March 8th 1999
McNiff, J (1995) “Action Research for Professional Development: concise advice for new action
researchers” Dorset: September Books
McNiff, J. (1992) Creating a Good Social Order through Action Research, Bournemouth: Hyde.
McNiff, J. (1993) Teaching as Learning: An Action Research Approach, London and New York:
Routledge.
McNiff, J., McNamara, G., & Leonard, D. (2000) Eds.: “Action Research in Ireland,” Dorset &
Dublin: September Books
Mosely, J. (1996): “Quality Circle Time in the Primary Classroom”, Cambridge: LDA
Swan, D. (1991) “Recognising Inservice Education as the Key to Educational Reform and
Teacher Renewal” in Swan, D. (Ed.) Teachers as Learners: inservice education for the 1990s,
69
Dublin: The Standing Committee of the Teacher Unions and University Education Departments
Whitehead, J. (1989) “Creating a Living Educational Theory from Questions of the Kind, ‘How
Do I Improve My Practice’” in Cambridge Journal of Education 19 (1) 41-52
Winter, R. (1989) Learning from Experience: principles and practice in action research,
London: Falmer Press.
70
Other Publications by the Mol an Óige project
Title
Published
The Mol An Óige Project – a systemic response to the challenges of educational
disadvantage and social exclusion in Co Tipperary
2000
Community Mentoring: a strategy to raise the self-esteem of young people at risk of failure in
the education system
2000
Towards Inclusion in Learning Support Provision: developments in the concept and practice
of learning support in the Mol an Óige project
2000
The Primary Educators: the experiences and views of parents whose children are facing
difficulties in school
2000
An Investigation of the Experiences of Young People in North Tipperary who Left School
Early, and of the Factors which Led to their Leaving
1999
Student, Home and School: a partnership approach to assisting students with social,
emotional and personal problems
1999
The Mol an Óige Project – the View from the Schools: an evaluation of the project
2000
The Mol an Óige Project – the View from Training Workshops
2000
Addressing the Issue of School Attendance in Co Tipperary: the experience of the Mol an
Óige project
2000
Cherishing all our Children Equally: report on the proceedings of the dissemination
conference, October 1999
1999
The Young Offenders Initiative and the New Start for Prisoners Project
2000
The YOGIE Partnership: Emerging Innovative Transnational Approaches to Addressing the
Needs of Potential and Actual Early School Leavers
2000
The Development of Inter-Agency Collaboration in Co. Tipperary that Includes Schools and
Training Centres
2000
Directory of Services in North Tipperary
1999
Mol an Óige: the project and the lessons (report on the first round project)
1997
In addition, the following publications refer in a significant way to the work of the Mol an Óige
project:
Buckley, H. (2000): Working Together, Training Together, Nenagh: Mid-Western Health Board
This is a report on the North Tipperary Inter-Agency Training Programme undertaken jointly by the MidWestern Health Board, the Garda Síochána and Mol an Óige.
Condren, D (2000): “The Mol an Óige Project: developing and testing a model for applying action research at
systems, institutional and classroom levels in order to promote a better educational experience, particularly
for children at risk of failure in the system” in McNiff, J., McNamara, G., & Leonard, D. (2000) Eds.: Action
Research in Ireland, Dorset & Dublin: September Books
This paper contains an exploration of the Mol an Óige project as an application of action research at systems,
institutional and classroom levels
Youthstart Thematic Cluster Group and Mainie Jellett Project (2000): Someone who Believed in Me – the
Practice of Mentoring, Advocacy, Guidance, Information and Counselling [MAGIC] Activities for Young
People, Dublin: Irish Youth Work Centre
This publication outlines the work and learning of the seven YOUTHSTART projects which formed the
‘Guidance’ cluster. The Mol an Óige project was a member of the cluster.
Interim report on the School integrated Project ‘The Role of ICTs in Learning Support’ April 2000, available
from Portroe NS.
This is an interim report on the development of ICTs in the SIP project involving six rural primary schools in
Co Tipperary. It is available from Portroe NS, the lead school in the project
71