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5 reasons to read the Looking at Our Schools 2016 Document

The Looking at Our Schools Framework is an excellent document to help teachers assess their readiness for leadership progression and as a reflection tool for teachers to evaluate where they are excelling and where they may need to focus more of their attention on to ensure that they are providing the best education necessary for their pupils.

Here are 5 reasons to read the Looking at Our Schools (LAOS) 2016 document

1. To assess how your career is developing

In which areas am I satisfactory and …. …

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THE Newly Qualified Teacher (NQT) that every principal wants

Today’s blog is another guest blog post from Kerry based Principal Patrick Crean who has 7 years experience as a principal. He tells us all about the qualities he likes to see in NQTs to his school and that are valued by principals in schools in general.

One of the biggest lessons that I have learned over the years from being principal is the importance of recruitment. To put it very simply; successful recruitment is the single biggest action that a school can take to improve its teaching and lea…

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How can I be more confident in interviews

How can I be more confident in interviews?

You are a great teacher and you are confident in your abilities, but what do you do with the dreaded interview fear? Are there ways to get past this and shine in your teaching job interview? Of course there are and I am here to help you.

Develop self-compassion and improving your self-talk

So many of my clients come out of an interview and do a postmortem of it! They berate themselves for the bits they slipped up in or couldn’t answer well and focus mostly on that. Try refrain from doing that by d…

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Your Inside Guide to Looking at Our Schools – A support document for aspiring and existing school leaders

Your Inside Guide to Looking at Our Schools – A support document for aspiring and existing school leaders

Picking up this document – whether to self-reflect or when applying for a new role in management is a good idea to allow you to align with your current teaching practices. Working on your career vs working in your career – there’s a difference! Looking at our schools is a great document to allow for self-reflection.

There are a number of elements outlined in this document that you should consider when working on your career.

1. Reflection

Reflection is key to teaching and this framework serves as a…

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Looking at Our School The Leadership and Management Domains - Skills Development

Looking at Our School 2016: The Leadership and Management Domains - Skills Development

The ‘Looking at Our School 2016: A Quality Framework for Primary Schools’ outlines 4 domains as guides for teachers to step into management roles. 

These 4 Domains are:

1.    Leading Teaching and Learning

2.    Managing the Organisation

3.    Leading School Development and

4.    Developing Leadership Capacity

While I have already written blog posts for each individual blog post (linked below) today’s blog focuses on the skills development necessary for stepping up to the next level in your career.

I ha…

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Orla Dempsay

Diary of a teacher career changer

I've finally found the courage to label my stage in life at the moment as a 'career change', not a career break or time out to travel or time to think but now is about changing career for me. My time in UCD's Innovation Academy has equipped me with the knowledge and that courage. It seems a huge step but many of my classmates are doing the same thing and so will I! 

I will outline firstly, my recent wave of self-reflection and self-care leading to a  realisation of my strengths and weaknesses. Se…

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Mistake

5 Mistakes to Avoid as you Begin your Teaching Career

Embarking on your NQT year can be full-on. Getting used to a new school, new colleagues, new pupils and new routines, can send your head in a spin! I didn't even have a proper place to stay for the first week of my first job as a qualified teacher! Think.. grotty hostel and you may get some idea of what my nightly 'refuge' was like after my working day was over! Luckily, that didn't last too long!

Giving 100%

In my first year of teaching, I began my NQT year laminating everything; the printer flyi…

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‘Looking at our schools’ interview questions

Using the 4 leadership domains from the Looking at Our Schools document is an excellent starting point from which to prepare for leadership interviews in education. Look at the domains (not as a rigid structure) but for BOMs and Interviewers to use as a framework from which to compose questions. Here I outline some questions and the domains under which they may fall under.

Leading Teaching and Learning

1. In what way have you used a curriculum area or other to promote a culture of improvement, col…

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Checklist for filling in your job applications

Checklist for filling in your job applications

Here a few important things to bear in mind as you embark on filling in your SAF. This document will most likely be your initial introduction to a potential employer and it is worth taking the time to fill it in as well as you can. Consider the following points when filling in your form.

What are they looking for in a candidate?

Have you checked the job advert for clues as to what's important to the school? A job description will sometimes state the kind of person the school is looking for. The sc…

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Looking at our School 2016

Looking at our School 2016- A Quality Framework - A Practical Guide for Teachers

The Looking at our School 2016 guide (available here ), is an essential tool to help you gauge your effectiveness as a teacher. In this blog post, I aim to give you a brief run down of what an effective or highly effective teacher looks, sounds and acts like. I have added some of the statements below with the key information on what makes for a highly effective outcome.

Learner outcomes

  • Motivation: If pupils enjoy their learning, are motivated to learn, and expect to achieve as learners as they wo…

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