Violence Against Teachers – How Should We Respond?

Posted in: Cassidy's Comments on 19/02/2018 Reading the recent Belfast Telegraph headline, “Union blames budget cuts for spike in pupil assaults on teachers”, three questions immediately spring to mind. How bad is the problem? What is causing it? What should our response be? In answer to the first question, the Telegraph article by Brett C...

The Future of Executive Heads in Northern Ireland?

Posted in: Cassidy's Comments on 13/02/2017 The Times newspaper on Saturday December 31st published a story headed, “School crisis as hundreds of heads quit”. Their research revealed that one in ten schools in England is losing a head each year and there are serious problems in recruiting new heads. NAHT General Secretary Russell Hobby is qu...

Classroom Observation - Dilemmas and Opportunities

Posted in: Cassidy's Comments on 11/11/2016 I have written in my previous articles in this series about the fact that school leaders often find themselves “between a rock and a hard place” in their quest to run a successful school. This is particularly true in the case of the vexed question of classroom observation. In this age of increasing...

Homework and uniforms in schools – blessings or curses?

Posted in: Cassidy's Comments on 13/10/2016 Being honest, I did not enjoy homework as a pupil myself. While I loved reading for pleasure, particularly historical novels, I resented the time that homework took and at boarding school during mandatory study in the evenings I remember rushing the maths to get back to the latest novel. The issue ...