1/ 🛑 Why Principals Need to Stop Engaging with the SET Allocations
Of all the things that have been thrust on primary principals in the last number of years, the SET Allocations Model is the worst. Coined "The Cluster Games" here's why I think we need to stop engaging. 🧵
2/ Launched in 2017, the SET Allocation Model doles out an allocation of hours to each school. 25 hours equal a full teaching post, but most schools don't get an even allocation. Whatever their hours, they have to form clusters to make up shared posts.
3/ There are no rules for engagement except to form a 25 hour post however you can. If you don't form a cluster with your local schools, you're out of luck. It resembles The Hunger Games way too closely.
4/ So why do principals not only engage with the process, but often with no mercy for anyone else? As usual it's....you've guessed it
5/ Thanks to the Patronage Model, we have a ludicrously complex panel system that sort of works but also doesn't work. Without going into the ins and outs of it, it means if a school can't get the magic 25, they lose a teacher to this panel.
6/ While the teacher doesn't lose their job, (they are redeployed to another school), the school loses a post, which can mean a drop in resources such as posts of responsibility, a drop in wage for the principal, etc. However, most principals care more about "saving" the teacher
7/ On the other side of things, the reality is that when principals fight for "their" teacher, another school or, perhaps, a few schools end up losing "their" teacher. It's war games, it's nasty, and yet almost everyone takes part.
8/ Nobody enjoys it because it's humiliating, like pigeons scurrying around after breadcrumbs, pecking each other before leaving when they have what they need. So what would happen if we didn't engage?
9/ Simply put, the Department of Education would have to sort it out, and with AI and a bit of easy programming, it would take less than a day to put schools together into sensible clusters. Another solution would be to round schools up to their nearest full time post.
10/ However, while we continue to solve the jigsaw puzzle for them, often with huge stress, nothing will be done. None of the representative bodies seem to feel the need to criticise the process, never mind the allocation model itself. Speaking of which...
11/ Since last year, the SET Allocations Model calculates all supports based on enrollment, disadvantage status and over 2/3 based on standardised Reading and Numeracy test scores. Before that, children with complex needs were included in the model but no more.
12/ Despite outrage from almost everyone, again this year, children with complex needs have been forgotten. I'm not sure if there's any fight left from all of the people that tried everything they could to reverse this scandal: simonmlewis.medium.com/set-allocations-could-we-all-be-wrong-778f85a6fde5
13/ It is also a good time to remind everyone that the people supposed to represent principals came out with this: ippn.ie/index.php/96-frontpage-articles/9314-ippn-napd-npc-joint-communication-on-set-allocations
14/ With nobody left to advocate for principals, it's inevitable it has come down to the Cluster Games. The other name that didn't stick for this madness was clusterf**k. I think I preferred it. Either way, it's the survival of the fittest..or at least the fastest, in this case.
15/ I write this article last year which got some heat from some of the pigeons - I mean principals - but I stand by most of it. I understand the intentions of principals are good for their own situation but they aren't collegial. simonmlewis.medium.com/set-allocations-principals-demonstrating-their-principles-9b5b122e99f9
Simon Lewis 👨🏻🎓🎙📌✍🏽
@simonmlewis_1
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