Department of Education inspectors are planning to visit Templeogue College, the school at the centre of recent controversy over staff-management tensions.
The inspectors will spend several days in the 700-pupil all-boys’ secondary school, in south Dublin, to conduct a Whole-School Evaluation-Management, Leadership and Learning (WSE-MLL) inspection.
The visit is scheduled for the week commencing Monday, March 6.
A WSE-MLL is a routine, in-depth inspection designed to evaluate key aspects of the work of a school and to promote school improvement.
It covers the quality of school leadership and management, the quality of teaching and learning and the quality of support for students.
The inspectors will also look at a school’s self-evaluation process and capacity or school improvement.
In these visits, inspectors speak to the principal and other senior management, teachers and pupils, while surveys of students and parents and meetings with members of the board of management are also part of the process.
The final report, which will be published, will affirm good practice and, if any shortcomings are identified, it will make recommendations.
Before Christmas, the Spiritan Education Trust, which is the school patron, recommended a facilitation process “hopefully to improve the quality of relationships between staff, and between staff and the leadership team”.
The facilitator, Luke Monahan of the schools’ advisory service, Cúram, interviewed 58 staff and was told of a “toxic atmosphere” at the school.
In his initial report, Mr Monahan said “words like bullying, victimisation and gaslighting have been used on all sides”.
He referred to staff turnover, which many school staff said was “indicative of a toxic leadership culture”, while for some it was a sign of “a clash of cultures” between a core group of staff and leadership.
Mr Monahan reported that that “for many the sense of ‘remove the principal at all costs’ in a core group was “intimidating, fear-inducing and deeply damaging”.
While many staff spoke of an oppressive style of management, a number of others expressed great gratitude to the principal for her leadership, support, educational direction and energy, he found.
A number of staff have taken complaints to Workplace Relations Commission and, in December, almost half the staff signed a collective grievance addressed to principal Niamh Quinn raising concerns about a “non-inclusive culture and environment at the school regarding LGBTQI+ issues”.
Among other things, the letter drew particular attention to the treatment of a Pride flag that was hanging in the school canteen.
On the Pride flag issue, Mr Monahan said it had raised “deep value conflict concerns” and said there was an urgent need for the Spiritans, the board of management and the school community to “clearly articulate values and approaches” on the matter.