One question that generated a great deal of interest and creativity during a recent series of cluster meetings with secondary principals was:

 When are we expected to carry out Whole School development?' 

The following were a number of solutions that were shared. 
Staff meetings were scheduled on a monthly basis. These normally lasted two hours. The first hour was dedicated to regular school business, the second was given over to the school plan i.e. for the steering group to report to the staff as a whole or for the task groups to meet and work on their specific briefs (or vice versa).

 Another school closed at 12.15 on Wednesdays (normal closing time was 1.1 5) for six alternate weeks. The staff worked for one hour over this period and devised policy-cum-action statements on six areas of school need. 'Little and often' was the motto.

 On a particular day each month every class was shortened by 5 - IO minutes so that the students have the same number of classes but a shorter day. The 'saved' time was set aside for school planning, department meetings, programme meetings (LCA/TYO/ LCVP etc ), middle management meetings, pastoral area etc on a planned basis. The school rotated this planning day over the year so that the same day ( and classes ) were not hit. The 'saved' time was sometimes used in the morning before school started and when teachers were freshest. The students came to school one/two hours later. Or the time was used when the students - had gone home.

  Beginning of the school year was used to full advantage. The growing practice is for students to be brought in on a staggered basis, the I st. years on one day, the Transition years on another, etc.. The afternoons of these school days might be dedicated to various planning / faculty / programme meetings . End of term meetings. The last days of a school term are sometimes a wind-down or 'valley-time' which staff might be happier to devote to -school planning (as against 'babysitting'). Students experience it very positively and it is a general morale booster.

One year group was brought in to sit exams as staff work on school plan.

 In order to maximise on the 'days' for school planning some schools devoted the morning to a staff planning session and the afternoon to a parent teacher meeting. In this way the staff were freshest in the morning, a p/t meeting was taken care of and disruptive travelling arrangements for the students were minimised.

 Steering Group - these are given minimum contact hours to allow them time to work on the school plan. They are time-tabled to meet at least once a week to give updates and to devise strategies and arrangements for the term/year.

 The Steering Group were exempted from the supervision of the end of term house examinations so that they could meet/write up reports/visit other schools.

 The planning day(s) allowed by the DES were cashed-in in terms of one period per week over the year. This was not a popular choice as most principals felt the need to bring staff together for longer periods of time. People need to warm to the process and creativity flows after staff have been together for some hours.

 Brian Flannery