Kathleen Byrne was thrilled to be appointed principal of a rural primary school. It was, the 46-year-old says, a chance to make a difference. “I wanted to bring about improvements in the education of all the children in school,” says Byrne.
This year, after a decade in charge, she decided to resign her post and return to classroom teaching.
The constant addition of duties meant she had less and less time to focus on education, she says: the stream of circulars, emails, phone calls and administrative duties seemed never-ending. “The role was to lead teaching and learning,” says Byrne. “But that just became so difficult to achieve.”
While she did not initially intend to resign, a four-year secondment from the role gave her some valuable perspective.
“Just being away from the job gave me a chance to breathe, a chance to think,” says Byrne. “You don’t know how relentless it is until you’re in it, and then when you get to step back you can see it’s like being on a really fast treadmill; you just keep running until you run out of steam. When I got off it, I really didn’t want to get back on.”
Byrne is not alone. School management bodies are increasingly alarmed at how hard it is to attract or retain school principals. Some schools have had to advertise vacancies on a number of occasions to attract qualified candidates.
The results of a survey conducted by the Catholic Primary Schools Management Association (CPSMA) of more than 1,000 primary school principals just before the pandemic makes for sobering reading: some 60 per cent reported poor psychological wellbeing. Most were working 50-plus hours a week. Their biggest source of stress stemmed from a lack of secretarial and administrative support. Many primary school principals are also teachers, so have to juggle classroom duties with growing administrative burden.
Byrne says, in her case, a variety of factors returning to the job untenable. Work-life imbalance was one key factor (at one stage she says she was working 80-hour weeks); Department of Education circulars arriving out of the blue on Friday evenings or during the summer; the pressure to oversee building works at the school.
“It affects your family life, it effects every element of life,” says Byrne. “Principals work weekends, they work nights, they work holidays.
“In the summertime they expect building works to be done. Realistically, as a principal, you’re doing great if you get two or three weeks off over the summer. It’s amazing if you can get that, you certainly don’t get breaks any other time of the year. I knew towards the end of my 10 years, I was exhausted, and I needed a break.”
A survey carried out by the National Principals’ Forum in 2018 also indicates that, while Covid restrictions may have exacerbated it, the stress associated with the role predates pods and bubbles.
Almost 90 per cent of respondents to the survey said their workload was unmanageable and only three per cent said they had time to lead teaching and learning in their school. Nearly 80 per cent said their mental and physical health had suffered because of the job.
The other huge imbalance lay in the books: the financial ones.
I know I’ve made the right decision. I know I am making a bigger difference in the teaching and learning of the children’s lives in my class, than I could have as a principal
“Imagine running a business without ever having sufficient funds,” says Byrne. She believes utilities and IT for schools should be centralised.
“Schools will be running cake sales and fundraisers to pay for electricity and that is the honest truth,” says Byrne. These fundraisers take time and rely on involvement from all areas of the school community, but Byrne says it can be difficult because the funds raised aren’t seen on the ground or in new resources.
“That’s because it’s gone to keep the heating and the lights on,” she said. “No school wants to ask for voluntary contributions, things could be improved if sufficient funding was given to run a school, but there has to be better ways than cake sales and sponsored walks to run a business.”
The management of supports and services for students with additional educational needs is another Sisyphean task laid at the foot of school principals, she says.
“The hardest part is meeting the needs of the children, without supports, supports that don’t follow until the child is in situ,” says Byrne. “We’ve seen that with autism classes being opened where teachers aren’t trained, and the correct furniture isn’t in place. Whereas how much better would it be if the child was put first and foremost?”
These issues are also compounded by the fact that the provision of additional therapies is often added to the school’s workload. “That’s hurtling both teachers and principals into roles we are not qualified for,” says Byrne, “such as giving speech and language therapy or OT when we are not trained therapists.”
Byrne says that schools would be more efficient if principals were freed up to lead the teaching and learning. “Maintaining their focus on that core purpose will enhance school effectiveness, and it will subsequently lead to better outcomes for children,” says Byrne. “I can’t emphasise that enough. We’re not in it for the glory. We’re in it for the children”
“I’m only 46, I have my career in advance of me” says Byrne, “and I know I’ve made the right decision. I know I am making a bigger difference in the teaching and learning of the children’s lives in my class, than I could have as a principal.”
John Williams was principal of Divine Word National School in Rathfarnham for 17 years but decided to take early retirement this year. “The best decision I ever made was to apply for the principalship and the second-best decision I ever made was to retire. When I retired, the job was totally different from the job that I took up in 2004,” says Williams.
“I was getting that sense of burnout. I had high blood pressure,” says Williams.
During the initial years, Williams says he was able to lead teaching and learning, but, as the years passed, the increased demands placed on the role meant he was unable to allocate any time to this.
While Williams says he had great support from his staff and board of management, he found himself assuming the role of project manager during any building work needed in the school.
“This took up an awful lot of time, particularly during the summer,” says Williams. “And because you’re the only person that’s really around, you are the project manager.”
The application procedure for the building works is “horrendous”, he says, and that the procurement and tendering process is inefficient. “I do think that everything in relation to building should be centralised,” says Williams.
Another change that expanded the workload of principals was the moratorium on in-school management positions. “In 2009, there was a reduction in in-school management positions, I lost a lot due to people retiring in the school and those positions we’re not replaced.” Williams saw his management team cut in half.
Nationally, more than 4,500 posts of responsibility were lost in primary schools because of the 2009 moratorium, leaving schools without supports in a range of curricular, pastoral, and administrative areas. While some have since been restored, the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation estimates that schools are still down almost 2,000 of these posts. It says this will be key to making leadership posts more sustainable.
“This means that any of the extracurricular areas, that would have been done by a teacher are left to you,” says Williams. On many occasions teachers on his staff would offer to take on some of this work. “You feel guilty about it, because they’re not being paid. I know, some posts are being restored now, but they weren’t restored in my time.”
Williams is continuing to work in education as chairperson of the Dublin West Education Centre and also supervises student teachers, but he has no regrets about retiring early from his role as principal.
“I miss the children. I miss the staff, but I don’t miss “the job”, the increased workload, the worrying.”
How to avoid burnout: Five ways to make principal’s roles more sustainable
1. Connect: “Connect with any supports that are there such as the Irish Primary Principals’ Network (IPPN) and Centre for School Leadership support team offer great support,” says Byrne “and connect with the principal networks.”
2. More administrative principals: “The Department needs to look at removing the role of the teaching principal and making all principals administrative,” says Byrne, “It is near to impossible to teach a class all day. I used to teach my class until three o’clock. And then I left my classroom and went into my office until eight or nine.”
3. Sufficient staffing in all areas: All schools should have full time secretaries and caretakers and they should be paid appropriately, says Byrne. She would also like to see changes made to the review system for ANAs (Additional Needs Assistants).
4. Centralise: Schools would be better served if certain administrative areas were centralised, says Byrne. Areas like utilities and access to assistive technology.
5. Disconnect: “Take the email off your phone, have a lunch break every single day,” says Byrne, “have your lunch, have a cup of coffee, you need fuel keep going.”
