Educational support for those most in need is a priority for Tipperary teacher in new national role

A primary school leader has vowed to use her new national role to ensure educational supports are provided for those most in need.
Louise Tobin, principal of St Joseph’s Primary School, Tipperary Town was elected to the prestigious position of Deputy President of the Irish Primary Principals Network (IPPN).
Louise was elected IPPN Deputy President/President-elect in June 2021 and will serve as president from September 2023 to August 2025.
Louise has advocated strongly for the past five years on behalf of pupils living in areas of disadvantage.
She campaigned for extra resources under the DEIS scheme and has been successful in getting a package of interim measures for the children in Tipperary Town until the next rollout of DEIS.
She hopes that rollout will be this spring when the primary schools in the town will benefit from the much needed resources that are attached to the DEIS programme.
Louise has been a driving force in her local community in working towards obtaining better educational supports for those most in need.
In her new role Louise also hopes to advance a review of the position of principals in primary schools and to strengthen links between principals and the IPPN.
The IPPN is the professional body for the leaders of Irish primary schools. It is an independent, not-for-profit voluntary association with a local, regional and national presence.
Recognised by the Minister for Education as an official Education Partner, IPPN works with the Department of Education and Skills (DES), the National Parents’ Council, management bodies, unions, education agencies, academic institutions and children’s charities towards the advancement of primary education.
IPPN articulates the collective knowledge and professional experience of over 6,400 principals and deputy principals who lead Ireland’s 3,200+ primary schools.
Louise has been principal of St Joseph’s Primary School in Tipperary Town since 2009.
She previously worked for a year with school development planning as a facilitator, and for a further year with the primary development service for teachers as an advisor, during which time she completed post-graduate studies in school planning.
Louise worked in Grange primary school for 20 years, and was acting principal there for two years. She has experience as both teaching and administrative principalship.
Louise will bring to her presidency a wealth of experience in primary education.
In addition to her IPPN role, Louise is involved with many organisations to advocate for school leadership and quality education for all, including CSL, INTO and CYPSC.
When asked what was her vision for her new role, Louise outlined her plans.
“ I would like to strengthen and enhance the close links between principals and their leading professional organisation IPPN. We offer a huge range of services and supports for our members and this needs to be constantly improved and enhanced to give our membership the highest levels of supports in the very challenging and constantly changing role of the primary principal,” she said.
Louise said that the role of the principal needs to be reviewed to make it more doable and principal jobs more attractive.
“At the moment the role of a principal is unsustainable and as a result there is a lack of interest in primary school leadership. IPPN are currently working on a research project on this, to examine the challenges associated with principalship and to identify ways to enhance and improve supports to provide greater clarity around roles and responsibilities in this sector,” said Louise.
“This research project and its findings, will I believe re-shape the job specification for school leaders to ensure we encourage and get the best people to lead our primary schools,” she added.
Louise Tobin said she was really looking forward to her new role.
“Already as Deputy President, I’ve been very busy facilitating our IPPN deputy principals conference in November 2021, attending meetings with stakeholders and working on many IPPN projects such as local support group analysis and set-up, sustainable leadership research project and media representation both locally and nationally,” she said.
Louise said she was also very busy preparing for the annual IPPN conference which will be a face to face event in Citywest in May, Louise stated.
“Of course, our conference hasn’t taken place since 2019, so this will be eagerly welcomed back by principals and we expect attendance will probably be an all time high. Finally, it is a great honour to be elected to this role and I will do my very best to represent our IPPN members.”

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