Minister McEntee publishes Small Schools Project Evaluation
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From: Department of Education
- Published on: 16 May 2025
- Last updated on: 17 May 2025
Minister for Education and Youth Helen McEntee has today (16 May) published an independent interim evaluation report of phase one of the small schools’ action research project aimed at supporting small rural schools. The project, set up in 2021, encourages small schools to cluster together in local groups, enabling them to collaborate and identify common challenges and trial innovative solutions.
Research undertaken to inform the review of phase one included meetings with department officials, the steering group, the national coordinator, cluster coordinators, principals, deputy principals, other school staff, pupils and parents. The report outlines the positive impact of the project on the schools involved and presents a number of key findings and recommendations.
Minister McEntee said:
"Schools are at the heart of communities across the country and regardless of their size, they play a vital role in community life. The small schools project continues to trial new initiatives that will be of benefit to small schools in addressing challenges they face for the future.
"The Programme for Government provides for a number of measures to support small schools, including introducing a new national small schools' project and trialling new administrative supports. Learnings from the evaluation of the current project will be invaluable and form a strong basis to inform the future policy direction in relation to all small schools.”
The main focus of the 2021-2024 phase of the project was to help schools and school leaders to support each other in day-to-day administration and organisational challenges. Schools have trialled various initiatives across different parts of the curriculum, including:
Schools may merge their principal release days with SET (Special Education Teaching) hours on their own or as part of a cluster to create a full-time post. This initiative that was trialled in the Small Schools Project and proved successful has now been rolled out nationally.
Coaching for principals, school secretaries, deputy principal and teaching staff across all clusters.
Administration software packages, supported by the project, have saved significant administration time and improved home-schools communications.
The interim evaluation has provided the opportunity for an independent input into potential areas for sustainable development and analysis of the scalability of actions undertaken to date. As the project progresses a further final evaluation will be carried out.
Notes
Small schools are defined for statistical purposes as schools with four mainstream teachers or fewer. Schools meeting this definition constitute 39 per cent of all primary schools – approximately 1,262 individual schools (2024/2025 figures) and their enrolment figures account for 12.6 per cent of total enrolments of all primary schools.
The project is overseen and supported by a steering group including representatives of the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation (INTO) Irish Primary Principals’ Network (IPPN) The General Synod Board of Education of the Church of Ireland (COI) Catholic Primary Schools Management Association (CPSMA), Gaeloideachas and the department.