Who is this template for?
This template is designed for the entire school community within the Education and Training Boards (ETB) sector in Ireland. It provides a valuable framework for Chief Executives (ETB), Directors of Schools, and ETB Central Team staff at a strategic level, as well as Principals, Deputy Principals, Middle Leaders, and Ethos Coordinators who lead the implementation of ethos within their schools. It is also an essential tool for Teachers, Special Educational Needs Coordinators (SENCOs), and members of the Board of Management to ensure a consistent and shared understanding of the school's core values.
Why use this template?
This template transforms the ETBI Patrons’ Framework from a document into a dynamic, practical tool for continuous improvement. It provides a clear and structured process to ensure the state-led, multi-denominational ethos is not just displayed on a wall, but is actively lived out in every classroom, policy, and interaction.
- Bring Your Ethos to Life: Move beyond aspiration to action. This template provides a practical pathway to evaluate how your school embodies the core values of excellence in education, care, equality, community, and respect in its daily life.
- Provides a Clear, Visual Overview: The intuitive abacus interface gives an immediate, at-a-glance understanding of your school's strengths and areas for development across all seven ethos domains, making complex evaluation simple and accessible.
- Foster a Shared Language: By using the consistent terminology of the official ETBI framework, you ensure the entire school community—from the Board of Management to students—develops a common understanding and vocabulary for discussing and promoting your school's ethos.
- Promote Evidence-Based Evaluation: The iAbacus process encourages deep reflection. Sliding a bead prompts you to justify your professional judgement with qualitative and quantitative evidence, creating a robust and credible self-evaluation.
- Connect Evaluation Directly to Planning: The template’s logical flow guides you from making a judgement to analysing the factors that help or hinder progress. This analysis directly informs the creation of targeted, meaningful actions that drive real change.
- Support Strategic Prioritisation: The visual clarity of the abacus helps leadership teams easily identify which domains or specific practices require the most urgent attention, enabling you to focus energy and resources where they will have the greatest impact.
- Enhance Accountability and Transparency: Clearly demonstrate to your patron, the Board of Management, and the wider community how the school is upholding its characteristic spirit, supported by clear evidence and a forward-looking action plan.
How does it work?
This template follows the standard, intuitive iAbacus process of judgement, evidence, analysis, and planning. It is structured around the seven key domains of the ETBI Patrons' Framework, allowing you to conduct a comprehensive evaluation of your school's ethos.
The key areas evaluated are:
Domain 1: Centrality of Ethos
- School Ethos Communication
Domain 2: Excellence in Education
- Aiming for Excellence in Teaching and Learning
Domain 3: Care
- Promoting Welfare in a Caring School Environment
- Staff Understand Students' Interests and Abilities
- Systematic Student Support, Especially for the Vulnerable
Domain 4: Respect
- School Promotes Respectful Environment for School Community
- School Establishes Code of Behaviour Reflecting Ethos
Domain 5: Equality
- School Champions Equality, Inclusion, and Diversity
Domain 6: Community
- Students, Staff and Parents Experiences Belonging and Purpose
- School Community Given Voice Through Meaningful Opportunities
- School Engages with Local and National Communities
Domain 7: Multi-denominational
- School Respects all Beliefs, Aligning with Core Values
- School Engages with all Religious Communities
- Patrons' Curriculum/RE Appropriately Developed and Implemented
- Leadership Promotes Ethos in Decision-Making
Gaining Strategic Insight
Yes, this template is ideal for strategic oversight and comparison. A Director of Schools or an ETB Central Team leader can overlay this template from all their schools to gain a clear, comparative overview of how the patron's ethos is being implemented across the entire network. This powerful feature allows them to instantly identify common strengths, spot system-wide challenges (for instance, if many schools are finding it difficult to fully engage with local and national communities), and facilitate the sharing of best practices from highly effective schools to those needing more support.
Clear, Professional Reporting
With a single click, you can generate a clear, professional PDF report from this template. This report provides a concise, evidence-based summary of your school's self-evaluation against the framework, making it perfect for sharing with your Board of Management and the ETB Patron. It serves as a key document for governance meetings, demonstrates accountability, and provides robust evidence for your school's internal self-evaluation (SSE) processes.
References / Source Material
How to Get Started
New to iAbacus? Discover how this template can support your improvement strategy. Book a personalised demo or start a free trial to explore the full platform. Visit www.iAbacus.com to learn more.
Already a subscriber? You can find this template in the template library within your iAbacus account. Simply log in, create a new abacus, and select it from the list to get started.
