Who is this template for?
This template is designed for leaders within the Irish primary school system. This includes the Principal, Deputy Principal, Assistant Principal, Special Education Teacher (SET), and members of the In-School Management Team. It is also an invaluable tool for Board of Management members, Patron Bodies, Trustees, ETB Chief Executives, and the Department of Education Inspectorate.
Why use this template?
Harnessing the LAOS 2022 Quality Framework, this template offers a range of powerful benefits for school leadership, including:
- Align with National Standards: Directly align your school's self-evaluation process with the domains and standards of the official Looking at Our School 2022: A Quality Framework.
- Strengthen Leadership Practice: Gain a clear, visual overview of your school's leadership strengths and identify areas for development, moving from "effective" to "highly effective" practice.
- Empower Professional Growth: Support targeted professional growth and leadership capacity building for all members of your team, as outlined in the LAOS framework's emphasis on distributed leadership.
- Facilitate Collaborative Reflection: Encourage powerful, evidence-based self-evaluation and collaborative reflection among your entire leadership team.
- Drive Strategic Planning: Use the findings from your evaluation to directly inform the creation of targeted, evidence-rich action plans that address the most critical areas for improvement.
- Enhance Communication: Create a shared, objective language around leadership and management effectiveness, enabling clearer and more productive dialogue with your Board of Management and the Department of Education Inspectorate.
How does it work?
This template follows the standard, intuitive iAbacus process—making a judgement, verifying with criteria, providing evidence, analysing helping and hindering factors, and planning for success. The structure of the evaluation is based on the following key areas:
- Leading learning and teaching
- Managing the organisation
- Leading school development
- Developing leadership capacity
Gaining Strategic Insight
School Principals or leadership teams can use the powerful 'Overlay' and 'Stack' features in iAbacus to compare evaluations across different year groups, departments, or even between schools within a network. This enables leaders to identify shared strengths, common challenges, and priority areas, supporting a strategic, whole-school approach to leadership development and improvement planning.
Clear, Professional Reporting
All evaluations can be exported as polished, visually compelling PDF reports. These reports are perfect for sharing with the Board of Management, Department of Education inspectors, or the senior leadership team, providing a clear summary of leadership self-evaluation and targeted action plans.
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 (Ireland - Primary School Leadership) to get started.
