EMPOWERING SCHOOL LEADERS THROUGH PRIORITISING P-I-E-W CAPACITY PLANNING FRAMEWORK
September 2025
1 INTRODUCTION
Every Organisation / CEO / Manager (Public or Private Sector) will be expected to do more than can realistically be achieved or should be expected of them. That is why we must prioritise. It is the reason why organisations invest time and effort in strategic planning.
Prioritising and strategic planning is the only way to ensure that Family, Health and Wellbeing get the appropriate attention.
As school leaders, the PIEW planning framework can help keep us focused and disciplined in terms of how much we take on. It can help us to ensure that we give every new initiative adequate time and focus to ensure long-term impact.
The alternative is to end up stressed and overwhelmed. Our time and efforts are dominated by the urgent. We never seem to get to the important and we and those around us get frustrated, and eventually burnt out.
Figure 1-1 Stephone Covey – 4 Quadrants
The challenge is to ensure we allow enough time to focus on important but not urgent (quadrant 2). To achieve this we have to prioritise
2 THE AIM OF THE IPPN PIEW PLANNING FRAMEWORK -
The aim is to ensure that we consider carefully the number of new priorities we introduce in any given year. That decision is based on school context and the capacity for change The priorities are identified through the School Self Evaluation process
It is important to consider what is likely to happen if we don’t use a planning framework like PIEW
• We are likely to take on too many new initiatives and be influenced by promotions and the agenda of others –e.g. flag promotions. A framework such as PIEW helps keep us disciplined and focused on the School Improvement Plan.
• We are likely to move on to the next new priority too soon and fail to embed recent initiatives, thereby minimising success and not allowing time for the initiative to become part of school culture.
• We or other staff are likely to be enthused by a CPD event and look to move straight to the Priority stage without going through the SSE process and without following the discipline of a planning and capacity analysis framework such as (PIEW) resulting in overwhelmed, frustrated staff and diminishing return for effort. The PIEW Planning Framework promotes the well-being of staff and promotes stronger relationships amongst the whole school community.
• School leaders are likely to feel pressurised to take on new non-priority initiatives because –parents or staff tell us about the great programme being taught in the neighbouring school and they put pressure on us to introduce the same programme or initiative The PIEW framework helps manage such conversations positively and ensures that we maintain our focus on the actual agreed school priorities
3 THE BENEFITS OF THE PIEW PLANNING FRAMEWORK -
The framework helps the school leaders to identify the ‘priorities’ that will impact, most effectively on teaching and learning according to the identified needs of the children in the school using the SSE process
PIEW is a strategic approach to the overall management of school improvement planning using the school self-evaluation (SSE) and School Improvement (SIP) processes
PIEW increases the likelihood of success. It minimises the likelihood of overload resulting in overwhelmed and frustrated school staff.
PIEW empowers school leaders by providing them with a means of managing expectations. It is a structured framework that facilitates collaborative discussion using the SSE process to identify the priorities that will have the greatest impact on teaching and learning while also managing staff capacity for further change.
PIEW supports the school leader to control and manage the flow of initiatives into the school by: Restricting the number of initiatives/priorities
Using the SSE process to identify the most impactful initiatives/priorities in terms of learning Ensuring a process whereby any initiative will complete all PIEW phases, ideally over a five-year period – the Prioritisation, Implementation and Embedding Phases.
Ensuring the embedding phase is completed. This is crucial in terms of long-term impact but is often omitted by schools.
PIEW is a positive communication tool that promotes an understanding amongst parents and staff of the SSE and SIP processes and the requirement for effective schools to prioritise and deprioritise. Once the strategic priorities have been agreed upon, all other suggestions are recorded in the W column (The W in PIEW i.e. ‘Not Yet) All suggestions are shown respect but must ‘WAIT’ to be considered as part of the SSE process. The plan is visual, simple to explain and easily understood by all members of the school community.
This positive communication tool empowers the leader to hold respectful and positive conversations regarding change with staff and parents. Those making the suggestion(s) concerning school improvement feel listened to and respected. Every reasonable suggestion is regarded as a good idea when using the PIEW framework. However, all suggestions are recorded in the W column for consideration at a later stage as part of the SSE process.
IPPN recommends that you record any reasonable suggestion in the w column on the office PIEW chart in the presence of the staff member or parent. This is part of the positive communication process that makes PIEW so effective. You have listened respectfully to the suggestion. You are not dismissing the idea but it won’t be considered further until the SSE process gets underway. You are also actively engaging your school community in the SSE process.
This is a good time to show the parent, staff member or school inspector the ‘5-Year Looking Back –Looking Forward chart that outlines what has been the focus of SIP in recent years, what is currently underway and what will continue to be a focus as part of the school SIP over the next two years in terms of the implementation and embedding phases. This all makes the School Improvement Planning process understandable and logical to parents, staff and others
Crucially, The PIEW Planning Framework provides school leaders with the means to place equal importance on family, friends, and personal welfare as is placed on School Improvement, thereby supporting the sustainability of School Leadership.
4 SCHOOL PLANNING
IPPN’s PIEW Planning Framework works in tandem with SSE and SIP (include DEIS plan) using LAOS as the core Planning focus. School Self-Evaluation (SSE) is a collaborative, reflective process of internal school review. It provides teachers with a means of systematically looking at how they teach and how pupils learn and it helps schools and teachers improve outcomes for learners. It is supported by the DEY publication School Self-Evaluation: Next Steps September 2022 - June 2026 The SSE process culminates in a School Improvement Plan or SIP Not every task is equally important. The most important tasks in a school context will be those that progress teaching and learning - the raison d’être of the school. Prioritising allows you to identify the most important tasks - those most deserving of attention, energy, and time. It allows you to spend more time on the right things. Prioritising helps everyone to plan and it minimises stress.
4.1.1 Inspectorate
The DES inspector will often make helpful suggestions in the course of their visits to schools. Many of these are issues that the school will be in a position to address as part of the School improvement plan using the PIEW Framework. Recommendations identified as part of a formal inspection must be prioritised and included as part of the PIEW framework. However, it must reduce the number of other priorities that can be included that year.
4.1.2
Exceptional Imperatives
Exceptional imperatives are initiatives of a magnitude that places them on a par with items on the school plan. They are outside of our control, arise unexpectedly, and have to be given precedence. Exceptional imperatives normally arise as a result of government policy/legislation which is often, though not always, mediated through the DES. EG. child protection, GDPR, etc. They must therefore be prioritised and included as part of the PIEW priorities for that year. However, there should be a reduction in the number of other priorities that are included that year to ensure that we don’t overwhelm staff by engaging with too many new initiatives.
Circular 44/2019, Leadership and Management in Primary Schools provides the basis for using the inschool management team (ISM) to provide leadership in planning and prioritising for the school Looking at our Schools 2022 – A Quality Framework for Primary Schools defines the broad parameters of where school planning must focus. All plans and initiatives must find a root in this document.
5 CAPACITY ANALYSIS
The capacity of any school to undertake projects and initiatives will depend on various factors:
5.1 STAFF
The number of staff.
The Number of Administrative Teaching Posts if any.
The size of the ‘In-School Management Team’
The presence of Emerging Leaders on staff. The Educationposts.ie Headstart Programme for Emerging Leaders will help you to build leadership Capacity in your school. Encourage your emerging leaders to use the IPPN Leadership Portfolio that is under development to log their leadership journey and to reflect upon their leadership journey
5.2 WIDER SCHOOL COMMUNITY
The wider school community can provide extra support, skills and expertise to the school leaders. This may be available through the BoM, parents council, the wider parent body and the local community. The Partnership Schools Framework is another available support that builds capacity at school and community level to help school leaders with the implementation of aspects of the School Improvement Plan. The focus is on a small team of Staff, Parents, Children and community volunteers supporting the school but the focus of that support must be based on the school improvement plan and the PIEW. That ensures that workload is not increased. Partnership Schools should reduce workload. All Partnership Schools will be fully compliant with the directives of the School Community Charter when that legislation is passed.
Engagement with community events, cultural celebrations, or extraordinary projects such as a school musical impacts on the school’s capacity for further change at that particular time. The school can record ‘no capacity’ in the PIEW framework. This happens in all good organisations. Managing the capacity for change is critical to staff wellbeing. Taking on too much is totally counterproductive.
5.3 ADVERSE FACTORS
Some schools will experience adverse factors that will absorb school capacity and resources, thereby lessening the school’s overall capacity to take on new priorities. Extraordinary factors such as a critical incident may affect the capacity of the school to focus on a chosen priority for a time. Such events must take precedence and may delay or postpone the implementation of a new initiative.
5.4 ANALYSING THE CAPACITY FOR CHANGE
The school leaders need to consider all of these factors when considering the capacity of the school for further change. The leaders need to agree on the number of new initiatives/priorities that can be taken on in any given year. The leaders also need to articulate clearly to everyone that each new initiative/priority is a five-year school commitment. Depending on school size and other factors, many of which are outlined above, the leaders will decide on none, one, two three or more new initiatives in any year. If staff and the school leaders are overwhelmed and stressed, that number must be reduced and the school must stick to the discipline of the PIEW framework. In doing so the leaders are identifying the actual capacity for change and are looking after the wellbeing of staff.
6 HOW TO USE THE IPPN PIEW PLANNING FRAMEWORK
The model is based on a 5-year cycle of prioritising, implementing and embedding projects/initiatives that are aligned with the School Improvement Plan
6.1 PRIORITY PHASE – YEAR 1
In this phase the school prioritises a new project (or projects, depending on the school’s capacity) for 1 year. The school monitors the initiative to ensure it is having the intended impact.
6.2 IMPLEMENTATION PHASE – YEARS 2 & 3
In this phase, the school moves the project (or projects) to the implementation phase in year 2 and then on to year 3 The school continues to monitor and ensure the initiative(s) is/are having the intended impact
6.3 EMBEDDING PHASE – YEARS 4 & 5
In year 4, the school begins the process of embedding the project(s) into the culture of the school. By the end of year 5, the project(s) has/have become part of the school’s standard operation and shouldn’t need intense leadership focus.
The chart below should be displayed in the school office. It outlines the focus for this year. The new projects/initiatives 2024/25 are placed in the Priority Column. The 2023/24 priority projects/initiatives are placed in the implementation column – Year 1. The 2022/23 priority projects/initiatives are placed in the implementation column – Year 2. The 2021/22 priority projects/initiatives are placed in the embedding column – Year 1. The 2020/21 priority projects/initiatives are placed in the embedding column – Year 2. – See the sample below. Each year the project/initiatives move to the next column freeing up the Priority Column for next year’s Priority focus. (See Appendix 1 – Sample Blank PIEW Chart)
Figure 6-1 P.I.E.W. Planning Framework
6.4 POPULATING THE WAITING LIST
The waiting list will be populated in the first instance with suggestions from the school leaders, staff, parents, pupils, board, parent council, inspector, circulars, etc. The SSE process will consider key questions about why any initiative should move from the Wait Column to the Priority Column and therefore be included in the School Improvement Plan.
• Why should the school undertake this initiative?
• How does this initiative contribute towards or enhance the teaching and learning in this school?
• How does this initiative give expression to an item in the Quality Framework?
• Is this initiative rooted in the curriculum?
• Why is this initiative more important at this time, than the other initiatives on the waiting list?
• Are we as a school staff prepared to undertake this initiative for a period of 5 years and see it through the ‘Pilot, Implementation and Embedding’ phases?
• Have we got the capacity to undertake this initiative properly?
6.5 FROM WAITING LIST TO PILOT
Deciding which one or two items (or more, if the school has the capacity) from the waiting list make it onto the pilot phase for the coming school year will involve much discussion. School leaders will lead the discussion and decision-making process and should involve as many of the school staff and community as possible. See Appendix 1 – Sample Blank PIEW Chart)
Having an enlarged version of the above chart in the school leader’s office presents a powerful visual representation of the projects being undertaken by the school. It also helps to manage the expectations of enthusiastic promotors of ‘good ideas’. This positive communication tool empowers the leader to hold respectful and positive conversations regarding change with staff and parents.
Those making the suggestion(s) concerning school improvement feel listened to and respected. Every reasonable suggestion is regarded as a good idea when using the PIEW framework. However, all suggestions are recorded in the W column for consideration at a later stage as part of the SSE process.
IPPN recommends that you record any reasonable suggestion in the w column on the office PIEW chart in the presence of the staff member or parent. This is part of the positive communication process that makes PIEW so effective. You have listened respectfully to the suggestion. You are not dismissing the idea but it won’t be considered further until the SSE process gets underway. You are also actively engaging your school community in the SSE process.
6.6 PIEW 5 YEAR LOOKING BACK / LOOKING FORWARD CHART
The following step-by -step approach will assist school leaders in populating the 5 year PIEW Looking back / Looking forward Chart. This is another powerful communication tool that can be used with staff and parents to explain the school improvement process.
6.6.1 Steps of 5 Year Planning
• Step 1: List the Current Initiatives - The first step is to make a list of the new initiatives/projects being introduced this year (2024/25) This sample school is focusing on Aistear and Literacy Lift-off.
• Step 2: Fill in the 2025/26 column. Aistear and Literacy will move to year 2 - Implementation Phase year 1
• Step 3: Fill in the 2026/27 column. Aistear and Literacy will move to year 3 - Implementation Phase year 2
• Step 4 (above) – List the new initiatives you introduced last year into the Priority Column under 2023/24 This school focused on Local Geography in 2023/24.
• Step 5: Complete years 2024/25, 2025/26, and 2026/27 as in the chart
Figure 6-2: Steps 1 through 5
• Step 6: List the new initiatives you introduced for the first time in 2022/23 into the priority column for that year – This sample school focused on Maths language and Handwriting in 2022/23.
• Step 7: Complete years 2023/24, 2024/25, 2025/26, 2026/27. You can see from the chart below that the focus on Maths Language and Handwriting will be fully embedded by 2026/27. The school began to focus on these in 2022 (priority Phase) – they then moved into the embedding phase in 2023/24 and this year 2024/25 and they will move into the embedding phase in 2025/26 and 2026/27
• Step 8: List the New initiatives that were introduced in 2021/22 in the year 2 column under 2022/23 (SPHE review)
• Step 9: Complete years 2023/24, 2024/25, 2025/26. The 5 year focus on SPHE review will be completed next year – 2025/26.
Figure 6-3: Steps 6 through 9
Step 10: List the New initiatives that were introduced in 2020/21 in the year 3 column under 2022/23 (Bua na Cainte)
Step 11: Complete years 2023/24 and 2024/25. The 5 year focus on Bua na Cainte review will be completed this year – 2024/25
Step 12: List the New initiatives that were introduced in 2019/20 in the year 4 column under 2022/23 (PE Policy Review)
Step 13: Complete years 2021/22 and 2022/23. The 5 year focus on PE Policy Review review ended last year– 2022/23
Step 14: List the New initiatives that were introduced in 2018/19 in the year 5 column under 2022/23 (Gaeilge Neamh Fhoirmuil)
Figure 6-4: Steps 10 through 14
The school 5-year Looking back/looking forward Chart is now completed. Each year the project/initiatives move to the next year until year 5 is completed. This frees up year 1 - the Priority section for the next set of priorities/project/initiatives. As you can see you one space vacant under the Prioritisation Phase for next year – 2025/26. The school leader decides what capacity there is –will it be 1, 2 or more initiatives taken on. The commitment is then to focus on those priorities for 5 years taking them through the three phases of P – Priority, I – Implementation , E – Embedding See Appendix 2 – Sample Blank PIEW 5 Year Progression Chart
7 CONCLUSION
It is perfectly acceptable and good management for zero initiatives to be taken on in certain years due to lack of capacity This would have been the case for many schools around the pandemic. In those instances, the school should fill in ‘no capacity’
The discipline around this model is that the school needs to decide how many new initiatives it can take on each year – They then must restrict themselves to this and tease out their top priorities using the school self-evaluation process.
The school must also commit to putting each new initiative through the 5-year PIEW process. That includes one year in the Priority Phase, two years in the Implementation phase and 2 years in the Embedding Phase.
The school should ends up with a 5-year SIP chart that shows what has and will be achieved through the School Improvement Planning process over a 5-year period.
The overall objective of the framework is to ensure that any new initiative is given time to embed in school culture and therefore maximise the chance for it to have long-term impact on children’s learning.
A key objective is to help the school manage its capacity for change. If staff are overloaded – the school should reduce the number of new initiatives taken on the next year or even decide to take on none and fill the chart with ‘no capacity’ for that year’s priority phase.
Depending on the size of school, the size of the school management team, the number of administrative posts if any etc. – schools will take on one initiative – some 2 – some 3 – some 4 or more per year
Celebrate
Take time as a staff to celebrate the work already being done in the school and to thank and affirm the staff for it. Keep the older version of the looking back looking forward charts and display them in the staff room periodically and celebrate what the school team has achieved over a number of years. We all need to celebrate and appreciate each other. The BoM can be encouraged to recognise and show appreciation also. The golden rule – we all need 5 experiences of appreciation for each critical comment. The chart is visual and provides us with a great opportunity for collective appreciation of achievement.