ASCL is the national voice for leaders of secondary schools and colleges. Our core purpose is to support members in becoming more effective leaders and raising student achievement.
In particular ASCLNI seeks the following:
- Leadership – A robust professional development structure which attracts and prepares the best teachers for the challenges of leading the schools of the future.
- Pay and conditions – retention of the link to salaries and pensions in England and Wales, with opportunities to negotiate on local issues.
- Equitable funding – a core funding formula that provides adequate and equitable funding for all secondary schools and colleges in Northern Ireland.
- Partnership working – a coherent system that gives schools and colleges a high degree of autonomy within a framework of collaboration and partnership working.
- Membership support – the provision of high levels of professional advice and support through the services of the regional officer and the association’s legal team.
ASCLNI has made strong and timely representation on behalf of its members to:
- The Education Committee of the Northern Ireland Assembly – the need for school and college leaders to be fully consulted about the future shape and direction of education in the Province, to allow the experience of leading professionals and practitioners to be included in the decision making process.
- The Department of Education – robust responses to consultation documents about proposed changes from the standpoint of practitioners who have day to day responsibility for the implementation of policy.
- The Education and Training Inspectorate – the need to develop styles of inspecting and reporting that better reflect the efforts of school and college leaders to manage schools effectively and efficiently in varied circumstances.
- The Education and Skills Authority – the need for maximised local autonomy and the implementing of arrangements that end rather than reinforce sectoral divisions in education in the Province.