There is no requirement for second level schools to produce an annual report. However, the Education Act 1998 requires the board of management of a school to establish procedures for informing the parents of students in the school of matters relating to the operation and performance of the school. Such procedures may include the publication of a report on the operation and performance of the school in any school year. The methods by which such information is provided remains a matter for the board of management.
I understand that it is common practice in many schools that an annual report is prepared for the final meeting of the board of management each year. This normally makes reference to how successfully policies were implemented during the year, highlights particular achievements and states priorities for the next school year. Some schools may send a synopsis of this report to parents.
There is also a growing trend whereby principals give a report on the activities of the school in the previous school year, as well as indicating planned activities for the coming school year, to the AGM of the parents' association at the beginning of a new school year. Of course, many schools send a newsletter to parents at intervals during the year or at the end of the school year. In my address to this year's annual conference of the National Association of Principals and Deputy Principals I also spoke of the value of schools sharing the outcomes of their ongoing self review processes with parents and encouraged more to do so.
I am determined to provide more information, for parents in particular, about our schools in a way that ensures a fair and comprehensive picture of all the different activities in a school. As I have said on many occasions, I am strongly opposed to the publication of crude league tables based solely on examination or test results. Such tables provide an unbalanced and grossly limited indication of a school's performance.
In contrast to school league tables, I believe that school inspection reports from whole school evaluations, WSE, and other inspections, when read in their entirety, can provide balanced and well informed information on schools. The whole school evaluation process involves an examination of all the varied activities of a school — from the quality of teaching and learning to the availability of extra-curricular activities and the implementation of policies in areas such as bullying and health and safety. The inspection process also includes consultation with the school's board, parents and staff members, and, at second level, with the school's students.
Given the breadth of the contents of WSE reports, I believe that the publication of these and other school inspection reports could go a significant way to addressing the real needs of parents, students, teachers and others for better information on schools. The type of information provided in WSE reports will help parents who need accurate and balanced information.
I have already declared my determination to progress this matter in a sensible and responsible way. I intend to publish guidelines in this regard in January 2006 and to arrange that the inspections following the publication of the guidelines will be conducted on the basis that the resulting reports will be published. I am confident that the considered and responsible approach that I am taking to the publication of inspection reports will lead to much greater availability of information on schools without inadvertently pitting schools serving entirely different communities against each other in crude comparisons of academic performance alone. Whether intended or not, academic league tables would be a likely consequence of publishing exam results in an annual report for each school.