All second level schools designated as disadvantaged have been invited to participate in the home school community liaison scheme this year. Participation in the scheme requires that the school concerned assigns a teacher full-time – 22 hours per week – as home school liaison co-ordinator.
Participating schools which have been allocated disadvantaged posts are required to allocate 0.5 of the disadvantaged post to home school liaison and my Department has allocated an additional 0.5 of a post so that the full-post requirement can be met. The Deputy will note that it is already a requirement of the disadvantaged post that 0.5 of the post be used for home-school duties.
My Department appreciates that certain schools may have difficulty in assigning a teacher full-time to the liaison co-ordinator post in the current school year. It has been agreed that, where this is so, the school concerned may participate in the scheme this year subject to a teacher being assigned to home school liaison duties for a minimum 11 hours per week and an undertaking being given that deployment will be on a full-time basis from the beginning of the 2000-01 school year. Schools that are not in a position to participate in the liaison scheme this year will be invited to participate in the 2000-01 school year provided participation will be on a full-time basis.
