by H1pAdm1n | May 2, 2026 | School Wellbeing
RSE has moved from a quiet curriculum corner to one of the most politically charged items on a Northern Ireland principal’s desk. The 2023 DE guidance update, the parent campaigns that followed it, and the wider UK noise around RSHE in England have left a lot of...
by H1pAdm1n | May 2, 2026 | School Wellbeing
Most NI schools we work with handle bereavement well in the moment a pupil dies, where the shape of the response is clear. Where things get harder is the slower, more frequent situation: a pupil’s parent, sibling or grandparent has died, the funeral is over, and...
by H1pAdm1n | May 2, 2026 | School Wellbeing
Almost every NI principal we speak with is in the middle of, or has just finished, a phones policy review. The 2024 DfE guidance for England, the noise around Australia’s under-16 social media ban, and visible parent campaigns have made this the policy item that...
by H1pAdm1n | May 2, 2026 | School Wellbeing
Five years ago an NI vice-principal could go a full term without a serious school refusal case. In 2026 most post-primaries we work with are juggling two or three open EBSA cases at any one time, and several pupils sitting in the grey zone — attending three days a...
by H1pAdm1n | Apr 29, 2026 | School Wellbeing
Shared Education in Northern Ireland is one of those policies that looks straightforward on paper and gets complicated the moment two staff teams sit down to plan a joint Year 8 trip. The intent is real. So is the workload. And the difference between a partnership...
by H1pAdm1n | Apr 29, 2026 | School Wellbeing
The make-up of Northern Ireland’s classrooms is changing faster than most school policies. In the last decade we have moved from a small number of schools with EAL pupils to a position where almost every post-primary in the greater Belfast and north-west areas...
by H1pAdm1n | Apr 29, 2026 | School Wellbeing
Vaping has moved from a fringe issue into one of the most common discipline and pastoral concerns in Northern Ireland post-primary schools. Toilet doors come off their hinges, smoke alarms get triggered in the middle of double-period maths, and Year 9 form tutors are...
by H1pAdm1n | Apr 27, 2026 | School Wellbeing
Relational bullying can be one of the hardest forms of bullying for schools to identify. It does not always look dramatic from the outside. There may be no shouting, no physical contact and no obvious incident in front of staff. Instead, the harm often happens through...
by H1pAdm1n | Apr 27, 2026 | School Wellbeing
Bullying rarely happens in total isolation. Even when one pupil is targeted by another, there are often others who see, hear, forward, laugh, stay silent or find out afterwards. Those pupils are bystanders, and their behaviour can either strengthen the bullying...
by H1pAdm1n | Apr 27, 2026 | School Wellbeing
Cyberbullying in schools rarely stays online. A message sent at night can shape attendance the next morning. A group chat incident can affect classroom behaviour. A shared image can create safeguarding concerns, friendship breakdown and serious distress for a pupil...
