ESCI / T-REX Learning School Pilot Project 2025 / 2026

The Learning School Project is an initiative to support the development of the school as a self-evaluating school, which is a key element of current national policy with particular reference to Looking at Our School (LAOS ‘22) and School Self-Evaluation 2022-2026 (SSE).

We invite you to participate in an exciting new pilot project, the Learning School Project which we are planning to run through the County Donegal Education Support Centre in 2025/2026.

The framework for this project is to support your school as a self-evaluating school, which is a key element of current national policy with particular reference to Looking at Our School 2022: A Quality Framework and Circular 0056/2022, School Self Evaluation, Next Steps 2022-2026. Participation in this LSP Pilot will offer your school an opportunity to consolidate priorities in Learning and Teaching to include a focus on SSE and school improvement.

The Learning School Project has been operating in post-primary schools in the Limerick/Cork/Kerry region for many years and the schools that have participated in the project have benefitted hugely from their significant innovation and development and from their participation in a community of practice. Schools return year on year and their commitment to the Learning School Project has provided an invaluable support for their schools with their SSE process and school improvement planning.

We are now in an exciting position to expand the project to more Education Support Centres (ESCs) with the support of T-REX funding. We are looking for 5 post-primary schools to participate from our catchment. Participants will join the T-REX community of teacher researchers and completed projects will be uploaded to the T-REX website.

Your school will be supported throughout the process by the Director of the Centre through school visits and online hub meetings.

Please fill in this expression of interest form if you wish to be included in the Learning School Pilot Project for Post-Primary schools in 2025/2026.

There will also be an online information meeting for all registrants at 4:15pm on Monday 29^th September 2025.

The School as a Learning Organisation is one of 10 Principles underpinning LAOS 2022:

Participation in this LSP – Post-primary Expansion pilot will offer your school an opportunity to explore LAOS and decide on an aspect of the Teaching and Learning Dimension to focus on in terms of SSE, school development and school improvement. Post-primary schools that have participated in the Learning School Project over the years have benefitted hugely from their own individual, context-based innovation and development and from their participation in the LSP Community of Practice.

Objectives:

To develop an increased awareness of what constitutes a learning school
To support schools to engage in a process of reflection, review & evaluation
To support schools as they engage in initiatives to improve learning outcomes for students
To develop leadership capacity by empowering staff to take on and carry out leadership roles

Participants will develop the skills of:

Project management
Data analysis and self-evaluation
Facilitation & presentation
Reflective practice

What’s next?

Identify two teachers in the school to act as team leaders – to be known as the project pair.
Recruit a further 2-4 team members, ideally including a member of the senior management team.
Engage in a process of self-evaluation to identify the teaching & learning aspect that will be the focus of the project.
Design & implement an action/intervention to address the identified focus.
Evaluate the effectiveness of the action/intervention
Communicate the findings to colleagues within the school and amongst the other LSP schools.

Limerick Education Support Centre and your local Education Support Centre will:

Co-ordinate the project.
Host a network of the participating post-primary schools.
Provide support through a series of “Hub” meetings from September 2025 to April 2026, mainly online with some school and/or Education Support Centre visits. The purpose of these meetings is to support schools as the project evolves from the planning, through implementation to evaluation and reporting stages.

Timeline for the project:

*Information meeting*	Monday 29th September 2025 at 4:15pm (online)
*Planning Phase*	September - October 2025
*Implementation Phase*	November 2025 - March 2026
*Review & Evaluation Phase*	March / April 2026
Reporting Phase*	May 2026
*Shared Learning Day*	May 2026

*Reporting is by means of a poster for which a template will be provided. Posters will be printed and laminated by the Education Centre and will be displayed at a Shared Learning Day in May 2026. (Posters will be available to take back to your school)