The national office is responsible for carrying out Educate Together’s role as a patron and a school management body. It appoints Educate Together school boards of management, supervises staff appointments, and defines and develops Educate Together’s equality-based ethos.
The national office offers guidance to our schools and their boards of management and supports the development of the Educate Together network nationwide. The national office switchboard (01 4292500 / info@educatetogether.ie) is manned between 09:00 – 13:00 and 14:00 – 17:00 on weekdays.
- Find contact details for national office staff here
- Find information on Educate Together’s Board of Directors here
To stay up to date on all that’s happening in the equality-based school network, sign up to our newsletter and access our social media platforms at the links at the bottom of this page.
National office work
The Educate Together national office is working towards an Ireland in which all people have access to an excellent education that is inclusive of all, irrespective of belief system, ethnicity, class, culture, gender, language, sexuality, family background and ability. We plan for the development of new equality-based schools around the county by facilitating the growth of voluntary campaign groups in local areas.
For our schools, the Educate Together national office provides a comprehensive support programme. We provide support to boards of management, teachers and staff. Our team provides management support and professional advice on procedural and HR issues, as well as an intensive support service for individual schools where required.
As a school patron, we represent our network of schools to the Department of Education on a range of policy issues. We talk to politicians and policy-makers on the issues that parents in our schools care about – protecting the education budget, the need for permanent school buildings rather than prefabs, the on-going struggle faced by schools and parents handling cut-backs in special needs allocations. We champion parents’ rights to choose the type of education they want their child to have.
The national office is responsible for carrying out the organisation’s Strategic Objectives, as set out by the Board of Directors of Educate Together. Educate Together’s 2022 – 2026 Strategic Objectives are available to view here:
National office policies
Educate Together has developed clear policies and procedures in order to carry out our responsibilities as a patron and as a national office:
Learn more about Educate Together’s role as a school patron here
Parents wishing to make a complaint against a school or individual staff member of a school should contact the relevant school authorities. Details of the procedures can be found on the Department of Education’s website. The national office can only assist those who have already followed these procedures. While we understand that callers may occasionally wish to remain anonymous, we are not in a position to investigate complaints in these circumstances.
You can contact us at info@educatetogether.ie with any queries or comments.
Complaints Procedure
If you have a complaint about any aspect of Educate Together’s work as a charity, you can contact us in writing or by telephone. Please send your complaint to info@educatetogether.ie, or call 01 429 2500.
In the information you send us, you will need to include:
- information about the aspect of our work your complaint relates to (school patronage, school management body services, training or teacher professional learning, membership, fundraising, advocacy, etc)
- any relevant dates and times
- your name and contact information
- your preferred method of communication.
We will acknowledge your complaint as soon as possible, and within 7 days at the latest.
Once we have confirmed that your complaint relates to our work as a charity, rather than to a specific school complaint (which would be dealt with under the nationally agreed complaints policy for schools), it will be referred to a senior staff member in the relevant work area to be dealt with.
We will make every effort to resolve any complaints we receive within 21 days. If we are not able to, we will explain why and provide you with a new timeline. We will also track any complaints until they are resolved.
If you are not happy with our response to your complaint, you may get in touch again by writing to our Chief Executive Officer who will review your complaint along with any actions already taken to resolve it, and respond to you.
If following their response you are still not satisfied with the outcome, you can contact the Chairperson of the Board of Directors, who will share your complaint for consideration at Board level. Following consideration by members of the Board, the Chairperson will aim to respond to you within two weeks.
If a complaint refers to a specific individual, that person will not be involved in the handling or decision-making process regarding the complaint. This ensures that all complaints are dealt with fairly, transparently, and without bias.
If there are complaints about our work, Educate Together will make every effort to resolve them and put things right. If necessary, we will also review our procedures to prevent any issues arising in future. We value feedback on our work, including any feedback about what you think we do well.
Downloads
- Schools Complaints Procedure (2018)
- National Office Child Safeguarding Statement (2024)
- National Office Data Protection Policy (2021)
- Educate Together Patronage Manual (2024)
- Educate Together Charter
- Memorandum and Articles of Association / Constitution
- Statement of Guiding Principles for Fundraising
