JMB has great pleasure in inviting you to attend our Education Conference,
Leading as Learning, Curriculum-Collaboration-Coherence
This conference will take place on Friday, 18th September 2026 at the Croke Park Conference Centre, Dublin.
We will be delighted if you can join us. To register please click HERE
School leadership has always been demanding, but the pace and scale of change now facing schools place particular pressure on leadership capacity. In a context of competing priorities and initiative overload, school leaders can often find themselves struggling to give sufficient time and attention to one of their most important responsibilities: the leadership of learning.
At the same time, curriculum and assessment are undergoing significant change. Senior Cycle Redevelopment, the growing role of coursework and additional assessment components, and the continuing evolution of programmes and pathways all require schools to think carefully about how learning, teaching and assessment are organised and led.
What is increasingly clear is that this work cannot rest with one person. Effective leadership of learning must be shared — across senior leadership teams, middle leaders, subject departments, teachers, and boards of management. Building that shared responsibility, while creating coherence across an increasingly complex curriculum, is at the heart of this year’s JMB Education Conference.
Through a series of practical workshops (each delegate will attend two), the conference will explore how schools can enhance the leadership of learning through effective senior and middle leadership teams, strong subject departments, and a greater focus by boards of management on their leadership-for-learning role. Another workshop will examine how schools can respond creatively to the challenges of timetabling in the context of increasing external requirements. The conference will also consider how more flexible Senior Cycle pathways might develop and how schools might prepare for such change.
Throughout the day, our focus on leading learning and teaching through change will offer practical exemplars, alongside opportunities for discussion and networking with colleagues and system leaders. These themes closely reflect the workshop programme set out in the conference flyer.
Our keynote address will be delivered by Professor Graham Donaldson, University of Glasgow, who will invite us to consider how leadership of learning is evolving at both school and system level. His extensive experience of supporting curriculum reform in Scotland and Ireland will bring an informed and contemporary perspective on the challenges and possibilities facing schools as they lead learning through change.
We hope participants — principals, chairpersons, deputy principals, assistant principals, and teachers — will leave with greater clarity around current developments, practical approaches they can bring back to their schools, and renewed confidence in building collaborative learning communities capable of navigating the changes ahead.
You can find details of our conference in the attached programme.
We will be delighted if you can join us. To register please click HERE
When registering online you will need to indicate your choice of workshops for morning and afternoon sessions. Registration will close on Friday 11th September at 16.00.
Should delegates wish to book accommodation for Thursday 17th September a preferential rate has been arranged with the Skylon Hotel 01 884 3900 – please quote ‘JMB’ when booking.
We very much look forward to meeting with you at the conference.
Yours sincerely,
Colm Keher
Assistant General Secretary
Joint Managerial Body (JMB)