Tackling education inequality: Social connections must be prioritised in Deis Plus schools
Back to school will feel vastly different this year for the schools selected for the newly launched Deis Plus programme . Announced by the Minister for Education and Youth in March, this initiative has been long-awaited by communities with high concentrations of deprivation. Predictably, the roll-out has brought mixed emotions. Disappointment among excluded schools and sharp criticism of the transparency of the selection process highlight a persistent challenge: no statistical index can fully capture the complexity of local socioeconomic disadvantage. Yet, for the 129 schools included, the incoming resources are highly anticipated. Among the most welcome supports are the appointments of mental health and wellbeing co-ordinators, alongside homeschool community liaison co-ordinators. As these professionals step into their roles, a crucial question emerges: how can schools best deploy these resources to disrupt the cycle of educational disadvantage? Recent research involving Irish students offers a vital roadmap for school leaders drafting their implementation plans. The core architecture of the Deis Plus programme recognises a fundamental finding: relationships are central to a student’s educational experience. In Irish research, the concept of “one good adult” resonates powerfully across the primary and secondary sectors. At the primary level, research shows that a positive teacher-student relationship in the very first year of school acts as a vital buffer. For children coming from volatile or conflictual home environments, a strong connection with their teacher serves as a protective shield, safeguarding both their behavioural development and academic achievement. This protective pattern is mirrored at second level. Recent evidence reveals that children from economically vulnerable households enter secondary school carrying two distinct, yet entirely changeable, psychological barriers. Firstly, these students routinely underestimate their own academic ability compared with their peers, regardless of their actual performance. Secondly, these students’ parents often reflect these deflated expectations, predicting lower educational attainment for their children postschool, irrespective of the child’s true capability. The silver lining is high-quality teacher-student relationships at second-level entry can decisively dismantle these negative beliefs. The impact is profound: positive bonds with teachers formed at the start of secondary school are direct predictors of a student’s eventual postsecondary pathway. In these contexts, these relationships can be a safe haven and, in some cases, the only warm, stable adult relationship a student has. It is no surprise, then, that schools highlight the need for the additional resources that enable the capacity to build these relationships. The greatest benefits for students in these contexts, however, comes when schools not only protect against adversity in the home, but work alongside family and community to improve processes beyond the school gates. Our research shows that, to truly tackle educational inequality, co-ordination is needed across home and school. Only when students received encouragement from both teachers and parents, do economically disadvantaged students reach the same levels of educational attainment as their peers. This is where the where the newly appointed home school community liaison officers and mental health and wellbeing co-ordinators will prove transformative. By actively partnering with families, these professionals have the power to fundamentally alter the life trajectories of young people. Furthermore, their outreach can generate a ripple effect, uplift local areas, and improve community-wide outcomes far beyond individual classroom success. School meals with processed foods preferred to healthy options, audit finds Working with parents, forming connections within the community and building relationships with students is complex. It takes time and it looks different in every neighbourhood, and the needs of every school and student are entirely unique. Because of this, top-down mandates will fail. Allowing school leaders autonomy in how they allocate and adapt these resources is critical to their success. How the lives of primary schoolchildren changed during and after Covid The underlying principle of Deis Plus must remain clear: building authentic social connections between the school and the wider community is not a soft addition to education – it is the very foundation upon which academic equity is built. Caoimhe Dempsey is a lecturer in the School of Applied Psychology, UCC, and Selina McCoy is associate research professor at the ESRI