WHOLE-SCHOOL inspection will be the central topic of discussion at the annual conference of the Secondary Schools Principals Association of Ireland (SSPAI), to be held in Clonmel, Co Tipperary, next month. Professor John Gray of Homerton College, Cambridge, an expert on the topic, will address the conference on Thursday, 7th November, as will Dr Seamus McGuinness of the department of education at Trinity College Dublin.

Michael McCann, the president of the association and principal of Galway's Presentation Secondary School, will address the conference on the Thursday as well.

McCann is a native of Clonmel and is taking the conference out of Dublin this year for the first time since the association was set up in 1991.

"Members are looking ahead to the White Paper proposals and seeing what implications it has and how to go about planning," says Shay Bannon, PRO of the association and principal of the High School in Clonmel.

The SSPAI, which represents principals in the voluntary schools sector, is expecting between 250 and 300 of its members to attend the conference.