Mary McGlynn has left her post as principal of Dublin's Mount Anville Secondary School for the cut and thrust of lobbying and representation on behalf of her profession.

As director of a newly-established professional body for principals and deputy principals at second level, she hasn't had time to indulge in nostalgia for the school where she has taught since the late 1960s.

The National Association of Principals and Deputy Principals was officially launched by the Minister for Education and Science this time last year. Already the busy time table of the NAPD has kicked into gear.

"There's a great sense of excitement," she says. "I found the summer quite strange, being on my own and setting up an office from scratch. It was hard to imagine it coming together for a while but once we had the phones and the computers it was fine. It's a huge challenge."

Next week a series of nine regional meetings will begin, starting on Monday in Kilkenny at 7.30 p.m. The meetings, which will be held at different venues around the State over the course of two weeks, are to elect regional steering committees; to liaise with new and existing members and to consult with members on the drafted constitution.

The potential membership of the association is about 1,500, McGlynn explains. Principals and deputy principals of schools in the community/comprehensive, vocational and voluntary secondary sectors are all urged to attend.

These meetings will be followed by an EGM in Dublin on Saturday, October 9th between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. at Moran's Red Cow Hotel.

The NAPD brings together six different bodies which represent second-level schools, including the European Secondary Heads Association (ESHA), the Secondary Schools Principals' Association of Ireland (SSPAI) and the Association of Vice-Principals of Voluntary Secondary Schools (VPPA). "We are all coming from different areas but we have all grown together. There's a wonderful working relationship within the executive committee. We have been working on this since the summer of 1997," says McGlynn.

"Hopefully over the next number of months the individual associations will be phased out . . . The feeling is that we will work and achieve much more together."

Concern for the health and welfare of principals and deputy principals will be high on the list of priorities, she explains. "We would be concerned about the workload of principals." The importance of professional development will be an ongoing issue for the association. The NAPD will also contribute to the education debate on many levels.

"We would be very concerned that the school year is being eroded for practicals, orals, for what are very good programmes; however the amount of time being given is causing us a lot of problems." Also the new Education Welfare Bill "has huge applications for principals", she explains. "We would want to eliminate the truancy and lack of attendance at school and we want to do our best where there are problems."

The association will provide a united voice nationally for principals and deputy principals on issues of common concern. It intends to adopt a pro-active and dynamic approach and develop the international and European dimensions within schools.

The NAPD is based at 46 Lower Leeson Street, Dublin 2. Telephone (01) 662 7025. Fax s(01) 662 7058.