STAFFROOM: The debate on the ban on supervision and substitution is in full swing. The staffroom is divided.

There are those who cannot wait until the Easter conference to voice their displeasure with the way the dispute has been handled. All they see is negative publicity and their pay cheques still the same.

On the other hand there are those who could not abide the chore of standing in for absent colleagues, and worse - still parading up and down the school yard while being outwitted by all the school "characters".

The retired local Garda sergeant is one of those who has turned up for the job of supervision. He took early retirement and looks much younger than his 60-odd years.

The principal feels that having served in the locality all his life he would know almost every family with kids at the school. Nobody averts to the fact that the kids would also remember him as he was in uniform.

Tom, the staffroom "wag", paints a picture of him on duty in the school yard. "Can you imagine him arriving in the school yard at lunchtime dressed in a woolly hat, an Aran jumper and jeans? Can you imagine the reception he would get from the boyos from 4F?" queries Tom, warming to his theme.

"Look who has escaped from the cop shop?" followed by a chorus of "He's the oldest swinger in town."

But amidst all the banter there is a sense of the end of an era. The school yard will never be the same again.