Primary Context - Curriculum

The Primary School Curriculum

The Primary School Curriculum was launched in1999 and outlines the content of children’s learning from junior infants to sixth class. The aims of the curriculum are to ensure that all children are provided with learning opportunities that recognise and celebrate their uniqueness, develop their full potential and focus on the child as a learner. It aims to provide a broad learning experience and encourages a rich variety of approaches to teaching and learning that cater for the different needs of individual children.

The aims, principles and features of the Primary School Curriculum are detailed in the introductory document. This will provide you with key information regarding children and learning, curriculum areas and curriculum implementation.

Structure of the curriculum

The curriculum is presented in six curriculum areas which are further broken down into eleven subjects.

These are;

Language: Gaeilge and English

(note that this section has been revised and now comprises a new curriculum for Primary Languages which is detailed later in this document )

Mathematics
Social, Environmental and Scientific Education (SESE): History, Geography, and Science
Arts Education: Visual Arts, Music and Drama
Physical Education
Social, Personal and Health Education (SPHE)

The development of curriculum for Religious education remains the responsibility of the different church authorities.

Each subject is presented within two documents:

The Curriculum document

provides an overview of subject content including skills and concept development
presents content at four levels within strands and strand units. The four levels are: infants, 1^st and 2^nd, 3^rd and 4^th, 5^th and 6^th
further divides the content in each subject into strands and strand units. The strand is the principal division of content, the number of which varies depending on the nature of the content in a particular subject and curriculum area. The strand unit is a subdivision of the strand and focuses on the more specific areas of learning. Each strand incorporates detailed content objectives which encompass the learning experiences and the activities that enable the child to acquire and develop the knowledge and understanding that the strands and strand units address.

Teacher Guidelines

are designed as an aid and resource for teachers and schools as they implement the curriculum
provide information regarding planning at school and classroom level including curriculum and organisational planning
outline a variety of approaches and methodologies appropriate to each subject.

Curriculum Implementation

To assist teachers and schools in planning the implementation of the curriculum, a time framework was suggested that allocates a minimum time to each area of the curriculum. Circular 56/11 provides updates to this timeframe in accordance with the Literacy and Numeracy Strategy. The Primary School Curriculum also promotes integration of subjects and cross-curricular approaches.

Further Supports

The primary curriculum section of the PDST website will provide you with more detail including further supports and resources for each of the subject areas.

See https://www.pdst.ie/PrimarySTEM for Maths and Science

See https://www.pdst.ie/primary/literacy for English and Gaeilge

See https://www.pdst.ie/Curriculum for all other subjects

The Scoilnet primary resource allows you to browse and search resources by class level, subject and topic and contains a range of materials to support teaching, learning and assessment across the curriculum. See www.scoilnet.ie

If you would like further information regarding primary developments, visit the NCCA website at www.ncca.ie

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