The Irish Primary School Curriculum in pdf format!
Comments(0)
For those of you who may be interested in seeing what our curriculum contains:
It’s available through the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment’s website. You can get it digitally in pdf or chm (help files) formats. The chm files link doesn’t seem to be working at the moment but you can access all the pdf files via the following link:
Primary School Curriculum in pdf format
If the chm format link becomes live again you can access it through here.
Have fun!
Some good books that people/parents might consider purchasing are:
- The Essential Parents’ Guide to the Primary School Years by Brian Gilsenan
- The Essential Parents’ Guide to the Secondary School Years by Brian Gilsenan
- The Essential Guide to Special Education in Ireland by Dr. David Carey
The books are certainly worth a read …. they explain a lot in layman’s terms!
More details below:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Essential Parents’ Guide to the Primary School Years by Brian Gilsenan
This book has been written to provide parents with a guide to what their children will be taught in primary school in Ireland. By knowing more about the topics in the curriculum, and how they might be taught, parents will hopefully feel more connected and involved in the process. This should enable them to play a more active and supportive role, throughout these crucial years of early education.
The book describes each subject in the curriculum in detail. There is a section on how best to deal with homework. The guidebook also provides information on some of the learning difficulties, such as dyslexia and ADD, describing the early signs to look out for and providing reassurance and reference points for further information.
The primary curriculum was revised in 1999 and now comprises eleven subjects. The Parents Guidebook provides an overview of each one. In addition, each subject is reviewed as it relates to relevant age groups:
- Junior and Senior Infants
- 1st and 2nd Class
- 3rd and 4th Class
- 5th and 6th Class
The book seeks to be informative, not instructional, avoiding jargon and educational terminology and the overall tone is as light and conversational as possible. It is not intended to educate you fully on the subject matter; it is merely intended to describe the core elements of each subject, enabling you to make a more positive contribution to the primary education of your child or children.
The book contains:
- A detailed overview of each subject, giving you a general understanding of the material being covered
- Each subject described as it applies to specific age categories
- Some guidelines as to how a particular topic may be taught
- A description of how each subject has changed, since ‘our day’
- Lots of suggestions as to how you might help at home, both in terms of homework and in general day-to-day activities
- Articles by education professionals on:
- Assessment
- The importance of play
- Aims and principles of the curriculum
- Development of thinking and problem/solving skills
- Learning difficulties
Ultimately, it is hoped that, as parents, you will have a better understanding of:
- What children are learning in Primary School
- How they are being taught
- Your vital role in the education of your child
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Essential Parents’ Guide to the Secondary School Years by Brian Gilsenan
This book has been written to help parents deal with all of the major issues that they are likely to face during their children’s time at Secondary School in Ireland. The book covers everything from handling the step up from Primary School to Secondary School, Transition Year, career guidance and study techniques, in addition to a description of the major examination subjects.
There is a natural requirement by all parents to understand and get closer to the secondary school system. Parents can feel much less involved when their children reach secondary school compared to their primary school years. Communications with teenagers can become strained, there is far less direct contact with the secondary school for a parent and yet the desire amongst parents to help their children is stronger than ever. While the stakes are higher and the pressure to conform is greater, the amount of information available to parents about what actually goes on is pretty meagre. This book succeeds in bringing all the complexities of life in secondary school into an easy to read and highly informative book.
The book is full of interesting articles, written by a panel of experts. There are three excellent articles dealing with adolescence, written by Dr. David Carey (Froebel College of Education) including a fascinating article on so-called ‘hidden learning disabilities’, which only appear in some students in their Secondary School Years. Brian Mooney (President of the Institute of Guidance Counsellors) has contributed useful articles on Career Guidance and Transition Year. There are descriptions of each of the major subjects at both Junior and Leaving Cert level, an article on how to ease the transition from Primary School to Secondary School, advice regarding bullying and a very helpful chapter on study techniques.
Ultimately, it is hoped that, as parents, you will have a better understanding of:
- What children are learning in Secondary School
- How they are being taught
- Your vital role in the education of your child
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Essential Guide to Special Education in Ireland by Dr. David Carey
‘The Essential Guide to Special Education in Ireland” is the first book to provide an overview of Special Education in Ireland. It is written for parents and teachers who are involved with children who have learning difficulties, across the spectrum from dyslexia to autism. The international trend towards teaching these children in mainstream schools (as opposed to Special Schools) is being implemented in Ireland over the past ten years and this has serious implications for everyone. The book describes how the entire process works, from identifying the initial signs of a learning difficulty through the assessment process and on to the formulation of the all-important ‘Individual Education Plan’.
It describes each special education condition in detail, and provides parents, teachers and principals with all the information and help they need to ensure they are doing all they can to provide every child with access to appropriate education. It has been written by Dr. David Carey, one of the country’s foremost experts on Special Needs education. He is Special Needs Coordinator in Froebel College of Education in Dublin, one of the five teacher-training colleges in the country.
More information can be got here: PrimaryABC
(I have no connection with PrimaryABC …. you can easily buy the books in Easons etc.)
