The Irish Primary School Curriculum
The latest version of the Primary School Curriculum came out in 1999. It was initially known as the ‘Revised Curriculum’. Prior to that we were working with the 1971 version!
The subjects that form the Curriculum are:
- Irish (Gaeilge)
- English
- Mathematics
- History
- Geography
- Science
- S.P.H.E. (Social, Personal & Health Education)
- Physical Education
- Visual Arts
- Music
- Drama
The curriculum incorporates the child centred principles of its predecessor, Curaclam na Bunscoile (1971). It identifies three primary aims of primary education:
- to enable the child to live a full life as a child and to realise his or her potential as a unique individual
- to enable the child to develop as a social being through living and co-operating with others and so contribute to the good of society
- to prepare the child for further education and lifelong learning.
The curriculum is learner-centred. It emphasises the importance of literacy, numeracy, and language, while at the same time responding to changing needs in science and technology, social personal and health education, and citizenship. The curriculum is presented in 6 subject areas comprising 11 subjects
All subjetcs have two books …. Curriculum Statement that contains the subject objectives etc. and the Teacher Guidelines that directs the teacher in his/her teaching.
Religion is a subject we teach but the DES issued Curriculum documents don’t include documents related to the teaching of religion.
We use the Alive-O series for teaching religion ….. a totally crappy piece of unadulterated rubbish ever issued by the Catholic hierarchy! The teacher’s manual is ridiculous. It’s a pity they didn’t produce a document on the same line as the Department issued documents! I guess they have to be excused …. they’re dealing with a ‘fictional’ series over 2,000 years old! 
We will have all our curricular policies in place/revised by the end of the month!
An amazing fact re. the Irish Curriculum Documents …. they never appeared in English …. which means that people with little or no Irish have a direct translation of the Irish document to read.
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When I was in secondary school we had a religion teacher (or fanatical zealot monk) who used to arive in with “The experts on tape” featuring a recording of some uber-catholic types discussing the meaning of the upcoming Gospel to be read at the next mass. How’s that for curriculum?
[...] Who decides on the text books your child uses or how the subject is taught? I am sure you think it is that distracted school Principal losing his ability to smile. Before you criticize, walk a mile in his shoes! [...]
Paddy,
I would take exception to your use of ‘fictional’ in relation of the story of Jesus, but in a post-modern society your are of course just as entitled to say that as I am to suggest that you are wrong.
The Church of Ireland teaches religious education in National Schools,I take Sixth Class for an hour every Friday. What I would never do is to use the school for denominational teaching, things like confirmation are for the parish, not for the school.
Ian,
No personal offence intended.
My blog gives me an opportunity to articulate things that I would not normally articulate in my daily life.
I was brought up a ‘Good Catholic’ …. I served my time as an altar boy, read at mass and at one stage in my young life considered (briefly) the priesthood. I knocked that on the head straight away because my faith wasn’t strong enough.
The local Parish Priest came to my door at one stage and strong armed me into becoming a Minister of the Eucharist …. which I did …. attended the course and off I went. When I started questioning my beliefs I asked his replacement to remove me from the rota …. never happened … I’m still on the rota and my name appears on the newsletter regularly.
My use of the word fictional relates to where I’m at at this moment in time. I am in the belief mode of not believing and the whole story is fictional to me personally. This is a personal blog intertwined with my daily life and I write it as it appears to me.
My whole outlook on religion is subjective and my reaction is subjective.
I respect your right to practise what you believe in …. I believe in live and let live and I would never intentionally insult anyone.
With regard to my professional duties (school) I will defend its Catholic Ethos to the hilt ….. just because my personal beliefs are in turmoil doesn’t mean that I can impose them on the pupils etc. in my care.
If somebody came to my school and criticised Jesus I’d do my nut and defend Him to the hilt. I also believe that the Catholic clergy should have a more proactive religious role in the school when the ethos is Catholic. I also believe that the sacraments (ceremonies) should be seperated from the school day.
Personally …… I can’t do that …. I am a very black and white person in my own personal beliefs …. I don’t believe anymore …. my mother was a great person for imparting the faith to me but when she died my outlook changed.
I could have continued going to mass, I could have continued serving as a Minister for the Eucharist …. but being who I am …. I can’t.
I still stand over my use of the word ‘fictional’ in relation to the story of Jesus …. because it’s how I personally feel about it at this stage of my life.
(As an aside …. the Church of Ireland were the only group to send me a personal letter of regret/gratitude when they wrote to me saying that I hadn’t been successful in getting a job in one of their schools when I first came onto the teaching scene (Weren’t they lucky I hear you say!). I still have that letter in my possession. It was a lovely letter and was so sincerely written that I was moved to hold on to it. Other letters of refusal contrasted starkly to it at the time. They have not been kept. One Parish Priest sent me a refusal letter with three words on it - ‘Sorry post filled’.)
My apologies again Ian …. mea culpa for offending you.
Sorry, Prods tend to have a robust way of expressing themselves - it’s the old Calvinist streak in us! There was no offence taken, as I know there was none intended.
We tend towards a much more voluntarist approach to faith and when I do Bible material with Sixth Class, I do so mindful that many of them do not come from church backgrounds. We look at ethical and social dimensions of the Gospel story - something which kids at that age are often quite interested in - and we stay away from dogma.
To be honest I have no problem with schools that have a particular ethos promoting/maintaining that ethos.
Church of Ireland/Catholic …. etc. …. I would fully support their right to promote doctrine etc. in their respective schools.
I just feel that in our situation the Catholic Church should take a more active role in the imparting of the faith to the pupils … be nice to see the priest come in and do a religion lesson now and again rather than appear to just sign the cheques!
We will have the religious inspector calling shortly …. and the pupils will, as always, be able to display their knowledge and insight.
They will shown the priest their work, copies, projects, sing a song for him and answer his questions. I just feel it’s all done in isolation … ‘cos the next time a priest will take interest in what they are doing will be the following year.
See ….. I am passionate about religion … just not for myself.
I keep telling the pupils about God always being a forgiving God …. it’s we who turn away from him …. he goes nowhere …. and he is waiting for us to turn back to him!
I hope it doesn’t look as if I’m coming across as some kind of hypocite ….. the children need to be educated in the faith … they will decide how they want to proceed with it later on.
I was educated in the faith ….. I have made my decisions and am on my chosen path. Where it will lead me I do not know! But I ain’t got nobody to blame but myself.
Paddy,
I’ve been Hors de Combat for a few days and have just come to this from Grannymar… and will come back later…things in Ireland seem to be going much the same as in England….
Imposition of ideas and paperwork from above by those who have no idea how children learn and indeed probably want to use education for social engineering if not indoctrination… people who see others as solely the servants of society and not as members of a society that is for mutual benefit.
Wheteher this stems from socialist tendency totalitarianism or right wing tendency totalitarianism it is set to damage whole
generations of citizens and thus society.
For crying out loud we are in the 21st Century
It should not be beyond our societies to devise systems that use teachers for teaching and with suitable teacher : pupil ratios and support..
After 37 years I have come,reluctantly,to the conclusion that faith based schools should have no place in English society. The money that Churches and religius groups spend on these could be better used for promoting health and housing amongst the poorest in our society….but that’s my opinion.
I hated teaching Religious Studies/R.E. I knew little of faiths other than Christianity tho’ I set out to learn because my career was in schools with a large diversity of belief systems represented.
I’ll come backa nd read more later.
Magpie,
Mary Hanafin, our illustrious Minister for Education and Science, promised that she would actively reduce the paper workload of schools and Principals in particular. Nothing happened.
Every single policy that a school does has to be re-invented. We are expected to go through the whole process from beginning to end. That’s fine if the Principal is and administrative one and doesn’t have a class to teach, has ample support staff and willing teachers.
Smaller schools don’t have the luxuries of full time secretaries, we have less teachers on staff, less teachers with posts of responsibilty so those without the POR allowance can’t be asked to do anything other than their teaching. One can ask …. and of course one can be refused.
I teach, I administer policies, I update the school website etc.
I have a friend teaching in a 22 teacher school. he gets a Post of Responsibility allowance just for taking charge of the school website. And you should see it! I have seen this 22 teacher school’s ‘School Plan’. It’s a mix of policies that have been copied and pasted from many sources, some of them don’t make practical sense. The worst thing of all is that you could come across the name of another school in the middle of their policies. They couldn’t even be bothered to ‘copy and paste’ properly!
The 22 teacher school has an administrative principal (walking principal). This principal has no class to teach, all day to administer, has 2 full time secretaries, a deputy principal, numerous members of staff receiving POR allowances yet they produce a disgraceful document. I wonder if they actually realise that the ‘School Plan’ is a document we are legally required to have?
In my situation, I am a teach all day Principal, part time secretary, a deputy principal who is getting an allowance but is reluctant to pull much of her weight for it and no other member of staff with a POR allowance … so policies remain firmly at my table. The only way I can do the paperwork efficiently is after school hours. It can’t be done otherwise.
The whole system is a mess. Those who can won’t, those you can’t do so on their own time. The diligent teacher is the one who brings it home with him/her. Those who tell you they never bring work home with them can’t be doing their job properly. It’s just not possible otherwise.
The Revised Curriculum came out in 1999 …. we had at most 2 planning days for each subject over a number of years. The days were sandwiched in between our teaching days and were quickly forgotten when we hit the reality of the classroom again. We were left to flounder on.
Those with a genuine interest in education learned more and self-educated. Those who aren’t just go with the flow. I guarantee you there are many teachers who rarely pick up the curriculum documents! How can they teach effecively when they aren’t even aware of what they are teaching.
ICT is mentioned widely in all the curriculum documents …. I wonder if the Department of Education and Science is even aware of that fact themselves? We haven’t received any specific ICT funding since 2001. We are allowed to spend our ‘Minor Works’ grant (a grant we receive for the general maintenance of the school) on ICT if we have no immediate use for it.
If I was an executive in private industry I have no doubt I’d be a millionaire now …. why? … because if I put in the same amount of overtime there as I do now for my school I’d be earning thousands upon thousands every year.
As it stands I’m screwed by the Government as a PAYE worker at 48% tax on everything I earn!
I earn my wage hard …. and it’s taken away from me so easily.
Anyways … must hoover house …. mundane things have to be done too
In haste, Sunday.
Apart from the personal and iniquitous situation in which you find yourself all this seems so familiar and needless!
Top off the policies with a 48% tax bill and your government seems to me to be setting themsleves up for some sort of revolution.
We never learn by others’ mistakes ….. It seems we have to make them ourselves again before we can actually see that they are mistakes!
Mary Hanafin …. are you listening?
Guess not ….. she’s too busy making more mistakes!
I would like to say that i really like your blog http://www.paddybloggit.com a lot
now.. back to the post haha
I cant say that fully agree with what you wrote… care to elaberate?
To be honest Christian …. I don’t.
I am up to my ears with work at the moment and time to give an adequate responses isn’t available.
Another time maybe.