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Droichead planning template: a free weekly plan for NQTs

The Pleanáil team

If you are an NQT, someone has probably already told you that “the plans are weekly.” That is the bit that feels heavier than the rest of September. It is also more manageable than it looks.

This post is the weekly-plan companion to our first-September NQT guide. It gives you a free one-week planning template, a clear line between the recorded plan and the rest of Droichead, and a way to run the same week in Pleanáil without building a second filing system.

Download the free Droichead weekly template

Download the free weekly plan template (PDF) - the Clár Seachtaine, a one-week page set in the same family as our fortnightly Clár Coicíse. English is filled in as a worked example; the other subjects are blank for you.

It includes:

  • week dates, class, and the usual short-term headings
  • an optional strip for focus of new learning, supports, and assessment this week
  • an optional reflection: what worked, what you will change, a question for a colleague or PST

The optional boxes are marked so they do not feel like extra mandatory sections. Leave them empty if your school only wants the plan itself. All of our free templates live together if you want the fortnightly or long-term versions too.

What Droichead actually asks for on paper

Droichead is the induction process you complete with your Professional Support Team and the Teaching Council. It includes school-based support, observations, cluster meetings, Taisce, and Form D, and those pieces stay between you, your PST and the Council.

The planning document your principal or PST is usually asking to see is the same short-term recorded preparation every class teacher writes, just on a weekly rhythm rather than a fortnightly one. The 2026 Preparation guidance recognises weekly, fortnightly or monthly. Weekly is common during Droichead because it keeps the next few days visible while you are still finding the room.

You do not need a different curriculum, different headings, or a special Droichead scheme.

A weekly rhythm that survives October

Forty-five minutes, once a week, in one sitting, is enough. Thursday or Friday after school is the usual slot: next week is still close enough to be real.

Keep week one light. Routines and getting-to-know work are the plan. From week two, tick the outcomes you will actually teach, write the experiences in the language you will use on Monday, and stop.

A weekly plan you can open on a Tuesday morning is worth more than a beautiful document you never look at again.

Reflection without building a second folder

If your Cúntas already has a reflection line, you already know the tone. The weekly optional box is the same idea at a shorter interval: what worked, what you will change, one question you might bring to a colleague.

Keep it about your practice, with no named pupils. That note can feed the Cúntas at the end of the month, and it can remind you of something worth putting in Taisce yourself. Taisce entries and observation records live in your own Droichead file.

Where the Droichead file stays

Pleanáil supports newly qualified teachers by letting them plan weekly, reflect on the plan and Cúntas Míosúil, and export what a principal or Professional Support Team typically asks to see. Taisce, classroom observations, Droichead Outline Plans, meeting minutes, release-time logs, and Form D stay with you and your school. Pleanáil does not store evaluation of teachers and does not provide a shared mentor inbox.

Use the tool for the week. Keep the Droichead file where it belongs.

If you want the pages to fill themselves

In Pleanáil, set the short-term period to weekly. Tick the Learning Outcomes for the week. Edit the suggestions. Optional green boxes are there if you want a focus strip or a reflection. At month-end the Cúntas still compiles from the weeks you taught.

Start your free 30-day trial. The first plan is the slow one; after that you are editing last week.

Plan against the real 2026 curriculum

Pleanáil loads the redeveloped and 1999 curriculum for you. Tick the Learning Outcomes, tap a suggestion or two, and your fortnightly plans, Cúntas Míosúil and long-term plans assemble themselves. A plan that used to take an evening takes about fifteen minutes.

Start your free 30-day trial

For solo teachers and whole schools.

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