PLTA, PCF, Cúntas Míosúil: Every Irish Primary Planning Term Explained

Irish primary education speaks in acronyms, and the redeveloped curriculum added a fresh batch. This is the working glossary: every term you will meet in planning documents, staff meetings and circulars, each explained in a sentence or two, with links where we have written the longer version. Bookmark it for the next staff day.

The curriculum documents

PCF - Primary Curriculum Framework (2023). The umbrella document for the redeveloped curriculum: five curriculum areas, seven key competencies, and the suggested time allocations.

PLC - Primary Language Curriculum (2019). The curriculum for English and Irish, already in every school, written in Learning Outcomes.

PMC - Primary Mathematics Curriculum (2023). The maths curriculum, also already in use, also written in Learning Outcomes.

The 1999 curriculum. The Primary School Curriculum (1999), still the live document for most subjects outside language, maths and your school’s enactment area. Organised in strands, strand units and content objectives. The 1999 and redeveloped curricula compared.

Curriculum areas. The five groupings of the redeveloped curriculum: Language; STEM; Wellbeing; Arts Education; Social and Environmental Education.

STE - Science, Technology and Engineering Education. The science side of the STEM area (maths is the other side). Has its own monthly time allocation.

SEE - Social and Environmental Education. History and Geography in the redeveloped curriculum.

SESE. The 1999 term the two above replaced: Social, Environmental and Scientific Education (History, Geography and Science together).

Wellbeing. The curriculum area joining PE and SPHE.

MFL - Modern Foreign Language. New to primary: one hour a week from Third Class. What MFL looks like in practice.

Patron’s Programme. The time for Religious, Ethical or Multi-belief and Values Education, set by the school’s patron.

Aistear. The early childhood curriculum framework; its four themes link into the PCF’s competencies at the infant end.

Planning and preparation terms

PLTA - Preparation for Learning, Teaching and Assessment. The Department’s 2026 guidance on recorded preparation, and the document behind most of the terms below. What the updated guidance changes.

Recorded preparation. The guidance’s umbrella term for the planning you write down: long-term, short-term, and the Cúntas Míosúil. The complete guide to what planning involves.

Long-term plan / Plean Fadtéarmach. Your year mapped per subject in broad terms. Template here.

Short-term plan / Clár Coicíse. Weekly, fortnightly or monthly preparation: the Focus of Learning, the Learning Experiences, and how learning will be assessed. Fortnightly template here.

Cúntas Míosúil. The monthly record of the learning the children progressed. Under the 2026 guidance, short-term plans that clearly outline the learning may serve as the Cúntas. Full explainer.

Machnamh. The reflection section of a Cúntas Míosúil. Optional under the 2026 guidance.

Focus of Learning. The expected learning for all children, in broad terms, informed and guided by the Learning Outcomes. The headline of a short-term plan.

Learning Outcome. The redeveloped curriculum’s unit of expected learning, replacing the 1999 content objectives as areas are enacted.

Content objective. The 1999 curriculum’s unit of content, sitting under strands and strand units.

Strand / strand unit. The 1999 curriculum’s organising structure: a subject splits into strands, strands into strand units, strand units into content objectives.

Learning Experiences. What the children actually do: the activities chosen to progress the learning.

AfL / AoL - Assessment for / of Learning. AfL is ongoing assessment that shapes the next lesson; AoL checks what has been learned at a point in time. The PLTA guidance expects both to feature in preparation.

Integration / linkage. Learning that counts in more than one subject (a river study that is Geography, Science and data handling at once). Named in the plan, it reduces duplication.

Key competencies. The seven capabilities running through the redeveloped curriculum: being an active learner; being a communicator and using language; being mathematical; being creative; being a digital learner; being well; being an active citizen.

Whole-school curriculum plan. The school’s agreed approach per curriculum area, which your own plans draw down from. One planning system for a whole school.

The rollout terms

Enactment. The official word for beginning to teach from a new area specification. Each school enacts at least one area from September 2026. The full 2026 picture.

Enactment area. The area your school chose to start with. Wellbeing must be among a school’s first three.

Consolidation year. From 2028/29, a year a school may take to embed areas already in progress before starting another.

Minimum Curriculum Time / Flexible Time. The PCF’s two categories of timetable time: weekly or monthly minimums per area, plus a monthly allocation the school uses as it sees fit. The full tables.

Special education terms

SET - Special Education Teacher. Teachers deployed to support pupils with additional needs, in and out of class. Our SET and EAL planning guide.

SNA - Special Needs Assistant. Supports pupils’ care needs; the SNA role was restated in Circular 0032/2026.

EAL - English as an Additional Language. Support for pupils whose first language is neither English nor Irish.

Continuum of Support. The three-level support framework: Classroom Support, then School Support, then School Support Plus.

Student Support File / Plan. The record of a child’s support journey on the continuum; the term that replaced the Personal Pupil Plan. What changed.

NCSE. National Council for Special Education: allocates SET hours and SNA posts, publishes support guidance.

The bodies and the rest

DE / DEY. The Department of Education, whose circulars (numbered like 0052/2026) carry the binding instructions.

NCCA. National Council for Curriculum and Assessment: writes the curriculum itself.

Oide. The Department’s professional learning support service for teachers, supporting schools through enactment.

Circular. A numbered Department instruction to schools. Circular 0052/2026, for example, set the enactment supports and the time-allocation timeline.

SSE - School Self-Evaluation. The school’s own structured review cycle, which feeds whole-school planning priorities.

DEIS. Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools: the programme providing additional supports to designated schools.

NQT. Newly qualified teacher. Our first-September planning guide for NQTs.

Droichead. The induction process for NQTs, run through the Teaching Council, with planning evidence part of the process.

EPV days. Extra personal vacation days earned by completing approved courses, usually over the summer.

Croke Park hours. The additional non-teaching hours (from the public service agreements) used for staff meetings, planning and professional development outside class time.

Missing one? Tell us at ciaran@pleanail.ie and we will add it.

All the terms above, already built into your planning: three fortnightly plans, a real Cúntas Míosúil and long-term plans, free for 30 days, no card needed. Create your first plan free.