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The primary History curriculum in 2026/27: strands, skills and planning

The Pleanáil team

Search for the primary history curriculum in 2026/27 and the first question is which document you should even be reading. The answer for most schools: the 1999 History curriculum, still fully current this year. Its replacement, the Social and Environmental Education specification, only applies if your school chose SEE as its first enactment area, and most schools chose elsewhere. Our subject-by-subject guide has the full picture.

So this is a guide to the curriculum you are actually planning from: the 1999 strands class by class, the skills dimension that plans often under-represent, and what a strong history fortnight looks like on paper.

The strands, class by class

The 1999 History curriculum builds outward as children get older, from the child’s own story to the wider world, and the strand set grows with them:

  • Junior and Senior Infants: Myself and my family · Story
  • 1st and 2nd Class: Myself and my family · Change and continuity · Story
  • 3rd and 4th Class: Local studies · Early peoples and ancient societies · Life, society, work and culture in the past · Continuity and change over time · Story
  • 5th and 6th Class: all of the above, plus Eras of change and conflict · Politics, conflict and society

Story is the one strand that runs from Junior Infants to 6th Class, and that tells you something about the curriculum’s heart: narrative is the vehicle for historical understanding at every age.

Working as a historian

The content strands are half the curriculum. The other half is the skills dimension, working as a historian: time and chronology, using evidence, cause and effect, empathy. Children are meant to handle sources, sequence events, and ask why things happened, at an age-appropriate level, in every class.

This is the part that goes missing in topic-led planning. A fortnight on the Vikings that only lists Viking facts covers the content strand and skips the discipline. The fix costs one line in the plan: name the evidence or source work the children will do.

What a strong history fortnight shows

Whatever format your school uses, a history plan reads well when it shows four things:

  • the strand and strand unit being worked on, named as the curriculum names them
  • the content objectives for your class level
  • the skills focus: the source work, sequencing or questioning the children will do
  • the learning experiences: the story, the artefacts, the local walk, the project

History also links naturally outward, to geography through the local study and to the arts through story and drama. The 1999 curriculum explicitly encourages that linkage, and a plan that names it reads as stronger.

What changes with SEE

In the redeveloped curriculum, History and Geography combine into Social and Environmental Education with Learning Outcomes in place of content objectives. If your school chose SEE as its 2026 enactment area, your planning moves to the new specification now; for everyone else the 1999 curriculum remains exactly right for 2026/27, and the transition will arrive in a later phase with closure days to prepare for it. The Primary Curriculum 2026 guide covers the rollout timeline, and our SESE planning post covers History and Geography side by side.

Frequently asked questions

Is the 1999 History curriculum still valid in 2026/27? Yes, for every school that did not choose SEE as its first enactment area, which is most schools.

Which strands apply to my class? The list above is the complete set per class band. Within a strand, your class level has its own strand units and objectives.

How much detail per fortnight? Strand, strand unit, the objectives being worked on, the activities and the skills focus. The 2026 preparation guidance favours concise records over exhaustive ones.

The whole history curriculum, tickable

Pleanáil has the complete 1999 History curriculum built in, strand by strand for your class level, alongside the SEE specification for schools that have made the move. Tick the objectives you are covering and the plan writes itself with the right document cited, and coverage across the strands tracks itself through the year.

Plan your history year against the real curriculum. Start your free 30-day trial.

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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