What the redeveloped primary curriculum means for your planning

If you’ve just come back from an in-service day with a folder full of handouts and a head full of new terminology, you’re not alone. The redeveloped primary curriculum is the biggest change to Irish primary education since 1999, and it’s natural to feel a bit overwhelmed.

But here’s the thing most of the workshops don’t say clearly enough: you don’t have to change everything at once. The rollout is phased, it runs through to 2032/33, and your school has genuine agency in deciding where to start.

Let’s break down what’s actually changing — and what it means for the planning you do every fortnight.

What’s actually different?

The 1999 curriculum is structured around 11 individual subjects, each with strands, strand units, and content objectives. You know this structure inside out — it’s what your long-term plans, fortnightly plans, and Cuntais Míosúla have been built around for years.

The redeveloped curriculum reorganises everything into five broad curriculum areas:

• Language (English, Gaeilge, and a new Modern Foreign Languages element)
• Mathematics
• STEM Education (Science, Technology, and Engineering — replacing parts of Science and SESE)
• Social and Environmental Education (History, Geography, and civic elements)
• Arts Education (Visual Arts, Music, Drama, and now more integrated)
• Wellbeing (PE, SPHE, and a broader focus on physical and emotional health)

Within these areas, you’ll be working with Learning Outcomes rather than content objectives. The outcomes describe what children should be able to do and understand, rather than listing specific topics to cover.

What does this mean for your fortnightly plan?

Honestly? The structure of your fortnightly plan doesn’t change dramatically. You still need to:

• Identify what you’re teaching this fortnight
• Select the relevant curriculum content (whether that’s content objectives from 1999 or Learning Outcomes from the redeveloped specs)
• Plan your learning activities and experiences
• Note your assessment approaches

What changes is where you’re drawing your content from. If your school has started with the Language or Maths specs (which were published first), you’re already selecting Learning Outcomes for those subjects. For everything else, you’re likely still using 1999 content objectives — and that’s completely fine.

The NCCA’s own guidance is clear: schools are expected to transition at their own pace. There’s no inspector arriving in September expecting everything to be different.

The parallel curriculum problem

Here’s the practical challenge nobody talks about enough: for the next few years, you’ll be planning from two curricula simultaneously. Maths and Language from the redeveloped specs, SESE and Arts from the 1999 curriculum, and new specs for Wellbeing, SEE, Arts, and STEM arriving in phases from September 2026.

Your planning tool — whatever you use — needs to handle both. If it only knows the 1999 curriculum, it won’t help with Maths or Language. If it only has the 2025 specs, it won’t cover SESE, History, or Geography until those specs are published.

This is the reality of planning during a transition: you need access to all the curriculum versions your school is working with, in one place.

Time allocations are shifting

The redeveloped curriculum prescribes updated time allocations for each area. For a typical 5th class in an English-medium school, you’re looking at roughly:

• English: ~4 hours per week
• Gaeilge: ~3 hours per week
• Modern Foreign Language: ~1 hour per week (this is new)
• Mathematics: ~4 hours per week
• Wellbeing: ~3 hours per week (up from the current PE + SPHE allocation)
• Religious/Ethical/Multi-belief & Values Education: ~2 hours per week (reduced)

Your timetable may need adjusting, and your long-term plan should reflect these allocations. But again — this is coming in phases, not all at once.

What about Cuntais Míosúla?

Your Cúntas Míosúil is a reflection on what you actually covered versus what you planned. The format doesn’t change — but the content you’re reflecting on will gradually shift from 1999 content objectives to redeveloped Learning Outcomes as your school adopts the new specs.

The key is that your Cúntas should match whatever curriculum version you’re actually planning against. If you’re still teaching SESE from the 1999 curriculum (which most schools will be for at least another year), your Cúntas reflects 1999 content objectives for SESE. Simple as that.

So what should you do right now?

Don’t panic. The phased approach is designed to give you time. Here’s a sensible order of priorities:

1. Get familiar with the Primary Curriculum Framework — this is the overarching document that explains the structure. You don’t need to memorise it, but understanding the five areas and the concept of Learning Outcomes is enough for now.

2. Check what your school has decided — your principal and curriculum coordinator should have a sense of which areas the school is prioritising first. Follow their lead.

3. Keep planning as you are — if your fortnightly plans work, keep using that structure. Just start swapping in Learning Outcomes for the subjects where you’ve adopted the new specs.

4. Find a planning tool that supports both curricula — this will save you enormous time over the next few years. You shouldn’t need to juggle between different documents or curriculum versions when you’re building a plan.

The transition will feel like a lot. But you’ve been here before — remember when the Primary Language Curriculum landed in 2019? That felt enormous too, and you got through it. This is the same thing, just bigger and slower.

Take it one fortnight at a time.

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If you’re looking for a planning tool that supports both the 1999 curriculum and the redeveloped specs in one place, Pleanáil is free for individual teachers. All curriculum versions are built in — start with what you know and transition when you’re ready.