Consultation is a cornerstone of our work, and our approach draws heavily on feedback from the education sector and wider public. We consult at all stages of curriculum development, incorporating strategic and systematic opportunities for hearing directly from early years educators, teachers, school leaders, parents / guardians, young people, management bodies, professional bodies, and teacher unions. In doing so, we use a range of approaches and formats including, but not limited to, online and in-person seminars, webinars, symposia, bilateral meetings, focus groups, online surveys and other fora.
Use the below tabs to read about different consultations undertaken as part of the redevelopment of the primary school curriculum.
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Consultation on Draft Primary Curriculum Framework 2020 - 2022
The Draft Primary Curriculum Framework was published for consultation in February 2020. The consultation was carried out over two phases between February 2020 and the end of March 2022. The aim of the consultation was to ensure that any person or organisation that wished to express their views on the draft framework would be enabled to do so, and this was achieved through a range of methods for providing feedback.
The report on the consultation on the Draft Primary Curriculum Framework presents the findings from this extensive and comprehensive consultation process. You can read the report here:
There are two documents and a video published alongside this report, including:
- Technical report detailing the original verbatim questionnaire responses
- Report on the Consultation with Children on the Draft Primary Curriculum Framework
- Summary of the findings on the Consultation with Children on the Draft Primary Curriculum Framework
In total, 174 written submissions were received, and authors could choose whether to allow publication or not. The 147 submissions for which consent to publish was received have been published below. You can read the report on the written submissions on pages 67 - 76 in the consultation report which is published in the previous tab.
There is considerable diversity across the submissions, and all were reviewed and categorised according to their main focus. This is not to suggest that individual submissions only address a single main point. The intention was to identify groupings to facilitate ease of navigation through the very large number of individual submissions. The main categories which emerged across the 174 submissions are:
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Consultation with Parents and Children 2018
Consultation with Parents
The voices of parents make an important contribution to the review and redevelopment of the primary curriculum. During 2018, the NCCA held twenty focus group sessions with parents of children attending primary school. Read the report here.
Consultation with Children
The voices of children also play an important role in the review and redevelopment of the primary curriculum. Read the report here which provides a brief synopsis of consultation processes in which the NCCA included the voices of children in respect of curriculum developments at primary level.
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Consultation on Structure and Time 2016
Consultation on Structure and Time
In December 2016, the NCCA published two sets of proposals about how the primary curriculum might be structured differently and how time might be used across the curriculum. January to June 2017 saw an extensive consultation on the proposals. The consultation report provides a detailed overview of the entire consultation process.
- Read our consultation proposals for structure and time in the primary curriculum here
- Download the Executive Summary here
- The Final Report is available here
- The Executive Summary of the final report is available here
- Written Submissions Consultation on Curriculum Structure and Time
Below you can watch the proceedings of our Consultative Conference in Dublin Castle.
Welcome: John Hammond, Acting CEO
The Primary Curriculum: What is and what might be Arlene Forster, Deputy CEO, NCCA
Keynote address: Fergus Finlay, CEO, Barnardos Ireland
Children’s Voices
Experiences from the classroom: teachers and principal
Panel discussion: Facilitated by Arlene Forster
Richard Bruton, T.D. Minister for Education and Skills
Brigid McManus, Chairperson of the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment
Professor Mark Morgan
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Priorities for Primary Education 2011
Curriculum Priorities
A public invitation to ‘have your say’ about curriculum priorities for primary education was published online in April, 2011. A total of 960 responses were received which identified six priorities for primary education, read the report here.
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Review of 1999 Curriculum
The NCCA initiated two reviews of the Primary School Curriculum. The first phase of review focused on the experiences of principals, teachers, parents and children with English; Visual Arts; and Mathematics. Published in 2005, you will find the report here.
The second phase of review focused on the experiences of principals, teachers, parents and children with Irish / Gaeilge; Science; and Social Personal and Health Education (SPHE). Published in 2008, you will find the report here.
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Other Curriculum Consultations
Other Curriculum Consultations
- Primary Coding Final Report on the Coding in Primary Schools Initiative
- Consultation Report on the Primary Mathematics Curriculum for junior infants to second class
- Consultation on the proposals for a curriculum in Education about Religions and Beliefs (ERB) and Ethics: Final Report
- Consultation on the Draft Primary Language Curriculum Third to Sixth Class