The Celtic Connection May Sweeney - Learning and Teaching Scotland November 2006

1. The Celtic ConnectionMay Sweeney - Learning and Teaching ScotlandNovember2006

2. Role of NCCA To advise the Minister of Education on curriculum and assessment in early childhood, primary and post-primary schools… Council Minister Committees

3. Framework for early learning • Publication of consultative document 2004-05 • Development of a framework for early learning from birth to six years • Portraiture study of babies, toddlers, children in early childhood settings

4. Primary Curriculum Review • Primary Curriculum Review phase 1: final report (2005) • The Primary Curriculum in Schools: insights from the curriculum implementation evaluation and the primary curriculum review (2005) • Phase 2: curriculum review template for schools; research on science in the curriculum & wellness in the curriculum; ICT framework; SEN, interculturalism • Report on the findings from the primary curriculum review phase 2 • Assessment and reporting

5. Review of Junior Cycle “The NCCA will progress prioritised aspects of the the review of the junior cycle, including addressing issues of overload and overlap; broadening the range of assessment approaches in use; and undertaking syllabus revision and development as appropriate.” (NCCA Development Plan)

6. Part I: transition from primary to post-primary education: the experiences of 2nd year students • Part II: The Junior Cycle year

7. Change in Attitudes to School

8. Junior Certificate School Programme • An intervention within the Junior Certificate • Creative curriculum • Priority given to basic skills, especially literacy and numeracy • Junior Certificate programme followed through an individualised profiling system • Cross-curricular approach • Primary/secondary transfer programme • Positive dialogue: teachers, home, students • National and school based in-service • Achievement acknowledged and rewarded

9. Bawnogue/Deansrath School Completion Programme • School Completion Programme is a Department of Education & Science initiative that aims to have a significant positive impact on levels of pupil retention on primary and second level schools and on the numbers of pupils who successfully complete the Senior Cycle, or equivalent. • Making school more meaningful for those most at risk of ‘dropping out’ Funded by the Department of Education and Science under the National Development Plan with assistance from the European Social Fund

10. Senior Cycle Programmes • Leaving Certificate • Leaving Certificate Applied (LCA) • Leaving Certificate Vocational (LCV) • Transition Year

11. Transition Year “ Because of the growing pressure on students for high grades and competitive success, educational systems are becoming, increasingly, academic treadmills. Increasingly, too, because of these pressures, the school is losing contact with the world outside and the student has little or no opportunity to “stand and stare”, to discover the kind of person he is, the kind of society he will be living in, and in due course, contributing to its shortcomings and good points.” Richard Burke, Minister of Education, speech to Dublin Education Council for Secondary Schools, 2 December 1974

12. Transition Year • Introduced 1974 • under 300 students in 1978/79 to over 23,000 in 2002/03 • 550 schools in 2006 • DES guidelines • Core subjects • Subject sampling • Modules designed specifically for TY • Calendar Events • Certificate of participation

13. Senior Cycle Review 1 April 2005 - NCCA advice to Minister a restructured senior cycle • two or three year programmes of study • new curricular components • embedding of key skills • assessment reform • new certificate of senior cycle • improved educational guidance • professional development resourced at school level

14. Senior Cycle Review 2 June 2005 - Minister’s response • prioritise subject-led reform • common template • learning outcomes • unitisation • embedded key skills • endorsement of assessment proposals • retain integrity of transition year • develop transition units and first short course: enterprise education

15. Key skills

16. Transition Units • 45 hour units of study • School devised, NCCA validated • Building on successful Transition Year modules • Assessment built into teaching and learning in Transition Units • No external assessment and not reckoned for points • Certification on basis of completion

17. Focus on research • Portraiture study to support the development of The Framework for Early Learning • Longitudinal study of students’ experience in first 3 years of secondary • Moving Up • Pathways through the junior cycle • The Transition Year Programme: an assessment • Review of international trends in mathematics education • Overview of international practice in the embedding of key skills in the senior cycle curriculum • Analysis of additional assessment components in A-level examinations

18. Some ideas • Focus on research • Aspects of senior cycle review: Transition year/Transition Units • Quality of national support: first and second level support services • Pre-Neet strategies: JCSP & School Completion Programme • Communications: parents (DVD); teachers e.g. curriculum review template, informative newsletter • International outlook