Details of a new primary school curriculum, to be phased in from next year across every primary and special school in the country, will be published today.
For the first time, all children in 5th and 6th class will learn about different sexual orientations including homosexuality and bisexuality. The new syllabus also facilitates learning about puberty at an earlier stage than currently.
All children will begin to learn a foreign language in 5th class and there will be a far greater emphasis on STEM.
The new curriculum divides education into five areas: Arts Education; Language (including Modern Foreign Languages); Social and Environmental Education; STEM Education; and Wellbeing, which comprises PE and SPHE.
It replaces the current primary curriculum which is 26 years old.
The specifications for the five areas are the result of a significant body of research carried out over eight years. This included capturing the views of educators, parents, and around 4,000 children, as well as a wider consultation process under which submissions were received from a range of organisations and individuals.
Wellbeing
For the first time, primary school children in Ireland will learn, in 5th and 6th class, about different sexual orientations. The current curriculum is completely silent on this topic.
Under ‘Learning Outcomes’ the new Wellbeing specification states that pupils in these classes will “begin to understand sexual orientation as describing attraction to someone of a different gender, the same gender or more than one gender”.
The redeveloped curriculum does not contain any reference to gender identity.
Teachers will be able to introduce the topic of puberty from third class onwards. Currently, children learn about puberty in 6th class. This shift is partly in response to the fact that children in primary school are now older than they used to be.
While it used to be common for children to begin school at the age of four, the introduction of two free preschool years means most children are aged 5 and some are aged 6 when they begin junior infants.
This means that most children will have already experienced puberty by the time they are taught about it in 6th class.
During consultation for the new curriculum, children themselves expressed the view that they were only being taught about puberty after it had happened to them.
The new curriculum will also see a greater focus on teaching children about the principal of ‘consent’, with the term defined clearly in the curriculum for the first time. However, teaching about consent will relate to general concepts such as the right to say ‘no’ or to change one’s mind. Children will not be taught about consent in a sexual context.
The new subject area of Wellbeing sees the total time allotted to PE and SPHE doubled.
PE has been completely overhauled, with a new focus on fundamental movement skills. These are skills such as running, jumping, throwing, catching and skipping.
STEM
Compared to the current curriculum, the new one places a significantly stronger emphasis on the STEM subjects, with science, technology, engineering and mathematics grouped together as one discrete field of learning for the first time.
The emphasis will be on enabling children to explore and investigate real world problems, with a particular focus on digital technology.
The new syllabus will see all children beginning to learn a modern foreign language in primary school for the first time. Encouraging a plurilingual approach to language learning, as well as learning English and Irish, there will be an initial focus on creating an awareness of foreign languages and cultures before children, from 5th class, begin to acquire very basic aspects of a modern foreign language, such as greeting people or ordering food.
Arts
The new Arts specification, which incorporates art, drama and music, aims to give children a broader experience than currently, with new art forms such as dance and digital art coming into the mix.
There will be a particular focus on Irish art and on children making art themselves.
Social and Environmental Education
In another new development, in Social and Environmental Education all children – regardless of the ethos of the school they attend – will learn about other world religions from a historical and geographical perspective.
Inclusive, empowering and relevant education – McEntee
The Department of Education has said that key aims of the redeveloped curriculum include; to connect what and how children learn across preschool, primary and post-primary education, and to respond to changing needs and priorities for children’s learning.
It said it is the most comprehensive transformation of primary education in over a generation, designed to equip children with the skills they need to thrive in a rapidly evolving world, and to support high-quality, inclusive, and evidence-based learning for all children.
Minister for Education and Youth Helen McEntee said the new curriculum reflected the world children were growing up in, “one that is fast-changing, interconnected, and full of opportunity”.
“Our goal is to ensure every child in Ireland receives an education that is inclusive, empowering, and deeply relevant to their lives,” she said.
Minister McEntee said: “This curriculum is about giving every child the tools they need to succeed – not just in school, but in life.
“It’s about nurturing their talents, supporting their wellbeing, and helping our children develop as confident learners and active citizens in a changing world.
“It includes an increased focus on language skills and STEM, giving children the tools to communicate with each other and have the curiosity, creativity and solutions to shape the world around them.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, Minister McEntee said that the new curriculum will allow schools the flexibility to spend time on topics based on their patronage and beliefs.
She said that all schools whatever their ethos can still have a significant amount of time that can be applied through the patron’s programme, “whether it’s an Educate Together community school or a Catholic or Protestant school or Church of Ireland”.
“There’s more ownership of the schools if they want to add different time to different subjects.”
Ms McEntee said the environment and social pillar, is “about looking at other religious beliefs. It’s about looking at other worldviews”.
“And I think given the world we live in today, given what’s happening in the world, it’s really important that we’re not just focused on our own ethos, on our own curriculum,” she said.
“We know that our schools are going to schools where there’s 20 and 30 different nationalities in the school. It’s really, really important that we understand who everybody is, where they come from, and what their beliefs might be.”
Minister of Education Helen McEntee has said the new primary school curriculum was firstly about ensuring learning was “fun” for children.
“This is the first time the curriculum for primary school students has changed in 26 years – so the world has changed, the world in which our young people live has changed, so this is about making sure that first and foremost learning is fun, that children are going into school in an environment where they’re learning about the world around them and that they’re applying skills in a way that maybe they hadn’t before.”
She added the curriculum was integrated in a way it was not before but also focused on what had worked well.
The minister added Ireland had some of the best reading outcomes in the world, fantastic teachers and schools, so the curriculum was about building on that while adapting.
