€12m funding for Leaving Certificate Science subject implementation

Minister for Education, Norma Foley TD, has today announced details of a new Science Implementation Support Grant worth €12 million to support schools with the rollout of revised Senior Cycle science subjects.

Three science subjects – Biology, Chemistry and Physics – have been revised as part of stage one of the redevelopment of Senior Cycle subjects. The revised specifications include a traditional written assessment worth 60% and a new additional assessment component, worth 40%.

The additional assessment component will be called Biology, Chemistry or Physics “in Practice” and will broaden the types of assessment used in Senior Cycle. Every student’s additional assessment component will be externally assessed by the State Examinations Commission.

Minister Foley announced today that €12 million in funding is being provided for a new Science Implementation Support Grant, and it will be paid to schools shortly.

All schools in the free scheme will receive additional funding with a minimum base payment of €13,000 up to a maximum of €22,000. There will be no application process, and the payment will be made on an automatic basis.

The revised specifications for Biology, Chemistry and Physics will be implemented in schools nationwide for fifth year students from the next school year (2025/26), commencing in August/September 2025.

The additional assessment component in each subject will require students to use the knowledge and skills they are learning throughout the course to carry out an investigation. It will:

• involve real-world applications of science;

• demonstrate investigative skills;

• relate their investigative work to the work of scientists in society;

• communicate their findings appropriately and effectively.

Students will carry out their work on the investigation in Biology, Physics or Chemistry throughout the course. They will fill out an investigative log along the way which they can use to help compile their final report for the State Examinations Commission.

They will begin by carrying out scientific research on an issue related to the brief. They will gather, process and evaluate information from secondary sources. The knowledge gained from this phase of the investigation may help to inform their experimental work.

They will then then generate a hypothesis, plan, and design their experiment. They will carry out their experiment and gather primary data. Once they have gathered their primary data, they will analyse the data and form conclusions.

In year two, they will submit evidence to the State Examinations Commission for marking, showing their ability to conduct scientific research on the brief and to use appropriate primary data to investigate aspects of the brief.

Funding for the Science Implementation Support Grant will be allocated based on four bands of enrolment, ensuring that funding is fair and proportionate. The enrolment bands range in size from schools up to 300 students in the lowest band, to schools with over 900 pupils in the highest band.

There will be a further 10% uplift in the Science Implementation Support Grant for DEIS schools. This means a DEIS school will receive an additional 10% on top of the minimum funding for their enrolment band. This is in line with previous applications of a DEIS uplift in Departmental funding models, including the grant for ICT infrastructure.

Schools will have the autonomy to use this additional funding in a way that best suits their school and apply it to their locally identified Science needs. It is expected that schools will prioritise the purchase of consumables and related equipment needs. The funding may be used to support the implementation of the new senior cycle sciences or more generally to support the broader science programme which may include, for example, Agricultural Science, Transition Year Science or Junior Cycle Science.

This announcement also aligns with the Department’s STEM Education Policy Statement

2017-2026, which recognises the importance of initiatives that raise awareness and interest in STEM, and the need to improve STEM education. The funding is also in addition to existing support provided to schools who offer Physics, Chemistry and the combined subject Physics & Chemistry.

Teacher training is well underway - over 11,000 post primary teachers have had training since the beginning of the school year, including over 1,000 science teachers. Training will continue to ensure teachers are ready for these changes.

The €12 million funding is additional to the €30 million allocated in Budget 2025 for curriculum reforms including senior cycle redevelopment.

ENDS

Funding details for on the Science Implementation Support Grant

Phased introduction of Senior Cycle Redevelopment

The National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) began work on its Advisory Report on the review of Senior Cycle in 2016. Under the Senior Cycle Redevelopment programme, the Department of Education and the NCCA have been working with education partners to update and redesign the Senior Cycle curriculum to meet the needs of young people today.

Changes are being introduced gradually, starting next year and continuing until 2029. By 2031, all students taking the Leaving Certificate will follow the updated curriculum. This will include additional assessments such as project or coursework which will provide students with opportunities to demonstrate real world skills.

As part of Senior Cycle Redevelopment, revised specifications for seven existing Leaving Certificate established subjects (Biology, Physics, Chemistry, Arabic, Latin, Ancient Greek, and Business) will be introduced in schools from the 2025/26 school year.

Each of these new and revised subject specifications will incorporate additional assessment components that are not a traditional written examination, which will be worth a minimum of 40% of the available marks and will be externally assessed by the State Examinations Commission (SEC).

Increased resources

To support these changes, €30 million has been allocated in Budget 2025 for curriculum reforms including senior cycle redevelopment.

Teacher representation

• Teachers and their representatives have been involved in all of the Senior Cycle redevelopment work to date – they have contributed to the development of the new specifications and the revised assessment arrangements. 50-70% of the NCCA Subject Development Groups membership comprises practicing teachers.

• This important work aims to enhance the educational experience and ensure meaningful learning and achievement in senior cycle for all learners. See https://ncca.ie/en/senior-cycle/senior-cycle-redevelopment/.

• Details on Senior Cycle Redevelopment, including the information notes which issue regularly to schools can be found at the following links: https://www.gov.ie/seniorcycle, https://ncca.ie/en/senior-cycle/senior-cycle-redevelopment/, as well as www.curriculumonline.ie on which all of the recently published new and revised subject\module\programme documentation can be found.

• The NCCA has published a schedule for the revision of all Leaving Certificate subject curricula or specifications spanning five annual tranches starting from next year (2025). This schedule is available at the above link.

Equity of access

• The importance of ensuring that adequate support is provided to teachers and schools in implementing the new specifications is a shared objective.

• Additional resources are being provided. As part of Budget 2025, some €30 million of additional funding is being provided for the continuation of important curricular development and reforms and related teacher education. This is particularly in relation to the ongoing delivery of Senior Cycle Redevelopment and the Primary Curriculum Framework along with a range of other planned enhancements in how education is taught and learned in our schools.

• For the three new science specification, for example, the new assessment components involve students completing a piece of work as evidence of their ability to conduct scientific research on a particular issue and to use appropriate primary data to investigate aspects of that issue. It is not intended that these investigations are solely restricted to laboratory-based work.

• Additional resourcing for the new subjects has been committed and 100 schools have been selected to be the first to offer Drama, Film and Theatre Studies and Climate Action and Sustainable Development.

Additional Assessment Component

• As part of the programme for Senior Cycle Redevelopment, specifications for all Leaving Certificate subjects will be revised, and will incorporate an Additional Assessment Component (AAC) worth a minimum of 40% of the available marks, broadening the range of skills that can be assessed, and recognising different types of learning whilst reducing the emphasis on terminal written examinations.

• The introduction of AACs will broaden the range of skills that can be assessed, thereby recognising different types of learning whilst reducing the emphasis on terminal written examinations. The AACs should be understood as an integrated part of the teaching and learning of the subject that facilitates and supports good teaching and learning practices across the two years of the course and enables students to fulfil the objectives of the subject specification.

• It should also be noted that three-quarters of all Leaving Certificate subjects already have the equivalent of an AAC component. 29 of the current 41 curricular Leaving Certificate subjects have at least a second component that we now understand as an AAC under Senior Cycle Redevelopment. These take various forms under the current system including orals, aurals, practical tests or performances and coursework.

• Schools were informed in May about a schedule for releasing sample assessment materials to help with planning and teacher training. The first part, Guidelines on the Additional Assessment Components (AACs), will be published shortly, and sample exam papers will follow in Spring 2025. This means schools will have more than two years to prepare before students take these exams and several months before students start 5th year in the new or updated subjects.

• Development work on Tranche 2 and Tranche 3 subjects is advancing within NCCA structures and there will be public consultations on different aspects of those subjects over the coming months ahead of their respective introductions for fifth years from 2026 and 2027.

The use of AI

• Since 2023, the SEC has updated its guidelines to address AI-generated material. For 2024, all instructions include rules on the use of AI. Regular, comprehensive engagement with each student’s work on their Additional Assessment Component will enable teachers to confidently and legitimately authenticate any work being submitted for assessment.