Press release
Senior Cycle Redevelopment Partners’ Forum discuss updates to Senior Cycle Redevelopment
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Published on
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Today (4 October 2023) the Senior Cycle Redevelopment Partners’ Forum held its fourth meeting to discuss the implementation of Senior Cycle Redevelopment. The Minister for Education Norma Foley established the Senior Cycle Redevelopment Partners’ Forum in April 2023.
The purpose of the Partners’ Forum is to facilitate information exchange and to provide informed insights on the implementation of Senior Cycle Redevelopment. Membership consists of various education stakeholders including representative bodies for students, parents, and teachers.
On 20 September 2023, the Minister announced an acceleration to the programme for Senior Cycle Redevelopment. Nine new and revised subjects will be introduced nationally in 2025; two years earlier than planned. All new and revised subjects will incorporate additional assessment components, assessed by the State Examinations Commission and worth a minimum of 40 percent of the available marks.
Further tranches of subject revisions are to be introduced annually from 2025. At today’s meeting of the Forum, members were briefed in detail about these developments. They also received a briefing on work underway under the auspices of the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science to diversify student pathways beyond Leaving Certificate.
Earlier this month, the Partners’ Forum submitted their inaugural report to the Minister. In their report, the Forum outlined their response to reported progress to date, and implementation proposals. The Forum has emphasised the importance of building agreement among stakeholders on the purposes of a redeveloped senior cycle. The importance of communicating the vision, as well as the detail, of Senior Cycle Redevelopment with stakeholders was also emphasised.
The Forum will meet again in January 2024.
The Senior Cycle Redevelopment Partners’ Forum is a representative stakeholder engagement group to underpin the collaboration necessary to support implementation and, address and discuss issues pertaining to the implementation of the redevelopment of Senior Cycle as they evolve.
The core functions of the Partners’ Forum are to:
The Forum’s membership includes representatives of a wide range of stakeholders including students, parents, teachers, and school management, the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (DFHERIS) and other relevant organisations.
The Chair of the Forum provide reports at least twice yearly to the Minister for Education on the work of the Forum which shall include setting out the views of its membership in regard to the implementation of the Senior Cycle Redevelopment programme of work. A report for June 2023 has been submitted.