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YSI - Exemplar year schemes for Infants

Plan, draft and implement

About the Course

How good is your Infant Year Scheme? Could it be better? When did you last revise and update it? Would you like a sample scheme for each subject to guide you in the process? If YES - then they are all within the course waiting to be downloaded!

As Robert John Meehan says: “A well prepared and engaging teacher is a catalyst, a spark that creates the desire to learn in our students.” 

Does your scheme unleash your eager excitement to delve straight into teaching? Will the jewels it contains excite and energise your students into learning? 

To ensure the success of your work as a teacher, preparation is crucial in clarifying the learning pupils will engage and achieve.

Our course incorporates the NEW guidance from the Department of Education which aims to support all teachers and school leaders by providing a renewed understanding of how planning and preparation for teaching and learning is demonstrated in the classroom.

We are here to help you optimise your preparation for teaching, learning and assessment. Our course not only has the key messages, formats, hints and tips, but FULL exemplar year schemes for each subject area to inspire you in your work and provide materials that are fully customisable for what you want to do.

We want you to fill your schemes with your creative self. Your scheme should be exciting, it should capture your best thoughts and ideas, and lock them in as future actions. Well prepared teachers who love teaching, teach children who love learning.

As a format, a long-term plan mediates your implementation of the curriculum termly or for the autumn term, then for spring and summer terms together. 

It should be developed in accordance with:

  • The particular needs, aptitudes and interests of the pupils 
  • The Primary School Curriculum (DES, 1999) 
  • The Primary Language Curriculum (NCCA, 2019) 
  • The School Plan  

As a teacher, you want to promote quality learning and teaching for all pupils in your class. There is a clear link between the quality of learning achieved by the pupils and the quality of teacher preparation. Planning forms one part of teacher preparation.  It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken that joy in creative expression and knowledge in our students.

Join us this summer and we will assist you to add a few layers of polish to your year scheme or to craft them afresh from the exemplars provided.

NOTE:

The on-line format of this course enables you to study at a time and place that best suits your own needs. 

You can access your course anytime until March 31st 2024.

Within this highly interactive web based course, a dynamic learning experience awaits, where you can interact with your fellow course participants through the in-course chat forums and communication tools provided by the CPD College learning system. 

Our friendly and knowledgeable tutors actively support each course, providing expert interaction, guidance and feedback for all participants on chat questions and assignments which call for critical reflection, self-analysis and a reasoned response. 

On successful completion of your course, you can download and print off your CPD record and certificate of completion.

We look forward to welcoming you to your course.

Learning outcomes
In this course we aim to:
  • Strengthen teachers knowledge, understandings, skills, techniques, insights and abilities to craft quality long term schemes and plans for curricular areas
  • Review critique and improve on exemplar subject schemes / plans
  • Identify, revise and incorporate effective teaching strategies to deliver the scheme content
  • Consider and organise content around relevant themes / thematic approaches
  • Devise appropriate assessment approaches to gauge learning and achievement of scheme objectives
  • Skill teachers in applying assessment for learning principles, quality questioning techniques and a three-tier approach to differentiation
  • Itemise digital materials and tools that can facilitate planning, classroom management and teaching & learning.
  • Ensure our schemes are responsive to the various department priority strategies
Modules

01 - Long-term planning: Across the modules you will be supplied with full exemplar year schemes for ALL subjects in Infants, to download, save, edit and utilise. We begin by contextualising the place for teacher planning within the teaching, learning and assessment framework. We then review, appraise and detail all the component elements that constitute a quality long-term written plan, refreshing and enhancing your working knowledge of each item.

We systematically build out the preeminent ‘assessment for learning approach’ and teach the operation of the ‘Curriculum Planning Tool’. The three-tier approach to differentiation in curriculum is explored and set out for teachers to apply.  Finally, we review, advise and explain the need to integrate digital materials into curriculum schemes and plans.

02 - Creating exemplar plans for English and Gaeilge: At the conclusion of this module you can download, save, edit and utilise both an English and Irish Year Scheme for Infants. Before that we:

  • Critique, craft and improve on an exemplar long term plan for both English and Irish
  • Incorporate key strategies to help children learn and achieve stated learning outcomes
  • Propose engaging learning experiences that support and drive key language learning
  • Utilise the primary language toolkit to guide PLC planning 
  • Place assessment for learning at the centre of the language assessment approach

03 - Creating exemplar plans for Maths and PE: At the conclusion of this module you can download, save, edit and utilise both a Maths and a P.E. Year Scheme for Infants. Before that we:

  • Critique, craft and improve on an exemplar long term plan for both Maths and PE
  • Incorporate key strategies to help children learn and achieve stated learning outcomes
  • Deploy a range of quality assessment approaches
  • Reflect on & propose engaging learning experiences for both areas
  • Craft a mathematics / STEM thematic unit of work
  • Reflect on current practice against relevant ‘Teacher Individual Practice’ LAOS SSE statements

04 - Creating exemplar plans for SESE: At the conclusion of this module you can download, save, edit and utilise a History, Geography and Science Year Scheme for Infants. Before that we:

  • Critique, craft and improve on an exemplar long term plan for SESE
  • Incorporate key strategies to help children learn and achieve stated learning outcomes in SESE
  • Deploy a range of quality assessment approaches in SESE
  • Reflect on & propose engaging learning experiences across SESE
  • Craft an SESE sustainability themed unit of work

05 - Creating exemplar plans for the Arts: At the conclusion of this module you can download, save, edit and utilise an Art, Music and Drama Year Scheme for Infants. Before that we:

  • Critique, craft and improve on an exemplar long term plan for the Arts
  • Incorporate key strategies to help children learn and achieve stated learning outcomes in the arts
  • Deploy a range of quality assessment approaches for the Arts.
  • Reflect on & propose engaging learning experiences for the Arts
  • Craft an Arts thematic unit of work

"I really enjoyed seeing the breadth of planning resources in the course materials. The sample yearly plans were excellent. Thank you."  Tracey, 2022