Curriculum Review – Curriculum Survey

Overview

Help Shape the Future Curriculum

As you know, the newly appointed Curriculum Taskforce will soon begin designing a new system level curriculum framework for Northern Ireland. As part of this exciting work, we are setting up subject groups including practitioners to develop the content for each specific subject.

We appreciate that not everyone who may wish to be involved can be due to time constraints but it is important that everyone has a chance to contribute.  Therefore, we would like to gather further feedback from school leaders and subject teachers.

We already have a very clear picture of what is working well and what needs to improve in the curriculum as a whole from Lucy Crehan’s Strategic Review (Review of the Northern Ireland Curriculum | Department of Education.

This survey focuses on individual Areas of Learning and subjects, helping us build a clear understanding of the strengths and challenges within each.  We will use your responses to create reports spanning both primary and post primary that will guide the work of the subject groups as they begin shaping the new curriculum. There is also an overarching question on the capabilities that the curriculum as a whole should aim to develop. 

We are most interested in specific, strong curricular practice in your setting, which you may not yet have had a chance to share. Whether you share a short example of strong practice, highlight areas that need more support, or suggest ideas for future development, your voice matters. We know how busy you are, so we have kept the questions short and straightforward. Your contribution will help us build a curriculum that supports all learners and reflects the best of what is already happening in schools.

There are also opportunities to contribute for those who are not classroom practitioners.  We appreciate that everyone will have an interest in our curriculum.  Therefore, there is the opportunity to provide more general comments should that be preferable.  

The survey should take approximately 10 minutes to complete and will remain open until 28 November 2025.

The Department’s lawful basis for collecting your personal data and your data protection rights are available Privacy Notice – Review of the Northern Ireland Curriculum.

Thank you for taking the time to help us with this important work.

The Statutory Curriculum Framework

In completing this survey, please note that the goal of the Curriculum Taskforce is to design a system curriculum framework, not individual school level curricula. This means the framework will set out the core content and provide the essential knowledge, concepts and skills that all pupils should be taught in each subject.

Whilst it will provide more clarity and structure than the current statutory framework, it will not prescribe the more detailed choices about examples and materials made at school level.