4.4 Key messages

Achievement

■Irish pupils continued to perform at a high level in international assessments in literacy,

Mathematics and Science.

Teaching approaches

■High quality teaching approaches were observed in a majority of lessons.

■Planning and practice in catering for the range of pupil abilities and learning dispositions require

further development and should include more active and child-centred teaching approaches.

■In response to COVID-19, there has been a considerable increase in the use of digital technologies

in teaching and learning.

Assessment

■While there have been improvements in assessment in many primary schools, particularly

in aspects of literacy and numeracy, challenges remain in relation to the implementation of approaches to assessment.

■There is a need for teachers to provide pupils with clearer feedback on their work and on how

best to improve their learning, and to enable them to reflect on their learning.

Provision for Irish

■In Gaeltacht primary schools and gaelscoileanna, the quality of language use in Irish was good overall.

■There remains considerable scope to develop pupils’ learning outcomes, motivation and engagement

in Irish in English-medium schools.

Other curriculum provision

■In SESE, teachers make balanced provision for knowledge acquisition and the development of skills.

There remains scope to develop pupils’ higher-order investigative skills.

■There is a need to support schools in their understanding and promotion of Education for

Sustainable Development (ESD).

■There are positive findings in relation to wellbeing and the development of children’s

understanding of personal safety and bullying in SPHE.

■In the Arts, there are examples of enjoyable and rich learning experiences. There is scope

to promote pupils’ creativity and reflection further.