Classes in the various subject areas will "overlap and interact to form a holistic learning experience for the child", according to the new primary school curriculum.
"All aspects of the child's development are interrelated and that developmental process is interactive and complex," the curriculum manual points out. In this new integrated approach, some of the traditional subjects are linked, such as geography, history and science, and under arts education, three areas are covered: visual arts, music and drama.
In English, a child's reading should encompass a rich and varied range of text. Particular emphasis will be placed on comprehension and the development of higher-order skills through reading and responding to a wide variety of texts. Talk and discussion will be encouraged in every curriculum area.
In history, children will learn by "recalling personal experiences and elements of family history". In this way, "the child will, in simple ways, become familiar with the process of collecting a wide range of evidence, examining and exploring it, and drawing simple conclusions from it".
As for geography, part will be concerned with fieldwork and graphic work. Also, it will "provide opportunities through which children can come to explore and understand the peoples and features, both natural and human, distributed over the Earth's surface", and it should enable them to appreciate the distinctive characteristics of places.
Under the visual arts heading, children will experiment with a range of materials and tools in an assortment of colours and textures, using a variety of techniques. Drawing, painting, inventing and constructing should bring together different elements of the child's experience and from this "new conceptual development can grow". The six strands of the visual arts curriculum are drawing, paint and colour, clay, construction, print and fabric and fibre.
In the music curriculum, the children will get a chance to listen and respond to a wide range of musical styles and traditions, including the many forms of Irish music. Their responses will take different forms, including movement, dance, illustration, storytelling, discussion and drama. Singing will be a central aspect of the music curriculum.
Physical education will promote "diversity of experience rather than specialisation" and will provide a wide range of activities and games that help develop the child's co-operative skills and his or her appreciation of the value of co-operation.
As to religion education, the curriculum states: "It is the responsibility of the school to provide a religious education that is consonant with its ethos and at the same time to be flexible in making alternative organisational arrangements for those who do not wish to avail of the particular religious education it offers."
The emphasis in maths will be on presenting children with real problems related to their own experience and on encouraging them to develop strategies for solving them imaginatively. Above all, the manual states, the child should be enabled to experience maths as an intellectual pursuit in its own right and as a source of fascination, challenge and enjoyment.