Long-term thematic planning

To ensure cross-curricular learning and engagement, Chris’ school adapts a thematic approach in planning. The themes are differentiated for the primary and post-primary classes across the school, with post-primary themes selected to incorporate junior cycle topics. This allows for shared learning between classes during mixed activities. At a class level, all students can enjoy and experience many of the same lessons as a group while working at an individual progression pathway with personalised targets.

Each theme lasts for half a term, allowing adequate time for learners to become familiar with the theme and demonstrate potential progression in their learning. When relevant learning outcomes have been selected for Chris, the class teacher allocates these to the most relevant half-term according to progression, need and relevance to the theme. For example, LO 3.18 ‘Participate in making healthy snacks’ fits well with the school theme ‘Healthy living’ in January. The following table shows a snapshot example of thematic planning for Chris from January-June.

PLU 3: Personal care and wellbeing
		January-February	February-March	April-May	May-June
Theme:		Healthy living	Celebrations	This is me	Summer holidays
Self-awareness	LO	Demonstrate awareness of their own abilities and skills such as self-help skills or kindness to others	3.1 Demonstrate awareness of their own body	Recognise their own features as being unique to them	Show awareness of self in the immediate and/or wider environment
	PM	Responding	Responding	Attending	Responding/Initiating
	EA	Encouragement of self-help skills: hygiene sensory trays	Exploring music and dance from different cultural celebrations	1:1 partner mirror-play	Sensory exploration of environments on visits to parks, beach and local area
Personal care and hygiene	LO	Participate in personal care routines	3.9 Make choices related to personal care	3.9 Make choices related to personal care	Co-operate with adults who provide daily support
	PM	Responding	Responding	Responding/Initiating	Generalising
	EA	Supported participation in toothbrushing, hair brushing and face washing during hygiene sensory tray activity	Demonstrating consistent preference for a flavour of toothpaste—lots of visual exposure to each tube	Begin to express preference for toothpaste flavour with eye pointing	Co-operating with adults during personal care tasks in various environments during class visits
Food and nutrition	LO	Participate in making healthy snacks	Use the senses to explore different types of foods	Show preferences for foods	Participate in preparing food
	PM	Attending	Responding	Responding	Attending/Responding
	EA	Weekly cooking lessons: smoothies, soup, stir fries, fruit salads, porridge bars etc.	Feeling, smelling, tasting, making foods related to themed cultural celebrations	Explore and record favourite foods as part of creating ‘This is me’ book	Participate in preparing picnic foods to take on class visits

Key: LO—Learning outcome PM—Progression pathway EA—Example

Curriculum Areas

Junior Cycle Subjects

Short Courses

Level 1 Learning Programmes (L1LPs)

Level 2 Learning Programmes

Senior Cycle Subjects

SPHE

LCA

Long-term thematic planning

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