As part of the consultation process for the Transform Ed NI Curriculum 2028, ESDF have read the documentation and highlighted key areas to help equip our network with the information they may need to respond to the consultation.  

Unfortunately, the information isn’t easy to share due to the sheer amount of documents. To save time for our network we have compiled a list of key Environmental information from the main documents. We have also highlighted relevant information in all the Curriculum subject areas on environment, climate, outdoor learning, nature and sustainability. If you would like to access these please contact beth@nienvironmentlink.org to see copies.  

The full Transform Ed survey document with all questions is available to download here.

We encourager you to read the full Curriculum documents to enable your response to the consultation. 

 

TransformED Northern Ireland Curriculum 2028  

An entitlement to excellence and equity. 

Overview 

Chapter 5: Principles of the new curriculum 

Principle 1: Purpose-led The Strategic Review was clear that curriculum content must be shaped by a clear educational purpose. The purpose of the new Northern Ireland Curriculum 2028 is to equip young people with the knowledge, skills and experiences that give them real opportunities and enable them to make informed and responsible decisions throughout their lives. 

Chapter 7: Curriculum purpose 

It is proposed that the objectives of the new curriculum should be as follows.  

To support each young person to develop as: 

– an individual 

– a member of society 

– a contributor to the economy 

– a steward of the environment 

– a lifelong learner  

within a system that expects excellence and places no limit on what young people can achieve. 

The capabilities 

4 The capabilities set 

The capabilities set comprises capabilities for: 

• creativity and imagination 
• emotional understanding and empathy 
• environmental and ecological responsibility  
• language and communication 
• mathematical and computational proficiency
• physical health and wellbeing  
• reasoning and problem solving   
• self-regulated learning and perseverance 
• social and civic participation

5 Capabilities descriptions 

Capabilities for environmental and ecological responsibility   

Capabilities for environmental and ecological responsibility arise from pupils’ growing understanding of the interdependent relationships through which human activity and ecological, social and economic systems shape long-term sustainability. Through the study of environmental systems, pupils are equipped to make informed judgements about personal and societal futures in the context of contemporary environmental possibilities and constraints. This includes global climate change, its uneven impacts, and human responses to it in the form of mitigation and adaptation.  

Pupils develop these capabilities through a strong base of secure and wide-ranging scientific, technological, geographical and historical knowledge which gives them the vocabulary, reference points and concepts for engaging with the idea of sustainability in informed ways. The study of sustainability allows pupils to examine the interactions of ecological, social and political factors. Outdoor learning further deepens pupils’ appreciation of the living world and how human life is ultimately an integral part of nature.   

For example, in science, pupils are taught about the physics and chemistry of the Earth and atmosphere, the interconnected biological systems supporting life and the complex ecological interactions upon which all life depends. In geography, pupils are encouraged to think about the Earth as the home of humankind, using a range of concepts and perspectives to understand the dynamic nature of human–environment interconnections in specific place contexts and across a range of temporal and spatial scales. In home economics, they learn the origins of their food and the environmental implications of its journey from farm to fork. In history, studying features of ancient and medieval worlds, pupils learn how climate and the environment affected the emergence of the first farmers and how different civilisations managed natural resources such as the renewal of wood and woodlands. In history and PSCC, they come to understand how environmental issues are often interconnected across personal, community, national and global contexts.  

Together, this knowledge, skill and experience acquired across the curriculum enable young people to make informed judgements about environmental challenges, and to take environmental and ecological responsibility. Young people leaving school will be equipped to draw on different types of disciplinary insight, analysis and vocabulary with which to interpret information about their world and to understand and join debates about how best to steward the environment. 

Capabilities for physical health and wellbeing  

Through the study of science, home economics, PSCC and PE, alongside the wider school curriculum, young people develop confidence, competence and enjoyment in movement and healthy behaviours, building a lasting disposition toward active and healthy living.  

For instance, through science, pupils learn how the body functions and how to take care of it, while in home economics they learn about the components of healthy eating and how to manage household resources in order to prepare home-cooked meals. Across PSCC and PE, they come to understand how physical activity, rest, nutrition, hydration and everyday choices and habits (such as walking or cycling to school) benefit physical and mental health, both on a day-to-day basis and in the long term, and have opportunities to reflect on the influences of alcohol and drug use on health and wellbeing. 

Capabilities for social and civic participation  

Through sustained engagement across the curriculum, young people develop the capabilities to participate constructively in shared social and civic life at local and global levels.Through studying history, they encounter perspectives shaped by different cultural and political contexts, developing the habit of asking why people held the views they did. They learn about the origins and evolution of the ideas and institutions which have brought us democracy and the rule of law. Through literature and languages, they build empathy by imagining and entering others’ worlds. In religious education and PSCC, pupils explore ethical frameworks and questions that have shaped communities across centuries. By engaging with debates across disciplines, they learn that disagreement is not always a threat to relationships, but rather, when well-managed and engaged with constructively, contributes to shared understanding.  

Engagement with diverse languages, culture, art and music, and with the geography of human settlement and movement, encourages respect for those from different backgrounds and provides the knowledge that gives this respect depth and meaning. Through the study of Ulster-Scots, Irish and British literature, and Northern Ireland’s complex past, young people develop a grounded sense of identity and cultural understanding, enabling them to engage with difference openly. Together, this knowledge equips them to recognise racism and other forms of discrimination, exclusion and prejudice not as abstract concepts, but as patterns that can be understood in historical and structural terms, and to respond to them with clarity, confidence and moral conviction.  

Through PSCC, geography and history, pupils come to see themselves as members of overlapping communities, including the family, school, neighbourhood, society and the world, each carrying responsibilities and opportunities for participation. They learn that rights and responsibilities are interconnected, that civic institutions depend on the active and responsible contribution of those they serve, and that collective problems require collective responses. Across disciplines, pupils develop the habits of civic participation, including listening across disagreement, working with others towards shared goals, taking responsibility for outcomes, acting with integrity and an ethic of service before self. In this way, young people develop the capabilities for social and civic participation.

 

Please find below the subject frameworks and Key Stage documents relating to the Northern Ireland Curriculum Consultation.

Subject Frameworks and Key Stage Documents