Subject Time Allocations in Irish Primary Schools: The Full 2026 Tables
How many hours a week is Maths meant to get? How much time does Wellbeing have now? And what is Flexible Time? The answers live in an appendix of the Primary Curriculum Framework (2023), and because schools have until the end of 2027/28 to bring the revised allocations fully in (Circular 0052/2026), this is the year most staffrooms are working them out. Here are the full tables and what they mean for your timetable and your long-term plans.
How the new allocations work
The framework changes the shape of the timetable, and the shape matters more than any single number. There are two categories:
- Minimum Curriculum Time: a weekly minimum for Language, Mathematics and Wellbeing, and a monthly minimum (based on four weeks) for Science, Technology and Engineering Education (STE), Social and Environmental Education (SEE), and Arts Education.
- Flexible Time: a monthly allocation each school and teacher decides how to use: integration, unexpected learning opportunities, pacing for your class, or going deeper on something that has caught fire.
The monthly allocations are the big practical change. STE, SEE and Arts no longer need an identical slot every week: you can block them, run project weeks, or weight a fortnight towards one area, as long as the month balances out. The framework states the allocations “are intended to be used flexibly”.
Stage 1: Junior and Senior Infants
| Area | Weekly | Monthly (4 weeks) |
|---|---|---|
| Language (total) | 5h 45m | |
| - Language 1 | 3h 15m | |
| - Language 2 | 2h 30m | |
| Mathematics | 3h | |
| Wellbeing | 2h 30m | |
| Science, Technology and Engineering | 3h 20m | |
| Social and Environmental Education | 6h | |
| Arts Education | 9h | |
| Flexible Time | 5h |
Stage 2: First and Second Class
| Area | Weekly | Monthly (4 weeks) |
|---|---|---|
| Language (total) | 7h 45m | |
| - Language 1 | 4h 45m | |
| - Language 2 | 3h | |
| Mathematics | 4h | |
| Wellbeing | 3h | |
| Science, Technology and Engineering | 4h | |
| Social and Environmental Education | 9h | |
| Arts Education | 9h | |
| Flexible Time | 6h |
Stages 3 and 4: Third to Sixth Class
| Area | Weekly | Monthly (4 weeks) |
|---|---|---|
| Language (total) | 7h 45m | |
| - Language 1 | 3h 45m | |
| - Language 2 | 3h | |
| - Language 3 (Modern Foreign Language) | 1h | |
| Mathematics | 4h | |
| Wellbeing | 3h | |
| Science, Technology and Engineering | 5h | |
| Social and Environmental Education | 8h | |
| Arts Education | 8h | |
| Flexible Time | 7h |
In an English-medium school, Language 1 is English and Language 2 is Irish; in a gaelscoil or Gaeltacht school, Language 1 is Irish and Language 2 is English. The framework notes that in Irish-medium schools, where the whole curriculum is accessed through Irish, language allocations “will require particular consideration”, and formal English can be delayed until First Class. Language 3, the Modern Foreign Language, arrives from Third Class; we covered what MFL looks like in practice.
The rest of the week
Alongside Minimum Curriculum Time and Flexible Time, the framework allocates:
| Weekly | |
|---|---|
| Patron’s Programme (Religious/Ethical/Multi-belief and Values Education) | 1h 40m (Stage 1), 2h (Stages 2 to 4) |
| Roll call and assembly | 1h 15m |
| Breaks | 50m |
| Recreation | 2h 30m |
The length of the school day itself is unchanged, and the allocations above fit inside the existing instructional week.
What changed from the 1999 arrangement
Three things, in rising order of importance for your planning:
- A Modern Foreign Language has a dedicated hour from Third Class.
- Wellbeing (PE and SPHE together) has a protected weekly slot of its own.
- Monthly allocations and Flexible Time exist at all. The 1999 curriculum thought in identical weeks. The framework thinks in months, which is a quiet endorsement of how teachers actually work: blocking Arts around a performance, running Science as a project week, letting Geography breathe during a local study.
Remember these are suggested allocations being phased in: schools have until the end of 2027/28 to complete the change, so a timetable still reflecting the older balance this year is exactly where the system expects it to be.
What it means for your planning
Your timetable needs the weekly minimums (Language, Maths, Wellbeing) fixed, and then genuine room for the monthly areas to move. Your long-term plan is where the monthly thinking pays off: map STE, SEE and Arts across each month in broad terms, and your fortnightly plans then carry whichever areas this fortnight is weighted towards. The 2026 preparation guidance explicitly recognises weekly, fortnightly or monthly short-term planning, so the planning rhythm can match the timetable rhythm.
For the wider context on which areas use which curriculum documents this year, see the Primary Curriculum 2026 guide, and for every planning document a teacher keeps, the complete planning guide.
In Pleanáil, your long-term and fortnightly plans are built per subject against the right curriculum version, so weighting a fortnight towards Arts or blocking Science for a project week is a matter of what you put in the plan, and the record stays clean.
Map your year against the new allocations: three fortnightly plans, a real Cúntas Míosúil and long-term plans, free for 30 days, no card needed. Create your first plan free.
Plan against the real 2026 curriculum
Pleanáil loads the redeveloped and 1999 curriculum for you. Tick the Learning Outcomes, tap a suggestion or two, and your fortnightly plans, Cúntas Míosúil and long-term plans assemble themselves. A plan that used to take an evening takes about fifteen minutes.
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