09/09/2026
JUST PUBLISHED FROM NCCA!!
The NCCA have just this month released an updated assessment guidance doc, to accompany the PCF, PMC and PLC, called Enacting the curriculum: Assessment Guidance for the Primary School Curriculum (2026)
https://ncca.ie/en/primary/primary-developments/ongoing-primary-developments/assessment/ #:~:text=The%20*Enacting%20the,www.curriculumonline.ie.
From a maths perspective, as well as norm-referenced assessments (eg standardised and most diagnostic tests), the guidance doc also highlights criterion-referenced assessments ....these focus on how children’s learning aligns with clear expectations or criteria.
If you are using from Edco - The Educational Company of Ireland, the Progress Assessment Booklet is a clear example of criterion-referenced assessment: each carefully designed question item is clearly linked to a specific learning outcome or focus of learning.
This means that when collecting and compiling the assessment data for your class on the provided spreadsheets, not only can you compare how the learning and progress of individual children in your class aligns with the initial focus/foci of learning, you can also easily identify the learning outcomes with which your class are quite capable/competent AND the learning outcomes with which your class are less capable/competent and which may warrant further consolidation etc, meaning that it can be used as very valuable and purposeful formative assessment.
The same updated Assessment Guidance doc also highlights the three main types of assessment:
● Intuitive assessment: Unplanned, unrecorded, and ongoing
● Planned interactions: More visible, may be recorded, and related to learning outcomes/competencies
● Assessment events: Distinct, visible, recorded events
Again for any Maths and Me users, these three main types of assessment activities are clearly visible across the program (see image)
