Rule 126 (Rules for National Schools)

Each teacher is required to make adequate written preparation for his/her school work, as follows:

• To prepare at the beginning of each school year or school term a long term programme of work in each subject, in accordance with the Primary School Curriculum, the school plan and the learning needs of his/her pupils; the long term programme of work to include a class timetable, outlining the weekly allotment of time for each subject.
• To prepare fortnightly or, in the case of probationary teachers, weekly in advance a short term plan of work.

In the case of class teachers, at the close of every month, the portion of the curriculum dealt with during the month should be noted in a progress record, the format of which will be agreed at school level. The progress record is an important school record, the custody of which is one of the duties of the principal teacher. It should be available in the school at all times during the school year to which it relates and for at least one complete school year after the end of that year.

Learning support and resource teachers are required:

• To plan appropriate learning programmes in respect of pupils in receipt of supplementary of resource teaching and to maintain group or individual pupil progress records, as appropriate.
• In respect of monthly progress reports the following was agreed with the inspectorate to take effect from September 2005.

It is recognised that:

Schools and teachers have a number of arrangements in place to record monthly progress in the delivery of the curriculum and the format of the Cuntas Míosúil may vary, even within the same school.  It is desirable that every school should agree a common format for the Cuntas Míosúil in the context of school planning.

1. Class teachers can record progress by writing a narrative account of the portion of the syllabus covered in different areas of the curriculum for each month.  This is the most commonly used approach at the moment.
   
2.  Another possibility for recording progress is by means of common templates agreed at school level.  These templates may contain prompts or headings for subject areas and are completed by class teachers on a monthly basis and retained by the principal teachers.
3. As an increasing number of teachers are using ICT to record short-term plans it is possible to use technology to quickly generate a progress record from the short-term plans. This can be done in a variety of ways. For example, portions of the plan can be copied and pasted to generate a narrative record of completed work.  Another approach is to paste portions of the plan into a prepared template.  This approach is compatible with both the narrative approach and template approach.
4. A further approach is to signal clearly on the short-term plan what portions of the work plan have been completed. Explanatory text can be added as required.

Whatever system is used by schools in completing a cuntas miosuil, the total record for the school should be maintained by the Principal Teacher. It is therefore vital that individual teacher records of this nature should be capable of straightforward extrapolation for whole school purposes.