Long-term plans: what goes in one
A long-term plan — the LTP — is the document Irish primary teachers prepare for the year ahead: for each subject, the ground the class will cover, laid out month by month in the language of the curriculum. It goes in the planning folder in September, and it is the document a principal or inspector reads first.
Free long-term plan template (Word) — one subject section, laid out the way the folder expects: month · strand & strand unit · learning outcomes · scheme & resources, plus the four framing sections. No logo, no watermark, no sign-up.
Download the templateThe shape of a long-term plan
Formats vary school to school — planning approaches are agreed at school level — but the genre is remarkably consistent. A subject’s LTP almost always contains:
| Part | What it holds |
|---|---|
| Header | School, teacher, class level(s), school year, and the curriculum the plan is built on — e.g. Primary Language Curriculum (2019), Primary Mathematics Curriculum (2023). |
| Monthly sequence | September to June, a row per month: the strand and strand unit (or, in the language curriculum, strand and element), the learning outcomes in the curriculum’s own phrasing — “children should be able to…” — and the scheme & resources column citing the books and materials you actually use. |
| Elements / skills | The through-lines of the subject — e.g. the PMC’s Understanding & Connecting, Communicating, Reasoning, Applying & Problem-Solving — noted once, since they run through every strand. |
| Assessment | How progress will be judged and recorded across the year. |
| Differentiation | How the plan meets the room you actually have — including, in a combined class, how two class levels work from one plan. |
| Linkage & integration | Where the subject connects to others — data with SESE, poetry with Gaeilge. |
Which curriculum does each subject follow?
As of the 2026/27 school year, most planning is built on three documents: the Primary Language Curriculum (2019) for English and Gaeilge (organised in stages — Stage 2 covers 1st and 2nd class, Stage 3 covers 3rd and 4th), the Primary Mathematics Curriculum (2023), and the 1999 curriculum for subjects like SESE. The Primary Curriculum Framework (2023) is changing this picture — the redeveloped curriculum-area specifications were launched in 2025 and schools begin enacting them area by area from 2026/27 — so the practical rule is: plan from the specification your school is currently implementing, and expect the LTP’s bones (strands, outcomes, monthly sequence) to survive every redesign.
Writing one that stays useful
- Write outcomes in the curriculum’s phrasing. The LTP is where curriculum language belongs — it shows the coverage at a glance and it is what an inspector checks the record against.
- Cite your real books. “Scheme & resources” means the books on your shelf and the materials in your press — not a wish list.
- Sequence for your year, not the ideal year. Put the play in December, the maths trail in June, Seachtain na Gaeilge in March. A plan that matches the school calendar is a plan you’ll actually follow.
- Expect it to change — and record the change. The LTP is a living document; the Cúntas Míosúil is where reality gets recorded when the year moves things.
- In a combined class, plan the room. One document per subject with the two class levels side by side beats two parallel documents that drift apart — more in the combined-class guide.
Common questions
What is a long-term plan (LTP)?
A long-term plan — often shortened to LTP — is the document Irish primary teachers prepare for the year ahead: for each subject, the strands, strand units and learning outcomes to be covered month by month, with schemes and resources. It sits in the planning folder alongside short-term plans and the monthly Cúntas Míosúil.
Do I need a separate long-term plan for each class level in a combined class?
Keep one working plan per subject with the class levels side by side — split rows where the content differs, shared rows where the room works together. A formal document per class level can be produced from it when the folder wants one; two separate plans maintained by hand tend to drift apart.
When is the long-term plan written?
September, for the year ahead — and then it lives. Plans are reviewed and adjusted as the year moves; the Cúntas Míosúil records what actually happened month by month.
Is there a required long-term plan format?
No single mandated template exists — planning approaches are agreed at school level. In practice the genre is very consistent: a month-by-month table of strand, strand unit and learning outcomes with a scheme & resources column, plus sections for elements, assessment, differentiation and linkage. The free template on this page follows that shape.
The September reality
The honest description of most LTP writing: a Word document from last year — yours, a colleague’s, or one bought online — reworked at the kitchen table in late August. The template above gives you a clean, genre-correct starting point. The deeper fix is a plan that drafts itself from the school scheme and stays current as you edit — which is the product below.