If your child started 5th year in September 2025 and is taking Biology, Chemistry, Physics or Business, they will be among the first students to sit a redeveloped Leaving Cert subject, in June 2027. A large share of their grade in those subjects, at least 40%, will come from a project completed in school and sent to the State Examinations Commission, not from the written paper. If your child started 5th year this September, the same applies to Geography, Engineering, Physical Education, Construction Technology and the LCVP Link Modules. By 2029 every Leaving Cert subject will have been through the same process.

This guide explains what is changing, who it affects and what stays the same, using only the Department of Education and Youth, the NCCA and the SEC as sources. It ends with a short list of questions to put to your child’s school.

Why the Senior Cycle is being redeveloped

The programme dates from 29 March 2022, when the then Minister for Education announced a plan for Senior Cycle reform under the title Equity and Excellence for All. The announcement promised new subjects, revised curricula for every existing subject and, in the Department’s words, “a significant emphasis on additional assessment components outside of the traditional final written exams”. The stated aim was to “reduce the pressure on students that comes from final assessments based primarily on examinations”.

The timetable was then brought forward. On 20 September 2023 the Minister announced that nine new and revised subjects would reach schools in September 2025, “two years earlier than previously planned”, with a second set in 2026 and further sets every year after that. The NCCA was asked to draw up a schedule, which it published as five tranches.

The redevelopment also takes in the Leaving Certificate Applied, the LCVP, Transition Year and new Level 1 and Level 2 Learning Programmes. This article concentrates on the Leaving Certificate Established, which is what most students sit.

What an Additional Assessment Component is

An Additional Assessment Component, or AAC, is the part of a subject’s assessment that is not the written exam. The Department’s Senior Cycle Redevelopment page sets the rule: each new or revised subject includes assessment components “that are not a traditional written examination”, those components are “worth at least 40% of the available marks”, and they are externally assessed by the SEC.

Three points in that sentence matter for parents.

First, 40% is a floor, not a fixed figure. In the sciences, Business, Geography and Climate Action and Sustainable Development the AAC is worth 40% and the written paper 60%. In Drama, Film and Theatre Studies, Engineering and Physical Education it is a 50:50 split. In the redeveloped LCVP subject, now called Life, Community and Work, the AAC is worth 60%. Those figures come from the subject guidelines on curriculumonline.ie, which are linked in the sources below.

Second, the work is marked by the SEC, not by your child’s teacher. The Department’s guide for students and parents puts it plainly: “A student’s teacher will not mark their assessment component or exams.” Teachers supervise and support the work during the course; the SEC marks it.

Third, this is not entirely new. The same guide notes that 28 of the 40 Leaving Cert subjects already include additional assessment components of some kind, such as orals, practicals, projects and portfolios. What is new is that the biggest subjects, including the sciences, Business, English and Maths, are joining them, and that the minimum weighting is set at 40%.

What the AAC looks like in practice

Take Biology. The NCCA’s guidelines for the Biology in Practice Investigation describe a piece of work in which the student researches an issue set out in a brief, designs and carries out an experiment, gathers and analyses their own data and writes an evidence-based report. The SEC publishes the brief in term 2 of 5th year. The report is submitted digitally in 6th year, by a date the SEC sets. Chemistry and Physics follow the same model. Business has the Business Alive Investigative Study, estimated at up to 20 hours of work, again with the brief issued in term 2 of 5th year and a digital report submitted in 6th year.

Not every AAC is a report. Drama, Film and Theatre Studies asks students to make and perform or screen a short piece of theatre or film. Construction Technology has a design folio and artefact worth 30% and a three-hour practical worth 20%. Engineering’s Design and Manufacture Project is a working model with a folio. Our companion piece on the tranche timeline goes subject by subject.

The Department’s guide to schools says a sample AAC brief for the Tranche 1 subjects was issued in September 2025, and that the first live briefs, for eight subjects, followed in January 2026.

Which students are affected, by year group

What applies to your child depends on the year they entered 5th year, not the year they started secondary school. Transition Year does not change the calculation. A student who did TY and entered 5th year in September 2025 is in the same position as a classmate who skipped TY and entered 5th year the same month.

The subject lists are from the NCCA schedule and the Department’s guide for parents. The exam year follows from the two-year course: the Department’s guide confirms that “students still complete the Leaving Certificate over two years”. The Department’s press release on assessment adjustments also states that in 2027 the post-Covid adjustments will apply “in all subjects except those in Tranche 1”, and in 2028 in all subjects except Tranches 1 and 2, which fits the same timeline.

If your child entered 5th year in September 2025

They are the first cohort. Any Tranche 1 subject they take is the redeveloped version, with an AAC, and they sit the first redeveloped exams in June 2027. Every other subject on their timetable is unchanged, and the post-Covid assessment adjustments still apply to those unchanged subjects. The SEC has published sample papers for the Tranche 1 subjects, four per subject (two at Higher Level, two at Ordinary), on examinations.ie.

If your child entered 5th year in September 2026

They take the redeveloped versions of both Tranche 1 and Tranche 2 subjects, and sit them in June 2028. For most students this means Geography, PE, Engineering or Construction Technology on top of the sciences and Business. English and Accounting are not among their changed subjects.

If your child is in 3rd year or Transition Year now

Students entering 5th year in September 2027 are due to take Tranches 1, 2 and 3, which brings in Maths, History, Music, Home Economics, Computer Science and Agricultural Science. The Department’s parents’ guide marks the 2027 dates for Accounting, Home Economics and Mathematics as subject to confirmation, so treat the Tranche 3 list as planned rather than settled.

The English and Accounting postponement

English and Accounting were originally scheduled for Tranche 2, and the NCCA schedule still lists them there. The Department’s information page for students states that both were due in Tranche 2 but have been delayed by at least a year, to allow further consultation with schools on planning and implementation. The Department’s newer parents’ guide places Accounting in the 2027 group, with the date subject to confirmation, and says it is “currently planned to introduce updated English in 2028”. Until the NCCA schedule is updated, the safest reading is that no student currently in 5th year will sit a redeveloped English or Accounting paper.

How the work is authenticated, and the rules on AI

Because the AAC is done in school over months rather than in an exam hall, the question most parents ask is how the SEC knows the work is the student’s own.

The NCCA guidelines for each subject set out a school-based authentication process. Teachers must engage regularly with each student’s work as it develops. In the sciences, that means seeing the investigative log and data analysis; in Business, the project plan and draft material. Teachers may give feedback, but it must be general and non-directive: the Biology guidelines say teachers must not edit drafts, provide model text or correct the report. Students submit individually and may only submit their own work.

On AI, the guidelines are consistent across subjects. Any material generated by an AI tool must be acknowledged as a source, with the name of the tool, the date the content was generated and a brief explanation of how it was used. If the tool produces a shareable link, that goes in the reference; if not, the student records the prompt they used. Using AI-generated material without acknowledging it is treated as plagiarism. The Department’s Guidance on Artificial Intelligence in Schools, published in October 2025, confirms that the SEC has applied an AI instruction to coursework since the 2023 exams and says the SEC will publish a consolidated Coursework Rules and Procedures document covering authentication. That guidance also notes that the SEC has commissioned research from the University of Limerick on the effect of generative AI on assessment, so expect the rules to be refined. Check examinations.ie for the SEC’s current version before your child submits.

Bonus marks for answering through Irish

Students who answer through Irish have long received bonus marks on written papers. From Leaving Cert 2027, the Department’s Circular 0002/2026 extends the bonus to all components of the State examinations, “including additional assessment components and coursework”. The circular replaces the older bonus-mark rule in the Rules and Programmes for Secondary Schools. The percentages and any caps are set out in the circular itself rather than on the summary page, so check the circular for the current figures if your child is in a Gaelcholáiste or answers through Irish.

What stays the same

The Leaving Cert remains a two-year course and every subject keeps a written exam at the end of 6th year. The Department’s parents’ guide is explicit on both.

Points and the CAO are unchanged by the redevelopment. The CAO Handbook 2027 uses the same Common Points Scale as before: H1 is worth 100 points down to H8 at zero, O1 is worth 56, and 25 bonus points apply for a H6 or better in Higher Level Maths. Points are still counted on the best six subjects from one sitting. The AAC changes how marks are earned within a subject; it does not change how a grade converts to points. Nothing on the official pages announces any change to that.

Colleges can still set minimum entry requirements for particular courses, such as a grade in Irish or Maths, and the Department’s guide reminds parents of this. Teachers are being trained by Oide, the state teacher professional learning service, through a four-year programme for each subject.