Additional Assessment Components
The new Senior Cycle Reform proposals introduce AACs (Additional Assessment Components) to every Leaving Certificate subject which will form 40% of the student’s final mark in that subject; currently the one exception to this is English, where the AAC (a Creative Writing Task) will form 20% of the final mark, along with a 20% Oral Exam at the end of 5th year.
The subjects which will form Tranche 1 of the reformed Leaving Certificate include Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Business, Arabic, Latin, Ancient Greek, Climate Action and Sustainable Development, and Drama, Film and Theatre Studies. These Tranche 1 subjects were introduced to 5th Year students in September 2025. Further revisions and new subjects will be introduced annually in tranches through until 2029.
Let’s look at the new specification for Biology. The specification has two assessment components: a written examination and an additional assessment component comprising a ‘Biology in Practice Investigation’. This year-long project requires students to design, conduct, and analyze their own experiment, culminating in a report submitted to the State Examinations Commission (SEC). It is designed to assess students' ability to conduct scientific research and use primary data, and it's intended to integrate into the regular teaching and learning process. 20 of the 180 hours allocated for Biology will be allocated for the completion of the investigation in class, which amounts to just over 11% of the time.
A Brief will be released in Term 2 of 5th year. To facilitate the authentication process, teachers should engage regularly with students’ work on ‘Biology in Practice’ Investigation.
Stage 1 - Initial Response to the Brief: Students are encouraged to compile an investigative log, which they can use to keep a record of their approach to the investigation. It is advisable that the students’ investigative logs are shared with the teacher to facilitate regular check-ins with the students’ work, supporting the teacher in the ongoing process of authentication.
Stage 2 - Background research: Once students have decided on an issue related to the Investigation Brief, they are ready to embark on the next stage of the process, completing background research, which is envisaged to take approximately 2-3 hours to complete. It is advisable that the students’ investigative logs are shared with the teacher to facilitate regular check-ins with the students’ work, supporting the teacher in the ongoing process of authentication.
Stage 3 - Designing and Planning the Experiment: During this stage, which is envisaged to take approximately 2-3 hours to complete, students design and plan an experiment to be completed either in a laboratory and/or field setting that will generate appropriate primary data, in response to the Investigation Brief.
Stage 4 - Conducting the Experiment: During this stage, under the supervision of the teacher in a relevant setting (school laboratory and/or field setting as appropriate to the investigation), each student carries out the experiment they designed. The presence of a teacher in the laboratory and/or field setting is essential at all times.
An important part of the ongoing authentication process is that the teacher is satisfied that the experiment conducted by the student is in line with their research and planning, which has been shared with them during the stages of the process.
Stage 5 - Data Analysis and Conclusions: Once a conclusion is made, students should reflect on whether or not their data and conclusions support the hypothesis they posed. Again, sharing data analysis with the teacher is an important step in the ongoing authentication process. The teacher must be satisfied to give an undertaking that the analysis and conclusions are aligned with the experiments that took place under their supervision.
Stage 6 - Finalising the Biology in Practice Investigation Report: During this final stage, which, is envisaged should take up to 4 hours to complete, students draw upon their investigative log, which outlines all the stages of their investigation, to compile their final report. This is the final step in a multi-step process that helps the teacher have full confidence to sign-off on an authentic piece of student work.
The Guidelines state the following:
‘A robust authentication process is central to ensuring the integrity of any assessment process. School-based authentication by teachers of students’ work on their Biology in Practice Investigation is essential to the fair and equitable assessment of that work. While it is neither practicable nor necessary for teachers to witness all aspects of students’ work, teachers need to be satisfied that students have carried out the work themselves. Regular, comprehensive engagement with each student’s work on their Biology in Practice Investigation will enable teachers to confidently and legitimately authenticate any work being submitted for assessment.’
When the student submits this Report, the teacher must ‘sign off’ that this is the student’s own work. As the Guidelines specify, this can only be done after ‘regular, comprehensive engagement’ with each student throughout the complete process, beginning in the second term of fifth year.
This obligation necessarily excludes home-educated students from doing Leaving Certificate Biology.
The new Leaving Certificate English will be introduced to schools in September 2026. In English, the new assessment structure will include an oral examination and a creative writing task, alongside a reduced written examination. The oral exam will be introduced in fifth year and will be worth 20% of the overall grade – it will be based on the Comparative Study part of the LC course. The creative writing task will also be worth 20% and must be completed by December of Sixth Year. Again, it is assumed that teacher authentication will be required as the students will be ‘expected to document the stages of the creative process as they develop their creative piece’. The written exam will be shorter than the current papers, likely around 2 hours and 30 minutes.
Under the new Leaving Certificate, AACs can only be completed by students in school, under teacher supervision. It appears that no provision has been made for home-educated and out-of-school students to participate in the AACs. If such reforms proceed, we are deeply concerned that home-educated students will not be able to achieve a Leaving Certificate.
