Welcome to this course on running the Junior Cycle History Classroom-Based Assessments. You already know your history. What this short course focuses on is the part that is hard to run well: three weeks of research for a whole class, each student, pair or group on a subject of their own, keeping the work theirs while you help, judging it on balance, and getting through SLAR.
There are four lessons of about 30 minutes. By the end of this first lesson you will have completed a baseline confidence audit, stated how the CBAs run now, described both tasks at a glance, and seen how to plan the weeks back from the SLAR meeting. Your survey answers, reflections and judged sample across the course compile into a downloadable Professional Learning Portfolio when you finish.
Before any CBA content in this course, rate your current confidence across the five areas the course develops. Answer honestly. Lower ratings simply show where the course can help most. You will re-take the same five statements at the end, item for item, so you can see how far you have come from a true starting point.
Watch this presentation on the history CBAs as they run now: the current arrangements, this year's dates, The Past in My Place and A Life in Time at a glance, what the two share, and planning back from the SLAR date.
Study this CBA class planner, filled in for an invented second-year class running The Past in My Place and planned back from the SLAR date. Read the notes on each choice.
Download the blank planner to use with your own classes: CBA class planner (Word).
Use the planner you have just studied to start a plan for your own classes. Download the blank template if you want the full week map beside you: CBA class planner (Word). On screen, answer one question. It saves to your Professional Learning Portfolio as My Class's CBA Dates.
In this lesson you set a confidence baseline and mapped how the history CBAs run now.
| Framework / Principle | Why it matters for your teaching | Classroom application |
|---|---|---|
| Current arrangements: for third years in 2026/27, a minimum of one CBA, the school chooses one or two, and there is no Assessment Task | The 2018 guidelines still describe two CBAs followed by an Assessment Task; planning from that older design sets the wrong workload | Confirm with your department whether you are running one CBA or both, then build each class's calendar against this year's dates |
| This year's dates: second years complete CBA 1 between 19 October 2026 and 30 April 2027; third years complete CBA 2 by 9 April 2027 | SLAR and final descriptors are due by 19 May 2027 for second years and by 23 April 2027 for third years, and the SLAR meeting falls no more than a month after the CBA is completed | Our suggestion: agree the SLAR date with your colleagues first, then place the three weeks and your judging time before it in the CBA class planner (Word) |
| Four stages in three weeks: The Past in My Place runs through Investigating, Discovering, Displaying and Reflecting; A Life in Time through Scoping, Researching, Creating a written record and Reflecting | A CBA is completed within the time its guidelines allocate, a maximum of three weeks for each history CBA | Agree each subject or person in Week 1, research across the middle, and finish with the reflection note at the end of Week 3 |
Next you will run The Past in My Place in detail: choosing a subject in the history of the students' place, the four stages, the display, pairs and groups, and the reflection note.
Enrol to take the whole course. Your work is saved as you go, and you get a certificate when you finish.