Welcome to this four-lesson course on running the Junior Cycle Science Classroom-Based Assessments. You know your science. What is hard to run is three weeks of investigation for a whole class, each student or group on work of their own, keeping that work theirs while you help, judging it on balance, and getting through SLAR.

This first lesson starts with a short confidence baseline, then sets out the current arrangements and this year's dates, meets both investigations at a glance, and shows 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.

Complete this short confidence audit before the arrangements presentation. Rate yourself honestly on the five areas this course develops. You will take the same five statements again at the end of the course so you can see how far you have come. Your ratings save into your Professional Learning Portfolio.

Watch this presentation for the current arrangements, this year's dates, both investigations at a glance, and the planning rule that keeps SLAR inside a month of completion.

Study this filled planner for an invented second-year class running the Extended Experimental Investigation. It uses week numbers, not calendar dates, because real dates depend on your school's calendar and holidays. The same reverse-plan shape works for a third-year SSI, with less judging time: if it is completed on the latest date, Friday 9 April 2027, provisional descriptors are due by 16 April 2027 and SLAR by Friday 23 April 2027. Easter Sunday is 28 March 2027, so either finish the SSI before your school's Easter break or plan one judging week, not two. Read each annotation for the choice behind the week. Download the blank template to adapt for your own class: CBA class planner (Word).