Croke Park Hours

Croke Park Hours

Nineteen hours of the 33 Croke Park hours are allocated to whole-school commitments (eg. school planning days, staff meetings, Parent/teacher meetings) and 14 hours for teacher led activities to be carried out on a non-whole school, high trust basis. This interim  arrangement will apply for an initial period of 2 years and will, following a review be extendable for a further 2 years at the discretion of the Department. The interim arrangements set out in the current agreement do not pre-empt longer term configuration that may be agreed upon following the conclusion of the review of Croke Park Hours currently underway under the auspices of the Teachers’ Conciliation Council.

Click here to view Circular 0066/2026.

Additional Time

The central purpose underlying the provision of additional time is to provide for essential activities to take place without reducing class contact/tuition time.

Over the course of the school year, the additional time provision amounts to 33 hours. There will be consultation with the teaching staff at school level as to the optimum usage and scheduling of these hours in order to meet the requirements of the school and to significantly eliminate the erosion of class contact time.

The hours in question may be utilised by schools in the manner set out at (a) or (b) below or by a combination of (a) and (b).

(a) School management may designate the usage of the 33 hours in blocks of 1 or 2 hours (save in the case of additional parent/ teacher meetings where the existing time provisions set out in Circular M58/04 will apply). Except as set out at (b) below, these will be scheduled over the course of the 166 day school year and the time period should be scheduled outside the normal school hours.

(b) Where there is a consensus among the school staff to so do, school management may utilise all or part of the hours in question outside of the 166 days during which the school is open for tuition. Similarly, where there is a consensus, school management may utilise all or part of the hours in blocks of more than 2 hours over the course of the 166-day school year. In such event, the time period should be scheduled outside the normal school hours.

The quantum of the 33 additional hours available in the case of part-time teachers will be determined on a pro-rata basis.

School management may designate the use of the 33 hours to provide additional time to deal with some or all of the following items.

Use of Non-whole School Croke Park Hours 9 (as outlined in Circular 0066/2026).

The 14 non-whole school hours of teacher-led activities can include, but will not be limited to, time to directly support the implementation of SCR.

These hours will be used on a non-whole school, high trust basis.

The hours will be pro-rata for part-time teachers.

This time will include collaborative activities and co-operation amongst teachers and will be used, amongst other purposes, to support:

• Participation in additional Continuing Professional Development (CPD)/ Teacher Professional Learning (TPL), including that related to SCR.
• Subject department planning and curriculum design 
• Development of new learning resources
• Work related to embedding formative assessment practices

Without prejudice to the ongoing review of CPH (at the TCC), this interim measure involving the reconfiguration of CPH applied from the commencement of the 2025/26 school year. 

This interim measure is non-prejudicial to the existing TCC review of the usage of CPH and any resulting permanent structure which may be agreed through that review.

Circulation and Queries

The additional hours should be utilised for purposes of substitution and supervision only to the extent to which they are not fully utilised for the other purposes specified above. Teachers who are not contracted into the Substitution & Supervision scheme will have their residual hours designated for purposes other than substitution and supervision.

The usage of the additional hours will be outlined as appropriate in the school calendar, which is made available to the school community at the commencement of each school year.