THE DEPARTMENT of Education had really surpassed itself. A striped big top! And what was this? Three small grey ponies with red plumes nodding as they pranced through the car park! A truly novel way to introduce the innovative changes in the senior cycle curriculum to parents.

However, disappointment was in store. The National Parents Council notices directed us past the circus and into a back room in the Beechmount Hotel, Navan, Co Meath. It was the only disappointment of the night: the three presentations that followed - Transition Year, Leaving Certificate Applied programmes (LCAP) and Leaving Certificate Vocational programme (LCVP) - were very much to the point.

In a major new initiative, the Department of Education is meeting parents, in a series of 17 information seminars around the country, to explain the restructured curriculum for second level, senior cycle students. The National Parents Council (Post Primary) has facilitated the process by organising venues and sending tickets to delegates.

Eamon Stack, assistant chief inspector with the Department of Education, explains that this is not just a one way, information giving process; it allows the Department to pick up on the various issues and concerns highlighted by parents.

Meanwhile, back in Navan, Eilish Humphries of the Transition Year support team explained the origins of Transition Year - way back in 1974, when three schools first offered it. Now about 560 schools are offering Transition Year - about 75 per cent of schools, with almost 30,000 students are participating. This represents about half the number of students who sat Junior Certificate last year.

Parents wanted to know how schools select pupils for Transition Year in cases where it is not available to everyone. Humphreys said that this was a matter for each school. The question of how to encourage schools to participate was also raised.

Humphreys explained that the Transition Year support team had mainly concentrated on schools which were already participating, but that its members had spoken to some schools that were considering it. The team would be willing to talk further to such schools; very often, she said, they only need some encouragement.

"Other schools will respond if for example, a parent's group makes representations to the school. I have been in schools where they say that the parents are putting them under pressure," she said.

Marie Rooney of the Curriculum Development Unit in the City of Dublin VEC explained the nuts and bolts of the LCAP. This year, it is being piloted in 53 schools and, next year, a further 86 schools will join. The vast majority of Post Leaving Certificate courses will accept the LCAP as well as the conventional Leaving Certificate, and FAS also recognises it for apprenticeships. The Department of Education is in discussion with employers.

One parents asked if the LCAP was for the weaker student. "Yes, it's for the weaker academic student. The idea if to give them credence for things other than the academic. That's not to say that all students who do it are weaker academically, but generally it is so," Rooney said. She also made the point that student who are academically weak are not necessarily weak overall.

ANOTHER PARENT said that he would be confident that the LCA would have better currency in the job market than a pass Leaving Cert. He was enthusiastic about the programme, saying that students in his school were "walking on air" when their first tasks were assessed in February.

Students in this programme, it was explained, are assessed on the basis of satisfactory completion of modules, performance of student tasks and a terminal exam. One parent noted that it is possible to pass the LCA without actually sitting the exam.

Another parent said he thought that it was being pitched too low. "It should be attracting students of average ability because, basically, it's a pull on resources." Another parent was worried that it would not be seen as a Leaving Cert of the same value as the conventional one.

Michael Garvey, regional development officer for the LCVP, gave the presentation on this, making the point that the programme shares a name only with the previous LCVP. He described the new LCVP as a Leaving Certificate plus, in which students do the ordinary Leaving Cert plus three link modules on enterprise education, preparation for work and work experience.

Parents were anxious about recognition for the extra work Students put into the link modules. Garvey explained that a number of business and employer bodies were being asked to make statements for publication as to how they see the value of the LCYP.

Discussions about points are also taking place at a very high level in the Department and are well advanced, Garvey said. However, students sitting the LCYP this year will not get and additional points for the link modules.

One parent said that while she would welcome the LCAP and the LCVP, she was concerned as to how these new programmes would impinge on the established Leaving Cert, particularly with regard to exams and practical classes.

The formal session ended at 10.20 p.m., and it was time for the parents and Department officials to mingle over tea and sandwiches. Outside, the big top had been folded up and the ponies had vanished. Both roadshows were over.