| Junior Certificate Subjects | ||
| Irish | Civic Social Political Education | Non-Examination Subjects |
| English | Science | Computer Studies |
| Maths | History | Physical Education |
| French | Geography | Religious Education |
| Art | Home Economics | Social Personal Health Education |
| Business | Materials Technology (Wood) | |
| Music | Metalwork (Materials & Technology) | |
| Technical Graphics | ||
| Modular system in first year means all students do taster programmes in certain subjects. | ||
JUNIOR CYCLE NEW SPECIFICATIONS
Over the coming years the Junior Cycle Profile of Achievement will replace the Junior Certificate exam which has been the method of assessing Junior Cycle students since 1992. English was the first subject to be rolled out and is in its third year. The new Junior Cycle places students at the centre of learning and will enable them to become resourceful and confident learners.
The Eight Key Skills The curriculum and assessment of the Junior Cycle is underpinned by eight Key Skills which are central to the goal of students becoming active and reflective participants in their learning. These are: Being Literate, Being Numerate, Managing Myself, Communicating, Being Creative , Managing Information and Thinking Working with Others and Staying Well.
Business: This new specification for Junior Cycle Business Studies will be taken by first year students from September 2016. The specification covers teaching, learning and assessment in business studies for the first, second and third years in post-primary school.
The specification focuses on improving students’ understanding of the business environment and on developing skills for life, work and further study through the three inter-connected strands: Personal Finance, Enterprise and Our Economy
Science: From this September also, Science will become a more holistic enterprise in which learners engage in the variety of science practices. Learners will develop as more informed citizens, equipped to evaluate arguments related to critical technical, ethical and environmental issues.
In the Specification, the Nature of Science is central. It encompasses understanding about how science works, the inquiry continuum, communicating in science and science and society. The Nature of Science and Key Skills will suffuse the 4 contextual strands of Earth and Space, Chemical World, Physical World and Biological World and aspects of the Nature of Science will be incorporated in every lesson.
English: Junior Cycle English focuses on the development of language and literacy in and through three strands: Oral Language, Reading, and Writing. The elements of each of these strands place a focus on communicating, on active engagement with and exploration of a range of texts, and on acquiring and developing an implicit and explicit knowledge of the shape and structures of language. There is a strong focus on the oral dimension of language, including the vital importance of learning through oral language. This makes the English classroom an active space, a place of ‘classroom talk’ where learners explore language and ideas as much through thinking and talking as through listening and writing.
Assessment: The new junior cycle envisages a stronger than ever emphasis on assessment as part of the learning process. An assessment activity can help learning if it provides information to be used as feedback, by teachers, and by their students, in assessing themselves and each other, to modify the teaching and learning activities in which they are engaged. At present, we may place too much emphasis on assessing student work AFTER learning. In the new Junior Cycle assessment there’s a strong emphasis on teachers working WITH students on assessment BEFORE, DURING and AFTER learning.