Junior Cycle
Junior Cycle Curriculum: www.curriculumonline.ie
Core Subjects
Studying Irish helps students to build on their learning to date and to enhance their skills so they can enjoy using the Irish language. Through learning languages, students are provided with the opportunity to gain the understanding, knowledge, and skills to develop their personal, cognitive, and social development, as well as their effective participation in the global society.
Students’ knowledge of transferable skills and mastery of a language such as Irish will be critical both for learning and in their life in general. This fosters students’ ability and confidence to develop as considerate citizens in the language community. By learning, acquiring and using Irish, students discover information, develop thinking skills, and express opinions and emotions. Therefore, students are able to manage various demands associated with school, the community, employment, further education, and life as a whole. The language learning journey, from learner to a bilingual user, is a continuum. The many benefits of bilingualism are widely recognised in international research. Bilingualism and plurilingualism contribute to a person’s imaginative and creative ability and they create a multifaceted approach to life.
In the Junior Cycle specifications for Irish, students consolidate and deepen their understanding of Irish. Students are enabled to communicate in an effective, interactive, confident manner in formal and informal settings in the language community. The fostering and development of awareness is emphasised; language and cultural awareness as well as students’ self-awareness as language learners. Junior Cycle Irish seeks to consolidate and develop the skills students bring to post primary school. Students are empowered to assume ownership of Irish; an important life skill.
Language gives students the opportunity to access the understanding, knowledge, and skills to promote their personal growth and effective participation in society.
The study of language enables students to build on their learning in primary school and further develop their skills and enjoyment in using it effectively. Through language learning and use, students discover information, develop thinking, and express ideas and feelings. They learn about language, and how to use it well in all areas of their studies.
English in Junior Cycle aims to develop students’ knowledge of language and literature, to consolidate and deepen their literacy skills and make them more self-aware as learners.
The mathematics specification provides students with access to important mathematical ideas to develop the mathematical knowledge and skills that they will draw on in their personal and work lives. This specification also provides students, as lifelong learners, with the basis on which further study and research in mathematics and many other fields are built.
The aim of Junior Cycle mathematics is to provide relevant and challenging opportunities for all students to become mathematically proficient so that they can cope with the mathematical challenges of daily life and enable them to continue their study of mathematics in Senior Cycle and beyond. In this specification, mathematical proficiency is conceptualised not as a one-dimensional trait but as having five interconnected and interwoven components
The study of modern foreign languages enables students to build on their language learning in English and Irish in primary school and further develops their skills in and enjoyment of using languages. Language learning is accessible to all students and contributes to their cognitive, personal, and social growth by enhancing their communicative and thinking skills, as well as their participation in a global society. Being able to communicate in the mother tongue and in foreign languages are also among the eight key competences for lifelong learning identified by the European Union and European Council in 2006.
The Specification for Junior Cycle Modern Foreign Languages aims to develop communicative language skills broadly aligned with the A band (A1 to A2, basic user) of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR)3 and its descriptors. It also aims to enable students to explore the interdependence between language and culture, to develop their appreciation of the relevance of languages to their lives for personal, social, educational, vocational and leisure purposes, and to derive enjoyment from language learning.
Geography is the study of the Earth’s landscapes, peoples, places, and environments. It adheres to the scientific method and pursues scientific principles and logic. The study of geography empowers the person to explore and understand the world around them. Engagement with the subject promotes a deep understanding of people and place. Students develop the skills to read their environment, enabling them to interpret the physical landscape, observe climatic events with an informed eye and discuss world events in a knowledgeable manner. Learning in geography supports students in making informed decisions, giving the ability to make valuable contributions to the economic, social, and cultural life of their communities, localities, and countries.
The study of Junior Cycle Geography enables students to become geographically literate. It stimulates curiosity, creating opportunities for students to read, analyse, synthesise, and communicate about their immediate environment and wider world. It develops knowledge, skills, values, and behaviours that allow students to explore the physical world, human activities, how we interact with our world and to recognise the interconnections between systems.
The study of history is about exploring human experience over time and how that experience has shaped the world we live in today. By asking questions of available evidence, students of history can make rational, informed judgements about human actions in the past and examine why people were motivated to act as they did and the effects of these actions. Studying history develops our historical consciousness, enabling us to orient ourselves in time and to place our experiences in a broader framework of human experience. Being historically conscious transforms the way that we perceive the world and our place in it and informs how we see the future development of the world.
The study of history at junior cycle aims to enable students to develop the necessary conceptual understanding, disciplinary skills, and subject knowledge to investigate the actions of people in the past and to come to a deeper understanding of the human condition. Students also come to see the world, and their place in it, from a historical perspective; and understand how the people and events of the past have shaped the contemporary world.
Religious Education promotes the holistic development of the person. It facilitates the intellectual, social, emotional, spiritual, and moral development of students. Religious Education provides a particular space for students to encounter and engage with the deepest and most fundamental questions relating to life, meaning and relationships. It encourages students to reflect, question, critique, interpret, imagine, and find insight for their lives. The students’ own experience and continuing search for meaning is encouraged and supported.
Religious Education aims to develop knowledge, understanding, skills, attitudes, and values to enable young people to come to an understanding of religion and its relevance to life, relationships, society, and the wider world. It aims to develop the students’ ability to examine questions of meaning, purpose, and relationships, to help students understand, respect, and appreciate people’s expression of beliefs, and to facilitate dialogue and reflection on the diversity of beliefs and values that inform responsible decision-making and ways of living.
Physical Education supports the development of physical, cognitive, psychological, and social capabilities. Through the study of physical education students develop an understanding of the physical, mental, emotional, and social dimensions of human movement. Learning in physical education supports students’ participation in recreational physical activity and competitive sport, the pursuit of individual goals and involvement in organised sport in a variety of roles such as spectating, officiating or volunteering. The specification for Junior Cycle Physical Education focuses on developing a physically literate young person. It develops the knowledge, understanding, skills and values to facilitate students’ informed, confident and competent participation in physical activity and a commitment to lifelong engagement.
The Junior Cycle Physical Education specification aims to develop students as competent and confident physical activity participants in a range of physical activities. It aims to equip students with the knowledge and skills to make informed decisions on their involvement in physical activity either through the pursuit of recreational participation or sport. It supports students’ motivation to pursue an active and healthy lifestyle while instilling an appreciation of the benefits of physical activity participation.
Civic, Social and Political Education (CSPE) contributes to building the skills students need to contribute positively to a democratic society and to promote sustainable living. It gives them an understanding of social, economic, and political structures at local, national, and global levels and the opportunity to imagine and create ways in which they can make a difference to the lives of individuals and communities. CSPE builds on related learning experiences in primary education. It helps students to question, critique and evaluate what is happening in the world; provides students with an understanding of their human rights and social responsibilities; prompts students to consider how to create a more sustainable future for all; fosters an awareness of what it means to live responsibly in a democracy; and most importantly, it places active reflective citizenship at the centre of the learning process by providing students with the opportunity to take action and influence change around local, national and global issues.
The short course in CSPE aims to inform, inspire, empower, and enable young people to participate as active citizens in contemporary society at local, national, and global levels, based on an understanding of human rights and social responsibilities.
The teaching and learning of Social, Personal and Health Education (SPHE) provides a unique space where students can develop the knowledge, understanding, skills, dispositions, and values needed to support their physical, emotional, social and spiritual wellbeing, now and in the future. The SPHE specification is grounded in values of respect, equality, inclusivity, responsibility, dignity, compassion, and empathy
This course aims to build students’ self-awareness and positive self-worth; to develop the knowledge, understanding, skills, dispositions and values that will support them to lead fulfilling and healthy lives; empower them to create, nurture and maintain respectful and loving relationships with self and others; and enhance their capacity to contribute positively to society.
Optional Subjects
Visual Art is a subject that promotes teaching and learning through art, craft, and design. For adolescents and young adults, this involves becoming familiar with and applying the elements of art and principles of design, and the knowledge and skills associated with these processes, their histories, and their contemporary practices. Visual Art also recognises and rewards a number of different forms of intelligence, including emotional intelligence; it develops personal qualities of expression and empathy.
Visual Art at Junior Cycle aims to provide the student with a set of personal attitudes and qualities as well as skills and processes and a sense of the aesthetic.
Young people are growing up in a globalised and dynamic world. New opportunities and challenges will emerge in their lifetimes that are virtually unimaginable today. Developing technologies, environmental and societal challenges, demographics, global competition and changing consumer demand will drive these changes. Studying business helps to equip students with the understanding, skills, and attitudes to participate fully in an interconnected world.
Business studies aims to stimulate students’ interest in the business environment and how they interact with it. It develops skills, knowledge, attitudes, and behaviours that allow them to make informed and responsible decisions with all of the resources available to them, ensuring their and society’s wellbeing, while becoming more self-aware as learners.
The central focus of home economics as a field of study is achieving optimal, healthy, and sustainable living for individuals, families, and society. Individuals and families in every society are continually faced with new and emergent issues that can impact on their wellbeing. Such issues include concerns relating to food, nutrition, diet, and health; family and social concerns; consumer issues; sustainability in the home; responsible family resource management; and textiles and clothing.
Home economics aims to develop students’ knowledge, attitudes, understanding, skills, and values to achieve optimal, healthy, and sustainable living for every person as an individual, and as a member of families and society. Students develop practical food and health literacy skills so that they are enabled to adopt a healthy lifestyle and make informed decisions that positively impact their health and wellbeing as individuals as well as within their families and society. Home economics nurtures students’ resourcefulness, innovation, adaptability, and competency as consumers. It develops students’ creative design and textile skills. Home economics develops students who are environmentally conscious and dedicated to a sustainable and responsible way of life.
The music specification aims to contribute to the development of artistic awareness and understanding, self-expression, self-esteem, imagination, and multicultural sensitivity, and therefore, to the development of the whole person. Students will develop the knowledge, skills and understanding necessary to produce and engage with authentic and original music, that is both theirs and the music of others. In doing so, they will develop the music literacy, critical skills, and language necessary to engage with today’s musical world.
Junior Cycle Music focuses on giving students the opportunity to develop their musical knowledge, skills, and cultural awareness through the practical and cognitive engagement with music. This can be achieved through the three interconnected strands: Procedural knowledge, Innovate and ideate and Culture and context. A student will experience learning in each of these three strands as they progress through their Junior Cycle.
Science is a collaborative and creative human endeavour arising from our desire to understand the world around us and the wider universe. Essentially, it is curiosity in thoughtful and deliberate action. Learning science through inquiry enables students to ask more questions, and to develop and evaluate explanations of events and phenomena they encounter.
Science in Junior Cycle aims to develop students’ evidence-based understanding of the natural world and their ability to gather and evaluate evidence: to consolidate and deepen their skills of working scientifically; to make them more self-aware as learners and become competent and confident in their ability to use and apply science in their everyday lives.
The Spanish specification for Junior Cycle focuses on developing students’ communicative competence, language awareness, and socio-cultural knowledge of the Spanish language and culture.
The specification is structured around three integrated strands: Communicative Competence, Language Awareness, and Socio-Cultural Knowledge and Intercultural Awareness. Students will engage with these strands through various learning experiences and assessments.